Arena developers must hurdle new round of obstacles.To developers of the new downtown sports arena, the just-concluded struggle to win City Council approval of the $300 million project was merely the opening face-off in a game that could go into overtime. The arena's developers must now scramble to sell suites, line up sponsorships, resolve lawsuits and relocate residents and businesses off adjacent land that will be converted into parking lots. All that must be done in the span of just a few months. "Now we have to do what is traditionally the hard part," Los Angeles Kings The Los Angeles Kings are a professional ice hockey team based in Los Angeles, California, USA. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). President Tim Leiweke said last week. Despite the delays in winning council approval, Leiweke said developers are still shooting to open the new arena in October 1999 to coincide with the beginning of the hockey season. "That's still our goal, but we have to be realistic," Lieweke said. "Any delay will push it back." The arena's developers - City of Industry developer Edward P. Roski Edward P. Roski, Jr. (born in 1938) is a millionaire in Los Angeles, California. He is a graduate of Loyola High School, the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and a Vietnam veteran as a member of the Marines. Jr. and Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz Philip Frederick Anschutz (born 28 December 1939 in Russell, Kansas) is an American businessman and supporter of Christian causes. With an estimated current net worth of around $7.8 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest person in the USA. , owners of the Kings must now solidify agreements with suite owners and sponsors in order to acquire money to build the arena. They plan to sell 160 suites for between $150,000 and $200,000 apiece annually, which would net the developers between $24 million and $32 million in the first year. Leiweke said they could probably sell 50 suites now, based on interest received so far. But selling the remaining suites might be a challenge. "I think we're still going to have to work hard to sell suites," he said. Another, more ticklish tick·lish adj. 1. Sensitive to tickling. 2. Easily offended or upset; touchy. 3. Requiring skillful or tactful handling; delicate: a ticklish matter. problem, he added, is determining who gets the choice suite locations. The arena developers, he said, don't want to assign the suites until they have a better idea which companies and institutions are interested. The arena's developers also must sign a deal with a sponsor for the arena. The developers are in talks with office supplies Office supplies is the generic term that refers to all supplies regularly used in offices by businesses and other organizations, from private citizens to governments, who works with the collection, refinement, and output of information (colloquially referred to as "paper work"). superstore chain Staples Inc. to sell naming rights Naming rights are the right to name a piece of property, either tangible property or an event, usually granted in exchange for financial considerations. Institutions like schools, places of worship and hospitals have a tradition of granting donors the right to name facilities in to the Westboro, Mass.-based company for $100 million, but Leiweke said that deal has yet to be finalized. "We won't deny we're talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to Staples, but we don't have a deal," Leiweke said. He added that the sponsorship deal must be made before construction gets underway, so that the design can accommodate the name. "We've got to come out of the chute with that name," Leiweke said. The developers also are starting to line up non-sporting events for the arena in hopes of keeping it busy 300 nights a year. Rock concerts, circuses, the Grammy Awards Grammy Awards Annual awards given by the Recording Academy (officially the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences). The first Grammies (the name is a dimunitive of “gramophone”) were given in 1958. - even national political conventions - will be sought for the facility, Lieweke said. Showcase events like the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game played by the best players in their sports league. The players are often chosen by a popular vote of fans of the sport and the game often occurs at the halfway point of the regular season, although this is not the case for some all-star games , he noted, are booked years in advance. "We're going to go and fight for those national events," he said. "We're now anxious to go to war with cities like New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . We're going to bring them back to L.A." While all those tasks fall to the arena's developers, city employees will be busy on another front. The Community Redevelopment Agency has the responsibility of relocating residents and businesses at sites surrounding the arena. Using its eminent domain eminent domain, the right of a government to force the owner of private property sell it if it is needed for a public use. The right is based on the doctrine that a sovereign state has dominion over all lands and buildings within its borders, which has its origins in rights, the CRA See Community Reinvestment Act. will buy those sites so they can be converted into parking lots for the arena. Once the developer's funds are in place, the CRA will start the process of land acquisition, said Celie Stanford, the CRA's real estate acquisition/relocation manager. "Probably end of December, first of January, we are looking forward to being in a position to really start the activity of assembling the land and relocating the people," Stanford said. The CRA's estimated cost to relocate the residents and business owners - excluding the actual cost of land acquisition - is expected to be around $7 million. That money will be used for CRA staff time on the project, the hiring of real estate and equipment appraisers and other costs of relocation. The cost of land acquisition will depend on how much the land is appraised for, but the CRA is limited to spending $88.5 million - $58.5 million in city-issued bonds, $12 million from the CRA itself and $18 million from the developers - for the entire process of land acquisition and relocating businesses and residents. The CRA and the developers also have to contend with a couple of outstanding lawsuits including one brought by residents of the Pico-Union area west of the arena site that challenges the city's environmental impact report. "They're claiming that the arena is going to generate traffic through their neighborhood," said David Riccitiello, the CRA's sports arena project manager. "So they're claiming that the EIR EIR n. popular acronym for environmental impact report, required by many states as part of the application to a county or city for approval of a land development or project. (See: environmental impact report) is not adequate. We have to deal with the lawsuit." The lawsuit could derail de·rail intr. & tr.v. de·railed, de·rail·ing, de·rails 1. To run or cause to run off the rails. 2. the project if it prevents the developers from securing financing, although unless that happens, the CRA will be able to go ahead with its land acquisitions. Riccitiello said. Meanwhile, although the CRA has yet to speak with owners of the 167 residences and 33 businesses in the arena area, a group of business owners already has hired a consultant to represent them during the relocation process. Randy Nielsen, a consultant with Burbank-based Redevelopment Consultants of America, said he has been working with five clients in the area for several months, and that he is expecting several more business and property owners to sign on with the firm soon. "Everybody that we have dealt with wants to keep their business - they want to be relocated," Nielsen said. "Obviously they're concerned. They want to be viable." Kun Kim, owner of Color not of the white race; - commonly meaning, esp. in the United States, of negro blood, pure or mixed. See also: Color & Copy, a print shop on Olympic Boulevard Olympic Boulevard may mean:
"If I move, I have to pay two and a half times as much (rent) as I pay right now," said Kim, who has owned the business for close to four years and has hired Redevelopment Consultants to help him with the move. "I spent almost six months to set up this location, and now I have to go through that again," Kim said. Yousef Geris, owner of Aaron's Liquor, also located on Olympic, said he is unhappy he has only heard about his need to relocate from news reports and neighbors, but not from the CRA itself. "It's better to contact us soon," Geris said, adding that his livelihood depends on income from the store, which he has owned for three years. Stanford of the CRA said the agency is required by law to pay property owners the market value for their property. In addition, it must either pay business owners for their equipment or help them relocate it, and help businesses through the relocation process. "We assist them in whatever they need in order to reestablish them at the new site," Stanford said. In addition, the CRA often helps relocated businesses with such tasks as obtaining new conditional use permits. |
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