CITY TOLD OF LOSSES WITHOUT ARENA : DEVELOPER ESTIMATES $40 MILLION YEARLY.

Byline: Rick Orlov Daily News Staff Writer

The city faces a potential annual loss of up to $40 million from the Los Angeles Convention Center unless a new sports and entertainment complex proposal is allowed to proceed, the lead development company official negotiating the deal said Wednesday.

John Semcken, vice president for the Majestic Realty Co., owned by Los Angeles Kings owner Edward J. Roski, told Daily News reporters and editors that a memorandum of understanding now being negotiated with the city will have to be approved by the middle of this month or they will pull out of the deal to build the $200 million complex.

``For us to meet our deadline of opening an arena on Sept. 1, 1999, we have to have the agreement by then,'' Semcken said. ``That's because of the environmental studies that have to be conducted and the lawsuits we expect to face.''

Semcken stressed that without the project the city will continue to face losses at the Convention Center. Under the arena proposal, he said the city's costs would be capped at $7 million a year.

``They lost $20 million last year and they're expected to lose $40 million next year,'' Semcken said. ``That's $1.1 billion over the next 25 years of guaranteed losses unless the city does something.''

Semcken has emerged as the point man for the proposal by Roski and developer Phillip Anschutz to build the sports and entertainment complex on the site of the North Hall at the Convention Center in the face of criticism from two City Council members, Joel Wachs and Nate Holden.

Semcken said the downtown site is important for the Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers, who would join the hockey team in leaving the nearly 30-year-old Great Western Forum, to play at the new facility.

``It will be impossible for the Kings to make a profit unless we move to a new facility,'' Semcken said. ``If we are to be Stanley Cup champions, we need to play in a state-of-the-art facility where we can sell more than 9,000 season tickets a year.''

Beyond that, Semcken said the downtown site would be more accessible to more people in the city.

``If you draw a 15-mile circle around the Forum, five miles away, most of that is in the ocean,'' Semcken said. ``Drawing that same circle downtown includes the Valley, the harbor, Inglewood and the Westside as well as parts of the San Gabriel Valley.''

The project calls for the city to spend up to $70 million in turning over the North Hall property and acquiring land across from the facility at 11th Street and Figueroa Avenue. That property would first be used for parking and later for a hotel and retail complex, Semcken said.

``An arena by itself will not save the Convention Center,'' Semcken said. ``It will have to have a hotel and associated entertainment and retail.''

He said talks already have begun with some entertainment industry companies about becoming partners.

But Semcken's assertions did not sit well with Wachs, who said he has been waiting for an opportunity to meet with Semcken or others involved in the project.

``The real costs are $279 million over 25 years and there's no guarantees from them that the city and the Convention Center will ever recover its costs,'' Wachs said. ``And, while the Convention Center might be a white elephant, building this arena will not save it. It will just add to its problems in competing for shows and in taking the parking.