Fabulous Forum Revival Due in Church-Led Purchase.

FAITHFUL Central Baptist Church and L.A. Arena Co. have agreed to a $22.5 million deal for the Great Western Forum that keeps the Inglewood monument standing as a family-oriented sports and entertainment complex.

Bishop Kenneth Ulner said that by purchasing the 18,000-seat arena, for which the church put up $2 million in equity, Faithful Central Baptist becomes a pioneer.

"It will be the largest house of worship in America," Ulner said. "It will be the first arena owned by African Americans. It will be the first arena owned by a faith-based organization."

The church has bigger plans for its community now that the Forum deal is done. Ulner said Faithful Central Baptist is planning a hotel/convention center project and is in negotiations with developers from Philadelphia and Florida.

"We plan to be very aggressive in reaching out to conventions, conferences and crusades," he said.

According to L.A. Arena President Tim Leiwecke, the sports facility operating company has a 10-year management agreement, making it the exclusive booking agent for the Forum with minimum-revenue guarantees that he declined to disclose. He said all revenues up to the minimum threshold would flow through to L.A. Arena, with further revenues divvied up between the church and L.A. Arena according to a formula he also would not disclose.

Ulner thanked the handful of lenders that helped make the deal happen, including L.A. Arena Co. The banks involved were Bank of America, Citicorp, Union Bank of California, Comerica, Washington Mutual Inc. and Evangelical Christian Credit Union.

Leiweke said that closing the deal took a great amount of patience from all parties, including Alan Casdan of Casden Properties Inc., who had an option to buy the Forum if the church failed to secure financing. Casden Properties, a private real estate investment trust, had planned to level the storied arena with the goal of building as many as 500 residential units in its place. The property is adjacent to 97 acres that Casden is trying to buy to build 2,000 housing units -- single-family homes, condos and town-homes.

Casden could not be reached for comment.

Leiweke said that L.A. Arena preferred to get a deal done with the church because the company believes in Ulner's ambitious plans and desire to provide a family entertainment venue.

Ulner said the 11,000-member congregation would use the Forum for Sunday worship, for which it will build some sort of collapsible stage. The rest of the programming is up to L.A. Arena, within reason. Ulner said there would be no Marilyn Manson or GWAR concerts allowed at the Forum, regardless of the revenue such events could bring in.

"I don't think so," he said. "It's not about the money as much as it is about the philosophy of what we want to provide."

Hollywood Building Encore

A Mission Hills real estate company has agreed to plunk down between $5 million and $6 million to gut a vacant three-story Sunset Boulevard office building and make the space conducive to Hollywood uses.

Asset Management Consultants Inc. already has paid $4.6 million for 6725 Sunset Blvd., a 75,000-square-foot building designed by Hollywood architect Stanley Black and built in 1963. The L-shaped building, which wraps around a 225-space parking structure, has been vacant for several years. There also is a billboard on the roof.

AMC President Jim Hopper said space in the building will rent for $2 to $2.35 per square foot per month and will be ready by May. AMC is ripping out all interior partitions to create open space with ceiling heights of 15 feet, 12 feet and 14 feet, Hopper said.

"Most of the tenants for that marketplace are entertainment-oriented," Hopper said. "Instead of the boxy office space, they like open, what's called creative space."

Hopper said AMC also plans to install some "water feature" in the courtyard and to string fiber-optic cable to the building. The undecided water feature could be a fountain or a waterfall, he said.

AMC bought the building from Bar-K Inc., a lending company that had foreclosed on the property. The parking structure is under lease with the building through 2065, according to Albert Shilton of Charles Dunn Co., which represented AMC in the transaction. The garage is owned by Jerry Maren, one of the munchkins from "The Wizard of Oz."

Hopper said he has had inquiries already about the property. One potential tenant wanted the entire space, Hopper said, but needed it by February, a deadline impossible to meet.

Gas Co. Tower Sold

Developer MaguirePartners has bought out its Japanese partner in the 52-story Gas Co. Tower in downtown Los Angeles after the real estate firm lined up $350 million in financing.

Los Angeles-based MaguirePartners used the loans to buy out the 50 percent share owned by Daichi Life Property Holdings and to refinance an existing mortgage that Maguire had on the property. Maguire officials will relocate their headquarters to the 1.3-million-square-foot tower.

The sale comes nearly two years after a dispute between Maguire and Daichi forced the partnership that owned the building to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. An agreement resolving the dispute and bankruptcy filing was reached in December 1999 and gave Maguire an option to buy out Daichi.

The 9-year-old building on Fifth Street between Olive Street and Grand Avenue is 94 percent leased. Major tenants include Southern California Gas Co. and the law firm Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.

Newhall Land Sells Assets

Newhall Land & Farming Co. of Valenica sold four apartment buildings for $129 million in cash and assumed debt as the partnership looks to boost the price of the of its units and reduce debt.

The sale by Newhall Land of a total of 924 apartment units will contribute about $74 million to fourth-quarter net income.

Newhall did not identify the buyer, other than to say it is a real estate investment trust.

Separately, Newhall Land sold some residential lots, 93 acres of commercial and industrial land and two shopping centers. Together those sales will contribute $287 million to revenue and $102 million to the company's income in 2000. The company also expected to close the sale of 16 acres of land for $11 million before the end of the year.

Newhall Land has also taken its Valencia Town Center regional shopping mall and entertainment center off the market after a potential buyer terminated discussions in August.