Marcos Bretón: Owners pulled old switcheroo

[kennadog]

Yes, apparently that is part of what's holding up escrow on the railyards, the infrastructure money. The first phase of development is supposed to get $300 mil. Looks like the city conned the MSE and the NBA into thinking they actually had this money available to use as leverage in negotiations with the developer.

BTW folks, the Maloofs never asked for 8,000 parking spaces. The city was made aware of how crucial certain revenue streams were to the franchise, including their current 8,000 parking spaces.

What the Maloofs asked for was 3,000 spaces in a covered parking garage for season ticket holders and a revenue shring arrangement on 5,000 more surface parking spaces within a 10-minute walk. They did asked for the no-competition buffer. They exact amount of parking and the revenue-sharing were deliberatley left out of the agreement so as not to tip off the developer in the negotiations about what they woould be seeking.

When Bennett and the others met with the developer, TE said if they city had come up with the infrastructure money as they promised the Maloofs they would in negotiations, the developer would have been happy to negotiate the parking and buffer zone. But the developer was never offered anything. By the way, the plans already contain more than enough surface parking spaces within a 10-minute walk. The issue to be negotiated would only be the revenue when events are going on a Arco.

What really bugs me is this has pretty much been stuff that's been available to the Bee, and they totally screwed this up. Even if they didn't call and talk to the NBA, the fact that the NBA went to a local reporter and gave them the info over 3 days ago now, and the Bee still has nothing is utterly inexcusable.

Q & R may very well have failed anyway, but it should not have been because of a hatchet job on the integrity of the Maloofs.

EDIT: And if the city can't come up with the bucks the developer needs to get the railyards development off the ground, they had no business tying the Maloofs to the downtown site. Bennett said that was Joe's motivation at the press conference that day downtown. There were already signs of trouble with the deal and Joe wanted to make it clear that an arena didn't have to be downtown. MSE didn't want to take the blame for having to switch to another site, which was already looking likely. And the city/county just let him swing and take the acrimony and backlash for thei failure to come thru as promised.

 

[kupman]

I also listened to the interview last nigh and a few things came to mind:

1) the parking situation as described by Bennet was much more palatable to me. I was envisioning an 8,000 spot tarmac surrounding the new arena which made me feel ill. VF and I may not need to have a steel-caged death match after-all. There would be plenty of parking for those that would like to drive to the events while maintaining a pedestrian friendly center.

2) Bennet speaks on behalf of the Maloof's side of things. Therefore, I am hesitant to do a 180 and place all the blame in the direction of the city. This is a big case of he said/ she said and I have no idea who is being honest. Actually, I am betting that all parties are being honest, however, each party is talking from their own perspective which leads to these kinds of arguments.

3) I should always be very hesitant in trusting the information I read in the Bee. Seems like each time I give the Bee the benefit of the doubt I end-up feeling like a fool. How can the Bee not write a story on the Maloofs perspective on this issue?

 

[JB_kings]

I also listened to the interview last nigh and a few things came to mind:

1) the parking situation as described by Bennet was much more palatable to me. I was envisioning an 8,000 spot tarmac surrounding the new arena which made me feel ill. VF and I may not need to have a steel-caged death match after-all. There would be plenty of parking for those that would like to drive to the events while maintaining a pedestrian friendly center.

2) Bennet speaks on behalf of the Maloof's side of things. Therefore, I am hesitant to do a 180 and place all the blame in the direction of the city. This is a big case of he said/ she said and I have no idea who is being honest. Actually, I am betting that all parties are being honest, however, each party is talking from their own perspective which leads to these kinds of arguments.

3) I should always be very hesitant in trusting the information I read in the Bee. Seems like each time I give the Bee the benefit of the doubt I end-up feeling like a fool. How can the Bee not write a story on the Maloofs perspective on this issue?

If you read back on all those comments, I think I made mention several times that the 8,000 spots were not all adjacent to the arena.

 

[kennadog]

I think Bennett was representing the NBA's perspective on the situation. Altho apparently the problem he describes with the infrastructure funding came from Thomas Enterprises and the meeting he and others had with them (no Maloofs present).

 

[kupman]

If you read back on all those comments, I think I made mention several times that the 8,000 spots were not all adjacent to the arena.

Please accept my apology .

 

[JB_kings]

What all this tells me is that none of these parties should be throwing the other under the bus. Each one is representing their own interests. I imagine that the Maloofs would like to have final approval on the design and construction because I would bet that the city is going to have to cut corners somewhere. You just don't tell the public that half of the money from this tax goes back to the cities and counties knowing that they had plans to take 300 million for infrastructure before a single shovel of dirt for the arena was dug. You don't have to be a math major to see that the infrastructure and state of the art arena was going to take up a good chunk of a billion dollars. So who was pulling to wool over who's eyes?
There was nothing dirty to hide here. The city should share costs for infrastructure on a project this size. But why not tell the voters that? The purposely tried to hide their negotiations with Thomas Ent and made a promise to the public that they knew had little or no chance of ever keeping.

 

[kennadog]

Sorry, I see this differently. I have no problem with anybody representing their own interests. That good business sense. What I have a problem with is the city telling the NBA and the Kings they were going to do one thing and then completely blowing off the promise they made. You don't do that in good faith negotiations.

As to design control, I understand that. But that was part of a new potential agreement, since the other one had already expired.

Actually, I'm not sure why the city can't pay for infrastructure costs out of redevelopment funds. It should be a designated redevelopment area, I would think. Redevelopment funds are completely different from the city budget. SHRA (Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which is a joint powers city/county agency) has a different revenue source and the revenue has to spent on certain things in certain designated redevelopment areas.

EDIT: Actually went to SHRA's website to look. The railyards are not in a designated redevelopment area. Not sure why. You'd think they could help out with GDBG funds or redevelopment revenues. In the downtown area, here are recent SHRA assisted projects over a 10-year period:

Projects include: 16th & J Elliot building; 16 & J Lucca’s restaurant; Sheraton Hotel; 1029 K St; 1201 K St (Esquire Theatre); Waterfront restaurant; Embassy
Suites; Downtown Plaza mall renovation; Crest Theatre; Chops Restaurant.

 

[JB_kings]

I don't even think the negotiations between the city and the Maloofs is the biggest problem. It's a chicken and egg thing. The developer is not going to close on the railyard property until the city can live up to their end of the deal which is paying for the infrastructure. Without the Q & R money, the railyards go nowhere. Not just the arena - the whole deal. The city was betting on Q & R being the funding mechanism to getting this going. Without the cash influx, then the railyard doesn't change hands from UP to Thomas. Thomas won't close on the property and start development unless the city does it's part. The railyard project may get done some day, but not until the city figures out how to cover this huge cost. So why tell the voters that half the money was going back to the county and cities when they knew that they needed much more than the 600 million to pay for the infrastructure and the arena?