NBA deadline for new arena

[Trueblood]

I still hope for a 2016 opening regardless of the extra year the NBA is giving them. I keep hearing that there was no future for the mall even if the arena wasn't going to be built. If that's so, is there any way that they could start demolition before the EIR is done or do they have to wait 'til it's done?

 

[Trueblood]

cant the environmental be sped up if Steinberg's new bill goes through, which expedites EP reviews?

Yeah. It forces the anti arena people to file their lawsuits within a certain time frame early in the EIR process. I don't have the exact number though.

I think the bill was partly in response to the Net's pursuit of their arena in Brooklyn. The anti arena people, led by Daniel Goldstein of DDDB (Develop, don't destroy Brooklyn) kept filing new lawsuits every time their preceding lawsuit got defeated in court. At the end of the ordeal, they were like 0-15 in court but the strategy almost worked. It turned out to be nothing but a delay tactic in hopes of running out the clock and hoping that the project would become to expensive to finish. Bruce Ratner bought the Nets in the spring of 2004 but Barclays Center didn't get finished 'til last September. That's 8.5 years which means that the price for glass and steel went up as well as labor. What was once a $500 million project for a first class arena wound up being a billion dollar project for a 2nd rate building.

Not only that but Ratner didn't even have the money to finish the project when the costs started escalating. That's why Mikhail Prokhorov entered the picture. He was the only one with deep enough pockets to finish the job. He was the original whale of whales.

 

[Fear the Putin]

Yeah. It forces the anti arena people to file their lawsuits within a certain time frame early in the EIR process. I don't have the exact number though.

I think the bill was partly in response to the Net's pursuit of their arena in Brooklyn. The anti arena people, led by Daniel Goldstein of DDDB (Develop, don't destroy Brooklyn) kept filing new lawsuits every time their preceding lawsuit got defeated in court. At the end of the ordeal, they were like 0-15 in court but the strategy almost worked. It turned out to be nothing but a delay tactic in hopes of running out the clock and hoping that the project would become to expensive to finish. Bruce Ratner bought the Nets in the spring of 2004 but Barclays Center didn't get finished 'til last September. That's 8.5 years which means that the price for glass and steel went up as well as labor. What was once a $500 million project for a first class arena wound up being a billion dollar project for a 2nd rate building.

Not only that but Ratner didn't even have the money to finish the project when the costs started escalating. That's why Mikhail Prokhorov entered the picture. He was the only one with deep enough pockets to finish the job. He was the original whale of whales.

Right, but I think California already has a timeframe limit for EIR, so this would shorten it even more. That was one of the selling points vs Seattle in that they have no limits on EIR reviews.

 

[Purple Reign]

I am a frequent visitor to LA Live and the Universal City Walk. Are there plans for the arena area to mirror one of those entertainment districts? I really hope so. I have not been to many other arena districts. I've been to the Verizon Arena in D.C. area which is nice. I hear the Gaslamp in San Diego and the Power "something" in KC are really nice.

Will this be a part of the Sacramento experience and will it be up and running in 2016.

 

[Trueblood]

I am a frequent visitor to LA Live and the Universal City Walk. Are there plans for the arena area to mirror one of those entertainment districts? I really hope so. I have not been to many other arena districts. I've been to the Verizon Arena in D.C. area which is nice. I hear the Gaslamp in San Diego and the Power "something" in KC are really nice.

Will this be a part of the Sacramento experience and will it be up and running in 2016.

They were going hard at the LA Live option when there were rumors of building the arena on the other side of the river in W. Sacramento but I don't know if they have the space at DT plaza for something like that unless there will be more demolition.

If they are able to pull it off, I doubt it would be up and running as soon as 2016. LA Live didn't open 'til like 2008. For a long time, the area that is now LA Live was just a flat parking lot but that made it easier to get started on construction. Nothing needed to be demolished.

 

[hrdboild]

Well K street is right there and last I saw it was still mostly vacant. The Downtown Plaza area itself plus K street is probably about equal in size to LA Live with the Crest theater standing in for the Nokia. The whole mess is going to need a substantial facelift though or perhaps they'll just tear most of those structures out and start over. With Old Sac and whatever happens at the railyards just a couple blocks away, there should be a spillover effect for development there as well. The only thing really missing at that point would be the mega hotel.

 

[RaY Z]

Safeway sues to keep anti-arena signature gatherers off its premises

HAHA!

A petition drive to force a public vote on a new downtown Sacramento Kings arena has run into a legal wall from Safeway Inc., which has banned solicitors from gathering signatures in front of its stores...

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/07/02/5540166/safeway-sues-to-keep-anti-arena.html#storylink=cpy

 

[kennadog]

cant the environmental be sped up if Steinberg's new bill goes through, which expedites EP reviews?

The mainbenefit is it has a finite time frame for filing lawsuits upon completion of the EIR. As pointed out above, lawsuits can delay projects for years sometimes.

 

[Trueblood]

The mainbenefit is it has a finite time frame for filing lawsuits upon completion of the EIR. As pointed out above, lawsuits can delay projects for years sometimes.

I guess my only problem is with it being upon completion of the EIR as opposed to earlier in the process. For example, let's say the EIR gets completed next July. If they have 2 months or whatever to file then they can take it right up until September. At that point, if a judge rules that the lawsuit has merit and it goes to trial, there's no telling how long the trial would take and if it takes too long, it may go past 2015 and make it impossible to meet the league mandated November 2017 deadline.

OTOH, if they force them to file within 3 months of the start of the EIR process, everything can be taken care of legally a few months in advance so that when the EIR is done, they can start with demolition and ultimately, construction of the arena. My thinking is that the lawsuits have nothing to do with the EIR itself but rather what will come assuming there are no red flags, in this case being the construction of the arena. Therefore, I don't see why they don't make them file during the early stages of the EIR process.