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February 28, 2009
Sacramento proposes Atlantic Yards West for Kings
The NBA and city of Sacramento officially issued their plans for a new Sacramento Kings arena on the site of Cal Expo yesterday, and you sure can't accuse them of thinking small: It includes a 350-acre "living village" with a new indoor fair space, and retail, office, and residential buildings, and a whopping price tag of $1.9 billion. If this sounds familiar, it's because it's a dead ringer for the similar office/residential/arena plan that is currently in the process of collapsing in Brooklyn, thanks to plunging demand for office or residential space.
All parties seem to be aware that this is not the best time to be looking for billions for a development project, with NBA arena consultant John Moag (formerly of the Maryland Stadium Authority, where he helped get stadiums built for the Baltimore Orioles and Ravens) calling it "not a shovel-in-the-ground project," and saying the arena wouldn't open until 2013, with the rest of the project following over the next 25 years. That will give them time to finalize such niggling details as finding an interested developer, and figuring out how to pay for it all — there's talk of tax-increment financing, but no real details.
Economist Claude Gruen, a specialist in these kind of giant development deals, called the plan's economic projections "too rosy," and said it wasn't reasonable to expect it could pay for itself. But at least it's created some much-needed jobs for architectural sketch artists.
According to the Sacramento Bee, this project may need legislative approval to be designated a tax increment financing district. Per California law, a 2/3 vote of the Legislature is needed for tax increases but I wonder if a 2/3 vote is needed in CA to be designated a tax increment financing district. But I also wonder how many legislators- after wrestling a $41-billion budget deficit by raising taxes and cutting the pay of 200,000 gov't employees are willing to subsidize the Sacramento Kings. More importantly, will they give away public land to a professional sports team? What's interesting is that the leader of the CA State Senate, Darrell Steinberg worked as a lobbyist for the Kings when they tried to build their Downtown Arena.
Posted by JJ on February 28, 2009 11:04 AM
I take the point that this project is similar conceptually to Atlantic Yards, but the latter would cover just 22 acres, so dead ringer it's not.
Norman Oder
AtlanticYardsReport.com
One New York acre = 15 California acres. "Density" there is when you can drive to your neighbor's house without stopping to refuel.
Posted by Neil on March 1, 2009 07:55 AM
Proposing a TIF to fund this is a waste of everyone's time. The Legislature isn't going to go along with it. After struggling to pass a budget, I just don't think a legislator from LA is going to commit the kind of money they're talking about here, revamping Cal Expo in the process, all because an NBA team needs a new arena.
There would be no plan for housing, retail and an arena on the existing Cal Expo site if the NBA wasn't involved. Not all about the Kings? That's just BS.
They messed up. This plan for Disneyland is so far removed from what the locals want, it's ridiculous. Locals asked for the Vegetarian Plate, and the waiter changed that to Kobe Beef, because Kobe Beef is just so much tastier. Okay, you went from $10 to $60, but who cares? Everyone loves Kobe Beef; right?
You could now see the Legislature step in and, because of the proposed TIF, tell the Cal Expo board that they overstepped their bounds when they voted to proceed.
This proposal radically increase the chances of a Kings departure. They wasted a year on Q&R, they wasted a year on Cal Expo, they're going to waste another 1-2 years on Cal Expo, and in the end, they'll be no closer to a plan than they were in 2007. It's the wrong approach.
Posted by MikeM on March 2, 2009 12:48 PM
Worst article yet on why the Kings need an arena at Cal Expo:
http://www.sacbee.com/arena/story/1670035.html
To summarize, they need to spend $1.9B on phase I because the fairgrounds need $45M to pay for deferred maintenance.
Huh?
Posted by MikeM on March 4, 2009 10:54 AM
"Cal Expo - An Alternate Vision" challenges the NBA proposal and suggests a much superior alternative. If you wish to receive a copy (MS Word format) send me an email at redslider@comcast.net and I will send one by reply email. - thanx red.
Posted by red slider on March 24, 2009 12:52 PM
The city of Baltimore will be fnalizing plans for a new indoor arena by mid 2009, Can you say Baltimore Kings ? ? ?
Posted by clebirdman on June 10, 2009 08:30 PM