This is an archived version of a Field of Schemes article. Comments on this page are closed. To find the current version of the article with updated comments, click here.
September 14, 2011
Sacramento council okays negotiations with developer to build something for Kings, someday, somehow
The funding plan may remain a work in progress, but the Sacramento city council voted last night to okay the city to work on an exclusive development deal with the ICON-Taylor group to build a Sacramento Kings arena. You'll remember ICON-Taylor from the last time they were picked by the city for an exclusive arena deal, though you may also remember co-developer David Taylor from the time last week that he promised that "big-time developers" would surely starting building all kinds of stuff if only exclusive arena rights and lots of public subsidies were first granted to, um, him.
The council's gung-ho-ness notwithstanding, there are still a number of issues to be worked out before any arena deal to go forward. Among those identified by city staffers: the proposed arena site needs toxic cleanup and water and sewer changes, the city would need to buy an additional two-acre parcel of land, and the site needs an extra 1,500 to 1,800 "premium" parking spaces. And, of course, the city still needs to figure out exactly how to pay for the whole mess.
A reader who was at last night's council meeting further reports that it's against state law to selling parking meters to a private entity, which would rule out that form of arena funding; that an environmental review will take 16-20 months, which would make it tough to approve an arena deal by the Kings owners' declared March 1 deadline; and that Sacramento doesn't have the bonding capacity to finance an entire $400 million arena, so would need other local governments chip in as well. Little stuff like that.
The city is to report back in three weeks, at which point the council will presumably give it a whole new list of things to figure out how to accomplish. Eventually.
I give some credit to Dan Barrett here, though. He straightforwardly said that these deals that sell/lease municipal parking operations to private entities take about a year to put together. I got the sense that he was thinking, Look, you won't be able to put this all together by your self-imposed Dec 31 deadline.
One of the more optimistic Council members noted that the 100 day report left the Council with about 85% of the work to do.
While I don't see this being completed on time, I do think that it'll drag on. After all, after the Maloofs apply on March 1, the NBA will have 5 months to approve or reject a move. So, in theory, I can see them spending through next July desperately grasping at straws.
Posted by MikeM on September 14, 2011 07:49 PM
Anaheim Royals... delayed but inevitable at this point. Sac won't be able to make this happen in time and Samueli is worth a hell of a lot more these days than the Maloofs and as important, he has an arena already that is undergoing NBA specific upgrades as we sit here.
Posted by Dan on September 14, 2011 08:47 PM
Oooo, but Dan, "We have Burkle."
(Yes, that was meant to be sarcastic.)
Posted by MikeM on September 15, 2011 02:57 PM