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Posted Mar 26, 2011, 10:05 PM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Country Club Park, Greater Coronado, Midtown, Phoenix, Az
Posts: 4,610
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Quote:
Time running out on Glendale USA Basketball deal
13 comments by Rebekah L. Sanders - Mar. 25, 2011 11:47 AM
The Arizona Republic
Valley sports and business mogul Jerry Colangelo said he's disappointed a deal with Glendale to build the USA Basketball headquarters in the city's sports district fell apart.
The opportunity to snag the U.S. Olympic basketball organization remains, but there is little time left to salvage the project, he said at a Glendale Chamber of Commerce luncheon Tuesday.
Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks, said he could hold off relocating the organization only through the end of his term as USA Basketball chairman in 2012.
Editorial: Hint to Glendale: Colangelo's still thinking of you
"I've stalled and I've stalled and I've stalled but I've run out of time," he said. "When someone delivers a deal to you, you need to make that deal happen."
Glendale celebrated in 2008 when USA Basketball chose the city over others to relocate from Colorado Springs.
Glendale announced its partner, the developer Rightpath Limited Development Group, would build the $53.8 million training campus west of Loop 101 off Maryland Avenue. It would feature a training center, offices, three-star hotel, Midwestern University sports-medicine clinic and fitness center to be completed by 2010. The city was not expected to put any money toward the deal, which largely would have been paid for by the developer.
The complex was part of Rightpath's sweeping plan to build a shopping, office, resort and golf-course development called Main Street near Glendale's baseball park, Camelback Ranch Glendale, and remodel a city airport hub.
Since then Rightpath, now called HB Equities, has failed to secure financing to build any of its plans and lost land and its airport center to foreclosure.
HB Equities and Glendale blamed the depressed economy.
"I went way out of my way to help them find financing," Colangelo said, but the developers couldn't put together the money.
Main Street around the ballpark was critical because Glendale counted on tax revenues from the complex to help pay off $200 million it borrowed to build the baseball stadium.
"The White Sox aren't happy. The Dodgers aren't happy" about the vacant land surrounding the ballpark, Colangelo said.
Indeed, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf told the Chicago Tribune last week that Main Street was one of the attractions for building the Glendale stadium.
"By now, in our third year, we were supposed to be looking at restaurants and retail and a hotel and condominiums. And the guys who were going to do that went broke. So we're sort of sitting out here by ourselves," Reinsdorf said.
USA Basketball officials told Glendale last fall they would cancel plans with Rightpath.
City Manager Ed Beasley pitched an alternate location, Colangelo said, on parking lots at Westgate City Center, near the hockey arena and football stadium.
The owners of the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa, just south of the spot, would build the project. But that plan dissolved as well, Colangelo said.
A representative of Renaissance developer John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts did not immediately return calls for comment.
Glendale spokeswoman Julie Frisoni would not comment on Colangelo's talk of an alternate site but said the city "continues to pursue all viable opportunities which would provide value and enhance the city of Glendale."
Mayor Elaine Scruggs said she had no information to add to Frisoni's comments.
"As you know, I was not involved in negotiations leading up to the Memorandum of Agreement unanimously approved by the Glendale City Council on Nov. 18, 2008, for the development of a basketball training facility and campus."
Scruggs went on to say she was involved in no other negotiations for alternate sites.
City Councilman Phil Lieberman said Glendale had explored donating city-owned parking land around Westgate for the project and providing infrastructure such as waterlines and sewerlines, but it never went anywhere.
Lieberman questioned where the city would get money to provide infrastructure. He said Glendale should not continue to try to attract USA Basketball because of the potential cost and the difficulty of finding developers.
"We're already buried over our head in sports venues," he said.
A recent parking agreement with Westgate developer Steve Ellman could help Glendale if it pursued the alternative plan. The deal clarified the city could develop roughly 8 acres near the Renaissance.
Time remains for Glendale to find a solution for USA Basketball, Colangelo said.
"If someone at City Hall wants to call me, I'm available," he said. "I haven't heard anything from Glendale since that all ended. They've been busy with other things."
One of the things occupying Glendale is completing a deal to keep the Phoenix Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena through 2041. The city has been unable to finalize its arena lease agreement with team buyer Matthew Hulsizer due to lawsuit threats by the Goldwater Institute over concerns the deal is not legal.
Colangelo said he hopes everything works out for Glendale.
"My heart goes out to the Coyotes and the city of Glendale regarding the dilemma they find themselves in," Colangelo said.
He said the group should work with Glendale to find a compromise.
"One side (Goldwater) talks about principle," Colangelo said. "One side (Glendale) talks about reality."
Colangelo also addressed his latest West Valley project, the purchase and renovation of the Wigwam resort in Litchfield Park.
The resort will begin remodeling rooms this summer, upgrade golf courses and continue developing its restaurant, he said.
"There are good and bright things coming for the Wigwam," he said.
Colangelo touted the newly formed Arizona Commerce Authority, which Gov. Jan Brewer appointed him to help create, tasked with bringing investment and jobs to the state.
He praised recent announcements that Intel and First Solar plan to build new factories in the East Valley.
"You can't sell just sunshine," he said. With incentives the authority can offer, "now we have a chance."
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/g...#ixzz1HkIggA8l
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I hope this deal doesn't fizzle out entirely and AZ misses the opportunity to host this facility.
With all the talk we've heard about Michael Crow wanting to expand the sporting facilities along Tempe Town Lake, try to attract the Pan Am Games, and building an Olympic facility there, I wonder if maybe that wouldn't be a better home for the US Hoops facility.
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