Category: Sacramento Kings

by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–The scrum continues between three Sacramentans and the City of Sacramento as opponents who recently filed an appeals case in front of the same judge who threw out that last set of appeals from the last case argued that subsidies that finance the new Kings arena at Downtown Plaza were done with the public funds that were illegal subsidies. Three Sacramentans filed arguements in Sacramento Superior Court saying that the funding of the arena is illegal and wasteful. The opponents in the appeals case also restated that funding from taxes from Sacramento owned garages should not be used to pay for the new arena.

Sacramento Kevin Johnson said after the opponents last appeal was thrown out by Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley that this was the last hurdle of any road block to stop the new arena from coming through. Then came last week and the opponents argued again about subsidies and the waste part of the lawsuit was the funding coming from the garages. The city argues that the garages are worthless and shouldn’t be counted as part of the subsidy arguement and they can be fixed up to be useful.

Frawley who threw out two previous arguments has allowed the arguements of “illegal and wasteful” and “abuse of discretion” the latter blamed on the Sacramento City Council, to stay as part of the opponents aguments. The Downtown Plaza has already broke ground as of the middle of August and a great majority of the retail outlets at the Plaza have already moved out prior to the ground break. The opponents before and during construction have fought as far back into last year to stop construction of the Kings arena.

They’ve primarly argued on environmental issues such as post game traffic, noise and pollution of exhaust and for displacing neighbors that have paid for affordable housing for decades in neighboring hotels by forced moves to convert the area and hotels into condos or luxury hotels. Frawley in the previous appeals case ruled that the subsidy sheets were not binding and that the opponents arguments were not going to stop the new arena because the opponents were not able to demonstrate that the subsidies were illegal or wasteful.

The opponents this time around are arguing that they can demonstrate that the financial terms of any balance sheet entered by the city does not legitimately allow the city to use such funding as the garages to pay for the new arena and that monies also used from the city general fund was not suppose to be used for paying for the construction of the Kings new arena. The city’s share of the cost of the new Kings arena is $255 million and the Kings will put in $222 million.

Opponents are arguing also about the large portion of the bonds that will pay for the arena from the city’s coffers and want a list of why the city should use public funds to pay for the arena and where and how it’s going to be paid. The Mayor’s office has said that the opposition has been down this road before and have been overruled twice by the same judge (Frawley) but understand that the opponents are entitled to due process under the law to appeal once again the arguement of the public subsidies.

Frawley will continue to hear further arguemnents of this case by opponents on December 12th regarding the merits of the case. With this being the opponents third appeal the plan to make the challenges of the subsidy funding the core of their case like “illegal and wasteful” and “abuse and discretion” the opponents intend to turn the tide on stopping the new arena that already is underway for construction. The NBA has said that the arena must be ready to go by fall of 2017 or the Kings will have to move to another city.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SACRAMENTO–Downtown plaza the future home of the Sacramento Kings new arena has the L Street mall shutdown for construction. Most of the plaza stores in the mid part of the mall are shut down. Plans for L Street include buildings that will be office occupied and retail that will serve the nearby arena. One buyer in the neighborhood Trinity Pacific Partners bought 555 Capital Mall an entire city block a 380,000 foot space that has two connected offices that is 14 stories that already has retail and stores on the street level.

The block also has parking that is right across the street that features 791 spaces for parking. The ideal situation when the Kings start play at the arena for the fall of 2016. Currently the building has a 60 percent occupation rate that contains law and accounting firms. Trinity is invloved with business partners Buzz Oates LLC, AM Investors and Rubicon Partners as a group they remodled the Forum building at Ninth and K Streets and the Citizen Hotel at 10th and J Streets.

Purchase price was not available through public records, Trinity has plans for the towers to fill the empty office space and they most likely will succeed when the new arena is up and running and downtown office space will be at a premium with many companies ready to rent the space that would attract businesses who will come down to see the newly refurbished neighborhood.

With Downtown Plaza demoed there are already takers waiting to move into the new buildings in anticipation of the Kings new arena, Kipp Blewett from the firm Ribicon Partners plan to operate and lease the building and there are big plans with retail and businesses already lining up to move in.

The mere excitment of the Kings moving downtown has the locals excited to get business going and there will be a lot of improvements and new looks to downtown the these buildings being remodeled will according to Blewett have more boutique firms. Michael Ault of the Downtown Sacramento Partnership said the new arena will bring economic benefits “everything that we had talked about in the way of momentum from the arena project is starting to come together.”

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

SAN FRANCISCO–Guess what Piers 30-32 the former planned arena location for the Golden State Warriors is all about? It’s about to fall into San Francisco Bay unless someone comes forward with $87 million to prevent the foundation of the pier from an eventual collapse and do a nice fixer upper for the project. Proposition B which passed this past June eliminated any hope for the Warriors to build a new state of the art arena at the piers.

The measure makes it clear that any new buildings built along the waterfront must be done with San Francisco voters approval. The measure restricts height limits and that pretty much forced the Warriors at the time to find other digs which will be at Mission Bay a good mile from where they wanted to play hoops. The Warriors who met with Mission Bay residents last Thursday unveiled a illustrated look of the arena.

Getting to the new arena will take a little longer at the current stage unless as San Francisco Muni plans to get light rail from the Warriors arena connected on the same line with the Powell Street Metro station.Public transit plays a big role in the Warriors new arena thinking. The City has taken on a lot of sports failures losing the Warriors at Piers 30-32 and losing the San Francisco 49ers to Santa Clara and losing out on Pier 30-32 has not resonated well with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee’s office.

Lee’s office while all behind Prop B and matter of fact ready to take on the the California State Commission who plans to take the measure to court arguing that the city doesn’t have jurisdiction over the waterfront port not to mention the commission has former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom now California Lt.Governor planning to fight the city.

Lee initially said that if the Warriors build at Piers 30-32 it would be his legacy but the legs of that thought was quickly squashed when Lee saw the number of ballots going to the voters registar’s office to get proposition B on the ballot.

After realizing that Piers 30-32 wasn’t going to work Lee was relieved that the Warriors planned to purchase land and move to Mission Bay. The disscussion is still about Prop B even though the Warriors arena location issue has been resolved. Oracle’s CEO Larry Ellison wants to build at the waterfront and at Piers 30-32 hotels and condominums. The Warriors wanted to do that too with the new arena at that location. Lee and City Attorney Dennis Herrera are prepared to fight Newsom and the State Commission on jurisdiction over the port and Herrera has said the city voters have a say about height limits at the Embarcadero.

As Ellison and company knows that won’t happen without voter approval and that’s very unlikely given the waterfront neighborhood already had rejected the arena idea there. The Warriors wanted to build a hotel and condo across the street from the arena. While Piers 30-32 are an ideal location in conjunction with the Embarcadero and nearby Market Street transit. Mission Bay will prove ideal once the light rail hook up is good to go in 2019 the Warriors plan to open their new digs in the 2018 season.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the new arena developments for the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings for http://www.sportsradioservice.com