NBA Unveils Plans For Cal Expo Center, Including New Kings Arena

Project Consultants Indicate That New Kings Arena Could Be Completed By 2013

NBA officials Friday "laid out a sparkling vision for Cal Expo," including a new basketball arena for the Kings, but they admitted that the vision is "still way short on details on how to make the multibillion-dollar project pencil out, and who would pay what share," according to Tony Bizjak of the SACRAMENTO BEE. The presentation was "good enough, however, to win a thumbs up from the Sacramento Kings, who are desperate for an arena that can make more money." The plan also "won a quick go-ahead from Cal Expo officials." The Cal Expo BOD "authorized its staff Friday to begin a national search for a developer to partner with Cal Expo and the NBA on what would be a massive, 25-year building project." The first phase of the plan "calls for tearing down the eastern third of the Cal Expo site, then constructing an arena, hotel, parking garages, some retails, and a huge new Expo Center building." The new plan is "far more constrained than the current sprawling Cal Expo and fairgrounds," and it would "contain an open space for a midway and a farm and agriculture center." Plans for the "entire 350-acre project call for offices, housing and retail centers at the west end, to be built in phases through 2036." Project consultants said that the arena and new Expo Center "may be completed by 2013," but NBA reps said that the timing is "uncertain, given the down real estate market." A consultant's report "puts the construction costs of the arena and Expo Center at [$500-600M], but does not list all costs involved in planning, land preparation and entitlements for the arena, nor does it break out any costs for the arena alone." The NBA and Cal Expo "will ask a private developer to pay a substantial share" of the project. Baltimore-based Moag & Co. CEO John Moag, a consultant working on the project, said that the Kings ownership also has been "asked to kick in an undisclosed amount." An additional revenue source is "expected to be possessory interest taxes, similar to property taxes, that would be generated in increasing amounts over the years on the Cal Expo site as the land values go up." Moag Friday said that he "did not know yet how much money to expect from each of those three sources." The proposal "does not require any new public tax" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 2/28).

QUESTIONS REMAIN: In Sacramento, Marcos Breton wrote the project is "either going to make sense financially or it won't." A developer "will have to believe that building a Kings arena and transforming the fairgrounds is a good financial bet." This is a "monumental undertaking during an American economy in tatters," and if a developer "signs on -- and that's a big if -- the grade gets steeper." Breton wondered, "How do you attract a developer to a massive project full of questions, secure a still-unknown investment from owners said to be losing money, and get a turbulent state Legislature to designate the site a special tax district to make up the rest of the funding?" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/1). However, also in Sacramento, Ailene Voison wrote it is "time to bang the drum, urgently and aggressively." It is "time to grow up, to dream a little -- no, to dream a lot." After 15 years of "murmurings about the very real need for a modern arena/entertainment complex ... this community has progressed too far to choke under pressure, even in horrific economic times" (SACRAMENTO BEE, 2/28).