Facility Notes

Hicks Faces Lawsuit From Architecture Firm, Contractor Over Failed Glorypark Development

In Ft. Worth, Sandra Baker reports Baltimore-based RTKL Associates and Little Rock-based Vratsinas Construction Co. (VCC), the architecture firm and general contractor for the failed Glorypark development in Arlington, yesterday filed suit saying that they are owed nearly $7M. Glorypark was shuttered by outgoing MLB Rangers Owner Tom Hicks in '08 "when financing couldn't be secured" for the $510M development. RTKL claims it is owed $2.9M and VCC alleges it is owed $4.1M. The suit accuses Hicks Holdings, Texas Rangers Baseball Partners, seven other Hicks affiliates and Columbus-based real estate developer Steiner + Associates of "fraudulent nondisclosure, alleging the developers knew they were not able to fund the project, but kept asking RTKL and VCC to do work" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 2/2).

CHARGING AHEAD: Chargers Special Counsel Mark Fabiani said that the team will notify the city of San Diego that it "will continue renting Qualcomm Stadium for another season when an annual window opens" from February 1-May 1. In San Diego, Mike Allen notes if the franchise decides to "relocate in 2011, it would have to pay an exit fee" of $25.8M, which is "down considerably from the $54.6[M] it would owe if the Chargers depart before next season." San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has said that he "wants to structure an agreement with the Chargers that would be similar to the one the city did in 1998 to construct Petco Park in partnership with the Padres." Sanders said that if a "deal is to be struck, it should go before voters in 2012" (SAN DIEGO BUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/1 issue).

HITTING THE GROUND: Las Vegas-based Navegante Group Founder & CEO Larry Woolf said that there is a "simple explanation why a partnership that includes his Navegante Group won the right to operate a potentially lucrative casino" at Aqueduct Race Track. Except for Navegante Group, "all of the members of the eight-partner Aqueduct Entertainment Group were headquartered in New York," and Woolf said, "In the end, we spent time in the community and the partners understood New York." Woolf "expects talks will take up to two months with the casino opening coming about six months later" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 2/2).

TWO-FOR-ONE SPECIAL: S.F. Chronicle columnist Ray Ratto called the concept of a joint 49ers-Raiders stadium a "ghastly idea." Ratto: "Wherever you put the stadium, one set of fans will be profoundly inconvenienced, and there is never a situation where one stadium has two equal tenants." However, Comcast SportsNet's Ann Killion said it is a "fantastic idea that should happen." Killion: "They have to do it. If they don't do it, I don't think they'll get a stadium or one team will have to move" ("Chronicle Live," Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, 2/1).