Sacramento officials released a "raft of new details on the proposed $391 million downtown arena Thursday, including a VIP parking garage and special $1 ticket surcharge," according to a front-page piece by Kasler, Lillis & Bizjak of the SACRAMENTO BEE. The city “produced the all-important ‘term sheet’ spelling out the financing structure" agreed to by city officials, the NBA Kings, arena operator AEG and the ICON/Taylor development team. With the release of the document, Mayor Kevin Johnson said that the city “met the NBA's March 1 deadline for crafting a deal.” While nonbinding, the term sheet “must be approved by the City Council on Tuesday for the project to go forward.” Among other things, city staffers “are asking the council to spend $850,000 from the city's parking fund to move ahead on preliminary steps in the process.” Additional dollars would “start flowing soon: City officials say the parties would need to commit by April 3 to spending a combined $13 million on engineering, environmental and other costs.” Kasler, Lillis & Bizjak note much of what is in the term sheet “was already known.” In the years before the arena opens, cash “would be carved out of the so-called ‘parking monetization’-- the linchpin of the city's share of the project.” The city said that the parking program “could generate $230 million in upfront cash toward the arena.” Separately, Sacramento developer David Taylor would team with L.A. real estate firm CIM Group “to build a privately financed $25 million parking garage near the railyard arena.” The garage “wouldn't be part of the city's ‘monetization’ plan.” Also, the city and AEG "agreed to tack a $1 service fee onto all arena tickets to create a building maintenance fund" that is “supposed to raise about $1.2 million a year.” The city said that the fund “is essential to prevent the city from being liable for runaway upkeep expenses as the arena ages.” The $1 service fee would be “in addition to the 5 percent ticket surcharge, already announced, that would be imposed to help pay for construction.” AEG would “control the lion's share of revenue from non-Kings events at the arena” (SACRAMENTO BEE, 3/2).
