NationsBank, First Union Corp. and other "powerful
businesses" are working with Hornets Owner George Shinn to form a
"corporate arena ownership umbrella" to finance a new $150M
uptown facility, according to Erik Spanberg of the CHARLOTTE
BUSINESS JOURNAL. The group is being modeled after the Kiel
Center Partners, a limited partnership consisting of numerous
corporations and individuals who jointly own both the Blues and
Kiel Center. Sources indicate the Hornets could afford to put
$70M toward the facility, while the consortium would pool a $50M
investment. However, it remains unclear if the city is expected
to pick up the remaining $30M. In St. Louis, the public
contributed $35M toward the $170M Kiel Center. An anonymous
source in the talks said a "corporate consortium, ... would be
hard to stop." Shinn will not comment on an arena until he makes
a presentation to the Charlotte City Council August 26. The
Hornets can leave Charlotte Coliseum in 2001 for a $250,000
buyout fee (CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/15).
DETAILS: Shinn would also receive a percentage of sales
from a proposed retail/entertainment component expected to be
located next to the arena. Such a payment would be designed to
help offset anticipated concession sale losses. Meanwhile,
members of the Charlotte Auditorium-Coliseum-Convention Center
Authority, the body which maintains operational control of the
Charlotte Coliseum, are growing "frustrated" by its "increasingly
diminished role" in the arena negotiations. A Hornets source
says Shinn has purposely kept the Authority out of talks because
of "past disputes" with them (CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/15).
