Small sports arena possible addition to Candlestick Point development
Phillip Matier & Andrew Ross
Wednesday, September 6, 2006
The San Francisco 49ers and their building partners are wrapping up a long-awaited megaplan for a new, 68,000-seat stadium at Candlestick Point -- as well as a possible last-minute addition, a 12,000- seat arena.
"It is part of the uses being considered,'' said Adam Alberti, spokesman for Lennar Corp., which is handling a development that the 49ers also envision including housing, stores and a hotel.
Chances are slim that an arena with 12,000 seats would be big enough to attract the Golden State Warriors basketball team or any other major sports franchise. The Oakland Arena, where the Warriors play, has 20,000 seats, and San Jose's HP Pavilion holds 17,000 for the Sharks hockey team. Even the ancient Cow Palace in neighboring Daly City has a bigger capacity than the Niners' arena would.
But Lennar thinks a midsize venue could be just the ticket for second-tier sports such as indoor soccer and arena football, along with big-name musical acts and other entertainment.
The idea is to bring people out to Candlestick Point on more than just the 10 days or so per year that the Niners play there and to put cars into a massive garage that the team would build.
In other words, the idea is to make money year-round.
In addition, Lennar is negotiating with Forest City Enterprises -- builder of the downtown Bloomingdale's development -- to develop the retail portions of the Candlestick Point project.
"No doubt there is going to be a significant commercial partner in this venture, and Forest City would be a great addition and capable partner, but no agreements are in place,'' Alberti said.
Lisa Lang, spokeswoman for the 49ers, would say only that the team was awaiting a final feasibility study from Lennar. "The hope is we are close,'' she said.
But she cautioned that "there are still some areas that we have to work through, and we are waiting for these issues to be resolved.''
Lang also put some distance between the team and the arena scheme, saying it's "just an idea, and it isn't really connected to the Niners.''
But she did not rule out the possibility that the team could lease the arena if Niners owners John and Denise York exercise their rights to an Arena Football League team -- something on which the couple have put a down payment.
Word of the arena bubbled up when Lennar added the idea to a poll it commissioned to test the Candlestick plan with San Francisco voters.
In addition to the arena, the plan outlined in the poll included a 68,000-seat football stadium, 6,000 units of housing, and open space and parks -- all to be "privately financed," with an eye toward using the sports venues for the 2016 Olympics, should San Francisco win the Games.
If the Games come here, the stadium would temporarily be expanded to 75,000 to 80,000 seats -- the minimum required to host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as track-and-field events.
While he declined to give details, Alberti said the poll of more than 400 registered voters was "quite encouraging for the land plan and the private financing of the stadium.''
Given that public land would be involved in the deal, however, the exact meaning of "privately financed" is open to interpretation.
Lang said the Yorks were ready to put "hundreds of millions'' of their own money into the deal. Any tax increment financing, which allows a public agency to issue bonds to help finance development and to repay the debt with new real estate taxes generated by the growth, would go toward infrastructure improvements in the area, Lang said.
The Niners are also counting on the city providing land for the stadium and development rights to surrounding Candlestick Point -- terms that voters approved in 1997 as part of a now-discarded stadium-mall deal.
Michael Cohen, who has been helping direct the development from the mayor's office, said the Niners' plan would satisfy the city's goals of creating jobs in the Bayview, adding affordable housing and providing a "tremendous" waterfront park.
As for signs that the housing market is starting to weaken -- even across the channel at the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, where Lennar is developing 1,600 units of housing -- Cohen insisted that wasn't a factor.
"The notion that the economics won't support these projects is just wrong,'' Cohen said, noting that the 6,000 units of housing in the Niners' project would be phased in over several years.
Testing the voters' appetite was one of the last pieces of business before the Niners and Lennar go public with their plan, which could be any day now.
"People wanted to feel comfortable about what they were undertaking before they ran off and showed it to the world,'' Lennar spokesman Alberti said.
However, he emphasized, "It's a draft plan, and it's subject to change.''
Mayor Gavin Newsom has said that any revision of the 1997 stadium-mall plan would probably have to go back to the voters, but our sources say the 49ers still hope to avoid that.
"We need to look at the final proposal and make a determination at that point,'' Lang said.
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