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Tue January 09, 2001 - National Edition
The green light went on again for construction of a hockey arena in Scottsdale when the city attorney released an opinion that says the project was automatically extended until March 5.
Developer Steve Ellman’s agreement to conditions designed to speed up redevelopment of the arena site triggered an automatic extension of a stadium district, David Pennartz said Friday.
Without the extension, the Los Arcos Multipurpose Facilities District would have been terminated at midnight Sunday.
One of the conditions the City Council imposed Dec. 18 was that Ellman and co-owner Wayne Gretzky close on the $87 million purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes by Dec. 31. But Pennartz said the controlling condition was one that required Ellman to agree in writing to the other requirements by Friday.
Ellman complied Thursday after the NHL agreed to allow him and Gretzky until Feb. 15 to close on the Coyotes.
"Once signed by the deadline, the contract is formed," Pennartz wrote to city manager Janet Dolan. "The contract, of course, has performance terms within it that the other party is required to do.
"The failure to accomplish one of the performance items in a timely fashion does not mean there was no contract."
Pennartz acknowledged that the council resolution was not a contract, but called it analogous. The council may meet at any time and rescind the extension, he said.
City spokesman Mike Phillips said the opinion did away with the need for a special council session on Tuesday.
But councilman George Zraket, an opponent of making the 17,500-seat arena the centerpiece of the $575 Los Arcos Mall redevelopment, promised to address the issue after the holidays.
"Mr. Pennartz’s decisions appears to be circumventing the intent and will of an elected body," Zraket said. "I think it’s kind of a bizarre decision.
"The council put Dec. 31 in there with the intention that in order for the extension to be allowed that condition had to be met."
Ellman and Bob Kaufman, senior vice president for the Ellman Cos., did not return cellphone messages seeking comment.
While acknowledging that he would overshoot the council’s deadline for closing on the team, Ellman agreed Thursday to four conditions important to Scottsdale.
The two biggest were to negotiate a "terms sheet" which will lead to a formal redevelopment agreement of the mall, and to resume mall demolition by March 20 or within 15 days after negotiating the terms sheet, whichever comes first.
The other conditions involve a meeting between Ellman’s bankers and city financial officers, and paying the expenses of a city financial consultant.
Voters approved the stadium district in November 1999. It allows sales tax to be collected on the site and reinvested - the bulk of the $197 million in public money that could go into the project.