ANAHEIM : Relocation Pact With Club Is Altered

The City Council this week changed a relocation agreement between the city

and a German social club that needed to be moved to make way for the Anaheim Arena.

Instead of selling the property to the Phoenix Club German Assn. of Orange County, the city will lease the club the land it needs for the group’s activities.

The change was necessary because the owner of the adjacent property, Newport Federal, has filed two lawsuits against the city in an attempt to block the club’s relocation.

Newport Federal wants a full environmental review of the area to determine the club’s effect on its neighbors. The property owners rent the adjacent site to an adult education school, and claim the club’s activities could interfere with the school’s operation.

City officials say they are confident the Phoenix Club will be able to use the site, but wanted to protect it with a new agreement in case a court rules it cannot operate there. Both cases are scheduled for settlement hearings in coming weeks.

Under the agreement approved this week, the club will loan the city the money it would have paid for the property, about $2.7 million. It will then pay the city about $22,900 monthly, about equal to the interest payment on the 10% loan, to lease the 7-acre site.

The construction of a new Phoenix Club is now under way at the Douglass Road site.