Proposal from Angels on parking lot development is expected in two to four months
The Angels could propose a plan to develop the Angel Stadium parking lot in two to four months, Anaheim city manager Chris Zapata said Tuesday.
The Angels have retained Brooks Street, a development company based in Newport Beach, as a consultant on a potential Anaheim project. The city hopes the Angels might agree to build restaurants, shops, offices and/or homes in the stadium parking lot, with the team using development profits to pay for a new or renovated stadium.
Zapata said he believed negotiations with the team were in “the bottom of the first [inning].” He said he and Mayor Harry Sidhu had met Monday with John Carpino, the Angels’ president, and a Brooks Street executive.
The Angels’ stadium lease expires after the 2020 season. The team is negotiating with Anaheim and Long Beach, which would like to lure the Angels to a waterfront site.
The Long Beach City Council also discussed the Angels’ situation in its meeting Tuesday, but in closed session rather than in public. Mayor Robert Garcia has repeatedly declined to comment on the city’s pursuit of the Angels.
Several members of the Anaheim City Council expressed frustration that the Angels engaged in talks with Long Beach after the team agreed to a one-year lease extension in Anaheim, without which the Angels would have had no place to play beyond this season.
Councilman Jose Moreno, who in January had failed to get his colleagues to make the lease extension contingent on the city getting exclusive negotiating rights, asked city staff to “please not panic” over the emergence of the Long Beach option. He also noted that the Angels had agreed Tuesday with star outfielder Mike Trout on a new contract worth $426.5 million.
“Clearly, they’re not in need of money,” Moreno said.
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