A developer has offered the city of Anaheim $150 million for land adjacent to Angel Stadium, triple the National Football League’s bid for the plot, the Los Angeles Times reported today.
The developer wants to build an urban core of high rises on the land, a proposal that the Times says “has left the city at a crossroads – fulfilling its dream of adding a professional football team to its stable of sports franchises, or reaping huge profits by selling off valuable land to a developer.”
A couple of city councilmen said the proposal upped the ante in the NFL’s push to put a team back in the LA/Orange County market.
(City Councilman Harry) Sidhu, who has opposed the NFL deal on grounds the proposed sale price does not reflect fair-market value, said the Archstone pitch made the NFL’s reported offer of $50 million less and less appealing. The City Council agreed in May to solicit other offers for the 53 acres, which includes the Grove theater and the Anaheim train station.
“We need to move on, instead of waiting for these NFL owners,” he said. “So far, they have yet to show any good-faith offers. They are still studying and studying. In my opinion, two years of studying is enough.”