Anaheim Still Moving Forward with Sportstown

Despite a developers' decision to drop out of a 40-acre sports-themed project in Anaheim, city officials are keeping the project on track.

Known as Sportstown, the entertainment project is taking shape in the parking lot of the Big A, home of the Anaheim Angels baseball team, and close to the Arrowhead Pond, home to the major league hockey team, the Mighty Ducks.

In November, Cleveland-based developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. dropped plans to develop Sportstown, which is to include sports-themed businesses, hotels, and offices adjacent to an Amtrak train station at the stadium. Speculation arose that Forest Cities had dropped the project because of an abundance of new entertainment and retail establishments in the area, including those planned for the Disneyland area and in the nearby Orange County cities of Orange and Garden Grove.

But Anaheim officials moved ahead in December with plans to lease land to one sports-themed business and to sell land to an office building developer. The land is located inside a city redevelopment area, according to Richard Bruckner, deputy director of the city's community development department.

The sports-themed business is called Gotcha Glacier, and is to include indoor skiing, skydiving, snowboarding and a water park, along with retail and restaurants on 430,000 square feet. The project is to cost $65 million, and the city will receive $37.8 million in revenue over 30 years, under terms of the lease, according to the Orange County Register.

Already open in Sportstown is Tinseltown Studios, a 700-seat restaurant and nightclub that gives guests a chance to pretend they're Hollywood celebrities by walking a red carpet, give autographs and be interviewed in front of television cameras.

Bruckner said he expects the city to seek hotels and retail for the remaining acreage in Sportstown. The other venues will all tie together with sports, he said.

Other new developments in the area include the 12-acre Stadium Crossings, rising across the street from the Big A, and a 25-screen theatre complex.

Contacts:

Richard Bruckner, city of Anaheim, (714) 765-4300.