#BELLBANK #SOCCER #LEGACY From the Arizona Republic- Default threatens owners’ hold on Bell Bank Park The organization that built the $280 million, 320-acre youth and amateur sports complex known as Bell Bank Park in southeast Mesa is in default of its loan that covered the project. A formal notice issued Oct. 18 by bond trustee OMB Bank to investors states that Legacy has missed monthly payments on interest and principal, failed to submit audits and financial statements, and has unpaid construction company liens on the property. Over the summer, at least 10 subcontractors that worked on the project filed liens totaling millions of dollars against the property owner for non-payment for services, according to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. Legacy Cares doesn’t own the land, but leases it from Pacific Proving LLC, a joint venture between William Levine and Arturo Moreno, owner of the Los Angeles Angels MLB baseball team. Levine and Moreno were partners in the billboard company Outdoor Systems, which they sold to Infinity Broadcasting for $8.7 billion in 1999. Pacific Proving purchased 1,800 acres of the General Motors testing facility, which has provided land for Mesa’s tremendous expansion in the southeast. Liens make the 320-acre property difficult to sell or mortgage, and one of the terms of Legacy’s lease with Pacific Proving is that no liens be allowed on the property for more than 20 days – a time frame that has long passed. Executives for Legacy Cares told the Tribune on Sept. 14 there was no danger of the facility defaulting on its loans, saying, “We’re right on track in the fall and winter heading into a position where we don’t anticipate having any shortfalls whatsoever.” On Oct. 4, though, the trustee informed Legacy that conditions exist for a “default,” including the failure to make its monthly loan payments. After managers for the sports complex failed to resolve the conditions, the trustee issued the notification and called a meeting of bondholders for Oct. 25. Stephen Griffin, a whistleblower in Rhode Island who is a former executive and investor in a failed youth sports company in Boston, has been predicting trouble for Bell Bank Park since September. Griffin, an accountant for major firms before becoming an investor, doesn’t think the Mesa project is capable of generating the revenue needed to cover its current obligations. He said the revenue potential and economic benefits of destination sports facilities like Bell Bank Park have been over-hyped to communities across the country. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw1tQHodZ98