Mayor Denies MCA’s Claim of Sabotage in Disney Deal

Burbank Mayor Michael R. Hastings on Friday denied an accusation that the city sabotaged a rival entertainment giant’s efforts to bid on a 40-acre redevelopment site on which Walt Disney Co. now plans to build an elaborate entertainment and retail complex.

Hastings said the rival company, MCA, is at fault for not aggressively seeking the project. “Contrary to the accusations, MCA was not locked out, and there was not a snow job,” he said.

MCA Vice President Jay S. Stein has alleged that Hastings promised early last month to have the city’s community development staff send him information on the downtown Burbank property so that MCA could develop a proposal to compete with Disney’s.

The staffers never sent MCA the information, however, and Hastings said Tuesday in an interview that the material “fell through the cracks” and that the failed effort was an “internal problem.”

But Stein said Hastings told him in a phone conversation that “he was embarrassed that the materials he promised to send us describing the project were sabotaged.” The MCA official said Hastings explained that staff members had succumbed to Disney’s influence and purposely did not send MCA the information.

No Follow-Up

At a City Hall press conference on Friday, however, Hastings said Stein was to blame because “he did not follow up with a phone call after the packet I had promised did not arrive.”

“MCA must not have been that interested. If we had been on the top of their list, they would have called us back,” the mayor said.

Hastings said he does not believe city employees were guilty of sabotage.

After hearing of Hastings’ statement, Stein said: “I don’t make things like that up. I’m a responsible guy. I wouldn’t make up a lie about a city official who I would like very much to do business with.”

Burbank City Council on Tuesday granted Disney a one-year option to buy the redevelopment site from the city for $1 million, which officials acknowledge is a bargain price.

Stein said the property, which until recently had been set aside for a shopping mall, is worth $35 million to $50 million.

Disney officials said they plan to build a $150-million to $300-million complex with shops, restaurants, theaters, clubs and a “Hollywood Fantasy Hotel.” The studio would also move its animation department, offices for the Disney Channel and other production facilities into the complex, which would be called “Disney-MGM Studio Backlot.”

Ride Through Movie Scenes

Preliminary plans also call for a ride in which customers would be carried through famous scenes from movies, presumably those of MGM and Disney.

Hastings, a public relations executive who worked at MCA several years ago, said he contacted Stein on April 8 because he hoped MCA would give Disney “some quality competition.”

Stein said Friday that MCA, which is locked in a bitter rivalry with Disney over competing entertainment complexes in Florida and California, plans to go to court to set aside the Disney-Burbank agreement. The company’s attorney, Daniel M. Shapiro, will argue that Burbank is illegally giving away public property, he said.

“If I were on the Burbank City Council, I would not have insulted the taxpayers of Burbank by offering a piece of land for $1 million that I would conservatively say really costs $50 million,” Stein said. “If anyone should be outraged, it’s the citizens of Burbank. It’s not only a bad deal, it’s illegal.”

Shapiro said the deal between Disney and the City of Burbank is a violation of redevelopment law.

“It’s highly irregular, if not illegal, to give away public land” without the city analyzing several proposals for development, Shapiro said. Disney’s proposal was the only one city officials considered seriously.

Stein conceded that he never made a follow-up phone call to Hastings when the materials didn’t arrive.

‘Simply Forgot’

“To tell you the truth, I simply forgot,” the MCA executive said. “It was not on the top of my mind.”

Stein said he was preoccupied by development of the company’s Florida studio-tour attraction and expansion of the Universal Studios Tour property that will include offices, restaurants and a 17-screen theater complex. He was also working on developments in foreign countries, he said.

“I had a great deal on my plate, but if we had gotten the information, we would have gotten right on it,” Stein said.

At his press conference Friday, Hastings complained that Burbank is caught in the middle of the rivalry between Disney and MCA.

“Disney versus MCA has nothing to do with Burbank,” he said. “We can all sit around and fight over words . . . but that’s not pertinent when it comes to who aggressively pursued the city. Disney did, and MCA didn’t.”