Army Says Irwindale Parcel Can’t Be Condemned for Use by Raiders

Army Corps of Engineers officials said Friday that the City of Irwindale cannot obtain parking for the proposed new Raiders stadium by condemning Los Angeles County’s lease on a parcel the corps owns near the San Gabriel River.

Corps officials concede that the city might be able to condemn the lease but they say that Irwindale still would have to obtain corps permission to use the land for parking.

“You can’t condemn federal land,” said corps spokesman Larry Hawthorne in discussing the latest twists of Irwindale’s push to put together the details of its $115-million deal to bring the Los Angeles Raiders to the city by a Nov. 4 deadline.

Irwindale officials had said on Tuesday that they might institute legal action to seize the land. Irwindale has asked the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to sublease the land for Raiders parking but has encountered resistance on the part of several board members.

Hawthorne and two corps environmental aides added that they are not sure exactly where Irwindale stands in the preparation of a required environmental assessment of the land.

“We’ve called them several times,” said Marie Campbell, assigned by the corps as an environmental coordinator for the parking project. “They haven’t let us know quite where they’re at yet. We haven’t even been told (whether) they’ve hired anyone to do the assessment.”

Not until the environmental assessment arrives will corps officials decide whether a much more comprehensive environmental impact statement is required, Campbell said.

In any case, the corps officials expressed doubts that they could act by Nov. 4 on Irwindale’s proposal.

Nov. 4 Deadline

According to the language of the agreement under which Irwindale advanced the Raiders $10 million, the city has to ensure that it will provide either this land or “mutually acceptable parking facilities” by Nov. 4 or lose its advance and see the deal collapse.

There have been hints, however, from both sides that the deadline might be extended. Just Friday, a Raiders executive, John Herrera, declared that the team is “unqualifiedly” committed to moving to Irwindale from the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Meanwhile, new details surfaced Friday on the sale last week of $90 million in Irwindale bonds to finance the stadium. The bonds were bought by First Bank Minneapolis and the FBS Capital Markets Group, a division of First Bank Systems Inc., the bank’s holding company, at an annual interest rate of 7.23% fixed for 60 days.

According to “indenture of trust” papers made available by Irwindale, and further explained by one of the city’s bond counsels, Deborah Thompson, there is a requirement that the bonds be remarketed on Nov. 4 at a fixed 30-year rate. There could be a further remarketing on Jan. 4.

Thompson said the $90 million is now on deposit with the trustee of the sale, Security Pacific National Bank, and is receiving interest income equivalent to the 7.23% rate that applies during the first 60 days of the bonds’ life.

Thompson explained that should the Irwindale-Raider deal prove impossible to put together by Nov. 4, the sale will be dissolved. The Minneapolis bank will get its $90 million back plus interest paid on the Security Pacific trust account.

In short, the Minneapolis banking interests are at little risk. Indeed, Thompson said, the interest rate on the bonds during this initial period was set at precisely what would be realized by the Security Pacific deposits.

The $10 million cash advance that Irwindale gave the Raiders Aug. 20, when the deal was signed, and that would be forfeited to the Raiders should the deal collapse through Irwindale’s inability to perform, came out of city redevelopment surpluses and has nothing to do with the bonds.

Thompson noted that, in addition to requirements that Irwindale provide the Raiders with parking land, stadium land and construction financing, the deal hinges on getting the city’s voters to approve at a Nov. 3 election a $10-million general-obligation bond issue to help finance improvements surrounding the stadium.

“If all the components do not work together, this bond deal is dissolved,” she emphasized.