Phoenix Club to Start Quest for Replacement of Its Site in Anaheim
Members of the Phoenix Club, a private social organization for families of German descent, will begin the search for a new club site after a vote to sell the group’s seven-acre headquarters to the city of Anaheim.
The timing of the club’s move to make way for an indoor sports arena has not yet been set, but is not expected to come before the beginning of the year, according to Phoenix Club attorney Michael Leifer. Club officials estimated the cost of buying land and building a new headquarters at from $5.8 million to $6.2 million.
“They have not determined where they will relocate,” Leifer said Saturday. “They are looking for something comparable.”
Members of the club, which includes a restaurant, nightclub, private park and two parking areas, voted 509 to 59 on Friday to sell the property on Douglass Road just north of Katella Avenue. The club, which has 3,000 members, has been at the site since 1960, Leifer said.
Anaheim City Councilman William Ehrle, a member of the club, said the sale is a good deal for the city and the area’s German community.
The city’s offer is “not only a fair offer, it’s an offer where all the parties can win,” he said.
The vote lifted the last roadblock in Anaheim’s effort to build a basketball or hockey arena northeast of Anaheim Stadium. The city now races against Santa Ana, which has announced plans to build an arena at Edinger Avenue and Lyon Street.
Neither city has contracted with a professional sports team, considered vital to sustaining any arena. Nevertheless, Anaheim expects to begin construction in January, 1990. Santa Ana has set ground breaking for spring, 1990.
Anaheim plans to build a 21,000-seat facility at an estimated cost of $85 million. The site is east of the Orange Freeway, and parking will be on 17 adjacent acres leased from Orange County. The city’s plans for an arena on a nearby 7.6 acres of county land were scrapped in May because county officials said the land was being considered as a site for a new jail. County supervisors have since decided to put the jail in Gypsum Canyon.
Santa Ana officials announced their plans for a $75-million arena, to be financed with private funds, in June. That facility would have 20,000 seats.
Officials of both cities have said they will proceed with plans to build the stadiums regardless of what the other city does.