VENTURA : Leaders Gather to Promote Centerplex

Days away from the Ventura City Council’s scheduled consideration of the Centerplex entertainment proposal, developers and business leaders gathered Tuesday to promote the project and tout its economic impact to the city.

With a bright display of vintage race cars parked outside a Ventura banquet center, prize-winning drivers spoke indoors about the millions of tourism dollars the combined baseball stadium-aquatic center-raceway would attract.

“That’s serious revenue,” race car driver Sterling Taylor said of the projected $10 million each year. “It’s the kind of numbers that should get anyone excited.”

The City Council next Monday is scheduled to consider signing a non-binding agreement to invest millions of dollars in the Centerplex, which developers say is needed to boost sales at the struggling Ventura Auto Center.

Although exact figures are still being negotiated, the project would cost at least $40 million in public funds, including $25 million in street and road improvements already planned by the city.

Project supporters have already launched a campaign to win votes come Monday, addressing the council at recent meetings, sending postcards to City Hall and writing letters to newspapers in favor of the Centerplex.

They envision a sprawling center around the baseball stadium that would house a swimming complex, hockey rink, sports car hall of fame, restaurants and shops that would attract thousands of tourists a year.

Minor league baseball officials have said they would provide a team if a new stadium is built.

The plan also includes roads around Olivas Park Drive that would be designed to allow for Grand Prix-type races to establish Ventura as an attractive venue for auto racing.

Developers said Tuesday they would spend more than $53 million in private funds to finance the Centerplex, which they project would lure at least 125,000 visitors and fill more than 20,000 hotel rooms annually.

Council members Rosa Lee Measures and Jack Tingstrom, who have both expressed support for the project, attended the private breakfast.

“We have strong support from two [council members] and we need four votes,” project supporter John Masterson told the 50 or more people at the banquet. “So we’ve got to find two more.”