Developer to Ask City for $8,000 for New Sports Complex Marketing Study : Recreation: Council rejected Hofer family’s proposal for Centerplex in July, but revision is planned.

Months after the City Council refused to fund an ambitious Centerplex sports complex, its Ventura developer wants Ventura to help pay for a new marketing study so boosters can promote a revised version of the project.

The council will be asked Monday to ante up about $8,000 for the new $50,000 study by developer Paul B. Hofer and Sons, which has proposed a mixed stadium and retail center off Johnson Drive. The family has offered to include a proposed municipal swim center in the project.

Because some of the research would focus on where to locate the swim center, the city would finance part of the study, said David Kleitsch, Ventura’s economic development manager.

Meanwhile, Jim McConica, a Ventura businessman who is putting together a proposal for a city pool at Buena High School, will make a presentation to the Ventura Unified School District board Tuesday. He said he would ask the school board for its blessing on the plan before going to the City Council for approval.

He is undeterred by the competing proposal to build a public pool at the Centerplex development, McConica said.

“That plan has merits, but we think our plan has more merits,” he said.

A third site has been proposed for the city pool off Telegraph Road in east Ventura.

The study on the Centerplex project is needed before the Hofer family can present new plans to the City Council, which voted unanimously in July to reject the first proposal.

The family wants to invest tens of millions of dollars in a sprawling sports and recreational center that would include a minor-league baseball stadium, shops, restaurants and an aquatic center. The Hofer family owns the Ventura Auto Center adjacent to the Centerplex proposal.

Roads surrounding the center would be constructed to allow for auto racing, so that the city could one day host an event similar to the Long Beach Grand Prix.

In theory, the sports complex would attract potential car buyers to the area surrounding the auto center, where sales have dropped drastically in recent years.

Details of any new proposal are unclear at this point. John Hofer, who has served as the family’s spokesman for Centerplex, failed to return phone calls Friday.

Boosters say the Centerplex would provide thousands of jobs and lure millions of tourists and tax dollars to the city. But critics say the plan as proposed last July would cost too much in public tax dollars.

After months of promotions and campaigning in favor of the project, the Hofers in July were rebuffed by the City Council, which was reluctant to lend the developers $5 million and spend another $10 million on a stadium.

But the council has changed since July, with the election of political newcomers Ray Di Guilio and Jim Friedman, the top two vote-getters in the November election.

Di Guilio said at a candidates forum before the election that supporting the Centerplex proposal was his top priority.

In a related agenda item Monday, the City Council will be asked to extend for six months a temporary agreement between the city and the Hofer family.

The deal allowed the family to recoup its $621,000 security deposit on future road improvements near the auto mall by substituting a $1-million deed of trust on the dealership leased to Ventura Volvo.

City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said that by next June, however, the city would probably require that the cash be deposited back into an interest-bearing account.

Correspondent Catherine Saillant contributed to this report.