Bank May Provide Guaranty in Arena Deal

Developers of the proposed downtown sports arena said Wednesday that they have had discussions with Bank of America about providing the city of Los Angeles with a guaranty to repay $70 million in city-backed bonds.

They made public a letter in which a bank official said the bank was interested in working with the city and the developers to formulate an irrevocable letter of credit in which the bank would agree to make up any shortfall in the ticket surcharges, parking revenues and other charges that developers expect will be enough to repay the bonds over 25 years.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas introduced a motion, which was co-signed by five other council members, to accept the developers’ promise of a guaranty and to instruct city officials to wrap up negotiations with developers within two weeks. That motion is set to be taken up by the council Friday.

Ridley-Thomas is scheduled to appear at a news conference today with one of the owners of the arena company, Edward Roski, to promote the idea of the National Football League returning to the little-used Coliseum in his district.