Attorney leads pursuit in Escondido

Meetings with developers drawing Chargers' interest



Background: The San Diego Chargers have pushed for a new stadium since 2002, saying the higher revenues it would generate would make the team more competitive.

What's new: The Chargers say they want to stay in San Diego County, but Los Angeles-area developers will try to lure the team north in February.

What's next: Other developers approached by an Escondido land-use lawyer are exploring how they might privately finance a new stadium in Escondido.

The San Diego Chargers held training camp in Escondido from 1964 to 1968 at a Travelodge east of what is now Interstate 15.

So it's easy for local land-use attorney Dave Ferguson to imagine the team playing in a new stadium in the same general area.

“What this would be is the Chargers coming home,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who represents a nearby landowner, began informal talks with officials from Escondido and the Chargers several months ago about the prospect of moving the team to a site southeast of where state Route 78 meets Interstate 15.

In a sign of progress, Ferguson is setting up meetings with developers to ask them how they might privately finance a new stadium in Escondido via ancillary development, such as retail or office space.

The first meeting was Sept. 28. A meeting with another developer is planned for next week. These meetings involve Ferguson, Escondido Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler and Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani, the team's stadium-search point person.

The first developer might sketch out a plan to help offset the potential billion-dollar cost of stadium construction by month's end, but a specific proposal is at least six months away, Ferguson said.

“I'm convinced that there is a legitimate opportunity here,” Ferguson said. “I won't be optimistic until I see a balanced budget.”

Ferguson, Pfeiler and Fabiani declined to identify the developers being courted, but Ferguson called them “household names” and Pfeiler said each has “a good track record” and is “big enough to handle a good-sized project.”

Fabiani said the first developer understood “the daunting nature” of privately financing a billion-dollar deal in this economy.

“We're hoping that the opportunity is attractive enough that they'll at least put the challenges to the side,” Fabiani said.

Even if the project pencils out, its success hinges on a number of landowners in the area being willing to unload parcels at affordable prices. The project would require up to 60 acres. More than 40 acres might be assembled at market rates via 21 acres of city land, 9 acres where an Albertsons grocery store once operated, and the nearly 12-acre site of the Escondido Swap Meet, whose owners Ferguson represents — but those places aren't all contiguous.

Fabiani said this represents a major challenge. While the city could condemn land for public purposes such as parking and streets, the city's redevelopment agency lacks eminent domain power to acquire property for the project.

“Some people may not want to sell at all for their own reasons,” Fabiani said. “Some people may see this as an opportunity to inflate the price of their land. All it takes is one key holdout to stop the project.”


