Deal for housing project near Disneyland goes off track - LA Times, 10/30/07

[Darkbeer]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...la-home-center

A proposed housing project near Disneyland that has fueled a rancorous debate over the future of Anaheim's resort district and the city's relationship with the entertainment giant may be dead.

Details of the deal's possible collapse are contained in a lawsuit that project developer SunCal Cos. filed last week against the owners of the 26-acre parcel where 1,500 condominiums and low-cost apartments were to be built.

SunCal says the Frank Family Partnership reneged on the $46-million deal to sell the land. SunCal is asking that the contract be enforced, along with $60 million in damages. The land is currently occupied by a mobile home park.

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, alleges that the Frank Family Partnership conspired with unnamed third parties to kill the agreement.

[TP2000]

The next laughable chapter from SunCal. These SunCal guys really know how to step in it good, don't they?

The information from the property owners about all of the extensions and extra courtesies they've extended to SunCal, without any reaction on SunCal's part to actually purchase the land, is fascinating. SunCal just got caught lying and misrepresenting the truth it looks like.

Let me guess what comes next....

SunCal takes their ball and goes home and abandons plans to build 1,500 shoebox condos in the Resort District. And in their final statement before they disappear forever, they ramble on about how the "business climate" in Anaheim is "unwelcoming" to new industry or business. And in that same farewell statement, I also predict SunCal will use the words "unhealthy" and/or "toxic" when describing the "atmosphere" that "Disney Corporation caused". They might even throw in that recently used argument about wanting to do the right thing for American democracy. (It works better if you play Battle Hymn Of The Republic while you read the SunCal press release.)

Or maybe SunCal just packs up and goes back to Irvine to wait for the next over-extended housing bubble that should come along around 2020 to 2025.

Either way, SunCal is clearly trying to find an exit strategy. It sounds like SunCal was testing the waters on blaming the property owners, but the immediate response from the lawyer about all of the extensions and bonus rounds they gave SunCal pretty much shoots that tactic in the foot.