American Sports Centers in Anaheim is closing
American Sports Centers, a 242,000 square-foot sports training facility, has closed.
www.ocregister.com
Not good news for the Radisson Blu
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
American Sports Centers in Anaheim is closing - OCR/SCNG
- Thread starter Darkbeer1
- Start date
www.ocregister.com
Not good news for the Radisson Blu
Jiggsawpuzzle35
Well-Known Member
That’s horrible news. It’s right nearby KHS Ice arena, so I’d drive by sometimes and see how packed it was. We need more sports facilities like this.
SevenSevens
Active Member
I suspect that once things look to be opening back up for the long term, a lot of these businesses will be re-opened under new ownership.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Not according to the owner. From the OC Register article.
"Matt Kanne, president and chief executive officer of American Sports Centers, said the organization’s lease of the building on Anaheim Boulevard will be terminated Wednesday, Aug. 26.
Kanne said the shutdown of indoor sports activities because of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure.
After a 2012 expansion, American Sports Centers featured a 242,000 square-foot facility with 34 volleyball courts that could be converted to 25 full-court basketball courts. The building included a store and a 10,000 square-foot restaurant.
Kanne said it is his understanding that the building will be leased to a non-sports firm."
It's reverting back to a warehouse. United Parcel has a big warehouse complex down the street, they might be expanding there.
This is a huge loss to the Anaheim Resort District business model of attracting lucrative youth sports tournaments and hundreds of teams from around the western states who paired the trip with Disneyland.
We've been saying this for months now, but the entire business model of the Anaheim Resort District is falling apart. No Disneyland, no Anaheim Convention Center, and now the major periphery businesses like this sprawling sports complex are also gone.
Last edited:
TP2000
Well-Known Member
No kidding! This bombshell news must have hit them like a ton of bricks today.
That brand new hotel makes a lot less sense without the American Sports Center in operation across the street.
Last edited:
TP2000
Well-Known Member
For those unfamiliar with this huge complex, American Sports Center was located just across the Santa Ana Freeway, a block north of Katella on Anaheim Blvd. The aerial photo below is a few years old, so doesn't show the new hotels and developments that exploded there in 2017-2019.
Anaheim Sports Center in red, plus the site for the brand new Radisson Blu in blue (blu?), with the Eastern Gateway shown in green plus two other brand new hotels next to it.
As the article said, it was the largest indoor youth sports center in America. It had space for 34 volleyball courts, or 25 full-court basketball courts. Plus physical therapy and support facilities, a sports store, and two restaurants. It was massive, and dwarfed similar facilities in other cities!
It was also announced last year that it would be the home of the USA Mens Olympic Volleyball Team, and was slated to host Olympic events as part of Anaheim's plan to host volleyball games for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Again, the sudden and complete closure of Anaheim Sports Center and being turned into warehouse facilities is a massive blow to the Anaheim Resort District's ability to lure visitors to the city. This one is gonna leave a mark, folks.
Anaheim Sports Center in red, plus the site for the brand new Radisson Blu in blue (blu?), with the Eastern Gateway shown in green plus two other brand new hotels next to it.
As the article said, it was the largest indoor youth sports center in America. It had space for 34 volleyball courts, or 25 full-court basketball courts. Plus physical therapy and support facilities, a sports store, and two restaurants. It was massive, and dwarfed similar facilities in other cities!
It was also announced last year that it would be the home of the USA Mens Olympic Volleyball Team, and was slated to host Olympic events as part of Anaheim's plan to host volleyball games for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
Again, the sudden and complete closure of Anaheim Sports Center and being turned into warehouse facilities is a massive blow to the Anaheim Resort District's ability to lure visitors to the city. This one is gonna leave a mark, folks.
Last edited:
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
What a disaster
TP2000
Well-Known Member
It really is.
I can also imagine how shocking and depressing this news must be as it rolls through the halls of Anaheim City Hall today. Particularly because this facility was to be used by the Mens Olympic Volleyball Team as their home base, and as part of Anaheim's approved plan to help host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Figments Friend
Well-Known Member
Wow....
Sorry to hear about this.
I am not a sports kind of gal, but i can see how this would be a major driver of business in the area.
Nothing sells hotel rooms or restaurant food in mass quantities like a visiting school team and their huge entourages.
Local businesses nearby must be hurting with this news today.
Man, 2020 is just a nuclear storm of a cluster fluff.....and it ain't over yet !
EEP....
-
Sorry to hear about this.
I am not a sports kind of gal, but i can see how this would be a major driver of business in the area.
Nothing sells hotel rooms or restaurant food in mass quantities like a visiting school team and their huge entourages.
Local businesses nearby must be hurting with this news today.
Man, 2020 is just a nuclear storm of a cluster fluff.....and it ain't over yet !
EEP....
-
TP2000
Well-Known Member
That entire area was set up decades ago as light industrial and warehousing, and still is for the most part. United Parcel has a large complex there, there are still some small aerospace firms doing light industrial and metallurgy in that same neighborhood. Etc., etc.
About five miles to the northwest, the Anaheim Canyon corridor linking Anaheim Hills is also zoned for light industrial, although it's all been slowly leaving California for the past decade for more business friendly states. There's light industrial and office parks as far as the eye can see in north Anaheim.
What is your economic vision for the warehouse district of central Anaheim? More warehousing? Or are you going to try and woo Boeing's old Anaheim plant back from Alabama and raise Fisker Motors from the dead with another government bailout? Fisker got over 500 Million in bailout money from the Feds in 2009, and they still collapsed a few years later.
Here's that warehouse/light industrial area of central Anaheim, circled in blue. I shaded the American Sports Center in red at the lower left corner of that area. It's a massive warehouse/industrial zone, although the industry there has been draining away for over a decade to Texas and Nevada and Arizona and Utah, but the warehousing is still there thanks to United Parcel, FedEx and Amazon who all have facilities in that part of Anaheim.
It's handy to see how this area compares in size to the Resort District on the other side of the freeway. So what's your economic vision to replace the lost tax revenue from Disneyland and the largest Convention Center on the West Coast?
Last edited:
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
No way they're going to bring any other business to the area. It's too expensive.
El Stupido
El Stupido
DrAlice
Well-Known Member
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Disney?
Maybe? They could use it as a warehouse for something I guess? Although I don't know why.
I'd bet two churros on United Parcel, FedEx or Amazon expanding their nearby presence into that huge building. It's two blocks from a Santa Ana Freeway onramp, and it has a spur rail line that connects directly to the Santa Fe mainline to LA and San Diego a half mile to the east. Amazon would jump at that.
bestcoastracer
Member
That entire area was set up decades ago as light industrial and warehousing, and still is for the most part. United Parcel has a large complex there, there are still some small aerospace firms doing light industrial and metallurgy in that same neighborhood. Etc., etc.
About five miles to the northwest, the Anaheim Canyon corridor linking Anaheim Hills is also zoned for light industrial, although it's all been slowly leaving California for the past decade for more business friendly states. There's light industrial and office parks as far as the eye can see in north Anaheim.
What is your economic vision for the warehouse district of central Anaheim? More warehousing? Or are you going to try and woo Boeing's old Anaheim plant back from Alabama and raise Fisker Motors from the dead with another government bailout? Fisker got over 500 Million in bailout money from the Feds in 2009, and they still collapsed a few years later.
Here's that warehouse/light industrial area of central Anaheim, circled in blue. I shaded the American Sports Center in red at the lower left corner of that area. It's a massive warehouse/industrial zone, although the industry there has been draining away for over a decade to Texas and Nevada and Arizona and Utah, but the warehousing is still there thanks to United Parcel, FedEx and Amazon who all have facilities in that part of Anaheim.
It's handy to see how this area compares in size to the Resort District on the other side of the freeway. So what's your economic vision to replace the lost tax revenue from Disneyland and the largest Convention Center on the West Coast?
View attachment 493250
Pretty sure he's talking about the hotel you mentioned above, not the industrial area or sports park.
socalifornian
Well-Known Member
Vans started at the northern edge of Anaheim’s industrial area. They have a line called Anaheim Factory that uses thicker canvas like the old days. Their shoes are made nowhere near Anaheim now but HQ isn’t far in Costa Mesa
truecoat
Well-Known Member
No kidding! This bombshell news must have hit them like a ton of bricks today.
That brand new hotel makes a lot less sense without the American Sports Center in operation across the street.
So, is it too late to stop construction?
Cultivation Kitchen, in front of the Anaheim Packing District, has closed
Cultivation Kitchen was the brainchild of Dale LaFlam, a first-time restaurateur who worked for Quiksilver, then left the apparel industry to kick-start this passion project which opened in April.
www.ocregister.com
The building is done, the signs are up. All that needs to be done is the interior and landscaping, and they are not rushing that.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Oh? In the words of Emily Litella... Never mind.
I was on the phone this morning with one of my real estate friends up in OC. All I had to do was text him Whats up with the Sports Center closing? and I got an immediate phone call and an earful. In his words, with a couple of expletives deleted, this news has landed in Anaheim "like a ton of bricks!". It's as devastating as we'd suspected, perhaps more.
He brought up the Radisson Blu before I could, and a couple other developments, because the American Sports Center and its established nearly two decade long ability to pull in a very lucrative market not dependent on the traditional theme park or convention calendar was a major part of the business plans submitted by developers for financing of the Radisson Blu and Cambria. I hadn't even thought of that financing element and the business plans the banks would have approved based on the Sports Center bringing in big business. They have a second facility similar to the Anaheim one out in suburban Phoenix, and the company is abandoning California and focusing on keeping afloat in Arizona instead.
My friend could not tell me who the new tenant will be, but he did say that in 2019 the warehousing vacancy rate in Anaheim was less than 2%, and it has gotten even tighter as Covid brought on a boom in online retailing and the need for warehouse space. Warehouse space is at a premium right now, and it's the only bright spot in OC commercial real estate as many Class A office parks empty out while more companies embrace working from home permanently. Anaheim is heavy on warehouse and light industrial space, which is good, because the once-enviable Irvine Spectrum and Newport Center areas with their swanky and expensive office towers are being decimated right now and probably will never come back.
In short... expect this to be a warehouse. And expect financing for any future development in the Resort District to be that much harder to find.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Cultivation Kitchen, in front of the Anaheim Packing District, has closed
Cultivation Kitchen was the brainchild of Dale LaFlam, a first-time restaurateur who worked for Quiksilver, then left the apparel industry to kick-start this passion project which opened in April.
Now that American Sports Center is dead and buried as of yesterday at close of business, might as well mention this.
It's another hit to have this key Packing District building empty once restaurants can reopen in OC later this year.
And I'm reminded that there are hundreds of empty apartments a block away in downtown Anaheim that had been full of Disneyland College Program kids for the past decade. That program and its fully leased apartment blocks with 4 employed college kids (Read: $$$) in each 2 bedroom unit won't be returning anytime soon.