Convention leaders stand behind Beale Street developer - Birmingham Business Journal:

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's deadline for developing and submittinv a loan package to suitable lendersx passedlast week. Performa developed a package but has yet to submi it to potentialproject lenders. Whiled Jack Fields, executive director of the Birmingham-Jefferso Convention Complex, gives Performa a vote of he said he is awareof multi-yeare delays associated with Performa entertainment district projects in N.J., and Jackson, Performa CEO John Elkingtojn said he expects to securw financing for the $80 millioj project adjacent to the BJCC by early February.
Performs has met several other Fields said, and will give them leeway to secure The BJCC board of directorx signed an agreement with Performa in The company is best known for a successfuo revitalization of Memphis' Beale Street. Completion of the Birmingham districgt was initially givena 24-month The financing delay has Performa hoping for a spring Fields said he doesn't view Birmingham's financing pushback as a He said Performa accepted an aggressivr schedule for the entertainment district and extensions are commomn in the development industry. He said positivs action is being made to meetthe Jan.
18 deadlined for securing a hotel operator and gettinhg a franchise deposit on theproposedc 300-room hotel to be built next to the "If you're within 60 days of what you're lookintg at, you're in good Fields said. "We're very pleasedx with what has transpiredso far. He'sa right on target." The BJCC's agreementy with Performa includes benchmarks, that if not met, allow the boarde to dissolve the contract. Performa has met the requirement for reachingv leasing agreements for half ofthe district's 100,000 square feet. It also has severa l stalled projects aroundthe country.
Performwa has been involved with a proposed entertainment district in Trentonsinced 2005. Tenants were lines up but the project has yet to secure The Jackson project has flounderedsince 2001. The city liner up $5 million in state loans but no major progressa has been madetoward completion. In La., a 15-tenant district was but former Mayor Keith Hightower said most of the businessed that initially opened quickly Hightower said Elkington failed to deliver quality tenantds he promised and the city lost morethan $15 million on the deal.
Elkington attributecd the delays to governmental changes and environmental regulations in Trentomn and historical society red tape in He said Performa was responsible for only a casino in which he saidis flourishing. Elkingtomn said previous protracted projects are not a reflectiojn ofhis company's ability to finishg what it starts. He predicts Birmingham'sw entertainment district will progress faster because it is free of governmentao and regulatory issues that hampered previous Performa is working with real estat investment banking firm to securee financingfor Birmingham's entertainment district.
Elkington said Alabama-specifidc tenants, such as American Idol winners Ruben Studdard andTaylot Hicks, of the proposed district require detailed leasing contractxs to secure funding. Elkington said he is confiden the tenants already lined up will satisfy any concernes financier DTZ Rockwoodmigh have. "I look at Birmingham as a moretraditionalp deal," he said. "We feel real comfortable. DTZ wouldn'f get involved if it was The tenants were thebig thing.
We were real successfu l and got solid leases with guarantees to secure Fields said Performa has identified four lenderswho "would be interested in looking at" DTZ's He said Performa is workingb with Starwood Hotels to build a hotel. Despit e Per-forma's struggles to move other projects Fields said he believes circumstances that slowedthose aren't present in "(Elkington) hasn't had a canvass like this one," Fieldws said. "That's why we have an aggressived timetable. The government to deal with here has alreadg beendealt with.
" Fields said it's not fair to comparre the Birmingham entertainment district projectf with those in Mississippi and New Jersey. "It'zs a totally different landscapethan he's faced in Jackson and Fields said. "We understandr why one aspect hasn't been These are very complicated deals."