By DAVE COLLINS
An Orange County developer and the owner of Lake Elsinore’s minor league baseball team hope to develop an area around the city’s baseball stadium with a hotel, restaurants and stores.
Huntington Beach-based Civic Partners and Gary Jacobs, owner of the Lake Elsinore Storm, are in advanced talks with city officials about the project.
Lake Elsinore has been working with Jacobs-Civic Partners Diamond Development since late last year and recently extended an exclusive negotiating pact with the partnership until March.
The goal: revive the area around Diamond Stadium, which is owned and run by the city.
City officials want to turn over stadium operations to the developer as part of the plan.
The developers and the city are looking to get more out of the area. The Storm, a California League affiliate of the San Diego Padres, plays there six months out of the year. Officials want off-season events to generate more revenue.
Lake Elsinore is at the other end of the Ortega (74) Highway from San Juan Capistrano, just passed the Cleveland National Forest in Riverside County.
Civic Partners works with governments on redevelopment projects. Backers of the Lake Elsinore project point to Civic Partners’ work in Vista in north San Diego County.
There, Civic Partners turned an old and “junky” downtown into a “destination place” with upscale restaurants and a 15-screen movie theater, according to Vista officials.
For full story, see Feb. 13 issue of the Business Journal.
