Glendale city manager to end tenure defined by sports

Glendale exec pushed entertainment-hub plan

by Cecilia Chan – Dec. 28, 2011 09:33 PM
The Arizona Republic
Glendale City Manager Ed Beasley’s rise came hand-in-hand with the city’s transformation from a bedroom community to a professional sports hub that will host its second Super Bowl.

Glendale rode high on its newly honed image until the recession called into question whether the city bankrolled an overly ambitious plan.

As the 53-year-old deal-maker retires in the coming year, Beasley’s tenure will largely be judged by the success of the projects he shaped and how well Glendale recovers from setbacks to those projects.

Beasley stands firm behind the city’s heavy investment in its sports and entertainment district, near the Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue.

“The city has assets now it didn’t have before,” said Beasley, who steadfastly maintains those assets will attract other investment and jobs.

“It’s a 30-year deal,” he said. “Judging them five years out, especially when the economy is bad, is not a fair judgment.”

Still, the City Council is in the political hot seat as an increasing number of residents question the sports-related debt.

A council majority continues to support Beasley, although some criticize the sports debt and the thus-far failed attempts to resolve the Phoenix Coyotes ownership saga.

Deal-making streak

The ambitious Beasley became Arizona’s first African-American, and youngest, city manager in 1988 when he took the helm in Eloy, a small city between Phoenix and Tucson.

Six years later, the Kansas City native became an assistant city manager in Glendale, where he made his reputation as a deal-maker, starting to lure what would become the city’s first professional sports team.

The council appointed Beasley to city manager in the midst of the deal to land the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team. Glendale spent $180 million to open the arena in 2003, the first visible step of the city’s metamorphosis into a sports and entertainment mecca.

Not long after the hockey deal, the city landed the University of Phoenix Stadium for the Arizona Cardinals and Fiesta Bowl.

Commercial development soon surrounded the publicly funded sports venues: the massive Cabela’s hunting store, Westgate City Center, a four-star hotel and office projects.

As the wins tilted the Valley’s development axis westward, Beasley responded to skeptics with quiet confidence.

“Every successful team needs a good point guard or quarterback … Ed has been that for the city of Glendale,” said Ray Artigue, a Valley sports marketing executive.

Longtime Glendale Planning Director Jon Froke described Beasley as “a visionary, a big-picture thinker.”

He said Beasley looked for development that would make the community more valuable and a better place to live.

And he pushed staff to make it happen.

“He raises people’s game to a higher level,” Froke said.

As Glendale snagged the vaunted 2008 Super Bowl, bringing the city to international attention, it turned its coup into its marketing mantra: Glendale’s Got Game.

In 2008, the city borrowed $200 million to build a spring-training facility for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox.

In the same year, as financial markets buckled, USA Basketball announced it would move its headquarters to Glendale.

Falling down

The recession ended some of the city’s projects and hurt nearly all of them. Professional hockey, which had propelled the city’s foray into sports, led what seemed a chain reaction of woes.

The Coyotes filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009. The team continues under ownership of the National Hockey League until a permanent buyer is secured.

Since then, the city has spent or promised a total of $50 million toward team and arena operating costs.

“While you are scrambling to get a deal with a new Coyotes buyer … please don’t give away millions of our tax dollars this time,” resident Ken Jones recently told the council, among a growing number of residents concerned about the debt.

USA Basketball last fall canceled its relocation plans after the city’s development partner failed to secure financing.

Westgate, the shopping and entertainment complex near the arena, is lender owned after its developer lost the property to foreclosure earlier this year.

Glendale’s spring-training project also faces difficulty as none of the expected private development to help the city pay for the ballpark has occurred. The city is paying a $200 million debt with borrowed reserves, which will run out in about three years.

The sputtering projects put pressure on the Glendale council and, therefore, Beasley, who admits the past three years have been trying.

Several council members praise Beasley as a tough negotiator with the city’s best interests in mind, while others find him difficult to work with.

A former Coyotes executive came to Beasley seeking concessions in the arena lease nearly a year before the owner ended up filing the team into bankruptcy. Beasley said the city was willing to help but first wanted to see how the management was handling its debt.

Since then, talks to secure the arena’s main tenant have consumed Beasley. Known for his reserve, Beasley became increasingly guarded. Rather than answer questions from the media, Beasley’s staff would frequently issue written statements.

After a deal with Matthew Hulsizer to purchase the Coyotes fell apart last summer, Mayor Elaine Scruggs criticized city administrators for not always providing council with updates, saying her efforts to get more details and to be more involved in guiding negotiations were rebuffed.

Beasley said Hulsizer’s deal wouldn’t work in today’s market or without going against a council directive that a deal not adversely impact city revenues.

Hulsizer would not comment on his dealings with Beasley.

Scruggs skirted questions about her working relationship with Beasley, saying only in an e-mail: “Ed and I are very aware of our many responsibilities and we both work for the best interests of Glendale.”

Councilman Phil Lieberman has been the most vocal council member to express concern about the city’s debt.

Glendale borrowed about $500 million for its sports district. The city will have spent close to $1 billion by the time it is repaid with interest over 30 years.

“He brought mammoth debt,” Lieberman said of Beasley.

However, the council voted in favor of the projects, often unanimously.

Most council members continue to support Beasley.

“He saw the big picture for what Glendale could be, and if it hadn’t been for the bad economic times there would even be more successes,” Councilwoman Yvonne Knaack said.

Despite the economy, Artigue doubted many would want to wipe the slate clean and take back the sports venues built in Glendale.

“We are still better off, in my view, for having that infrastructure and to build upon it as the economy turns around and the West Valley continues to grow,” Artigue said.

Moving on

Beasley has said his retirement will wait as he tries to complete some of the tasks remaining in the city, including a Coyotes ownership deal.

Upcoming budget talks will look at restructuring the spring-training debt, he said.

Beasley said he is “leaving the city in the best possible situation.”

After 27 years in city management, Beasley is ready for a break. At some point next year, he’ll leave the City Hall office decorated with framed awards, newspaper articles like a New York Times article on the University of Phoenix Stadium and a shovel from the stadium ground breaking.

The father of four, who has family photos lining the shelves above his desk, says it’s time to change focus.

Retirement doesn’t necessarily mean disappearing from view: Beasley hasn’t ruled out another position in the public or private sector.

“Just because I’m retiring from the city of Glendale doesn’t mean I’m retiring from life,” Beasley said.

Whether that means he will be involved in some way in the city’s second Super Bowl, slated for 2015, is unknown.

But someone else will be Glendale city manager.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/12/15/20111215glendale-city-manager-sports-tenure.html#ixzz1hyrLrGWO