By Scott Shumaker | East Valley Tribune
The organization that built the $280 million, 320-acre youth and amateur sports complex known as Bell Bank Park in southeast Mesa is in default of its loan that covered the project.
A formal notice issued Oct. 18 by bond trustee OMB Bank to investors states that Legacy has missed monthly payments on interest and principal, failed to submit audits and financial statements, and has unpaid construction company liens on the property.
Over the summer, at least 10 subcontractors that worked on the project filed liens totaling millions of dollars against the property owner for non-payment for services, according to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.
Legacy Cares doesn’t own the land, but leases it from Pacific Proving LLC, a joint venture between William Levine and Arturo Moreno, owner of the Los Angeles Angels MLB baseball team.
Levine and Moreno were partners in the billboard company Outdoor Systems, which they sold to Infinity Broadcasting for $8.7 billion in 1999. Pacific Proving purchased 1,800 acres of the General Motors testing facility, which has provided land for Mesa’s tremendous expansion in the southeast.
