Dive Brief:
- A San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled that there is no need for additional environmental reviews for the new $1 billion Golden State Warriors arena in the city's Mission Bay district, leaving only one legal challenge left to overcome before construction can begin, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
- The Mission Bay Alliance, which filed the failed lawsuit demanding additional studies, said the arena site would cause traffic congestion and unacceptable noise in its location next to the University of California, San Francisco women’s, children’s and cancer hospitals. The Alliance has five days to appeal.
- The second Alliance lawsuit, filed in nearby Alameda County, claims that the deal between UCSF and the Warriors to implement a $10 million traffic control plan should not have been made without UC regents' approval and is, therefore, invalid.
Dive Insight:
City officials told the Chronicle that the project has been legally vetted and that the final challenge over the traffic-control agreement should be resolved in time to meet the owners' new deadline of a 2019 NBA season opening.
The Alliance is made up of UCSF faculty, medical staff and families of patients who contend that the 18,000-seat arena is not the right fit for the area, which is dominated by medical and health facilities. Team officials have said that the Alliance knows it can't win on legal grounds and is simply trying to run out the clock by filing lawsuits.
The planned Warriors complex consists of two office towers and a retail-lined plaza featuring shops and restaurants. Team officials have already selected the joint venture of Clark Construction and Mortenson Construction to build the arena, and both companies bring sports venue expertise to the project. Mortenson recently completed construction – six weeks early – on the Minnesota Vikings new $1.1 billion U.S. Bank stadium in Minneapolis. That facility officially opens to the public this week.
