Inglewood Business Magazine Jan 2017

IBM
Feature
Ground Breaking Ceremony continued...
“Honestly, I couldn’t believe this lot existed,” Kroenke told the
media before turning the soil. “I thought to myself, this shouldn’t
exist.’
The economically depressed region, abandoned by the Los Angeles
Lakers and Kings in 1999, has been on an upswing since Madison
Square Garden Co. purchased and renovated the aging Forum
music and entertainment venue across the street from Hollywood
Park, which closed its racetrack in December 2013. Since the
Forum reopened in 2014, it has become California’s most popular
music venue.
everybody said that was impossible. I got ridiculed.”
Two previous developers that had hoped to turn the former
Hollywood Park Racetrack into a mix of retail and housing failed
after the recession hit, Butts said.
“We had other developers that didn’t do their projects, thank
goodness,” he said. “Then, along comes Stan Kroenke. And we
had 22,000 Inglewood residents in less than three weeks sign an
initiative that describes this entire project. The council voted it into
law, and we’re off to the races.”
The resident-signed petition allowed development to begin without
a state-mandated environmental review of the site. Butts and others
argued that the review wasn’t needed because it had already been
done for a similar development proposals years before.
According to contractors, the stadium construction will provide
more than 3,500 on-site construction jobs in Inglewood and more
than 10,000 jobs by the time it is completed.
The increased traffic and anticipation of coming developments has
spurred a buzz around town as property values surge, said Mayor
Butts, who was repeatedly described Thursday as “tireless” advocate
for the development.
“We had already brought the Forum back even though people said
nobody will come to the Forum in Inglewood again,” Butts said.
“That was unlikely. But, when we started talking about the Rams
might come back to the region through Inglewood,
Inglewood Business Magazine January - March 2017
23