VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- It’s been one week since a deal to build a new 18,000 seat arena by the Oceanfront collapsed during the final hours.
The city of Virginia Beach gave developer Mid-Atlantic Arena LLC until midnight to finalize the deal.
The city says the developer did not meet all the requirements, but the developer is blaming the city.
Mayor Will Sessoms has acknowledged that the developer is now accusing the city of breaching the arena deal, which Sessoms says is not true.
“We had a deadline and we had to hold to the deadline,” said Sessoms. “We didn't have all the documents executed appropriately and also we could not get clarification on the total amount of equity.”
However, when you listened to the developer during the November 7 meeting, money was certainly not the problem. They thought it was a done deal.
"We have JP Morgan the United States largest bank that is ready, able and willing to close this evening with direction from the city, we are ready to spend over $250 million dollars in this city,” said Mid-Atlantic Arena President and CEO Andrea Kilmer.
Kilmer said the city had everything they needed to make the deal happen before the deadline.
"The documents have literally been delivered to the city and it's disappointing, that maybe a technicality, but we'll have to have the attorneys sort that out,” said Kilmer, following the meeting.
"There is absolutely no litigation at all as we speak I do not anticipate any litigation," said Sessoms.
The mayor still feels the city and the developer can work together to build the arena. Too much time and money has been spent to just give up.
“If they brought forward the agreement that was originally approved by the council two years ago, I’s dotted and T’s crossed, and brought it forward in a very short period I’d welcome to take it back to council to see if we couldn’t make it happen,” said Sessoms.