FULLERTON : CSUF to Repay City for Sports Complex

The City Council and Cal State Fullerton this week agreed to have the university pay the city $7.4 million over 48 years to pay back what the school borrowed to build a sports complex.

Cal State Fullerton borrowed the money from the city over the past 10 years in order to finance the university’s recently completed sports complex. The complex includes baseball and football stadiums and several fields for soccer and softball.

Ten years ago, the city invested $10.2 million in the complex and loaned the university the $7.4 million to complete the project.

City officials had expected the university to repay the loan with money from a Cal State Fullerton fund-raiser, but it failed to produce the money expected. The fund-raising campaign, which concluded last year, raised about $1.36 million in two years, said Gary A. Chalupsky, executive director of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.

Now the city will collect its money through an agreement that allows the city to lease a piece of university-owned property, which currently is leased to a hotel, and collect all the lease revenue. Before this week, the city and the university split the hotel revenue profit in half.