Jones Lang LaSalle

Devils agree on financing for Newark arena

The Devils agreed late this afternoon to provide the City of Newark with a letter of credit to finance their share of a downtown hockey arena by the end of the month, the two sides announced. The agreement between City Business Administrator Richard Monteilh and Devils principal owner Jeff Vanderbeek marked the end of three days of marathon negotations to decide whether an arena, on the drawing board for nearly a decade, would ever be built in Newark.

Seton Hall Law School Dean Patrick Hobbs, who was called in to help mediate the talks, said the agreement came when the Devils agreed to the city's main demand that a $100 million letter of credit, free from any conditions, become available shortly. Monteilh said the city would walk away from building an arena with the Devils if the issue was not resolved soon.

"The letter of credit will be posted," Vanderbeek said, "... by a world class bank."

After months of letting the Devils spend tens of millions of dollars in taxpayers' money to acquire and clear land for the $310 million arena, the city insisted no further work could be done until there was a clear understanding of when and how the Devils will come up with their $100 million contribution. Industry experts have said the last-minute bickering could have been avoided if the city had followed standard procedures that would have had all the money in place before any significant demolition or construction work began.