EDA still waiting to hear about Maya Cinemas loan

Note: Updated below with follow-up quote from Colin Strange:

Colin Strange, a project manager for the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency, said Wednesday that the city may have to wait about 45 days to learn if the federal government will grant a loan to help fund a new downtown cinema.

The City Council voted earlier this month to support Los Angeles-based Maya Cinemas' request for a $9 million loan to help the firm finance renovations at the former CinemaStar site.

CinemaStar, which once showed movies at its downtown theater on Fourth Street, bailed out of the site in September. The EDA has revealed that CinemaStar was unable to pay its rent to the Agency, which owned the property.

Maya Cinemas is the EDA's choice to buy the theater, freshen it up and develop retail around the cinema. The project could be critical for the long-awaited renaissance of downtown.

The loan would be granted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against future disbursements of Community Development Block Grants.

If Maya Cinemas receives the loan and fails, the EDA would be responsible for repaying Uncle Sam. If the EDA cannot do so, the city would sacrifice future grant revenues.

Maya chief executive Moctesuma Esparza has said that the company cannot finance the project without government assistance during current economic conditions.

"Maya's not ready to put serious effort into the project until they know the funding has been approved," Strange said Wednesday.

Update:

Strange wrote me Thursday to say the following. He maintains that his:

I am writing to object at a misquotation made in my name in the above referenced article in which you wrote.

Unfortunately "Serious Effort" gives and entirely different and dramatic interpretation to your question to me which was why no work had yet commenced and my reply "although we were confident that the HUD loan would be approved Maya were waiting for official confirmation from HUD before commencing their work"

Creating a false impression can have unintended consequences and if you need to get information from me I need to have the confidence that the facts will be reported as they are given or I will be unable to converse with you in the future.