Anaheim : Mayor Tries to Resolve Debt Service Question

Mayor Ben Bay, hoping to avert a protracted legal battle, said Thursday that he had a “friendly telephone conversation” with the president of a hotel partnership that city officials have accused of failing to make multimillion-dollar debt service payments on a parking structure.

Anaheim is “most interested and anxious to resolve existing problems” with the Anaheim Hotel Partnership, a firm that in 1984 bought and completed the building that houses the Anaheim Hilton and Towers, Bay said.

City officials contend that the partnership is legally bound to pay about $6 million a year over the next 27 years toward the debt service incurred in construction of the 3,200-space garage. But Stanley R. Castleton, president of the firm that owns the hotel, said the firm agreed to pay only $9 million of the debt.

In a statement released by a spokesman, Bay said: “The city has never demanded more of AHP than it meet its obligations under the agreements with the city.” The mayor added that he urged Castleton to continue settlement discussions with city negotiators.