Anaheim arts boosters say they haven’t given up on building a $700 million performing arts complex where the City National Grove now stands, but the city’s decision to sell the property as a part of the Angel Stadium deal appears to complicate their path forward.

Art collector and philanthropist Howard Knohl, a retired doctor, has been planning for years to create a haven for the arts in Anaheim. In recent years, he hired an architect to draw up and then revise plans for a nearly 12-acre, multi-building campus that would include three theaters, a museum to display his art treasures, offices and space for events and education.

Just days before the Anaheim City Council met on Dec. 20 to consider selling the 153 acres surrounding Angel Stadium, Knohl’s Anaheim Performing Arts Center Foundation offered to buy the 12-acre Grove portion for $26 million, or $2.2 million per acre. SRB Management Co., Angels owner Arte Moreno’s new partnership, had offered $2.1 million an acre for the bigger property including the stadium.

At the Dec. 20 meeting, more than a dozen supporters of the arts center project urged the council to take their offer seriously and to consider how it would benefit the community. The council ultimately voted to go ahead with the sale to Moreno’s partnership, which has not made public any plans for the Grove.

Knohl said he doesn’t consider the council’s decision final and added that he is considering options to move the project forward, but he declined to elaborate. He also seemed open to talking with Angels officials, who will control the stadium property when the sale closes.

“We have not been rejected by the Angels,” Knohl said – and he believes the performing arts complex would complement their plans to develop a sports/entertainment district around the stadium.

Anaheim Councilwoman Lucille Kring, who has backed a local performing arts center concept for more than a decade, said the city has tried to help as best it could, but Knohl’s plans have grown significantly – and perhaps outgrew supporters’ ability to finance them.

Back in 2013, city officials were looking for a spot near the Civic Center for a 1,200-seat theater to house several arts groups. Two years later, the council supported Knohl’s new proposal to expand the existing Grove theater. A few years after that, the plan shifted to using the Grove site for a campus featuring an impressive tower and several other buildings set among trees and terraced landscaping – with a $700 million price tag.

“I believe their dream is phenomenal and I believe their dream probably has some merit, but I don’t see a funding source,” Kring said.

The council had in 2016 granted the foundation the right to negotiate a lease for the Grove property, but the city terminated the agreement in 2018 after the foundation failed to show it had met a $20 million fundraising milestone, city spokesman Mike Lyster said.

Knohl said he had pledges from donors for the money, but was not able to get firmer commitments without a more concrete agreement with the city.

A study Knohl commissioned concluded the performing arts campus could generate at least 1,500 full-time jobs, attract an audience of 2.2 million people annually and drive several hundred million dollars in spending to the local economy.

Now that the city is committed to the stadium sale, Knohl may have to court private-sector property owners. Councilman Stephen Faessel, whose district includes the stadium land, said he sees potential that “there might be something possible in the Ducks (Honda Center) project or maybe the Angels project,” but maybe not at the size and scope of Knohl’s current plans.

As for the Angels, team spokeswoman Marie Garvey said they’ve met with performing arts supporters before, and “we have always been willing to talk.”