Scottsdale shifts to save auto auction

Craig Jackson says he’s given up on negotiations with Scottsdale on a long-term deal to keep the lucrative Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction at WestWorld.

In response, City Manager Jan Dolan called Jackson late Thursday to apologize for any misunderstandings during the negotiations and to coax him back to the table.

She told the Tribune a deal is still possible that includes some combination of city land for the growing Barrett-Jackson auction to expand and for the construction of a new events center.

“There is a way to make this work for both parties,” she said. “Both parties have got to just keep working and hammer it out.”

It’s estimated the annual Collector Car Auction brings about $100 million yearly to the local economy.

“I’m tired of fighting,” Jackson said Thursday. “I’m not negotiating. I’ve already checked out. I’m moving down the road.”

He still retains the right to renew on an annual basis his contract to hold the auction at WestWorld, a city-run 120-acre facility at 16601 N. Pima Road. But talks on a 20-year deal to keep the auction there are dead, he said.

Jackson said he’s had meetings with Las Vegas officials about launching a new auction there, which would overshadow a scaled-back event in Scottsdale.

“They approached me. I didn’t approach them,” he said. “It’s the right demographics for Vegas.”

The Collector Car Auction has been called the “Super Bowl” of auto auctions, and wall-to-wall coverage of the event is featured on cable television. This year, the auction attracted more than 250,000 people, many from out of state. The affluent among them may bid on extravagantly priced, rare vehicles. The tourists mean money flowing into local hotels, restaurants, retailers and entertainment venues.

Jackson said Scottsdale officials have set up a situation where the city won’t build a new $80 million event center at WestWorld to house the growing auction. And they won’t sell him up to seven acres of land at the facility adjacent to the eight acres he currently owns so he can build his own auction house. Jackson said he has been willing to spend $30 million to $60 million to build an auction house, since it now costs Barrett-Jackson about $3 million each year to set up and take down the Collector Car Auction.

“I get no building, nor will they sell me the land,” Jackson said. “Now we’re at a stalemate.”

Dolan said she was surprised by Jackson’s announcement that negotiations are at an end. City officials never indicated that the proposed event center at WestWorld was off the table, she said, even though the City Council voted Tuesday to strike funding for the building from next year’s proposed budget.

“It’s not funded in the coming year’s budget because of other priorities, but we are still looking at ways to finance it,” she said. “It’s a matter of when and how it’s financed.”

She said the city had offered Barrett-Jackson a 20-year lease on four acres on which to build his auction house, but that was only the city’s opening offer.

“We communicated that if that doesn’t work, we were open to other terms,” she said.

Rather, Dolan said she asked Jackson to determine how much additional land he would need, and then come back and talk about terms.

Jackson furthermore said he can’t commit millions of dollars to build a new auction house, headquarters and show room unless city officials set aside 77 acres of public land north of Bell Road near West-World for an additional 20,000 parking spots he expects to need in the future.

“We realized we weren’t going to be able to grow the Scottsdale event anymore or even sustain it as it is,” Jackson said.

Assistant city manager Roger Klingler said the city bought the land in 2005 from the state for about $47.2 million.

The city has offered to find the parking spots near West-World, but the land Jackson is asking for could eventually be sold, Dolan said. The land is zoned for residential use.

“We said we will guarantee these parking spots within a certain distance,” she said. “He said he would like it there and we’ve said, ‘What difference does it make?’”

It’s unclear if the negotiations will resume, Dolan said.

“That’s up to Craig Jackson,” she said. “If he wants these things at WestWorld, we’re going to have to work out these details.”

Jackson said that in hindsight, he should have moved the auction to Glendale in 2005 when he had the chance, but he considers Scottsdale his home.

“That was a mistake on my part,” he said. “I let emotions rather than pure business guide that.”