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via Wkyc:
The Cleveland Cavaliers have announced that they are withdrawing their participation for the proposed renovations to Quicken Loans Arena.
The $140 million dollar renovations were cancelled because of the referendum put forth by the Greater Cleveland Congregation, along with other groups. The groups have opposed the plan from the beginning, believing that the money should go into renovating inner-city neighborhoods. Earlier this month, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the City of Cleveland must accept and review more than 20,000 signatures proposing a referendum on Q renovations. More than 13,000 were deemed valid.
In a statement, the Cavaliers say the prospective referendum will cause the groundbreaking of The Q Transformation to miss the current construction cycle, which pushes the overall price tag of the project higher due to rising construction costs. In addition, a time sensitive financing package that included historically low interest rates would be negatively impacted by further delay due to a prospective referendum exposing the project to an expected higher interest rate environment.
