Roski is an avid cyclist and mountain climber and has climbed to base camp at Mt.
With a mix of dread and envy, one developer admitted he was afraid to talk about Roski.
Roski also has good working relationships with Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and annuity billionaire Eli Broad.
The town has had a long tradition of manipulating the rules to benefit insiders, most notably Roski.
"Roski's a powerful guy, and I'm not talking to you, "squeaked one competing developer before slamming down the phone.
The cultural opposite of the colorful rogues behind Industry, the formally dressed Roski comes across as urbane and mannered.
Roski proposed turning 110 acres of the land into a shopping center.
But Roski wanted more concessions than the city was willing to hand over, leading to local attempts to try to kill the development.
As part of that agreement, the city said it would build a base for a second hotel tower should Roski wish to expand.
Inheriting his father's successful Los Angeles commercial brokerage, Roski migrated into industrial building after serving a four-year stint in the Marine Corps in Vietnam.
Now that said, and without going into rigorous detail, it appears that both the Roski and AEG bids aim to minimize the public dollars at play.
FORBES: Downtown LA Tops City of Industry as Ideal Site for New Football Stadium
As one of the first industrial developers in the city, Roski became chummy with the ranchers who had dreamed up the place, including founding father James Stafford.
But Ed Roski is unique in that he has so masterfully exploited the special circumstances of 15-square-mile Industry to earn his place among the nation's richest men.
Unless pontificating on such beloved topics as Africa or obscure lease details, Roski often speaks in a monotone that can put even the most patient listener to sleep.
What others call an insider deal, Roski calls smart business.
And though Roski was investigated by the FBI for his role on the board of the local bank that was accused of laundering the money, he was never charged.
But perhaps a little more than coincidentally, Roski was pursuing a second case against the city at the same time over a hotel he had built next to Industry's convention center.
The brawl finally landed in July on the desk of California Governor Gray Davis, who signed a bill whose sole intent is to let Roski develop the land irrespective of Redlands' opinion.
The only stipulation is that the city will split any net revenue with Roski, but the lease definition of net revenue is creative enough that the city may never see a dime.
Ed Roski, a Los Angeles real estate magnate and onetime member of the Forbes 400, would like an NFL team in LA, specifically one built on his property in the city.
Roski recently got back not just the Sheraton-franchised hotel but the entire convention area, which includes 2 golf courses, 17 tennis courts and an Olympic-size pool complete with several levels of diving boards.
This is the baronial headquarters of the aptly named Majestic Realty, a real estate developer owned by two-year Forbes 400 member Edward Roski Jr. that lords over a 38 million-square-foot empire in nine states.
One of the largest privately-owned real estate companies, Majestic was founded by Roski's late father in 1948 and today maintains over 70 million square feet of industrial and commercial real estate from Los Angeles to Atlanta.
In his rustic home tucked between orange and avocado groves, Cunningham wearily recalls wrangling with Roski over an odd 1, 200-acre piece of unincorporated land known as the "donut hole" because it is surrounded on all sides by Redlands.
Roski helped build Staples Center in Los Angeles with fellow billionaire Philip Anschutz, but is currently engaged in a tussle with his former business partner over where the city will build a new football stadium to lure an NFL team.
Sounding as if he were shocked, shocked, that there were insider dealings going on, Roski filed a lawsuit in 1991 accusing the City Council of buying land and then renting it to the mayor at a low-ball fee for his farming and cattle business.
So tight is his relationship with Industry that when he proposed developing the remaining empty parcel of 425 prime acres in the summer of 1999, the city quietly and without seeking competing bids ditched plans to sell off the area piece by piece and gave the land to Roski's Majestic, gratis.
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