Update 9:00pm | Provided below are statements from 6th District Councilmember Dee Andrews and 8th District Councilmember Rae Gabelich.

“I am a runner. When you are in a relay team, you run hard until you reach that last lap. The Kroc Center Red Team was created to sprint to the finish line. I would like the Salvation Army to come back to the relay team and lets go to the finish line together”, stated Councilman Dee Andrews.

“After working diligently to bring this project to fruition, I was surprised at today’s letter from the Western Territory Salvation Army’s Board of Directors.   However there is nothing stated in the letter that we cannot overcome. Just last month I, along with my colleagues, passed an agenda item creating the Kroc Center Red Team, to build a team to ensure this project’s completion. Utilizing this collaborative approach, I invite the Salvation Army to come back to the table and allow us to resolve these issues”, stated Councilwoman Rae Gabelich. 

Update 6:45pm | Provided below is the letter that the Salvation Army provided to City Hall this morning.

Update 5:45pm | The City of Long Beach has released a statement that includes comments from Mayor Bob Foster, which is provided in full below.

The City is deeply disappointed by the action taken by the Salvation Army Board of Directors. We are surprised the Army decided to abandon the Kroc Center Project; this is the first we heard that the project is in jeopardy.  None of the issues raised are insurmountable, and there are solutions available to resolve all the outstanding issues.  The City will not give up on this project and will pursue discussions at the highest level within the Army.

“We are all stunned by this announcement. It is very frustrating that the issues enunciated in the termination letter are technical in nature and do not rise to a level that would merit this dramatic of an action,” Mayor Bob Foster said. “Perhaps most perplexing, is that many of these issues are coming to the City’s attention for the first time through this letter, leaving years of progress, staff work, cooperative relationships and a considerable financial outlay from the Salvation Army in tatters.  After all the time, effort and energy that went in to this, professionalism would warrant a high-level conversation in an effort to remedy those concerns.”

Update 4:45pm | Today’s announcement caught several people involved in the Kroc Center project off-guard, even chairman of the project advisory board Dave Neary.  The organization called a meeting regarding the Kroc Center this morning, Neary says, and announced that “insurmountable legal issues” were forcing the Salvation Army to withdraw its support from the project. Neary could not expand on what those legal issues were.

Update 4:35pm | Apparently, the Salvation Army was enthusiastically on board with the Kroc Center project as recently as last week, when several dozen six-inch bobblehead “Kroc Center” crocodile dolls were sent to officials in City Hall. A source provides a photo of one, at right.

City Hall officials and employees were extremely surprised when they received letters from the Salvation Army this morning, explaining their decision. Long Beach City Manager Pat West reportedly took to the phones immediately and will release a statement shortly.

3:15pm | The Salvation Army is withdrawing its support from the proposed Kroc Center community facility that was planned to bring world class athletic and academic facilities to a central Long Beach neighborhood badly in need, essentially ending the four-year project entirely.

According to staging-live.lbpost.com sources, the board of directors for the Salvation Army’s Western Territory decided recently not to move forward with plans to continue fundraising and eventually build the Kroc Center. Letters have been delivered to involved parties within the City of Long Beach throughout the day.

The proposed Kroc Center was welcomed with open arms by an underserved central Long Beach community with few resources and sparse park space. It was to include state-of-the-art academic and athletic facilities, on land that is now dusty, rarely-used and graffiti infested fields known as the Hamilton Bowl (pictured right, photo by Shar Higa).

The facility aimed to provide a safe haven for students and athletes, in an otherwise challenged part of the city. The effect on young people was expected to be profound.

Last year, leaders of Long Beach’s educational system spoke out in support of the project and asked the community to provide their backing. The leaders of the Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach City College and California State University at Long Beach said they saw the Kroc Center as an opportunity to provide young students with the after-school attention they need and deserve.

A few months later, project leaders brought out NFL star Willie McGinest and rapper Snoop Dogg to voice their support for the project. Both are products of the surrounding area and said they would have loved to have had the facilities promised by the Kroc Center when they were growing up in Long Beach.

It became clear, though, that the Kroc Center was having difficulty acquiring the financial backing needed to move forward. Groundbreaking deadlines came and went and sources said that the facility needed to raise at least another $15 million. The Salvation Army contributed an estimated $24 million and the loss of their support likely means the end of the project.

And the dream.

The Long Beach City Council last week approved a proposal to create a “Red Team” of local leaders that would aggressively lobby and raise funds to bring the Kroc Center to fruition. It is unclear at the moment whether that project will continue.

More to come…