Manchester Asks for Arbitration

SAN DIEGO-Officials at locally based developer Manchester Resorts have requested arbitration with the San Diego Unified Port District, hoping to speed its development of a bayside resort on the closed Campbell Industries Shipyard.Manchester Resorts has proposed a 1,200-room hotel on the Port District-controlled site, just east of the San Diego Convention Center. The city itself is depending on tax revenue from the hotel to help fund the construction of a new stadium for baseball’s San Diego Padres.Arbitration is needed, a spokesman for Manchester Resorts says, because a competing developer claims to already have the Port District’s approval to build a project of its own on the site. If the development-rights issue isn’t cleared up quickly, Manchester Resorts says it won’t be able to meet the city’s deadline to have its hotel built by the start of 2004.