The city approved the development plan for the overall projectin June and selected REI Group as its preferred arena developerin July.The 60-day extension gives the two until the end of February toturn their Memorandum of Understanding into a binding developmentagreement.

The plan has been to have the arena up and running in 2010 justin case an NBA team wants to call it home for the 2010-11 season.For that to happen, site work would need to get under way sometimenext year. The overall project is slated to include three casinos;9,100 hotel, condominium and timeshare units; 785,000 sf of retail;four million sf of convention space; and 500,000 sf of officespace.

REI president John Weaver could not be reached for comment onthe negotiation, but has said in the past that without the arenathe overall project would fall apart. The city's businessdevelopment director Scott Adams tells GlobeSt.com that there is"positive progress" being made toward a signed developmentagreement.