An L.A. resident is the newest owner of a pro sports team. But it isn’t Alan Casden, Eli Broad or Ed Roski, despite endless chatter about their interests in various franchises.

Instead, it’s Alex Meruelo, a low-profile pizza-chain owner and investor out of Downey, who surprised many last week when he was unmasked as the buyer of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team.

Indeed, after a series of high-profile deals culminating with last week’s blockbuster $300 million acquisition, Meruelo has vaulted into the ranks of L.A.’s elite dealmakers – overshadowing his own brother, Richard, a downtown L.A. developer.

Even in Downey, local leaders say, Meruelo is far from well known, but this year alone he has engineered the acquisitions of a hotel-casino, TV station and major food distributor.

“You look at his track record and there’s a lot to admire in it,” said Marc Ganis, president of sports business consulting firm SportsCorps in Chicago. “Look at all the different businesses and industries he’s gone into, and he’s been able to make a success out of most of them.”

Meruelo, who amassed his initial fortune through the La Pizza Loca restaurant chain, runs the Meruelo Group, a diversified investment firm. Its sizable portfolio includes Meruelo Construction, a group of companies providing construction services to a variety of industries; Fuji Foods Products, the nation’s largest manufacturer and distributor of ready-to-eat sushi; and Commercial Bank of California, a Costa Mesa-based lender. The firm also owns more than 25 mixed-use and retail properties, and 15 residential buildings.

More recently, the firm acquired Burbank-based Spanish-language TV station KWHY (Channel 22) in January; Reno, Nev.’s Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in February; and Sun Valley sushi maker Okami Inc. in May.

Meruelo said in an interview last week that the string of deals was coincidental and that each had been scouted for some time. In the case of the Hawks, the 48-year-old basketball fan said he had been looking to buy a team for years before it all came together. But it could be his last major pickup for a while.

“We’ve done enough acquisitions and so I’m going to take a pause,” he said.

Gary Toebben, chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said Meruelo’s star is about to shine brightly thanks to the Hawks deal. Toebben, a leader of L.A.’s business community, said he had not even realized that Richard Meruelo had a successful brother until a few months ago.

“Clearly he’s going to have a much higher profile in the future than he’s had in the past,” he said. “The fact that he’s purchased the Atlanta Hawks – that’s a significant purchase.”

Growing empire

The son of Cuban immigrants, Alex Meruelo started La Pizza Loca in Huntington Park in 1986. Offering unusual toppings such as chorizo and jalapenos, he hoped to appeal to Southern California’s largely untapped but growing Latino market. An instant success, the chain topped $10 million in annual sales by the early 1990s.

As the chain grew, so did Meruelo’s ambitions. He launched unsuccessful bids for the BJ’s Pizza & Grill and El Pollo Loco chains later in the decade; he also invested in real estate properties, the specialty of his younger brother, Richard, and another brother, Homero.

Richard, who co-founded downtown L.A.’s Meruelo Maddux Properties Inc., and Homero, a Miami-area developer, became well-known during the real estate boom, and the Meruelo name become known in many circles as a result.

Like many developers, however, the two brothers were hit hard by the collapse of the real estate market. Richard, once considered the largest landowner in downtown, was recently ousted from his company during bankruptcy proceedings, while Homero’s Merco Group has lost several properties through foreclosure.

Alex Meruelo, whose business interests are separate from his brothers’, bristled at the notion of competition between the siblings and called a comparison of their situations “completely irrelevant.”

“We’re very close and we’re very proud of one another’s accomplishments,” he said.

Still, the headline-grabbing purchase of the Hawks has instantly turned the spotlight on Meruelo, who admitted he is not entirely comfortable there.

“I’ve been able to live a very private life and I like it that way,” he said. “I’ve been trying to stay away from (the press) as much as I possibly can.”

Mario Guerra, a Downey city councilman and the city’s former mayor, has known the businessman for “six or seven years,” and noted that the investor has kept a very low profile.

“He’s been very private,” he said. “Most people here in Downey don’t even know their headquarters is here.”

Guerra, a Cuban immigrant, said that Meruelo is better known among local Cuban-Americans, and the councilman believes that the string of large deals could bring more recognition to the community.

“We Cuban-Americans have always been very proud of the work ethic we’ve brought with us,” Guerra said. “Downey is very proud of him and so is the Cuban community.”

Exclusive club

Through the Hawks deal, which is subject to approval by the National Basketball Association’s Board of Governors, Meruelo joins an exclusive club populated largely by billionaires such as Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen; Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban; and Beverly Hills private-equity titan Tom Gores, who agreed in April to purchase the Detroit Pistons. Meruelo is set to become the NBA’s first Latino owner.

The terms of the Hawks deal were not announced, but sports business consultant Ganis said the sale price was about $300 million, including “a significant amount of debt” Meruelo took on. The businessman gained an 80 percent ownership stake in the team and its arena.

The deal price was in line with other recent NBA team sales, Ganis said, but the Atlanta market can be a risky one for those invested in sports franchises.

“The Atlanta market has historically underperformed in sports,” he said. “It’s a reasonable headline price, but if he is not able to turn the fortunes of the franchise around … then Alex is going to be funding this out of pocket for a long time.”

Meruelo has already begun trying to ingratiate himself with Atlanta’s fans, holding a press conference where he pledged to “work my tail off” to win over fans.

He told the Business Journal that he plans to purchase a home in Atlanta, and with a lifelong interest in basketball, he expects to be “a very much involved fan” of the Hawks in addition to the owner.

“It’s (been a dream) of mine since I was a little boy,” he said.