As the Hornets petition the NBA to move to New Orleans, Daniel Levine is petitioning Charlotte to build the team's new home in First Ward, on or near his 17 acres.

It's an optimistic notion, with the Hornets looking south and Charlotte officials looking favorably upon a Third Ward arena site, should the team stay.

But Levine is confident the case for a new Hive in his end of uptown, the North Tryon Cultural District, will be hard to ignore.

It's at least interesting to imagine: an arena painted Hornets purple and teal moving into the neighborhood now defined by the Museum of the New South, the main branch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library and the Tryon Center for Visual Arts.

Levine argues that an arena fits.

City leaders have affirmed that a new arena shouldn't stand alone in a sea of parking lots, he points out.

They want it to blend into a cityscape of stores, apartments and park land - just what the county, city and Levine have envisioned for the parcels they own in First Ward.

"They want a sports and entertainment complex. Where's the entertainment portion in Third Ward? It's already there in First Ward," said Levine, president of Levine Properties.

The Third Ward site, widely considered the frontrunner, lies along Graham and Mint streets. It's approximately where the city had envisioned the arena that Charlotte voters rejected June 5. Most of the land there is owned by Mecklenburg County.

City Manager Pam Syfert is considering that parcel, the First Ward property and two others as she studies a new arena-building plan backed by Charlotte business leaders.

The business community has given the city until Feb. 11 to decide on a site. Syfert said she will pick two by Feb. 4 for the City Council to chose between.

First Ward is favored to make the cut.

"The site does have some potential," county commissioners Chairman Parks Helms said of the First Ward location. Helms has also expressed willingness to help work out an arena deal in Third Ward.

Third Ward is where the architects of the city's latest uptown master plan placed an arena. City officials are reportedly worried the First Ward site lies too close to Interstate277.

Levine said proximity to I-277, with tens of thousands of cars passing by each day, could help market the naming rights on an arena.

"And the site is already owned by the city and the county. It just makes damned good sense," he said.

It also makes sense for Levine to try to jumpstart development on or near his land.

The city-county plan for a $420million First Ward "urban village" has faced an uncertain future since the economy faltered.

Charlotte and Mecklenburg officials picked The Palladium Co. of New York to realize the project, to be on county- and city-owned land adjacent to Levine's. But Palladium has the next few months to test the market, and could conclude that the plan can't work in this sagging economy.

An arena, Levine has concluded, can be the catalyst that ensures ground breaks in First Ward.

"And if it falls on our property, so be it," he said.