Councilmember Lisa McDonald keeps trying to position herself as a fiscal conservative on the city council in her run for Mayor. Though she is correct in her recent commentary that if the city had allowed the 900 block of Nicolllet Mall to be "left to existing uses and private development, property taxes generated by those uses would have gone to the city for development or other uses" one might wonder what other uses or developments Ms McDonald would consider suitable. Two projects Ms McDonald supported in the past few years were also the subject of former Minneapolis Finance Director John Moir quote that they would consume " a lot of scarce public resources for dubious outcomes", those being the Mann/Pantages and Schubert Theatre projects. Moir and Steve Cramer objected to the exclusive rights given to Historic Theatre Group to redevelop the Mann/Pantages. They felt the city would be better served by competitive bids on the work. According to the StarTribune Cm Niland felt there was no guarantee a better proposal would come about by bidding out the project and that a search would cost valuable time. Cm McDonald voted with Cm Niland. The final result was that the city refinanced its existing theatre bonds covering the State and Orpheum, adding $24 million in debt and extending bond payments for another seven years. To this date I've not seen a bit of activity to redo the Mann/Pantages so that sorta blows CM Niland's theory about bidding out the project costing the city valuable time. In the case of the Schubert Theatre John Moir feared the capitulation of Artspace, the eventual owner and redeveloper of the theatre. He referred to Artspace's financial projections as "wildly optimistic" and said the project was "not viable." He continued; "Demolishing the Schubert after spending $4.7 million to move it would probably make the demolition the most expensive such event per square foot in the history of Western Civilization." Apparently this was befor the Conservatory came tumbling down like a house of heavy cards. CM McDonald to her credit inserted an amendment into the action that authorized the move and sale of the Schubert that would insulate the city treasury before voting for the project. Unfortunately reality will probably mirror the Target project should Artspace fail to come up with the money to renovate the Schubert. It is unlikely a private investor will pony up the bucks to finish the project and the city will be stuck with an empty hulking presence on Hennepin in the midst of its vaunted "entertainment district." Who do you think will have to finish the job? Ms Mcdonald also voted in October 1996 to award exclusive development rights to Brookfield Development for Block E for nine months over Loon State Ventures which effectively set the ball rolling to the denouement we saw last Spring when McCafferty In terests with Brookfield as junior partner inked a deal with the city that included $39 million in TIF funds. At the time that CM McDonald cast her vote for Brookfield and against Loon State Ventures which had estimated a TIF investment of $35 million for a much grander scale project, one that would have had a greater chance of competing successfully with Mall of America for entertainment dollars, Brookfield estimated the TIF investmest for their modest plan at $27 million. Loon State Ventures had asked for a six month period of exclusive development rights at the same time that Brookfield had asked for an eight month period and received nine months and subsequent extensions that brought the deal into the new millenium before it was finalized as a $39 million TIF investment or four million dollars more than Loon State had proposed for a three block project. CM McDonald made these comments at the time: The Loon design is wonderful but we're at a point where the rubber hits(?)the road...It's very important we have a project that is fnancially viable." She was concerned that providing TIF for Loon would be riskier than providing it for Brookfield. The Star Tribune wrote "CM Lisa McDonald also spoke in favor of Brookfield; she said the developer of such downtown projects as City Center and Gavidae Commons has a strong track record, financial stability, and credibility." What bothers me most of all about this information aside from the foolish expenditure of money and the likelihood that Block E will be butt ugly and that it may start a precedent of tall buildings sprouting up along 1st Avenue North, is that these posturings by CM McDonald seem to go unchallenged. I've read two people comment that Lisa has impeccable timing. Well, I hate to sound like Oliver Stone but I smell a rat. I do not believe it is mere coincidence that Lisa McDonald's op-end piece shows up in the same issue as Mike Meyers thorough analysis. The only fault I found in the reportage was the mere mention of R.T. Rybak that leaves us to accept the explanation of R.T. without confirmation by another source. Tim Connolly Ward 7 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! 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