Since 1988, the MCDA has owned the land underneath Riverside Plaza - approximately 391,129 square feet.
I happen to own most of the land surrounding Riverside Plaza, and have in my possession 2 appraisals (one is from the MCDA's own appraiser) which value my land at $20 per foot in the year 2000. This value of course is before the light rail station goes in across the street. At $20 per square foot (confirmed by Mr. Minn in the Southwest Journal article) the City would receive $7.82 million CASH by selling the land. At $25 per square foot, the City would receive $9.775 million. The Riverside Plaza partners (George Sherman, Dick Brustad, Fannie Mae, Wells Fargo, as of my last check) were supposed to pay the City land rent of approximately $144,000 per year, which of course they didn't. So 15 years of delinquent land rent comes to another $2.2 million. It should be noted that, in 1998, the MCDA tried to pull a fast one on the City Council (CM Lisa Goodman remembers this too.) Staffers Cynthia Lee and Michael Schwab tried to sell the land to Sherman for $6 per foot AND write off all of the delinquent land rent - WITHOUT DISCLOSING THAT PART TO THE COUNCIL!!!!!!!! The land sale was stopped at that time, six months later Michael Schwab told the CMs that "it never happened." I was at both of the MCDA operating committee meetings - and still have the printed agendas and minutes. Does anyone else see what's been going on here? Does anybody care? Vicky Heller Cedar-Riverside and North Oaks TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
