Cedar Square West was built thirty years ago - long before Minneapolis gave public money to real estate developers. The land assembly on the West Bank (350 separate parcels) was the largest PRIVATELY FINANCED acquisition in the history of the United States. Property rights meant something then - cities didn't use eminent domain to take property from one citizen and give it to another. Those were the days when real estate developers lost their own money - not taxpayers'.
Those are some heavily rose-colored glasses with which you are looking at history.
Until the tax code was greatly revised in the past few years, partnerships like yours which "lost money" were the favorite investment vehicle for wealthy people who wanted to reduce their taxes by having large "paper" (but not real) losses. Every dollar not paid in taxes by those people was taxpayer money lost. Despite our tax code being still full of all kinds of preferential loopholes for clever wealthy individuals and corporations, this particular one was so egregious that Congress finally did away with it.
I'm sure a little digging could find counter-examples to prove your statements about public money and eminent domain wrong, too.
I don't have a investigatory report full of facts at my fingertips, nor do I care enough to bother doing the extensive research necessary to back this up, but what I remember reading in numerous articles in the press the past 24 years, which would include dates up to 1982 is this: Cedar Sqaure West was full of questionable, deceptive, ethically and legally questionable manuevers from planning to building to selling to foreclosure. The muck from that mess splashed far and wide. From where I sit, it now appears your shoes are covered with it, Vicky.
Our partnership lost control of the property in 1982, and in 1986,[snip]
this. I married Keith in 1995 and he died in 1998. During the 70s,[snip]
So contrary to urban myth - our partnership lost millions of PRIVATE dollars in Minneapolis. Bad management? Maybe. For whatever reasons, it was a failure, and that means that our partnership must take responsibility for it.
Over these past thirty years, our companies have paid more than $35 million in property taxes to the City of Minneapolis. To my knowledge, we never asked for or received anything from the City.
Make up your mind. Which is it? First you say you lost control in 1982, the property is about 30 years old, and you were only married to Keith for 3 years. Then you say "over these past thirty years, OUR companies paid" -- so, either you were involved for only a few years, or it was 30 years, or do we split the difference?
If you really did lose money, something I will not take your word for, then it sounds like you are really sore that a speculative real-estate gamble did not pay off handsomely for you. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. A winner picks themselves up, calls it a temporary setback, learns from it and goes on.
You continue to complain in this forum about how Minneapolis was so unfair to (landlords like) you. It is as if you are lay the entire blame for not becoming ridiculously wealthy from Cedar Square West on Minneapolis and its citizens.
Chris Johnson Fulton
TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.)
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