One cannot doubt that Basim Sabri "gets things done," as Ed Felien puts it. He has bought up and developed properties at a rapid clip. He has, in the process, provided opportunities for small immigrant owned businesses. He has learned the Minneapolis development game well and is definitely one of the top players in the game.
But it is time to stop always considering him some sort of activist working for the betterment of the community. Whether Sabri supporters want to address it or not, there remain questions about his tactics. Even setting that aside, it is clear that the man has lots of capital and clout. The Sears building is clearly a step up in scale for Basim, one that indicates that he is quite successful and, dare I say it, wealthy. He is developing a significant group of holdings on Lake Street--a smart business move since, even if the small businesses he hosts fail, he will have control of extremely valuable property on South Minneapolis' most important artery and is developing political "capital" to rival even the big boys like Abbott-Northwestern and Wells Fargo.
For this I do not hold him at fault. I do have concern that an owner of two major "independent" press organs has joined Basim's team and seems to think he is being presecuted because some of us wonder about the nature of his assoctiation with Sabri. If you go to the Pulse website, and search the name Sabri, you find immediately a fluff piece extoling the virtues of Basim's Lake Street Plaza development. Next down the list, is Felien's glowing description of Basim's Sears Building proposal followed, on the same page, by Basim's letter to June 9 letter to the MCDA describing his proposal. That letter includes Ed Felien as team member as has this to say:
"Ed Felien will assist Basim Sabri in dealing with government and community organizations. Ed Felien represented the 8th Ward, which includes the Sears property, as a member of the City Council from 1973 to 1975. He has lived on Powderhorn Park since 1970 and has published Southside Pride, a monthly community newspaper, since 1991. . . . We have added Ed Felien to our staff to maintain contact with the Powderhorn, Central and Phillips communities and to work closely with government agencies."
Now that sure sounds like a paid position to me; perhaps I am wrong. I am sure Mr. Felien could clear up that question in a short post to list. I did notice that Mr. Felien neglected to mention whether he is on the Sabri payroll in his recent self righteous defence of his "association." I do know that I get Southside Pride delivered to my door in South Minneapolis. So, in essence, if Ed is being paid by Basim as part of the development team, then the publishers of two local independent publications, is delivering Sabri properties PR (the aformentioned puff piece) to my doorstep for a fee. His right I suppose, but it is my right to doubt the truth of what he publishes.
Likewise, with Zippin' Zack Metoyer, who clearly has political aspirations seeing how he ran a write-in candiacy for the 8th Ward city council seat last time around and has been active in Central Neighborhood political machninations. Zack has been on the Sabri payroll in the past; I have know idea what the nature of his "association" with Basim is now, although I recall Metoyer saying that he is not a paid employee of Sabri recently. It concerns me, as an 8th Ward resident, that a gentleman closely associated with a powerful developer will try to get a seat on the city council when it feels to me that Minneapolis has had consistent problems lately with developer and business driven decisions costing residents millions when basic services are languishing.
Which brings me to Peter McLaughlin, who is rumored to be thinking about a mayoral run. Zippin' Zack posted a impassioned defence of McLaughlin's association with Basim, Wells Fargo, and Abbott-Northwestern recently, and he ties it all up with the pretty 35W Access project bow. McLaughlin, Sabri, Metoyer, Wells Fargo, and Abbott-Northwestern all want the access project. As the church lady use to say on Saturday Night Live, "Isn't that special. . . ."
It all kind of stinks in my opinion, and I say this as someone who made the motion at the South Whittier Redevelopment Task Force meeting is support of Basim Sabri's proposal (with Whittier CDC) to develop the Elroy site (a proposal that Sabri altered later in way that I would not support). His original proposal was good, and in that case at least, he played by the rules.
You see, Basim Sabri is a smart, charming man with a good sense of humor. He is a great businessman/developer. He is doing nothing that many haven't done in this town of public/private partnerships and strategic developments. But, he is a BUSINESSMAN/DEVELOPER AND A BIG ONE AT THAT. When do we start to consider Sabri Properties a CORPORATION? When do we begin to question Basim's pretense of always being on the side of little guy?
I don't say this out of hostility to Basim Sabri; it just seems to me that we in Minneapolis have a problem that his success illustrates. We are very confused these days about what is in the public interest and what is private investment. This confusion comes with a very high price tag.
Russell Raczkowski Bancroft
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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