I'm perplexed about something.From Steve's article........
"Ryan offered $2 million for the site. Allina Health Systems paid $5.2 million for the much-smaller north end of the Sears site last year. Rivals also point out that Ryan offered the city the lowest price for the complex. Yet it also sought the highest developer fee at about $8 million, which city evaluators rated as reasonable."
Vicky: Selling the Sear's site for $2 million is equivalent to writing a $20+ million check to Ryan. Will Ryan be the owner of the finished product? Or will they flip it to another entity? What will Ryan do to EARN its $8 million "developer's fee?" Are they also paying themselves "construction fees?"
Who are the City evaluators who claim the $8 million fee is "reasonable." On what basis?
At the risk of being accused of using inflammatory language, this Ryan deal looks like GRAFT to me. (Definition of "graft" is: the acquisition of gain (as money) in dishonest or questionable ways; also : illegal or unfair gain.)
Once again, if Ryan acquires that site for $2 million, I will file a complaint, as a Minneapolis taxpayer, with the U. S. Attorney.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4229695.html
Vicky Heller
North Oaks
People on this list will rail endlessly about the parks turning off fountains or closing wading pools, about school class sizes and test scores, about library hours and the design of the central library, and so forth. I'm passionate about some of those things myself, so being passionate about those things make sense.
But what I don't understand is the lack of consistency and proportion among those writers. If all it costs is less than $10 per household to keep all the pools open and fountains flowing, why aren't those same people screaming about the city taking $75 per household in property taxes and just giving it to a developer? And doing so year after year after year?
A while back I posted a message titled "A million here, a million there..." describing an irrefutable case of the city wasting $1 to $2 million in taxpayer money on a series of frivolous lawsuits in the pursuit of helping out a private real estate developer. Not one response on-list, not a peep.
Now the city is poised to give away a piece of valuable real estate at fire sale prices, and then give the developer an additional $8 million. This is not the first time the city has done this. They've done it every year, and sometimes several times a year, for the past 20 years.
And what do we have to show for it? A series of white elephants, reneged promises and broken contracts on the part of developers. Repeat after me: St. Anthony Main, River Place, Gaviidae Common, Block E, City Center, the Conservatory, etc. ad nauseum.
Why is that when we as individuals sign legal contracts obligating ourselves to pay for something, we fail to fulfill them on fear for our well-being and eternal credit rating, but big real-estate developers in Minneapolis have a record of failing to meet their legal, contractual obligations most of the time, and we let them get away with it? The most recent insult to Minneapolis taxpayers comes from Brookfield Properties and Gaviidae Common. Brookfield simply defaulted on paying $29 million in loans provided by the city, and whined about falling property values as the reason.
I'm sorry, but in the development business, that just goes with the territory. The risk of losing money when the economy turns down is part of the opportunity to make a fortune It is NOT an excuse to soak the taxpayers for another $29 million.
So, I ask again: just where do list members think those million and millions of dollars the city keeps throwing at developers come from? And why do you not object when we insure developers against all economic twists of fate? (To say nothing of the stupidity of building a number of the projects in the first place, e.g. the Conservatory's escalators to nowhere and River Place and St. Anthony Main additions clearly over-saturating the Main Street market for retail and entertainment.)
I'm with Vicky. I've had it up to ^here^ with the city lining the pockets of wealthy developers like Ryan and Brookfield. It's graft and it's malfeasance.
Chris Johnson Fulton
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