[Mpls] Welcoming business
Vicky said: The Allina employees will have to buy a lot of trinkets on Lake Street (at .5% sales tax) to retire the $30 million TIF debt, plus interest. Remember that the property taxes will NOT be going into the City's general fund. Nick responds: You make it sound as if there would be no paydown of the debt and no property taxes going to the general fund ie no property taxes associated with the project. That is not the case. The property taxes in the TIF district go to retiring the TIF debt. That is why the don't go to the general fund. _ FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar get it now! http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/ REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Welcoming Business
Much of what Barb says is absolutely true and the City of Minneapolis has gained a return on its investment of NRP dollars that makes other City investments look very, very bad indeed. This is perhaps the source of the politicians antipathy to NRP. Not only does it empower citizens to believe they have the ability and can make decisions about their own lives and communities, but it simply makes politicians look bad and terribly inept in comparison, because a bunch of supposed amateurs do a far better job than the supposed professionals downtown. I say supposed because it is a well known fact that the community organizations draw on both a professional staff as well as volunteer professionals that beggar the City professionals by comparison in both its mass (quantity) and in particular in quality. A Met Council person once commented that a neighborhood's plans and what they cost sure made the City of Minneapolis' efforts look awful weak and lame in comparison. I truly laughed when I saw a thing about the professional City staff going out to communities to help and direct the well meaning amateurs do community planning and development. The opposite is true! City Hall should throw open its now locked mental doors and have communities help and direct the professional staff to do community planning and development. A good example is the SUPPOSED One Stop Shopping for development. One Stop Shopping as conceived in a couple of other Cities is walking in with community approved plans and a City prepared check list of ALL requirements, plopping them down on a desk and having the City professional put together all needed material and issue all needed variances, zoning changes, permits and plan reviews at one STOP. ONE STOP as in ONE time at ONE place. Minneapolis One Stop Shopping presently should be labeled 101 Dalmatians every time you turn around there is another puppy with new spots that has to be accounted for. Just a suggestion for the Mayor, and interested Council Members, have the true professionals in such things, (the people who have to jump through the hoops and count the puppies), simplify it for you. Have the contractors and development Customers, the homeowner or small businessperson (who have to get through your Gordian knot), redesign it for you. While Mayor Rybak was well intentioned the McKenzie report has been used to take very justifiable calls for simplifying and streamlining City Government in the exact opposite direction than what was called for. Bureaucrats have made City Departments even more complicated and less open to citizens than before. Calls were made for more openness to communication from residents. What was created was a Communications czar, a professional position whose job it was to handle all communication From the City, and to Spin Doctor such communication to put it in the best light possible for the administration. No longer were City employees and police to communicate with residents. In these and several other areas RT Rybak was well intentioned and was fulfilling pre-election commitments. Unfortunately his professional staff took well intentioned ideas out into deep water so they drowned. The problem is not with Mayor Rybak, it is with those who have been appointed to run the City for him. The call was not for MCDA to be incorporated into the City bureaucracy, the call was to have MCDA freed from it. What was needed was to have it run by community members; not the Council. Calls to change the politicizing of MCDA decisions were answered by abolishing MCDA and making it an even more unreachable City Department. Though it is more honest, (the Council can no longer hide behind the fraud that MCDA was an independent organization) it certainly did not solve any of the problems that were being complained about. The problem may also be a City Council that has forgotten that we in Minneapolis have a Strong Council-Weak Mayor system for a reason; so we will have MORE citizen input into City decisions and policies. The Council, with all its new members and its infatuation with the new polished young Mayor, allowed itself to be lead along so that it forgot who has the real power in Minneapolis. Hopefully, the new Council might change that.. Also, hopefully the present Mayor (if re-elected) will have gained the wisdom to replace many of his present appointees with those who have an interest in making the City more friendly and customer directed, rather than ones who attempt to insulate the Mayor from the communities. Cut the unnecessary bureaucracy. That is the way you Welcome Business. At the present time there are legitimate developer business-people who say they are not interested in doing business in Minneapolis because it is to complicated and costs too much, it has become an unfriendly place to do business. The Mayor is indeed personally open to people and their concerns. The
[Mpls] Welcoming Business: Wells Fargo picks Des Moines, Iowa
From the Mortgage Chronicle 5/12/04: Wells Plans to Add 1000 Jobs in Iowa Wells Fargo's Home Consumer Finance Group plans to build three office buildings and one training center in Iowa, a spokesman said. He said the group is aiming at housing 2,300 existing employees and 1,000 positions from new employees to be hired in coming years. From the Des Moines Register 12/26/04: The mortgage industry's nation- wide strength seemed to confirm the decisions that Wells Fargo Mortgage and Wells Fargo Financial made late in 2003 to build additions to their corporate headquarters in West Des Moines and Des Moines. Wells Fargo Mortgage's $250 million, 960,000-square-foot building in West Des Moines will open in stages between 2005 and 2007. Wells Fargo Financial began work late this year on a $56 million, 360,000- square-foot expansion of its downtown headquarters. . estimated 2,000 new positions Wells Fargo plans to hire. Vicky here: The NRP might be the best program on earth - but Minneapolis can't afford it at this time. Unfortunately, the slick real estate developers sucked the public treasury dry...for years to come. [Worth noting is that your City Council(s) LET THEM DO IT!] The only things growing in Minneapolis are DEBTS, TAXES, AND WATER BILLS. Common sense should tell you that whatever the City's been doing IS NOT working. Everything else is shrinking.even the elm population. Jim Graham is correct: Professionals built the Titanic, amateurs built the Arc. Vicky Heller North Oaks and Cedar-Riverside REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
[Mpls] Welcoming Business
Vicky, I can say with all certainty that my neighborhood of Whittier has welcomed businesses in. Whittier used it's NRP funds to create an entire identity around our place in the world as the international marketplace. Whittier provided start-up loans to small businesses and invested funds to address 3 major blighted commercial areas. NRP funds cleared a 1/2 block of land for job creating industry. The Nicollet Avenue Business Association used NRP funds to do the streetscape on Nicollet and improve the look of the corridor and create a Special Services District. The Phillips neighborhoods have worked with the Midtown Exchange redevelopment project from it's inception as did Powderhorn. Between the relocation of Wells Fargo Mortgage and Allina, over 3,500 jobs will be added to Midtown Phillips and Phillips West. Powderhorn provided substantial funds for development along Lake Street, in the Midtown Exchange and have investments in the successful Mercado Central and the new redevelopment of the Antiques Mn. building. Ventura Village neighborhood, American Indian Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Franklin Avenue Business Association used NRP funds to redevelop dilapidated commercial buildings and to prepare a Master Development Plan using it to seek out business investment along Franklin. Everyone is talking about the renaissance on Franklin. That did not happen without significant citizen involvement or without NRP funds as a major catalyst. Longfellow used it's NRP funds to provide a catalyst to people to redevelop 27th and Lake Street and other areas along Lake St. Corcoran, Longfellow and Powderhorn provided NRP funds to assist and work with the YWCA development on Lake and 21st. Both Corcoran and Longfellow used NRP funds to provide small businesses with fix and paint funds. East Harriet used it's NRP funds to help the small businesses on it's 3 small commercial nodes create interesting and welcoming facades in addition to helping with structural issues on some of the buildings. The themes running through the modest but mighty North Loop NRP plan is all about attracting more businesses to the North Loop and connecting those that are already there. My experience in working with NRP groups is that they have been very welcoming to business interests. You can go to www.nrp.org and look at what other neighborhoods have done to assist business development throughout the city. Barb Lickness Whittier Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. -- Margaret Mead REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
[Mpls] Welcoming Business
[Barb Lickness] The Phillips neighborhoods have worked with the Midtown Exchange redevelopment project from it's inception as did Powderhorn. Between the relocation of Wells Fargo Mortgage and Allina, over 3,500 jobs will be added to Midtown Phillips and Phillips West. [Vicky Heller] The 3,500 jobs are transplanted, not new. And the claim of jobs is always part of the public financing pitch - but they seldom materialize. The Allina employees will have to buy a lot of trinkets on Lake Street (at .5% sales tax) to retire the $30 million TIF debt, plus interest. Remember that the property taxes will NOT be going into the City's general fund. Minneapolis needs NEW businesses and NEW jobs. What has changed in the past two years? From MPR. Minneapolis, Minn. - A new report by Collier-Towle Real Estate in Minneapolis shows vacancies for the nearly 26 million square feet of office space available downtown rose from 14 percent last summer to more than 17 percent at year's end. Factoring in the amount of sublease space bumps the vacancy rate up to more than 21 percent. That's more than four times the rate for what's considered a stable lease market. He said the projections only get worse. General Mills is scheduled to move out of downtown's Pillsbury Tower when its new building in Golden Valley is finished next year. In addition to creating financial and logistical problems for building owners, the high number of vacancies has a significant effect on homeowners' tax statements. City Assessor Scott Renne said the vacancies make the office buildings less valuable, therefore the owners pay less property tax. He said the city collects the same amount of tax dollars regardless -- so it has to come from somewhere. Property taxes are hydraulic. So if downtown pays less taxes, by definition, other property types, primarily residential, pay more taxes, Renne said. Renne said the number of commercial property tax appeals jumped almost 32 percent last year. Tax records show the amount of property tax and assessments paid by the Wells Fargo Tower alone dropped $2.2 million last year from the year before. The Minneapolis Downtown Council's Sam Grabarski said the millions of vacant square feet add up to a giant property tax void. [Vicky again] Minneapolis can no longer afford to PAY businesses to come to the City. Businesses must WANT to come to Minneapolis, and be able to prosper once they are here. Vicky Heller North Oaks and Cedar-Riverside Link to the entire MPR article: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2003/02/17_hughesa_vacancy/ REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Welcoming Business
On Feb 2, 2005, at 9:07 AM, Victoria Heller wrote: Minneapolis needs NEW businesses and NEW jobs. What has changed in the past two years? From MPR. Minneapolis, Minn. - A new report by Collier-Towle Real Estate in Minneapolis shows vacancies for the nearly 26 million square feet of office space available downtown rose from 14 percent last summer to more than 17 percent at year's end. Factoring in the amount of sublease space bumps the vacancy rate up to more than 21 percent. That's more than four times the rate for what's considered a stable lease market. He said the projections only get worse. General Mills is scheduled to move out of downtown's Pillsbury Tower when its new building in Golden Valley is finished next year. snip Link to the entire MPR article: http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2003/02/ 17_hughesa_vacancy/ This story is two years old! It was written in the third year of the stock market's three-year post-bubble decline, and at what everyone agrees was the bottom of the real estate cycle. Beware selective information. Real estate - especially commercial real estate - is cyclical. St. Paul's vacancy jump was higher and the suburbs nearly as high. By the way, the Pillsbury Tower is now US Bank Center. Somebody wanted it. David Brauer Kingfield REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:mpls@mnforum.org Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
