Smooch! Kiss Ogden's Downtown Wal-Mart Good-bye

Scott Schwebke reports this morning that the Ogden RDA is officially dead in the water in its attempt to acquire the 98 parcels of real estate necessary to assemble the proposed 22-acre Wal-Mart downtown site:

OGDEN -- The Ogden Redevelopment Agency will apparently be unable to assemble a 22-acre site for a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter downtown, making it doubtful the project will become a reality, a city official said Monday.
Although the RDA has options to purchase a majority of the 98 parcels needed to build the 206,000-square-foot store on Wall Avenue between 21st Street and 22nd Street, it has been unable to reach agreements with a few property owners who have refused to sell.
"We are not in a position to deliver the preferred site to Wal-Mart," said Richard McConkie, the city's deputy director of community and economic development. "Being able to develop the site is very questionable."

It appears that the project will be permanently "DOA", unless Wal-Mart decides to negotiate with the individual property owners on its own, and in good faith:

However, Wal-Mart could still move ahead with the project if it is able to assemble the parcels on its own, he said.
Wal-Mart has not considered acquiring land on its own, said John Petrovich, a Wal-Mart real estate manager. The company has not been notified by the Ogden RDA that the deal is off for the supercenter, he said.
"If it (the RDA) can acquire the land, we would still be interested," Petrovich said. He declined to elaborate on terms of the agreement with the RDA.

Fat chance of that. What's obvious is that Wal-Mart is only interested in coming to town if it can do so with a sweetheart deal, borne on the backs of individual property owners, with the Ogden RDA acting as its broker/hatchet-man.

This raises the question as to whether the result might have been different if Wal-Mart had operated in a more conventional and less oppressive manner, engaging an experienced real estate broker to conduct negotiations, rather than relying on the coercive power of the Ogden RDA, wielding the heavy eminent domain hammer, and offering low-ball "take it or leave it" offers. The ham-handed manner in which this situation was conducted is an embarrassment to the citzens of Ogden City, and illustrates why Ogdenites need to look toward more business-experienced replacement councilmembers than we have now, as the November election approaches, I think.

The Ogden Wal-Mart tale reeks of arrogance, insensitivity, corporate greed and government hubris, and started out a sad one. It has a happy ending, however, in the tradition of Jack the Giant Killer folklore:

Cris Rodriguez, who lives on Oak Street and has refused to sell her home for the Wal-Mart project, said she is pleased the big-box store apparently won't be built in her neighborhood.
"It makes me feel great," she said. "I never wanted to move."

It makes me feel great too, Cris.

Howbout everybody else?