Today's the big day folks! This is the day our "Ogden Adventure Begins". In case this important event has somehow fallen off your calendars, here's a helpful Weber County Forum reminder:The High Adventure Rex Center project is scheduled to be formally-launched this morning at 11:00 a.m., on the old downtown mall site, with a gala ground-breaking ceremony. Hordes of neoCON dignitaries, central-planning schemers and eager Kool-Aide sipping, starry-eyed twenty-somethings will no doubt be in attendance, wrapped up in their winter attire, picks and shovels in their mittoned hands, slapping each other on the backs for shoving another of their grand schemes down the throats of an unwitting and unwilling public.
It doesn't matter a whit that the boy-genius at city hall hasn't yet managed to firmly nail down the final cost for this taxpayer-backed boondoggle (the 15-day "window" ends this coming Wednesday.) "The show must go on," says our democracy-challenged mayor.
I don't know about the rest of you folks, but your friend Rudi will be in attendance too, trusty notebook in hand (and trusty camera in pocket) jockeying to do an interview or two. I'll dutifully report back here later, in the event I'm able to "score" any of that nutritious and tasty "red meat," upon which our gentle readers so obviously thrive.
Comments, anyone?
Update 12/13/05 5:24 a.m. MT: It appears that some several of the posters during yesterday's discussion on this thread were correct. According to this morning's Standard-Examiner story, Larry Miller apparently did announce plans to build a cinema complex adjacent to the High Adventure Rec Center -- after yestrday's ground-breaking ceremony. Our gentle readers can read all about it here:
City officials, along with representatives from the private sector, donned hardhats and thrust gold-painted shovels into the dirt Monday morning to mark the start of construction on an $18.5 million high-adventure recreation center at the downtown mall site.Oops! Rudi is now resolved to stick around until the crowd disburses at all future Ogden City events.
But they were upstaged to some extent by Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller and the unveiling of his plans — including the drawings — for a 12-screen theater complex to the south.
After the ceremony, Miller said he expects the complex, with a price tag of $11 million to $15 million, to be complete by Nov. 1, in time for the 2006 holiday movie rush.
The rumor is that Larry Miller has actually submitted "something" to "somebody" in writing. My guess is that this is merely a written "proposal" for the 12-screen theater complex referred to in the article -- although that's completely my own speculation. Significantly, the Boyer Company is not yet under contract with the city. Inasmuch as Boyer company will supposedly be writing the contracts for tenants at the mall site, it's probably too early to expect that Mr. Miller has yet entered into any binding occupancy agreement.
It's all very mysterious. Of course, folks with "vision" always "move in mysterious ways." I'll dial out later this morning and try to fill in some of the blanks, if I can.
In the meantime, gentle readers, please don't hesitate to offer any additional information or comments that you may have.
Update 12/13/05 10:48 a.m. MT: Although the Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton alludes that Larry Miller has signed on to occupy part of the Ogden mall site for his proposed 12-screen theater project, a trustyworthy high-level administration official informs me that this is not true. Mr. Miller has merely submitted a written proposal, I am told. Mr. Miller is NOT under contract yet, according to my source.
The plot sickens.
"Show us the contract," sez Rudi.
