Ace Reporter Schwebke Again Hits 'Em Where It Hurts

Boss Godfrey Henchman clarifies low-ball property value assumption

The Boss Godfrey administration continues to respond to the relentless investigation of Standard-Examiner Ace Reporter Schwebke, who continues to hound administration officials day and night for more more information about the Secret Gondola Study, covertly prepared by the Salt Lake City venture capitalist firm Lewis, Young, Robertson & Burningham, back in November, 2006.

This morning's Std-Ex showcases yet another article in investigative reporter Scott Schwebke's tour de force expose' series, this time addressing the $2 million sales price assumed in the LYR&B report.

Mr. Schwebke succeeds in setting Administration CAO John Patterson into back-pedaling mode, forcing him to admit that the Boss Godfrey never really intended to sell our cherished Mt. Ogden Parklands "crown jewel" for a mere 5% of fair market value. The Godfrey henchmen just pulled the $2 million low-ball figure out of their... er... hat at the time, Patterson admits. "We didn't want to be accused of padding the numbers," John Patterson said. Like every other assumption in this study, we just "made it up." With luck, adds Mr. Patterson, the city might squeeze as much as $7 million from real estate developer wannabe Chris Peterson, if administration officials play their cards right, [wink-wink.]

Now our regular long-time gentle readers will recall that we've had numerous discussions about the Mt. Ogden Parklands acreage over the past year or so; and we thus confess we also find even the $7 million figure to be pathetically low.

The most useful calculations we've seen to date spring from a reader-suggested comparative analysis of the recently-completed Golf City land transaction, wherein 20 acres of prime South Ogden residentially-zoned property sold for a cool $6 million. Applying the Golf City dollar-per-acre numbers to calculations of the Mt. Ogden Parkland property's 150 or so acres, we come up with a value of approximately $45 million.

So what Mr. Patterson seems to be telling us is that a proposed sale of prime Emerald City foothill property to Peterson at a hair over 15% of calculated fair market value (assuming highest use) would be a good deal for the lumpencitizens of Emerald City.

It's people like Mr. Patterson, supposed guardians of the public pocket-book, who make us eagerly look forward to the upcoming November elections. And remember -- John Patterson is part of Boss Godfrey's A-Team.

Hoo-Boy! We can't wait to check out the B-Team.

We've already seen the G-Team, by the way, and were not favorably impressed.

And before we get the inevitable chain of godfreyite comments chiding us for indulging in an apples-to-oranges comparison, we'll concede that the Golf City property was sold for residential development, whereas at least some portion of the anicipated Peterson landgrab "proposal" would supposedly remain devoted to open space.

With that in mind we'll suggest the true fair market value of the Mt. Ogden Parklands property probably falls somewhere between the figure quoted by Mr. Patterson, and the figure derived from our own calculations, based on a recent comparable sale, valued according to its highest use (residential.)

Notably, Mr. Patterson's comparables consist of two flatland non-residential golfcourses, whereas the Peterson "proposal" (so-called) is predicated quite substantially upon dense residential use.

Equally notably, Mr. Patterson frankly admits that the city has not bothered to order an appraisal. A competent appraiser could of course fashion a property-specific appraisal, calculating estimated value by factoring in proportionate residential and open-space use.

Before we start falling all over ourselves trying to arrive at a proper formula for calculating the true fair market value of the Mt. Ogden property however, the issue of whether we should even consider selling the property at all remains an open question.

And in that connection we'd like to highlight a fine Standard-Examiner article which appeared in yesterday's paper, in which Peter Metcalf, a local outdoor sports company executive, makes a strong case for leaving our Mt. Ogden Parklands property alone.

And before we close this morning's article, we'd once again like to thank Scott Schwebke for his valiant work in getting to the bottom of Boss Godfrey Secret Gondola Study document. And in that connection we offer a gentle reminder:

We still don't know who, if anybody, paid for the study. Any help that you can provide in this regard would be appreciated.

And one more thing. We loved this paragraph, Scott: "A sale price for Mount Ogden Golf Course hasn’t been formally presented to Peterson, who is spearheading the gondola project, Patterson said. Peterson could not be reached for comment." Pure genius! If the eight months missing-in-action Chris Peterson is currently "spearheading" this "project," we'd love to see his performance if he suddenly decided to start "sand-bagging."

Take it away, gentle readers.