More startling news from this morning's Standard-Examiner: Ace Reporter Schwebke reports this morning that Boss Godfrey's ambitious Midtown Village at the Junction hotel/waterpark project stands in jeopardy. The problem? Administration contract negotiators promised the developer the moon, parking-wise, but ultimately proved unable to actually deliver the goods:
OGDEN — A $115 million hotel and indoor waterpark proposed for downtown has hit a snag because the project developer can’t lease 275 spaces in a public parking garage.Perhaps the adminstration should have sent Bill Glasmann over to the existing Junction parking structure to count parking spaces -- before administration officials drew up their proposed contract, that is. Just a thought.
Rob Storey, director of marketing and business development for Orembased Midtown Development, said it could cost the company an additional $4 million if it has to redesign the 14-story Midtown Village at The Junction hotel and waterpark complex to accommodate additional parking.
Dave Harmer, the city’s community and economic development director, said Monday he’s unsure if the lack of parking will kill the project. [...]
Midtown officials learned Thursday from the city that 275 parking spaces in the garage at Grant Avenue and 23rd Street that serves The Junction wouldn’t be available, Storey said.
According to an e-mail from Harmer to David Smith, an Ogden resident who has raised questions about the hotel and waterpark project, the city was initially willing to lease 275 garage spaces to Midtown.
“As it turns out, we do not have 275 spaces available in the mall parking structure, and Midtown has been informed that all the required parking will need to be constructed with the project,” says the e-mail obtained by the Standard-Examiner.
“The final agreement will reflect this change.”
As today's Std-Ex story notably reports, the utter sloppiness of Godfrey administration foot-work has been once again brought to the city council's attention by the always-attentive lumpencitizens. As we've learned over time, Boss Godfrey's grand plots and schemes, which are always long on "excitement" and woefully short on "detail," must be closely watched. Thank goodness there are a few community minded lumpencitizens willing to do that.
To nobody's surprise, Midtown Development director of marketing and business development Rob Storey remains nonplussed about this latest contractual glitch, however:
“It’s just a hiccup,” Storey said, adding that Midtown is eager to resolve the parking issue so a revised development agreement can be approved by the RDA board as soon as possible.We believe Mr. Storey knows what he's talking about. As we suspect from years of experience watching the Godfrey administration, the phrase "eager to resolve the parking issue" is most likely "code," which yields translation into common parlance as "more public bonding." With an administration that's hell-bent to add a new hotel to The Junction landscape (complete with a gondola terminal) we really can't expect a developer who's already acquiring its target property on the cheap to reach into its own pocket to come up with an extra four-million. So in a circumstance where an $18 million bonding proposal is already on the Emerald City drawing board, we'll look into our crystal ball, and go out on a limb to predict that a new bond figure will soon emerge, exceeding $22 million, (an amount by the way, which will be devoted to parking facilities alone. )
“Things happen.”
This of course will all be happening at a time when Emerald City public debt has already soared to a little under $100 million, and there's palpable evidence of a rapidly cooling Utah economy.
Having said all this, we'll express our hope that our Emerald City RDA Board will continue to be exceedingly cautious as they consider approval of this risky project. Once a revised contract is drafted, Boss Godfrey will be soon trying to shove it down their throats. All we can say is that it would be a shame for our RDA Board members to leave the Emerald City taxpayers holding the bag, in the event that this project (and/or the economy) goes further south. Due diligence would seem to be the crucial watchword. Feasibility study, anyone?
Comments are invited, as always.
