We dang near fell out of our chair during the wee hours this morning, upon reading Ace Reporter Schwebke's front page headline Standard-Examiner story, "Wal-Mart land still in flux." The major story line is also concisely set forth in the article subtitle,"Purchases haven't been completed, so Ogden supercenter not a done deal," although we do hope our gentle readers will read on. We'll start off this morning's discussion by incorporating a few of the key story paragraphs:
OGDEN — Problems with the sale of one parcel of land could jeopardize plans for a Wal-Mart Supercenter in downtown Ogden.In truth, it's apparently not merely one parcel of land dangling loose for the Supercenter project. According to this morning's story, there remain at least three other parcels which remain "unassembled" by Leshem. Ace Reporter Schwebke provides even more red-meat information about this:
Brent Cox, owner of Grating Systems Inc. at 192 W. 20th St., said California developer Gadi Leshem had an agreement to buy the 4-acre parcel where his business sits for $1.1 million by Feb. 13. However, Leshem failed to meet the deadline, so the land is again up for sale, Cox said. “I’ll pretty much sell it to anyone who is an honest person who is willing to pay me a fair price,” said Cox, who keeps a wine glass and an unopened bottle of champagne in his office that he planned to use to celebrate Leshem’s purchase of his property. If Cox can’t sell his land, the entire Wal-Mart project will be in jeopardy, said Dave Harmer, the city’s community and economic development director. “We are trying to see what we can work out (to sell the property)” he said. “If we can’t, then it (the Wal-Mart project) won’t happen.”
According to records on file with the Weber County Assessor’s Office, Leshem also has not yet acquired several other business properties needed for the Wal-Mart project, including Boyce Equipment, 226 W. 20th St.; Praxair, 1903 Wall Ave.; and Northern Exposure, 1847 Wall Ave. Mark Boyce, owner of Boyce Equipment, said Leshem’s option to purchase his property expires Friday. “I have to be optimistic about it,” said Boyce, who is hopeful Leshem will follow through on the purchase. Boyce Equipment is currently building a 16,000-square-foot facility on American Way in Ogden that will open in September. Eddie Davis, division general manager for Praxair, said the company is in negotiations with Leshem but hasn’t entered into a contract to sell him its property. “We are exploring all the possibilities of what works for him and what works for us,” he said. Representatives for Northern Exposure could not be reached for comment about whether Leshem has a contract to buy that property.Interestingly, would-be developer Leshem's spokesman attributes at least part of the delay to an incomplete environmental impact report for the Cox property, whereas jilted seller Cox says Leshem completed his environmental assessment of the property last year. "Soil problems," of course, have been Boss Godfrey's "cover story," -- at least up until now.
As per normal with all Boss Godfrey grand projects and schemes, this one has more plot twists than a dime novel, and is already laden with plenty of accusations and typical Godfrey administration counter-denial and spin. The reported facts are simply too strange and elaborate to be summarized and digested on the Weber County Forum front page. You'll thus have to read the whole Std-Ex story to get the full impact.
Weber County Forum Tips O' the Hat all around this morning: First to Ace Reporter Schwebke for digging in, getting all the facts and producing this morning's fine reportorial gem. Secondly we thank the Standard-Examiner, for placing this story on the front page (where it belongs.) Last but not least, special thanks to gentle reader Fly on the Wall, who first broke the essence of this story as a tip in an earlier WCF article comments section.
Who will be the first to comment?
22 comments:
Hell of a story. Kudoes to Mr. Schwebke and the SE. Where to begin....
How about here: anyone else noticing a pattern in the proceedings of the Godfrey Administration's Crack Development Team? They were going around two years ago telling people that the now defunct "Peterson Proposal" was "a done deal" It wasn't. They announced with great fanfare a development company coming in to build the Gondola Towers Five Star Hotel downtown, only to see the company withdraw, ostensibly because Mr. Harmer and his Crack Godfrey Development Team allegedly misplaced 275 city parking places... or was that a cover story, designed to deflect attention from the fact that the development company couldn't pay its subcontractors on a similar project in Orem and shut down construction there? Either way, the much ballyhooed "done deal" turned out to be not so done after all.
And now this: the much ballyhooed "Wal-Mart is coming" project is on... what, hiatus? [Usually the term applied to a tv show about to be axed.] First Wal-Mart says it's going to cut the size of its Ogden store by 40K square feet. Then the whole project is announced to be delayed for a bit because of "soil problems." Now it turns out that seems to have been a cover story --- another example of the Godfrey Administration preferring not to play straight with the people of Ogden? And it turns out the real problem is that Mr. Lesham has not fulfilled his options contracts on a major land purchase necessary for the Wal-Mart project. And other options are about to expire as well unless he acts on them swiftly.
And it is now alleged that Mr. Lesham's word was not worth much, since he tried to get one of the people who sold him a purchase option to borrow the money Lesham was obligated to put up as non-refundable earnest money. [The story reports Mayor Godfrey had to intercede with Lesham to get him to pony up the cash he'd agreed to pony up.]
Now we're told the Crack Godfrey Development Team, weeks after the celebration of the Wal-Mart deal that turns out not to have been a deal at all, is merely "hoping" that something can be worked out to save the project. As it "hoped" something could be worked out to save Adam Air and its Ogden manufacturing facilities, the opening of which was also announced with great fanfare by the Crack Godfrey Development Team?
I'm beginning to wonder if the real problem is that Mr. Lesham is a developer who is leveraged up to his eyeballs and who is having difficulty money raising the cash needed to close on the land for which he holds options.
Beginning to look, more and more, like the Mayor and his Merrie Band are in fact the Wasatch Front version of The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight.
Again, kudoes to the SE for some good digging on the story, and for front-paging it. This morning, My Home Town Paper's cookin' with gas.
I wonder how the Crack Godfrey Development Team will do on their pay for performance evaluations this year.
Oh, and the Fly doesnt spread rumors, he just has to remain some what quiet while he is on the wall listening in on the grand Godfrey schemes.
Good write up Rudi..
If I sat on the city council I would want accurate information from those concerned as to why and how this all happened. Even behind closed doors so that the city isn't embarassed again in these dealings. If the city oficials enticed Mr. Cox to move to West Haven and take his tax revenue with him then I would ask for a full accounting. It might be helpful to e-mail the city council and ask these questions to be resolved. Also make it know that a loan from the RDA to purchase this property wouldn't be a wise investment.
Good:
It also raises [again] the question of whether Ogden City should be acting [secretly] as a purchasing agent [buying land options] for a developer. As I recall, the SE broke that story as well [regarding the city's buying options in the River Project RDA area for Mr. Lesham]. This seems to have happened with the proposed Wal-Mart property too.
I'm not sure why developers like Mr. Lesham cannot negotiate their own options to buy land they want to develop, but if for some reason the City wants to do it for them, it should act openly, so that sellers know the City, when it approaches them, is negotiating on behalf the developer involved.
Typical of Godfrey to make big announcements and have only half assed plans before they have their ducks lined up. They are a dispicable bunch of leaders.
They make people have less faith in our elected leaders.
Again, the precious character of this young man seems to be fair game, or perhaps better put a favorite target.
It would seem that if a person were not personally acquainted with Matthew Godfrey and gave credence to the way things are frequently reported in the Standard-Examiner, he would likely be convinced that Mr. Godfrey is a lying crook.
Believe me - Godfrey does not represent things accurately -
if you want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he never intentionally lies..,
Let's just say that his take on things is a Godfrey slant.
Mono:
I think maybe a better case can be made challenging his judgment and competence than establishing crookedness. Of course, he's not helping himself by his administration's continual dissembling and his penchant for treating the Council and the public as mushrooms [keep them in the dark and throw... organic nutrients... on them]. But there've been numerous examples now of his less-than stellar business judgment.
Recall he assured an older Council that the city would not be on the hook for the Rec Center construction bonds, only to return and inform the Council that the bonds could not be sold at an acceptable rate unless the city would sign on to be responsible for paying them off if the Rec Center tenants failed. And he selected a developer for his hoped-for Gondola Towers Hotel who, it turns out, was at the time unable to pay his subcontractors on a similar project in Orem, which project has now been suspended, half built. Thus the Gondola Towers Hotel project now appears to be on hiatus. And he directed his people secretly to act, in their capacity as Ogden City employees, as buying agents of property options for Mr. Lesham , and then he had to twist Mr. Lesham's arm to get him to agree to abide by the agreements he'd made. And he announced, with great fanfare, the Wal-Mart agreement, before it turns out the developer had in fact bought all the land Wal-Mart needed in order to come here. And he spent two years trying to arrange to have vacation villas built on city park land that he now admits was too steep to build on anyway.
Why, if he keeps on making similarly sound business decisions, I bet he'll soon be President of the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce.
Godfrey lies as always, when the real truth would be better.
What's up with that?
My theory is that he always makes his obstacles seem like acts of God; and that he refuses to admit he's not in control of any situation involving negotiation between human beings.
For example, his public cover story about the walmart hiatus was centered on soil contaminants. He refused to reveal that there were human elements involved.
Fly gave us a great tip in his earlier comments revelation, when he revealed that the real problem with the Walmart project was one "holdout."
Having read today's article, it seems that Fly was entirely correct.
It's probably Eddie Davis of Praxair who's thrown a wrench into Boss Godfrey's coercive property acquisition machine.
What's wrong with Paxair? Why won't they bow down to Boss Godfrey????
Mebbe they didn't get the memo from THE CHURCH, eh?
This is all so ridiculous and I am sick and tired of how Ogden City handles everything. We, citizens, deserve much better than this. This is no way to run a city. We're less than two weeks away from the opening of the FrontRunner and instead of reading stories in the local paper about what the city is doing to promote and further this REAL bonafied project we are hearing about a city's mayor crack team of developers and friends pissing away on Wal-Mart that was a done deal a few weeks ago??? What a joke.
Well this is personally embarrassing. When I wrote my letter to the city council detailing the major flaws in the “gondola towers” project Curm mentions, which letter in part and in turn resulted in the project being put on hold while the company, Midtown Properties, began to backtrack on other projects due to their undercapitalized finances, I also included praise for the Wal-Mart project. At the time, I remember thinking, “Be careful, David. You haven’t read the paperwork for that agreement and don’t know the details. It could be a mess too.”
So basically, one of the few worthwhile things this administration was doing, that wasn’t nominally using gobs of borrowed public money, was actually little more than a glimmer in Dave Harmer’s eye.
I remember talking to Caitlin Gochnor when she was running for council, and I expressed concern about Harmer. She retorted that he was brilliant, and used to work for the governor and all. Well what do you think now, Caitlin? This guy seems like perpetual “amateur night!” What a mess the midtown agreement was! Dave, can you put the ball across the goal line for us on Wal-Mart? If not, what are we paying you for?? If we need to cut the budget, I have a suggestion!
And wasn’t it Gadi Leshem who, a few weeks ago with Curt Geiger at the public open house, was telling us what we need to do with the golf course? Great! This guy turns much of downtown into a dust bowl that will sit that way for years while he produces nothing more than posters of his grandiose plans that he shows off at Mike Dowse’s open houses. Hey Gadi, do you have some more water colors to make some more pretty pictures today or has your ability to do that evaporated too? And Curt, tell me, are you good for anything but sitting around Roosters feeling superior to the rest of the city? You know all that energy you like to apply badmouthing Dorrene Jeske and most of the rest us and talking about how talented you and your cronies are? Well how about you get some of that energy and talent up off it’s butt and use to help the mayor close this Wal-Mart deal? How about it, Bigshot? Or are you too busy sitting there waiting for your chopped salad to arrive with your nose in the air?
Gadi, Curt, Dave: From this vantage point, you look like Ogden’s three stooges. This Wal-Mart deal falls apart, and that will be your official title.
City council, practice the words: “Not until we have all the information we want.”
David:
There's another thing to consider here: that Mr. Harmer works for Hizzonah, Mayor Godfrey, and there have been rumors bruted about of Hizzonah shooting from the hip in twelve different directions, announcing he wants this or that done "immediately." If someone is competent, and methodical, and knows what he's doing, but works for a loose cannon who shoots from the hip all the time, well, that must be... difficult. These rumors of Hizzonah driving some of his staff nuts with his constantly changing directives, unexamined bright ideas and demands for immediate action on whatever the Plan du Jour he's just come up with happens to be, are, of course, just rumors at this point. But they do seem to pop up fairly consistently. Mr. Harmer is head of the Crack Godfrey Development Team, of course, and the buck stops [at least for a while] on his desk with respect to allegedly misplaced parking spaces, and planning to hire developers who can't pay their bills on other projects, and ballyhooing as done deals mega-projects that are a long way from being locked up. And it seems Mr. Harmer of late can't quite close a deal. But still, I wonder how many of the recently dropped balls are errors that should properly be chalked up to Hizzonah's bull-in-a-china shop management style.
Just wondering....
ogdens problem is that godfrey harmer and patterson are all cut of the same cloth. the end justiies the means. godfrey considers the other two to be his porter rockwells and they gladly comply. kill anything that stands in the way but be quiet about it. there is no maturity no ethics and no morality in this administration.
I can't help but wonder if the whole gondola loving cult wasn't in on all of this, and the only real hope was that eventually Gadi would stumble onto some unsuspecting billionaire,(more money than brains) and be able to flip the options. It's quite obvious that leshem has never had the kind of money required for these endeavors, and Harmer and lying little matty probably have known that all along. Exactly how many of this multitude of properties has he closed on?
Tuesday's Top of Utah has a new study from a steering commitee of 14, not sure how they were chosen or volunteered. They wanted recommendations to improve the downtown's image, bring back the Spring Clean-up would help. Adding economic incentives for development, and asking for recommendations from property owners. They mention the city provide additional modes of transportation include trolleys, GONDOLA, pedicabs and streetcars. I would encourage WCF readers to respond to his request for input since transportation involves all of Ogden City and e-mail John Mayer city planner at;
john-mayer@ci.ogden.ut.us
bill
in regards to your comment "It's quite obvious that leshem has never had the kind of money required for these endeavors, and Harmer and lying little matty probably have known that all along."
thats the problem. the mayor and his dream team should have done their investigation on gadi and others up front before they teamed up with these guys. if they had they would have determined up front just what you point out.
shows a lack of experience and understanding of what it takes to get the job done.
the mayor and his team are way over their heads. they should go back to the basics of running the city and limit their involvement in business development to only creating an environment relative to rules and regulations that would attract investment into our community. city should set guide lines for development and leave the business development to free enterprise.
you cant make another person love you just because you want them to nor can you make a business concept work by forcing it on people or by just throwing money at it.
Amazing...
for all the ballyhoo over landing a few ski companies which has now withered, we can't even land a WalMart. While WalMart opens stores at a feverish pace in almost every community in the developed and developing world, Ogden has this bunch of ne'er-do-well's stumbling over themselves to bring in any new business and shoot themselves in the foot on the WalMart deal.
WalMart usually greases the wheels in any way possible to get their stores open in a timely manner. This has to be the first time a WalMart was delayed or scuttled WITHOUT community opposition.
This is history, people. Get the headline...
"Utah city foils WalMart without even trying"
There are cities across the country hoping to keep WalMart out of their core. Maybe Godfrey and co. can write a dissertation on how to bumble their way to blocking a new WalMart in the respective community.
Good Reader,
The email address you gave for John Mayer doesn't work. Could you please double-check it. Thanks.
johnmayer@ci.ogden.ut.us
Link was corrected, my bad.
Is it too late to start looking at another location for Wal-Mart? I still like the idea of a Wal-Mart being located at the IGA/Rite-Aid block. That block is an absolute mess and a smaller neighborhood friendly Wal-Mart could go a long way in giving the area a boost. Plus, the proposed Wal-Mart at 20th and Wall didn't have much to do with the outdoor recreation mantra, anyway.
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