Intriguing Scott Schwebke story this morning, about that Commons at Ogden shopping center project, which has been optimistically slated for construction at 12th and Wall. The project seems to have developed a glitch, involving the project's anticipated anchor tenant, as Mr. Schwebke reports:
OGDEN -- The city council agreed Tuesday night to rezone about 21 acres at the southwest corner of 12th Street and Wall Avenue for a big-box grocery store despite a possible snag with the project.Yet strangely, the ever optimistic Boss Godfrey doesn't seem to recognize any problem at all, despite the red flag raised by Mr. Wright:
The Utah Department of Transportation won't install a traffic light at 14th Street and Wall Avenue, said Spencer Wright, a project manager for Wright Development, which is undertaking the proposed Commons at Ogden shopping center project.
As a result, it's unclear whether WinCo Foods, based in Boise, Idaho, will move ahead with construction of a 95,000-square-foot store that would anchor the shopping center, Wright said. [...]
A stoplight is needed at 14th Street and Wall Avenue to allow motorists traveling north and south to safely access WinCo's parking lot, Wright said.
However, a light at that location isn't feasible because it's too close to a traffic signal at 12th Street and Wall Avenue, said Vic Saunders, a public involvement manager for UDOT.
City Council Vice Chairwoman Caitlin K. Gochnour asked Mayor Matthew Godfrey during Tuesday's night's meeting whether UDOT was cooperating with Wright Development regarding the shopping center project.One thing ya gotta love about Boss Godfrey is his constant and unflagging optimism.
"It's going well with UDOT," Godfrey said, responding to Gochnour's question.
As regular WCF readers will recall, the city council has already earmarked a cool $1 million in capital improvement funds toward this project. However, according to Richard McConkie, these funds haven't yet been released, due to a purported "contingency":
However, none of the funds have been allocated because WinCo hasn't signed a contract with Wright Development, said Richard McConkie, the city's deputy director of community and economic development.What's really interesting here is the seemingly sheer flakiness the legal relationships of all the interested parties to this transaction. Even though WinCO Foods remains yet contractually uncommitted to building its mega grocery store, Wright Development has nevertheless reportedly expended "a considerable amount of money for environmental cleanup of the property," (no doubt in anticipation of reimbursement by the city.) Even more strangely, Wright Development's own interest in the property amounts to a mere "purchase option," rather than rights which would derive from a proper purchase agreement. Moreover, throughout the relatively thorough Std-Ex reporting of this project, there's been no mention of a "development agreement" between Wright Development and Ogden City, or any other party for that matter, which leads us to wonder whether the ultimate allocation of the council's $1 million is actually subject to any legally enforceable contingencies at all. The fact that the Std-Ex hasn't mentioned a development agreement of course doesn't mean that such an agreement doesn't exist. Still, reference to such an agreement is conspicuous in its absence from the Std-Ex's generally good reporting to date.
If indeed it's true that Wright has already spent significant money on this project in the absence of any written documents to protect its interests, it's put itself well out on a limb... which raises the next couple of questions:
Is Wright Development depending on an unwritten "handshake deal" with the Godfrey administration? Has the administration made behind the scenes verbal representations which might be enforceable under the law of torts, rather than the law of contracts, in the event that this project folds? It's difficult for us to believe that a competent developer would be expending significant monies on a half-baked project like this unless it had some assurances of reimbursement in the event the "expected" anchor tenant were to pull the plug. Are we witnessing here the first murmurings of the next Godfrey centered lawsuit, in the event that WinCo Foods takes a pass on this project?
So many questions... so few answers.
Perhaps a few Ogden City connected readers can fill in the blanks on this story.
Comments are again invited on this otherwise slow news Wednesday morning.
Update 3/18/09 1:20 p.m. MT: Gentle reader Monotreme "axed" for it... and thanks to the efforts of yet another attentive and sharp-eyed WCF reader who alerted us to this... here's the graphic contribution of one WCF poster who without a doubt responds to mono's siren call for a good and well-executed UDOT poster for permanent display above Boss Godfrey's desk:
We have a good thing going on here at Weber County Forum. No doubt about it. Don't withhold your gentle comments, fellow lumpencitizens.
Merely because you may have a St. Paddy's Day hangover, after gulping down multiple liters of of green beer and a few dozen shots of Jamesons or Bushmills on Two-five Drive yesterday (hopefully at Brewskis or the City Club, where they'll limo you home when you're "in you cups.") ... along with our new cranky poster Svengali ... Please don't just clam up!
Time to clear out the cobwebs, people.
REAL Irishmen always get up fresh-faced in the morning, prepared to carry on The Revolution.
More cranky comments, please.
