For the benefit of Ogden City Council watchers, we'll provide a heads-up regarding a pair of Council and RDA meetings set for tomorrow's RDA-Council calenders.
1) The Prelim - Harrision Boulevard Road Widening: First, the City Council will hold a 5:30 p.m. work meeting to discuss, among other things, The Harrison Boulevard Road Widening Project:
Although we'd previously assumed that this project had already been already favorably resolved, with the Wasatch Front Regional Council's abandonment of the road-widening contingency plan, perhaps there remain a few loose ends; so we'll therefore urge readers who are still warily following developments in re this topic to sit in and report on tomorrow night's meeting.
2) The Main Event - Boss Godfrey's Junction Hotel Project Du Jour: On the heels of Saturday's WCF article, we observe that Boss Godfrey's wasting no time setting the stage for his latest Junction Hotel Project, and that he's somehow managed to finagle an immediate audience with the Emerald City RDA Board for tomorrow night, following the above Council work session, wherein the intricate Rube Goldberg-style details of this project's desperately hoped-for financing will be revealed. Here's the full Council-RDA packet:
We invite all real estate finance wonks to review the proposed Development Agreement, and to examine Boss Godfrey's dizzying array of half-assed proposed financing mechanisms, including, but not limited to these:
a. A Special Assessment AreaAlthough our readers did get a head start in their analysis behind Saturday's article, we invite anyone who'd like to wade into this newly-displayed data to fatten up the WCF discussion now.
b. ARRA QRZED Program Bonds (Parking),
c. ARRA QRZF Program Bonds (Private),
d. TIF Bonds,
e. An EDA Grant,
f. Restructuring of existing Junction loans,
g. Sale by the RDA of the raw land for $1.5 mil, in consideration for a promissory note with initial payment deferred 5-7 years.
We'll leave the lights on for any brave meeting attendee who'd like to comment post-meeting, with a full dose of NoDoz of course.
Update 11/10/10 7:25 a.m.: Here's a post-meeting report from the Standard-Examiner, such as it is:
14 comments:
Godfrey's definitely outdone himself on this one. If you wondered what Mickey Mouse financing looks like, this is exhibit #1. Nobody in their right mind would embark on a project like this, so it'll be interesting to see whether the council laughs Godfrey out of the room.
Interesting...Design Development drawings by end of November....this baby has been cookin' for quite some time
Anybody notice that Godfrey is trying to do the ground work for his dead gondola project before he secretly surprises his subjects that it once again lives? Let's see, another hotel at the downtown base station for all six riders and widening Harrison so the towers won't infere, too much, with traffic. What a snake!
Althepal:
Looks more like Rube Goldberg financing to me. But then, you say potato, I say....
What this jigsaw puzzle package does say to me is that no commercial lender will float money sufficient to develop this project no way no how. And that should have large amber "Caution!" lights flashing for the RDA members, i.e. the Council.
How large is the private bond anticipated, and does the city/developer have firm commitments for that funding, or is it merely another case of "we are confident that...."
This would've been a bad idea even when the economy was booming. I just don't see a need for it. From what I can see, the hotel isn't going to be big enough to draw large conferences and events, but just big enough to take away from the already existing. Plus, more commercial space at the street-level. Really?
How about planting some trees, putting in benches and a water fountain and making that block a park?
An interesting article in today's SL Tribune that shows the end result of this sort of Godfreyite idiocy. The article is about the range of property taxes paid by the citizens of Utah cities. It shows what the taxes are for the mythical $250,000 house. It mostly shows the ultimate effect of things like this bull shit hotel financing scheme of Godfrey's as well as the long series of incompetent financial fiascos he has authored over the last 8 years or so.
Ogden is the very highest taxed city in the whole state with the exception of one little district in Salt Lake that actually has no housing in it and has high tax rates as a result of a mingling of a number of different taxing districts that overlap there.
I think it is obvious that Ogden's property taxes are the highest in all of Utah because it has the least competent government and management of any other city.
From the article is the following"
"Well above the median tax of $1,731 statewide is most of Ogden, which has six of the top 10 tax rates, ranging from $2,349 to $2,469 on a $250,000 home.
Four other cities had one tax area each among the top 10 most expensive: Salt Lake City (the remote Tax Area 13G near Magna); Draper (in its ritzy Traverse Ridge area, $2,414 on a $250,000 home), Salem (portions in the Benjamin Cemetery District, $2,381) and a sliver of West Valley City in the Magna Water District ($2,318)"
You can see the whole article here:
Where Utah taxes are highest, lowest
In spite of how high and outrageous Ogden property taxes are, I venture to say you ain't seen nothin yet. Just wait till the whole Godfrey house of cards collapses and the bills really come due. Most folks will have to get second jobs to be able to pay their tax bills. Either that or sell out, which of course, in combination with the high taxes, will cause the real estate values in Ogden to completely collapse.
Ogden citizens and property owners will be paying for Godfrey's follies way way into the future!
Oz: And to make matters worse, Ogden's utility rates are much higher than SLC's.
Og Bill Payer:
Just to be fair in re: utility rates, we ought to note that part of that can be attributed to the City's attempts to hold taxes and rates low for many many years by deferring maintenance on, among other things, the sewer system, which now must be fixed and fast and all at once to avoid huge federal penalties. So what should have been done by easy increments to maintain the system over the years and was not so candidates could say "we didn't raise rates!" when running for re-election is costing us a great deal more and over a shorter period.
That was, I understand, going on for a long long time and cannot be laid at the Mayor's feet, though much else can of course.
Problem is, when you come to worship the god of "No tax, no fee increases!" as an end in itself, it can wind up costing the public many millions more than prudent increases over time to fund continuing maintenance would have.
We're seeing the same thing now nationally as Republicans insist ALL the Bush tax cuts be extended [boosting the deficit over a decade by trillions] while simultaneously insisting they want to balance the budget. They do not, when asked, and did not during the campaigns, list what it was they wanted to cut [except not the military budget, and not social security, two of the biggest categories of expenditures.]
It's Ogden, writ large.
At Ogden David political activist David Smith's request, we've just forwarded this missive to the Ogden Council/RDA Board
Every penny of costs associated with Iraq and Afghanistan should be paid off using a one time tax for every adult in the USA. Flat tax, full cost of war divided by the number of adults. No wars on credit cards; no Ogden City Godfrey schemes without a private entity covering all costs up front. I am sick of these financing from thin air schemes.
You mean pay for this?
The problem with Godfrey's Rube Goldberg financing, is that it conceals that Ogden City "co signs the note" on the deal (several notes, actually), meaning that taxpayers take the risk, and Kevin Garn owns the project and gets any upside.
They will claim the "co sign" is only to get a "lower interest rate". Well, if Garn wanted to, he could put up enough of his own collateral to get a lower rate, instead of having the homeowners of Ogden "co sign" the loans.
Private profit. Socialized risk.
Par for the course in Godfreyland.
Did the council assembly give Garn a standing ovation?
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