To repeat: River View is now being presented as a three-phase project, with parking first, retail second, apartments third, and condos only at the very end.
Mike Kopp now takes the floor to sell the preceding. He merged Blue Sun with Remax so he could take advantage of the latter's commercial strength, precisely to tie into River View.
Kopp likes the new plans quite a lot. He sketches an optimistic scenario in which every projection being made succeeds, with no hitches and no glitches.
Jon Anderson from Indy explains how the three-step development process was necessary because of resistance from banks. PNC is interested, and Stockyards, BB & T, maybe Main Source and Your Community. Consistent message now is that the scale was too large to ensure financing. However, the city is being relied upon to be perfectly consistent in its TIF commitment.
Jack Bobo really thinks there WILL be interest when marketing packages and loan packages go out. The need a large retail tenant (read: chain), but they'll forge ahead even if they don't get such a commitment.
how does mayor carl Gahan/Jeff Malysz feel about it?
ReplyDeleteMalysz was here, Gahan was not.
ReplyDeleteWhat goes unsaid is the presumption River View can not get bank financing because there is too much risk involved. The principals have no experience building something like this.
ReplyDeleteThis should be good news for those hysterical parking freaks who can't sleep in their suburban homes at night thinking about how to get more parking downtown - to save it. I think the TIF district sham just pulled another parking garage on us. Then we can only hope a chain store like Kohls comes in to destroy the town's view of the waterfront forever.
Presumably this will be Carl's garage to shepherd? Can we call it Carl's Garage? I hope it costs less than $15 million.
Whole Foods/ Trader Joes!!!!! And uhmm, just a rational thought: The apartments/condos should come first...you HAVE TO HAVE PEOPLE LIVING DOWNTOWN FOR RETAIL TO SUCCEED, DUH!
ReplyDelete(1) Death to chains.
ReplyDelete(2) Gina, this should not be Carl's anything, although seeing as he's now in housing initiatives, you'd think he'd lobby for the condos up front.
(3) All along, we said that there'd be a slack market for the condos and resistance from banks, and tonight, we were proven right. Again.
Sadly, the only real winners here will be the joker(s) in the concrete bidness and the joker(s) who let the bids.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet anyone double money the residential portion never gets built. Ever.
The "invisible hand" of the market has already decided we don't need a chain store downtown. We need compelling reasons to come to downtown New Albany - like the folks who are working hard and who are already downtown - eclectic shopping, entrepreneurship, people who try, who work hard, not discount chains.
They won't attract a discount chain to the space.
By the way, doesn't New Albany already enjoy a spacious parking garage less than 4,000 feet from the proposed parking garage?
Does the proposal still call for a cut in the levee? I said it here before, and I'll say it again - if the proposal calls to cut the floodwall for this parking garage, those who are for this proposal have a death wish for the city.
Sorry - instead of "joker(s)" - of course, I meant "friend(s)."
ReplyDeleteJust checked on Google Earth - it looks like the new parking garage is 1,000 feet from the existing parking garage.
ReplyDeleteLess than two tenths of a mile. Walkin' distance.
Mr Bobo said that while the levee cut was surely not forgotten, it was not part of the amended plans discussed this evening.
ReplyDeleteWhere were the times for the work session posted. I wanted to go to it but didn't hear anything from last Thursday's council meeting?
ReplyDeleteAnd I haven't heard anyone bring it up. But the current finances for the sewer are well in the black, even without the full rate increase taking affect. And 6/7ths of the bond in use. Any thoughts?
One last thing, the commitment on behalf of the city was for the tax revenue captured by the TIF, from RiverVeiw’s assessment to be rebated back to help finance the garage.
ReplyDeleteIf the project will be built in phases and the garage built first, there won’t be enough revenue rebate to help with financing.
It is lining up that MainLand will be before the council asking for a greater commitment and money to build the garage at city's risk and expense- not the deal made last year.
It is time for MainLand to take a hike.
I'll say it again: The only thing this project had going for it was Mose's architecture which, in my view, was still too traditional. Without him, they've managed to make it worse.
ReplyDeleteAnybody still want to insist that building a wall of private buildings will "reconnect" us to the river?
"It is time for MainLand to take a hike."
ReplyDeleteYes, I fully agree.
In the beginning, there was an effort to explain the logic of this project in an overall, community-good sense. As of last night, the logic of the project has become the necessity of the project itself, for the project's own sake.
As for it being posted, I didn't know about the work session until Thursday morning, when IAH noted the fact on Twitter.
I read a Tweet on Wednesday about the work session on RV.
ReplyDeleteRemember when "they" said that by putting the project in the TIF district it would allow Mainland to line up their financing? Well, NA did and they still can't get total financing. We said 300-400k condos wouldn't sell. Last night, ML admitted that they won't. And on and on and on...
I, too, agree with Jameson, it is time for Mainland to take a hike and let's move on to something that might actually work. This is a waste of time. It's valuable city property that should not be given away.
but it must be a great project or the city's rasputin of development Carl Gahan wouldnt have promoted it.
ReplyDeleteGood job mayor, lets keep all of Englands mistakes compounding
"In the beginning, there was an effort to explain the logic of this project in an overall, community-good sense. As of last night, the logic of the project has become the necessity of the project itself, for the project's own sake. "
ReplyDeleteThe people who are paid with tax money to paint "pie-in-the-sky" visions in front of a naive audience should be on code inspections only, going forward. Why can't we get Carl to work on code enforcment, undoubtedly one of those over-all feel-good community efforts he's all about?
best solution is fire malysz, but gutless gahan wont be a leader
ReplyDeleteEco,
ReplyDeleteI don't know yet what kind of mayor Jeff is going to be but considering that 4 years ago you backed Hubbard, who refused to take questions from the public, you are in no position to be calling anyone gutless.
thats ok seabrook will take Gahan out in 4 years
ReplyDelete