Proud Member of The Moms Clean Air Force
Print This Post
Dec
26
This is just getting to be ridiculous: First, a reputed business analyst firm says Forest City is worthless but the Plain Dealer doesn’t publish anything about that for more than two weeks – including Forest City’s rebuttal of that analysis (no PD independent review that I could find, though, online anyway). Oh those wise editors who just are sure we don’t need to know any of that. Silly readers and consumers.
Then, on Christmas Day, they publish, on their blog, at 9pm at night, the article, “Progress for a Medical Mart in Cleveland remains a mystery.” Now, I found that article through a Google Alert I have set up with certain words and so that is a link to the blog.cleveland.com version – I do not know if it was in the print version of the PD this morning, but it is timestamped:
December 25, 2008 20:57PM
I will say that there are almost 30 comments there, so that’s a good thing to see. And the article itself is pretty good, hitting the highlights of this deal which so many NE Ohioans have distrusted from the beginning:
The owners of Tower City [that would be the aforementioned Forest City], the site favored by a selection committee for the medical mart, say that no one has talked to them in months.
Taxpayers have provided $100,000 so far to the county’s chief negotiator, lawyer Fred Nance, but his legal bills provide no clue about whom he is negotiating with or how long he is talking with them.
And even though county commissioners have set a Jan. 15 deadline for making a deal to manage the project with Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., Nance won’t commit to the date.
My problem with this reporting is the assumption that these business people see each other out and around all the time. This is a small city and a small business community when it comes to these deals. Who are they fooling? So what does it mean that “no one” (from the selection committee or otherwise related to Med Mart) has talked to Forest City?
One reason Forest City remains in the dark is that discussions between county leaders and MMPI are done in private. So are Nance’s briefings of county leaders. His bills to the county provide little insight. Nance’s paperwork summarizes only a few general tasks he agreed to perform 14 months ago, when he began working for the county on the project. The county’s contract with Nance could net him and his firm, Squire Sanders & Dempsey, an additional $75,000.
How convenient. You know, there’s a special place for elected people and public officials who get bent out of shape over the public wanting to know what the people who are hired and elected to serve the public are doing: out of a job.
Don’t like the site selection suggestions? Hey – just spend more money and do another review:
The privacy helped mask another reason Forest City is in the dark. MMPI is conducting its own site selection study, largely to find ways to reduce construction costs. As part of that look, MMPI examined a third location — a spot in the Flats — although the remoteness of that land may doom it.
Mark Falanga, senior vice president of Chicago-based MMPI, said the company has made numerous cost analyses based on different design sizes. He said the project’s complexity has made progress slow. He said MMPI will not pick a site just to meet a deadline.
“This has been largely an internal process,” Falanga said. “When we are ready to share results, we will be happy to do so.”
Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan, who will be up for re-election next who was just re-elected to his position, insists that all will be known by 1/15/09.
Based on this last batch of info in the PD article, having the January deadline met is the least of my concerns:
The county will pay for the bulk of the complex with money from the sales tax increase that went into effect in October 2007. The quarter-cent tax increase is to run for 20 years. In the first full year, it generated $42 million. Although tax collections eventually could total $1 billion, the tax money is expected to cover only up to $500 million in construction costs. The rest will pay down debt.
The business leaders’ site selection report estimated construction and land acquisition costs at Tower City at $536 million. Work at the current convention center, off Lakeside Avenue, was figured at $583 million.
Falanga said MMPI wants to limit those costs to $400 million.
LaRue said he is concerned the size of the complex is being shrunk so it can fit into the convention center site for the same price as building at Tower City. If that’s the case, he said, MMPI should approach him about reducing the size at his site.
NOOOO! Such a surprise! MORE expensive? Will have to be made SMALLER? For more money?
Ugh.
Same old same old and nothing we didn’t all mention in one form or another during the very public hearings the public pushed on the process in the summer of 2007. Though, even so, look where that got us.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:52 pm December 26th, 2008 in Business, conservatives, Media, Ohio, Politics
Comments
2 Responses to “Med Mart = Dead Mart? PD publishes more intensely local news when everybody’s away”
Voted into Top 25 Political Mom Blogs
Now on sale-WLST essay included!
Posts About Pepper Pike City Council2010 WE Magazine 101 Women Bloggers to Watch
Category Specific RSS
Pepper Pike Cleveland+ Politics Women Ohio Elections Law Jewish
Jill wrote: Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan, who will be up for re-election next, insists that all will be known by 1/15/09.
Tim Hagan was just re-elected without opposition. Jimmy Dimora is next up, 2010.
Thank you – I’ve corrected that.