Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

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Marguerite Harkness
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu May 14, 2015 10:42 am

Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Marguerite Harkness » Sun Jul 15, 2018 5:57 pm

Remember, in all of this:

It's not like Lakewood even HAS $40-80,000,000 in cash to GIVE AWAY. Lakewood does NOT have this money.

This represents sales proceeds and tax income we SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN, and SHOULD NOT BE SPENDING (demolition etc.)

So where is it eventually going to come from?

Lakewood can't issue municipal bonds to pay for demolition and giveaways.

Give up $1 million a year in employee income taxes - how much will the City decide to raise the income tax, and even at that, how many years will it take to make it up?

Summers has said, "Our tax rate is still one of the lowest in the county." But they can raise the tax rate, or LOWER THE CREDIT, or BOTH, to make us pay for this debacle. HOW MUCH???


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Mark Kindt » Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:11 pm

Just to be clear:

The developer is proposing a project with an estimated cost of $72,000,000.

The city is providing 5.7 acres of real estate for nominal value ($1.00) that might be worth as much as $14,000,000 based on comparable acreage on Detroit Avenue.

The city is spending $7,000,000 received from the liquidation of Lakewood Hospital on building demolition, site remediation and site preparation.

The city is demolishing a hospital building that it owns that likely has a value of between $10,000,000 and $20,000,000.

We can estimate the total cost of the project between the city and the developer as somewhere between $103,000,000 and $113,000,000.

Significant municipal assets of a former invaluable community hospital are fundamental to this project.

If the city just did nothing, it would have new funds and assets on its 2018 balance sheet that might range from $30M to $40M.

There is no "investment" here because future tax receipts will never off-set the combination of the public subsidies granted and the abandonment by the city of hospital associated revenues.

It's a complete dead loss.

Everything that the Mayor has done since 2014 represents a continuing and massive disinvestment in our community and our local economy.

There is no scenario where all of this isn't a loss.

This is a policy of economic contraction led by our mayor and city council all wrapped-up in public relations campaign language as "transformation", "progress", and "growth".

Ms. Harkness is absolutely correct. We cannot afford this and it will inevitably result in higher taxation.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Mark Kindt » Tue Jul 17, 2018 8:58 am

The Bottom Line

You may disagree with my analysis or my estimates, but they all serve to highlight my point that the public really can't know how large the public subsidies are for One Lakewood Place without an independent fair market value appraisal.

We just have to trust that our elected officials aren't giving our hospital away for nothing.

. . . . .

No, folks, trust me, they are giving it all away for just one dollar.


Brian Essi
Posts: 2421
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 11:46 am

Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Brian Essi » Fri Jul 20, 2018 5:43 am

Mark Kindt wrote:The Bottom Line

You may disagree with my analysis or my estimates, but they all serve to highlight my point that the public really can't know how large the public subsidies are for One Lakewood Place without an independent fair market value appraisal.

We just have to trust that our elected officials aren't giving our hospital away for nothing.

. . . . .

No, folks, trust me, they are giving it all away for just one dollar.


Mr. Kindt,

I trust you!

As always, excellent analysis!


David Anderson has no legitimate answers
Stan Austin
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Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Stan Austin » Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:34 pm

Let's start from ground zero - sort of a do over. The land and the old hospital building on it now cost the City nothing. Is there any speculator or investor out there who sees a potential profit of demolishing the existing building and making the land ready for development? I would suggest a mushroom farm but I doubt the economics given the costs of demolition. But, the mushroom farmer would take the risks at no cost to the City. I propose that as the fiscally responsible starting point. Anything other than that model would be thinly disguised theft. So, for the foreseeable future we have an economic Chernobyl.


Bill Call
Posts: 3312
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2005 1:10 pm

Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Bill Call » Fri Jul 27, 2018 6:27 am

Mark Kindt wrote:Just to be clear:

The developer is proposing a project with an estimated cost of $72,000,000.

The city is providing 5.7 acres of real estate for nominal value ($1.00) that might be worth as much as $14,000,000 based on comparable acreage on Detroit Avenue.

The city is spending $7,000,000 received from the liquidation of Lakewood Hospital on building demolition, site remediation and site preparation.

The city is demolishing a hospital building that it owns that likely has a value of between $10,000,000 and $20,000,000.

We can estimate the total cost of the project between the city and the developer as somewhere between $103,000,000 and $113,000,000.

Significant municipal assets of a former invaluable community hospital are fundamental to this project.

If the city just did nothing, it would have new funds and assets on its 2018 balance sheet that might range from $30M to $40M.

There is no "investment" here because future tax receipts will never off-set the combination of the public subsidies granted and the abandonment by the city of hospital associated revenues.

It's a complete dead loss.



The value of real estate and land in Lakewood has increased substantially in the last 5 years but the Mayor's estimated value of the real estate has stayed the same: $0

(Don't get too excited if you are a homeowner. The value in other cities like Rocky River and Bay Village and elsewhere across the Country are increasing even faster.)

I suspect that one reason they have place such a low value on the real estate is that the City is obligated to pay at least $2.5 million for parking facilities for the new Clinic building. By low balling the value of the property they can shift that obligation to the developer.


Mark Kindt
Posts: 2637
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 11:06 am

Re: Questioning The Redevelopment of the Former Hospital Site

Postby Mark Kindt » Tue Jul 31, 2018 4:56 pm

Mark Kindt wrote:On some days the former Lakewood Hospital is worth $20,000,000 and on other days it is worth $1.

Who's being made a fool here?


Now that each Lakewood homeowner holds in his or her hand the 2018 Proposed Value Notice for their home from the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer, we know that real estate and buildings have enjoyed average value increases from 18% to 22%.

Just like the City did with the hospital, perhaps, we should each retain an appraiser and obtain an "as instructed" appraisal for a nominal ($1.00) value.

The City continues to make fools of us all.

Mr. O'Bryan has nailed this with his recent post:

"While City Hall liquidated over $178 million dollars in publicly owned assets into two small pools of money controlled for the most part by the Mayor friends. People that all along the way assured us "Lakewood was doing the right thing, while never mentioning their actual part or pay-off in the scheme.

At no point in the debacle did the founders of the Active Living Task Force, Lakewood Hospital Foundation or others admit, their active participation in the massive loss to the City of Lakewood or that the plan was to help a failed ex-Mayor in his support of lobbyist in a construction company get a lack luster building, that would house the co-conspirators and schemers in yet another underwhelming mixed use strip mall. This one calle strangely enough a name the failed ex-Mayor had trademarked nearly a decade earlier.

And that instead of a full service hospital, we would get a state of the art, very large Urgent Care Center, albeit run by one of the largest hospital chains in the world. No, through all that we were lied to, mislead, feed false information, berated, even stalk and intimidated by city officials, members of support groups all formed to hammer this night mare home.

Our largest employer, sent packing. Our largest draw to DowntowN Lakewood sent packing. The entire focal point that the schemers had worked so hard to get us to fund, liquidated into their hands, while we lost a full service hospital. It truly seems like a nightmare or DEBACLE as even some of the very participants now call it."



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