City Will Provide Operaint Subsidies For Business on Hospital Site

[Bill Call]

Here is the agreement:

City of Lakewood - Carnegie Development Agreement 4822-5376-7522 v.22.pdf

(4.68 MiB) Downloaded 179 times

Near the end of the document is a site plan that includes an 800+ space parking garage.

One member of Council who voted to let the deal go forward said that it was the only deal on the table.

That's fair enough. At some point its time to develop the site and move on. On the other hand what does that say about the Mayor and his supporters? They secretly engage in a secret plan to destroy a profitable Hospital and transfer its assets for pennies on the dollar, agree to transfer as much as $80 million in cash and investments to private foundations and then:

Announce that there is only one developer interested and that developer is only interested if the City spends $12 million or so on site development and donated land.

AND

There is so little interest that the restaurants and offices and retail that occupies the space will need taxpayer subsidies. I suspect that those subsidies will be paid in secret so the taxpayers will never no who gets what. The restaurant business in Lakewood is very competitive; many are just barely making ends meet. I for one will not give the taxpayer subsidized business one dollar of my business.

AND

What about all those poor suckers who operate a business in Lakewood and don't get the subsidies. Won't they be at a competitive disadvantage?

It's too late to stop this dirty deal but it is NOT to late to make sure the politicians who engineered this dirty deal are sent to early retirement.

[Mark Kindt]

Lakewood Proceeds Down The Wrong Path

There actually was one major alternative on the table and that was strangled in its cradle -- Metro Health System was prepared to commence its expansion plans with the addition of Lakewood Hospital and a $100,000,000 investment over ten years -- the public documents demonstrate that that was just ignored by the LHA/LHF insiders that killed the hospital.

This is all a public policy travesty of the first order.

Both the loss of the hospital and the proposed redevelopment project represent the worst kinds of looting of the public treasury.

1. Liquidate a viable award-winning hospital and transfer the liquidated proceeds to non-public third-parties, but only accept token payments for the City.

2. Destroy high-skilled jobs and abandon valuable lease and tax revenue income.

3. Taint the hospital with a non-compete provision.

4. Demolish a hospital that, as a physical hospital building, had a value of around $20,000,000.

5. Spend millions of dollars of public money to demolish the building.

6. Give the multi-million dollar site to the developer for $1.00.

7. Promise continuing public subsidies to the occupants of the new development. (Adding insult to injury, I'd say.)

This describes the actions of the civic leadership that has offered us its vision of the future of the city. It's an embarrassment. It should be a crime.

Voters need to clean house in 2019.

[Mark Kindt]

Unfunded Federal Mandates

Let's not forget that Lakewood Hospital--a public asset--was being definitively liquidated by the the city leadership at a time when they all knew that the city faced an unfunded federal mandate for wastewater management that the mayor estimates at $274,000,000.

What I will suggest is that we now also know that Lakewood taxpayers and ratepayers will subsidize the loss of the hospital, the redevelopment of the hospital site, and will provide additional subsidies to support the redevelopment.

Yes, the agreement does transfer the former hospital site to the developer for $1.00.

It's an "investment".

[Mark Kindt]

And, one more thing...

If, for some reason, the city needs to take the former hospital site back, the city will pay the developer at the appraised value of the site at that time.

No, we don't get the hospital back for $1.00.

[Stan Austin]

Now that's shrewd bargaining

[Bill Call]

[quote="Mark Kindt"]And, one more thing...

If, for some reason, the city needs to take the former hospital site back, the city will pay the developer at the appraised value of the site at that time.

No, we don't get the hospital back for $1.00.
[/quote

It's amazing. There is a good chance that this project gets started just in time for the next recession. So we lose a profitable Hospital and millions in rent and income taxes and access to health care and millions in economic activity and transfer tens of millions to private foundations and then when the project fails the City is obligated to bail out the developer.

[cmager]

And, one more thing...If, for some reason, the city needs to take the former hospital site back, the city will pay the developer at the appraised value of the site at that time. No, we don't get the hospital back for $1.00.

It's amazing. There is a good chance that this project gets started just in time for the next recession. So we lose a profitable Hospital and millions in rent and income taxes and access to health care and millions in economic activity and transfer tens of millions to private foundations and then when the project fails the City is obligated to bail out the developer.

They, everyone involved and inside, are making personal $$ on this.