Just when you thought the incentives for the DT Hilton couldn’t be anymore, in steps Dakota Business Finance, (look at the board of directors.)
There is a sign outside the Hilton that says basically says this;
Financing Provided ByDakota Business FinanceSBA 504 Financing20 Year Fixed RateLow Interest Rates
So not only did the Hilton get taxpayer subsidized landscaping and bulkheads, property tax cuts in the form of TIF’s, they also received SBA funding?! All for a ‘luxury’ hotel. Folks, I wish I was making this shit up.
On Saturday, the sign was on the north side of the Hilton facing 8th Street.
On Sunday, the sign was gone.
Once again the specials getting attention for the special things they do and they do not like it.
The SBA small business loan guarantee for a distressed or risky project. Yea
Aw yes, and former Planning Commission member, Meridith Larson, while sitting on the Commission approved WM zoning while his employer puts in bids on building WM’s. No wonder they got this loan.
But when you control the banks, the planning commission, the city council, and the mayor anything is possible.
This is why the rich get richer and the poor get to move into apartments after losing their homes to foreclosure.
The whole concept of a ‘small business’ is so murky and ill-defined that I usually just ignore any argument based on them. My wife is technically a ‘small-business owner’ by the IRS definition, with total revenues of ~$20k. But there are lots of millionaires in this country who can also be defined as ‘middle class’ ‘small-business owners’ if you twist the definition enough.
It’s all just political mumbo-jumbo, meant to trick us into believing that the candidates truly care about the little guy.
The board of directors are tomorrows stepford politicians. Put some money in and watch them lie.
I was down there last week. I noticed the sign and was surprised Huether’s face wasn’t there somewhere. “I built it, I did”. What I noticed is there are more homeless out front than workers at the site. More money for the county to help these people. Millions less for the city to spend on private projects.
One of the definitions allows the Koch Brothers to be small business owners. They can ‘bid’ on contracts because they have a small total number of owners.
Using this IRS definition, Hegg and Llyod can go to the SBA for small business assistance…
I was also surprised Cindy Hieberger, a sitting Minnehaha County Commissioner, is on the Board.
Oh but the Hilton, Hegg & Lloyd donated $20,000 of their own money towards rehab of the pedestrian bridge (That costed taxpayers about $120K).
Woot! Woot! Nevermind the millions in property tax breaks and bulkhead improvements to the river in front of their project. $20,000. Don’t make me laugh.
It’s a sad concept too that they were awarded millions in property tax breaks to build a suburban-sized hotel in the middle of our downtown. It’s not like this was a new full service hotel with large convention space and 300+ rooms, this is a suburban style concept that plopped itself right on our riverfront and is wasting valuable development space, just like the CNA Surety Buildings Parking Ramp. The city can continue to say all it wants about fast “progress” being made downtown, but in reality, they’ve made many decisions that will continue to work against the progress they wish to see, and have limited that progress to a couple individuals who work our city council, mayor, media, and other leaders like absolute puppets.
Our leaders live in the moment, they do not plan for the future.
CC you are right, all the fancy boutique buildings being put up downtown are low density units ready to go let’s see, the mall or interstate off ramp for travelers. So let’s fill up the limited space with little buildings which will comeback to haunt our future planners, cost us a fortune to tear down when the space is needed for the next big thing a Hegg / Lloyd / Dunham / MMM will want to do on our dime.
Totally agree with the need for more small, properly scaled buildings for downtown. I really hope this proposal by Dunham for condos comes through – this is exactly the type of building we need to fill in those missing teeth downtown. We could really use a moratorium on surface parking lots in the downtown area – put it underground, or don’t put it anywhere.
Tom, that building would be a monstrosity. The worst part about the construction of it it will block the south passageway into DT for a long time. What a mess.
@DL:
What? ‘Block the south passageway’? Do you understand where that would be located? It’s not taking out a street.
If you think a 6-story residential building with setbacks (on a current parking lot) would be a monstrosity at 12th & Phillips, then… wow. I don’t understand. This is literally about 500 feet from the Shriver Building.
@DL:
Sorry, I misunderstood your ‘block’ comment. I thought that you thought that this would take out a street or something.
In any case, I’ve seen bigger buildings than this built in tighter neighborhoods that haven’t even closed sidewalks, let alone whole streets. It can be done, especially with a site surrounded by parking lots like this one.
I would highly doubt that construction of a building on Phillips, especially one that small, would require the closing of the street itself. Go to many other urban neighborhoods in cities across the US, and you’ll find contractors are able to construct buildings in small spaces while leaving pedestrian paths open as well as roads.
Hopefully it’s six stories. It’s prime residential real estate along a valuable street in Sioux Falls. Enough of this suburban sized development in the heart of our city!
By the looks of the drawings, it will not be something which the majority of Sioux Falls residents could afford.
Sure, but if you constrain the supply of housing at the high-end, those higher costs trickle down to the lower end of the market.
Basically, if you add supply, the overall effect will be to drive prices down. Conversely, if you constrain supply, prices throughout the market will be driven upward.
The rooftop gardens shall afford us a lovely view of the Top Hat and Slumshine, anyway.
Speaking of Slumshine, that’s a pretty awesome potential redevelopment site. Maybe something like this, with a small grocery store and some retail spots on the first floor, although I expect this is too ‘hulking’ for some people.
I think that Sunshine makes a load of money at that site, they are not going anywhere, anytime soon.
What do you know…. more “able-bodied” individuals (corporate citizens) getting Federal aid. I wonder what Governor Daugaard thinks of this….