Theresa told me,
“Taking time to listen and hear all sides is an important part of the role of City council. I will summarize the items that were negotiated on Tuesday Night.”
I never did have a good feeling about the project and told several city councilors that the hotel will never be completed, then I hear this;
“The NMTC is a highly competitive economic development program, which incents private investments in the poorest rural and urban communities in America,†Rapoza said in a statement. “To receive NMTC allocation from the Department of Treasury and participate in the program, community development organizations demonstrate a record of financing dynamic projects that improve services such as health care, or create jobs and opportunity in communities where capital is difficult to obtain from conventional lenders.â€
Low paying hospitality jobs is hardly a good reason to give such a project tax incentives. This deal was doomed from the beginning and any city official/employee who supported this, worked on this or voted for this should be ashamed and should resign.
UPDATE: I guess a building permit mysteriously got posted yesterday late. Not sure if it was laying in a contractor’s tool box up until this point or what. Funny how these things work.
I’m still getting more details, but I found out last night that this historic building downtown had tenants complaining because of the mess, they also noticed NO permits for demolition and remodeling. The City’s Building Services department may also be investigating.
The worst part about it is this developer has a track record of this kind of funny business. Some people never learn.
It will be interesting to hear what is really going on.
Yeah, I know, Mr. Conspiracy theory here, and who can we believe? But this is an interesting change of events;
The group said it had proposed changes to the project to the city, but then it stopped receiving any notices or responses from the city, which the developer also alleges canceled meetings before alerting it that it was terminating the deal, which would have co-mingled public and private money to see two hotels, restaurants and retail space built around a parking garage at 110 S. Mall Avenue.
So the city council now is on ‘silent mode’. The city refused to negotiate the deal and late last night, TJ TypeOver sends out a press release saying they are looking for someone to complete the project.
When the performance bond payment didn’t come in, do you think the city got a little nervous and did some ‘shopping around’?
It will be interesting to see how fast another developer swoops in, and who it is. Information lockdown usually means things are going on in the backroom. At this point I can’t even speculate who would want to take it over, but we have our guesses 
Heck, I wouldn’t even be surprised if one of healthcare monsters builds a hospital on top of the parking ramp.
It will be fun to watch as the administration and the rubber stampers talk about how they ‘saved’ the doomed project while the rest of us roll our eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJuQ4JgMH24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A92nidaapcg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yTJoUvhEKY
l3wis