Will the new City of Sioux Falls administration building cost us $24 million?

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx_VSztDDFI[/youtube]

Imagine my surprise (as well as the mayor’s) when councilor Jamison threw the $24 Million number out there last night at the city council meeting (FF to the construction manager at risk discussion towards the end). It was pretty obvious from the Mayor’s reaction (he literally flipped out on councilor Jamison for putting it out there) that Greg may not be to far off the mark, or someone within the city or private development gave him the numbers.

Last night they were discussing hiring the construction manager at risk, and many people have been concerned that we are putting the cart in front of the horse on the project, because still don’t have a ballpark figure, or do we?

So was the mayor mad that Jamison knew the magic number and put it out there ahead of time, or was the mayor mad because Jamison was completely wrong in his estimates?

Folks, there is a reason this ‘number’ has been hidden from us, and it’s not because they are going to build this office building on the cheap.

Should ‘Public Projects’ be included in building permit record?

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This year the city of Sioux Falls is claiming we broke a building permit record again. Like last year (with the Denny Dome) there are several public projects on the docket. This year there is over $60 million in local tax dollars being spent on these projects. And while they will not put in one single penny to property taxes they somehow are included on the permit valuations. While technically they should be included in the raw numbers, I think it is deceptive to include them in the record since they are not commercial projects that bring in revenue. If anything, all of these public projects will cost taxpayers millions in subsidies, hardly something to brag about.

permits

Another Record in Sioux Falls

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Yeah! The rich developers are making loads of money (while we give them tax rebates)! The elected officials are spending our money on entertainment palaces! Yet the homeless rates, violent crime, hungry children and the under employed continue to grow in our community. But that’s all negative, so let’s not talk about it;

Sioux Falls City officials today announced a third record-breaking year of construction values. The construction valuation for building permits issued by Building Services in 2015 reached $619,862,799 million this morning. Last year’s record (2014) was $619.5 million, and the previous record set in 2013 was $588.2 million.

I actually believe that ‘public’ projects should not be included in these numbers, IMO. Always amazed how our mayor can spin all the positive in this community around a dollar amount while many are suffering in this community. Yet, councilor Kenny Anderson said on SuFuStu’s show today that the mayor is more transparent then mayor Munson was with working with the council. While I wouldn’t want to get into a grading system on how well either did on that issue, I will say this. THEY BOTH SUCKED!

Parking Rate hikes just don’t add up

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The more I think about this proposal, the more I question this increase;

“Our system is more than 90 percent full. It will be 100 percent full most likely in the next two years before we can open a new parking ramp,” said Darrin Smith, Sioux Falls Community Development Director.

Projects like the new ramp cost money. That’s why the city is proposing a rate change in Downtown Sioux Falls.

WOW! Where do we begin?

• We tear down a parking ramp that was useful and sell it for $1.

• We are going to be 100% full in two years yet the parking ramp the city is paying for is for a private hotel and apartments, with only about 3-5% useable by the public.

• The city will be leasing the parking ramp to these private entities. Shouldn’t that lease payment cover the bond payments? If not, why not? What is the benefit to the public to build a private parking ramp that the public can’t use most of the time and make us take care of the short fall on the bond payments?

This whole thing stinks to high Heaven, and I hope the council removes their heads from their asses and votes this increase down and demands the parking department adjust the lease payments to cover the bonds, or better yet, make the PRIVATE development build their own damn parking ramp. Let free enterprise work for itself, otherwise it’s just parking socialism. Maybe we should call it ‘Obama-park’?

Why does everything Downtown Sioux Falls have to be a restaurant/retail/condo?

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These developers are starting to sound like broken records more and more everyday;

Scherschligt said he doesn’t think the plan is “the highest and best use for that land.”

“Sioux Falls has been successful because the businesspeople and leaders of this community did not always think about themselves, but they thought about what was better for everybody,” he said. “We have these master plans. We create these master plans. And we buy into it. It wasn’t just one person. It was task forces of people.”

Former city planning director Steve Metli, who worked closely with several city master plans for the riverfront, said he’s disappointed in the development plan for the Kilian property.

“It’s a two-block stretch of the river walk that connects the falls to downtown, so it would be excellent for housing or major office, commercial – retail, restaurant-type use, and I was hoping that’s what it could be,” he said. “As much as the community has supported and still supports Lutheran Social Services, I think they could have put more thought in their decision to go there on behalf of the community.”

Sure, it ‘could’ be used for that, but what is wrong with having higher education and immigration services downtown also? I commend Kilian for their partnership and keeping downtown diverse.

And BTW, I have been in some of these new ‘housing’ units built downtown by Steve’s buddy, talk about cheap slap together sloppy workmanship. I guess nobody takes pride in their work anymore, as long as they can get a tax break while charging high priced rents. These places will be ram shackle within the decade. I can’t believe we hand out TIF’s for these projects.