Riverline District

CORRECTION: Is the Riverline District just a gigantic scam?

l3wis December 17, 2024 3Comments

CORRECTION: The city will GET the $8 million back IF the deal falls thru. BUT, this is interest FREE and NO taxes will be paid on the property for 3 years. I guess my question is ‘Why would we buy property for a project that hasn’t been approved by voters or the council?’ It’s insanity. Usually the city gets approval before they move ahead with an ‘agreement’ with current property owners. Or better yet, why doesn’t Lloyd just sit on the property for 3 years if we waive the property taxes? Or why doesn’t the Development Foundation buy the land? Taxpayers ARE NOT speculators. We give you the money to spend on infrastructure and services not to buy a plot of land that may never come to fruition.

The more I look at this ‘deal’ (Item 29) the more it looks like a money scam and NOT an actual Convention Center. If you read the purchase agreement, one thing is for sure; The city is buying the land for $8 MILLION and ‘gifting’ it to the Development Foundation. WHY? Well if you read carefully the purchase agreement you will SEE that the land reverts BACK to the original owners in 3 years if nothing is done, State Partners, LLC, which looks like they are brokering the deal thru Ernst Capital (which one of the partners is Chris Daugaard, yes the son of the former governor and partner Todd Ernst, son-in-law to Craig Lloyd.) It appears they are brokering the deal for Lloyd. Either way, if the Convention Center fails (which it will) the property reverts back to the original owners and they DO NOT have to give that $8 million back. In other words we are GIVING the Development Foundation AND State Partners, LLC. $8 million to play with over the next 3 years. Even if the CC was legit, there is NO WAY it will even pass, we will need a 3rd penny revenue source to pay for this, and I think most people are like, F’ that. If the Development Foundation really wants a new CC why don’t you borrow the money and pay for the land yourself and if the CC passes a vote, then we will buy it from you.

Why is the city in the land speculation business?

This is just a money scam to make a lot of people a lot of money and little else. I encourage folks to attend the council meeting tonight and call out this scam for what it is; A LAND GRAB!

Riverline Committee finally has public meeting today

l3wis December 9, 2024 5Comments

Not sure what happened, because it wasn’t recorded, but here was the agenda;

• Purchase agreement, timeline to public vote, and consulting timeline.

I encourage peeps in the real estate industry to read the purchase AGREEMENT and see if something sticks out. They also have a PREVIEW of the document with questions.

I have heard plenty of rumors that there is a gigantic conflict of interest with who is brokering this deal and a city official, so keep your eyes peeled. My assumption all along is that they had the first two meetings as executive sessions because they were trying to find a way to hide names of people who will be benefitting financially from this deal in the form of commissions. They are also trying to concoct this ILLEGAL advisory vote which has about as much weight as legal advice from your barber.

Like I said, I did not attend the meeting today at the admin building in the middle of the afternoon, but I am guessing they are still sticking with the advisory vote which is ILLEGAL and I have been connecting with folks behind the scenes to find a way to stop this ILLEGAL election. More on that soon.

A foot soldier came to me lately with an interesting theory on the Riverline (from this article);

“The actual project currently is scheduled in two phases, beginning with 10th Street in 2032 and followed by 11th Street in 2036.”

Just a hunch – the City will buy Lloyd’s property currently leased by the State of South Dakota as office space (as well as other parcels in the neighborhood); hold it 7-10 years, through the greater portion of the viaduct construction projects.  

The City will build a Convention Center on a portion and as the viaduct construction projects are able to forecast a discrete completion date, the City will sell a portion back to Lloyd (and similar to the land deal involved in Phillips to the Falls, the price will be very favorable to Lloyd [original cost?]).

I have felt this was part of the plan for a long time. As you can see from the maps, a two-way traffic viaduct makes more sense, but it also frees up a ton of real estate.

While I support having only ONE viaduct (or better yet kick the f’ing trains out of town then we don’t have to fart around with this) it isn’t about making the lives of the residents better, it’s always about lining someone’s pockets.

If this goes to an advisory vote and the citizens pass this it will be one of the largest tax increases on citizens in the history of our city, it will also pay NO DIVIDENDS! In other words this tax increase will not make your life more fiscally secure and virtually have NO EFFECT on your life. The Convention Center business should be private, in fact it is, hundreds of for profit businesses throughout Sioux Falls do this, we don’t need another giant building that sits empty 90% of the year. Want to spend $400 million in Sioux Falls and make a REAL economic impact? Clean up the core neighborhoods with grants and community development loans. Trim all the city owned trees! Fix all the city owned sidewalks! I can tell you spending money on these things will go a lot farther in making this community a better place then some profit making scheme by bankers, developers, contractors and all the other ilk that comes to the feeding trough.

I can’t wait to see the committee’s recommendations. This is going to be very funny.