Posts Tagged “Hardball Capital”

When all else fails, blame someone else.

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Tags: Barry Real Estate, Fort Wayne, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square

What’s happening with Barry Real Estate and the failed condo/retail development at Harrison Square? Both the city and Barry have failed to really provide any substantive answers of late.

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Tags: Barry Real Estate, Fort Wayne, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Tom Henry

I decided to take time from cleaning the gutters today to give a small retrospective of Mayor Henry’s term in office. I’ve listed below some of Henry’s major non-accomplishments. It’s not all-encompassing, so feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section.

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Tags: Budget, Earth First, Fort Wayne City Council, Glynn Hines, Gregg Walbridge, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, I&M, Jerry Henry, John Shoaff, Jon A. Bragalone, Karen Goldner, Liz Brown, Marty Bender, Monosodium Glutamate, National Serv-All, Tim Pape, Tom Didier, Tom Henry, Vince Robinson

By Jim Sack

The controversial toll bridge to the Embassy has a couple new wrinkles. First, it seems the city may well bow to public pressure to open the sky bridge so we rabble may enjoy what we have paid for. Secondly, the city has held on to this little secret for a year or more. Wonder why?

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Tags: Fort Wayne, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Tom Henry, White Lodging

Can anyone believe that he’s actually qualified to make the statement in the video below? More liberal horseshit. Do you honestly believe that your child’s doctor would do a surgery that wasn’t required, just for the money? The Obamassiah does.

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Tags: America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, democrat corruption, Dumbass, Hardball Capital, Loren Spivack, Obamacare, Obamassiah, Porkulus, Radical Left, Socialism, Wealth redistribution

Hardball Capital and Barry Real Estate responded to Fort Wayne’s request to find out just what the hell was going on with the never-to-be-seen downtown condominiums. Normally you would hop on a plane and go sit down with your business partner when a multi-million dollar development hangs in the balance. Or, at the very least send a nice letter in the mail, and maybe even follow it up with a phone call. Instead Hardball/Barry sent a couple of emails.

Mayor King Henry is keeping the emails a secret.

Go figure.

Tags: Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Tom Henry

Reprinted with permission

Harrison Square Doubts Were Well-Founded

By Ron Reinking, CPA

In the ongoing discussion in the press and the chatter on local talk radio regarding Fort Wayne’s Harrison Square there’s a line of reasoning that goes like this:

“Nobody could have foreseen these economic times . . . city officials did their very best with our money . . . they should not be blamed for having the courage to bring a vision to reality, a plan that could have worked, something good for the entire community.”

That is a defense, however, against accusations never made.

No one believed that those involved in the planning of Harrison Square were careless or insincere. It did become obvious, however, that while promoters initially may have wished good for the community, human nature inevitably took over and self-interest began to drive public policy.

As a result, Fort Wayne now must be counted another victim of well-intentioned visionaries with the power to tax.

The Nobel laureate Milton Freidman in his award-winning book and television series, “Free to Choose,” describes such a situation in the context of one of four different ways people spend money, i.e., “spending other people’s money on other people.”

Thus the well-meaning fellow with a fuzzy civic vision places himself in the position of spending others money for community “good.” Classically, it means serving on a not-for-profit board or assuming the position of “public servant.” In many of these positions, Friedman wants us to know, there is virtually no restraints on spending and, if your intentions are deemed worthy by the media, honor and esteem to boot.

And when, as is the case of Harrison Square, the wheels do fall off, there is no personal punishment or accountability. Indeed, failure itself is often used to justify even more money to “clean up the mess.”

Dr. Friedman continues: “If I want to do good with other people’s money, I first have to take it away from them. That means, at its very bottom, a philosophy of violence and coercion. It’s against freedom, because I have to use force to get the money. In the second place, few people spend other people’s money as carefully as they spend their own.”

Citizens of Fort Wayne, if they hope to prevent future debacles, must hold the boosters of Harrison Square accountable to the Freidman dictum, and for a number of reasons.

First, we must question how much civic courage it takes to pursue a vision of “good” with money taken from other people. Was it ethical, appropriate and even legal to expropriate the taxpayers’ resources for condominiums and baseball stadiums? If the answer is “yes”, then we are little more than indentured servants of a government granted unrestrained power to tax and spend.

Second, we must ask if it is true that nobody could have foreseen this outcome. Eighty percent of the public saw it coming, according to opinion polling. And 100 percent of private investors refused to risk their own capital on the government’s vision. The politicians, with no skin in the game, proceeding anyway, calculating they could make excuses if the bag (which we now hold) ultimately turned up empty.

It is a good guess that the Atlanta “investors” in Harrison Square still retain benefits in the form of tax abatements, forgiven leases of the old stadium and probably cash.* Fort Wayne citizens wish they could say the same.

On this last point it is interesting to note that practically all construction contracts contain performance bond requirements and set dates for completion of a project, thus placing risks on the developers. In the case of Harrison Square, these risks have now apparently become the taxpayers’ problem. (Some will recall that Councilmen Tom Smith and former Councilman Don Schmidt asked unsuccessfully to review our Harrison Square partners’ financial statements in order to evaluate their credit capacities.)

And finally, as hard as it is to say, nobody can ever know for sure that the project is honest. That, unfortunately, is the nature of other people spending your money — you’re never quite certain where it went.

This was the primary concern of Fort Wayne citizens like me with Harrison Square — specifically, that without the tests of a free market we would never really know whether it was a good idea or bad.

That concern, recent events now demonstrate, was spot on.

Ron Reinking, CPA, owns an accounting firm in downtown Fort Wayne. He is an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review writing frequently on economic development and urban public policy. Contact him at ipr@iquest.net.

* A good part of the investment of the lone “private investor” in Harrison Square, a company of unknown assets and financial accountability, was apparently guaranteed by various agreements and legal devices.

Tags: Graham Richard, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Tom Henry

I’ve cut out the fluff.

Good afternoon and welcome. This is the first time a state of the city speech has been delivered here in the regional public safety academy of northeast Indiana.

Which is slated to lose a projected $1.8 million through the end of next year. Henry’s power grab at the facility resulted in most of the board resigning due Henry trying to exert too much control over what was to be an autonomous entity.

Today is the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln…many say, our greatest president (pause) so far.

So far my ass. Henry forgot to mention that since Obama was elected, the Dow Jones has lost 2,000 points, the porkulus package is filled with bullshit, including $30 million to protect some stupid tiny mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district that won’t stimulate anything.

I try to keep Lincoln’s second inaugural address in mind as we face those challenges: “with malice toward none but charity for all,” he said, “…let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds…”

How original. Obama’s been running around quoting Lincoln all week, now Tom Henry is parroting the same Lincoln speeches. How about something in the way of original thinking?

Politics did put us on the map in 2008….and we enjoyed our moment in the spotlight. Former president Bill Clinton, presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, Ted Danson in support of Hillary…

Danson is the dumbass that claimed back in 1988 that all of the oceans would be dead within 10 years and so would all of us. Henry is still star-struck over meeting one of the biggest asshat liberals to walk the planet, amazing.

We accepted matching dollar applications through the middle of December, and set aside 200-thousand dollars in CEDIT money to fund the projects, but the response was so strong and the projects are of such high quality, that I agreed with the staff to double the infusion to 400-thousand dollars..

Then he snatched it away from the city council members so *he* can better decide how to use the funds.

When the program started in 1990, each council district received $450,000 with an additional $450,000 split among the three at-large members. Henry slashed that amount to $250,000, and now it’s going to ZERO.

On to the casino issue.

We know the issue of gaming has broad implications. That is why, as a community, we are studying it in depth. We need to fully understand what those implications are—both the positives and the negatives.

As your mayor, I am committed to creating opportunity for all our citizens and making sure that Fort Wayne and northeast Indiana have every chance to thrive and compete.

So let’s seize this moment to do several things that are essential:

First, let’s continue the community conversation about the benefits and costs of this opportunity; Second, let’s allow the emerging prospect of gaming to move forward in the legislature; and third, let’s have the courage to pursue a full consideration of the gaming issue…. remembering that it must bring us new jobs, high-quality investment, and significant new revenue enabling us to enrich our community in meaningful ways. Nothing less is acceptable.

Sorry mayor, it won’t work. From Fort Wayne Observed:

One of the big items that has gone unnoticed in talks of casino gambling in Fort Wayne is that there will soon be a very large casino opening this summer just a short drive from northern Indiana.

It is the new FireKeepers Casino being constructed on Interstate 94 near Battle Creek, Michigan. It is only 4 miles west of I-69. The casino is being developed by the Nottawaseppi Band of the Potawatomi Indian Tribe.

From Disenfranchised American:

The Sturgis City Council voted last night 9 to 0 to approve a new Casino to be built, right near the Indiana line, just north of Howe, IN.

How many casinos can one region have and still be successful?

Also from Fort Wayne Observed:

Dan Carmody, Fort Wayne’s former head of the Downtown Improvement District, responded to a recent Fort Wayne Observed post on the possibility of casino gaming in Fort Wayne:

From my experience at the origins of heartland gambling casinos are poor levers of economic development and even worse as new forms of revenue generation for units of local government. We are faced with a situation which demands a return to basics, casino gambling is a nice niche for affluent societies but not a cornerstone for local economies in crises.

Why’s he wasting the time and money on this?

Business is also alive at Fort Wayne city utilities, the last of our sewer separation project, in southeast Fort Wayne was finished in 2008… Creating additional holding space for sewer overflows and solving basement back-up problems.

Our city-owned utilities continues to invest in its infrastructure as well. Most recently completing a 32 million dollar clarifier project at our sewage treatment facility. These improvements will significantly increase the plant’s capacity to treat raw sewage..

Ahem. I’m still on a septic, (after being in the city for over 3 years), and several other neighborhoods in Aboite are shit-up-the-creek as well. I also live in an area without a city maintained storm water system. The ground doesn’t perk and a large portion of the affluent (shitty-water) runs into the Hadley ditch.

Another example of collaboration is the city and county working closely together for the joint information technology needs of local government.

Yet the mayor’s office still cannot provide city council with monthly operating statements?

Back in 1974, mayor Ivan Lebamoff had the vision to implement a very creative plan. He agreed that the city would get out of the business of bringing electricity to customers and instead would lease the electric utility to I&M. The agreement stated that I&M would continue to operate the system and the city could, if desired, take back the utility at the end of the lease.

The completion of the lease is approaching, and discussions are underway on an agreement that will best serve local citizens and customers. The city is currently holding thirty five years’ worth of lease payments, held in a community trust. I had hoped today to tell you how I thought we, as a community, could be discussing the use of the trust fund. But two things prevent me from opening that conversation: one— the market has taken investors on a wild ride, and our trust fund, which was at about 35 million dollars a year ago , thanks to our economy, is worth significantly less. That’s troubling.

Even more pertinent, however, is the fact the money was originally set aside to assure citizens they would have a responsive, reliable source of electricity. Because first and foremost, that money is dedicated to assuring continued electrical service for our citizens-that’s our top priority…and we do remain hopeful that an agreement will be reached soon.

The first reason he doesn’t want to discuss is troubling. Who’s he having the discussions with? How about a little transparency. The second reason is bullshit. I&M can continue to service customers with or without the lease. The majority of what they leased from the city they have since replaced with new equipment.

And he barely touched on Harrison Square.

As we look ahead into 2009, we still have many unanswered questions. We certainly don’t know how the economy will continue to impact the entire Harrison Square development, especially the retail and residential portions.

But I do invite each of you to join me April 16th for the first pitch at Parkview Field!

Sans a hotel, condominiums and retail.

Yawn..

AWB

Tags: CEDIT, Graham Richard, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Tom Henry, White Lodging

He [Mayor Henry] hopes to improve that mark this year by working more aggressively to improve the economy and to jump-start Harrison Square and other lagging big-money projects started by his predecessor, Graham Richard.

“For those naysayers out there who are criticizing Harrison Square as a bad idea … I’m going to have to take them to task on that. (But) we need to get the hotel finished. We need to complete Harrison Square,” Henry said Tuesday during an interview with The News-Sentinel and NewsChannel 15. “I’m hoping it will be built sooner rather than later.”

Get the hotel finished? It hasn’t even started. Why does the city of Fort Wayne need to complete Harrison Square? Beyond the stadium, it’s a private enterprise project. Hmmm.. makes you wonder if the stench of more subsidized HS welfare is wafting through the 9th floor.

Henry said the city may try to coordinate the effort to obtain financing for the projects by bringing a pool of potential lenders to the table.

Developers say they remain committed to the behind-schedule projects, but some have criticized the city for not doing more to contractually assure their timely performance by the developers. But Henry said penalizing the city’s private partners now might do more harm than good.

“We have fall-back positions, certainly,” he said “But what does that get us, really?”

Fall-back? I can hear it now, let’s rob the city’s light-lease fund, then loan some money to White Lodging so they can complete the project. They can call it Fort Wayne’s economic stimulus plan. After all, we can collect interest on it and then we can also start paying White Lodging the guaranteed profits we promised.

If White Lodging and Barry Real Estate cannot deliver, maybe it’s time to put the call out to other developers and see what ideas they can bring to the table. Maybe that will light a fire under someone’s posterior.

AWB

Tags: Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Stimulus, Tom Henry, White Lodging

I found this article, published way back in 2002.

Who Killed Downtown?

What does a living downtown look like?

All day there are pedestrians along the streets, and even more in the evening.

Commerce thrives, from department stores to quirky little one-of-a-kind shops, from thrift stores to boutiques, and plenty of restaurants open from morning to night.

There are places to rest, lovely things to look at, public art and music, and occasional events that bring even larger numbers of people downtown.

When a downtown is alive, the people of the city think of it as their own, the place to be, the heart of their community.

What does a dead downtown look like?

The sidewalks are virtually empty. There are few shops, and the restaurants are only open for lunch. There is no pleasure in walking around because there’s nothing to see, nothing to do, nothing to buy.

Sound familiar?

[...]

So much time and money wasted on driving, when thoughtful urban planning could allow more and more of us to live in the kind of walking neighborhood, the living communities that used to be the rule instead of the exception in America.

Will it change? In many places in America, yes, it is changing, and more and more communities are realizing that the vibrancy and vigor of Manhattan and Paris and Florence and London are easily replicated without having to put up with the negatives of the big city.

But will it change here? Not a chance.

Because Greensboro is led by people who think the way to “revive downtown” is to build a big new stadium there.

A stadium! Oh, that’ll bring people downtown, won’t it — why, you could walk for ten or fifteen city blocks around that new stadium and never find a single thing to look at or a single thing to do.

A new stadium will be just another dead space, a monument to folly, like our ugly coliseum and convention center. Another proof that you don’t actually have to know what a city is in order to be elected to govern one, or hired to plan it. [more here]

Does that ring a bell with anyone? Here they are seven years later, with some limited success still trying to develop downtown Greensboro.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Winston-Salem and Greensboro — two cities that have spent several years rejuvenating their urban centers — say finding financing is difficult. As a result, they’re putting the brakes on plans for the foreseeable future.

And this.

FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 2008

Financing delays downtown projects

GREENSBORO — Developers who want to rehab the old Southeastern building downtown can’t get the financing they need for the $8 million [condo] project.

Brace yourself Effie.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2000

Editorial: Downtown downturn?

The first phase of the Center Pointe tower now will open in January, says its developer, Greensboro builder Roy Carroll. He says the economy has slowed recent sales of condominiums in the new high-rise but no previous sales have fallen through.

“Most of our buyers are empty-nesters,” he says. “They don’t need to sell their current residences to buy ours.”

I thought here in Fort Wayne they were building the condos for the X&Y generations to help stop the brain drain. It’s almost February, and Barry Real Estate is pretty quiet on what’s going on with The Harrison development.

Even with the failure of some condo developments, Greensboro has been somewhat successful with apartments, even their stadium seems to be drawing crowds, according to this article.

One of the saving graces of today’s downtown may be its ability to help sustain itself. More than 1,200 people live there now versus 500 four years ago.

City View Apartments are a rousing success. New Bridge Bank Park defies conventional wisdom by attracting big crowds one baseball season after another. The opening of a popular new chain restaurant, the Mellow Mushroom, near the southern tip of downtown could draw more traffic beyond the center city’s hottest few blocks along South Elm.

Keep one thing in mind, downtown Greensboro has more than 1,000 retail shops, restaurants and service businesses to help draw people downtown. How many does Fort Wayne have?

According to The Downtown Improvement District’s web site, if you take out the fast food restaurants, i.e. McDonalds, Wendy’s Taco Bell, etc we have less than 30 restaurants and only about 12 within walking distance of downtown. We have less than 10 retail shops unless you include The Lincoln Museum, (now closed), Science Central, the Salvation Army Thrift Store, Ream-Steckbeck Paint Company, A Party Apart and several other ridiculous listings in their “Shopper’s Guide to Downtown Fort Wayne“, and what could be considered actual attractions amount to less than 20.

We’re stuck the the stadium, so maybe John McGauley’s idea for an indoor water park merits some discussion, as do other ideas. Given the current economic and financial environment, it’s about time Fort Wayne re-think its moving forward plans for downtown revitalization.

For starters, ditch the condos.

AWB

Tags: Fort Wayne Casino, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, White Lodging

It appears from many accounts that White Lodging is spinning out of control. As first reported here on November 16th, White Lodging has be unable to obtain a construction loan for the hotel at Harrison Square.

Yesterday Kevin Leininger reported this:

Although officials with Merrillville-based White Lodging Services say they still hope to begin construction on the 250-room Courtyard by Marriott this year, President and CEO for Investments Deno Yiankes said Friday the company is negotiating with its third would-be lender and that a loan agreement could still be at least months away.

Still hope? Months away? That’s not very definitive, now is it?

No condo’s, no hotel, no retail.

And it appears that White Lodging is giving Austin, TX the shaft as well.

The Austin Statesman reported last month that groundbreaking on a 1,000-room, $275 million hotel [by White Lodging] – originally scheduled for 2008, then this year – is being shelved until further notice.

AWB

Tags: Graham Richard, Hardball Capital, Harrison Square, Tom Henry, White Lodging