According to minutes of the city council meeting Nancy Vaughan voted against the incentives but her husband, Don Vaughan, who was at that time serving on the Greensboro City Council as well, voted for the incentives.
According to the Guilford County Register of Deeds, the property belonged to Cone Mills until it was sold to LSOF Partners X L. P. in 1998 who then resold the property to Opus South Corporation in 2001. In 2002, Opus South sold the property to 3803 NORTH ELM STREET INVESTORS LLC, a Delaware limited liability company who according to the Guilford County Register of Deeds is located at 9900 BREN RD EAST, MN 008-E305, MINNETONKA, MN 55343.
From an e-mail I got from the City of Greensboro as part of Public Information Release # 3256:
"The listed contact at UnitedHeathcare at the time was Lana J. Weber, Director of Corporate Real Estate at 9900 Bren Rd East Minnetonka, MN 55343. The information pieces requested (property owner, developer, general contractor, commercial realtors) are not typically elements of which the City requests verification on standard performance incentive agreements along the lines of the one approved to UnitedHealthcare and may be deemed private business decisions. I’ve attached the meeting minutes above so that you may obtain additional information regarding this resolution."
The same address. United Healthcare operates its own commercial real estate company. Smart business, perfectly legal but it allows them to use the very incentives granted to them by the City of Greensboro as a write-off on state and Federal taxes. We give them our tax money and they write-off every dime we give them.
The NC Secretary of State also lists a Hartford, Connecticut address for 3803 North Elm Street Investors, Llc founded in 2001.
But wait, don't stop there, the City Council voted in 1999 to give these incentives to United Health Care. Would the owners of the property have sold the property in 1998 and again in 2001 had they known United Health Care had already chosen that site? In Incentives In Greensboro Part 24: Setting The Record Straight, I wrote of how economist Andrew Brod questioned why the Greensboro City Council didn't push to get United Health Care to locate downtown:
"Here’s my vote for an incentive package that should have been rejected, or at least repackaged. Early this year, the City and County approved incentives for United Healthcare to locate its new regional headquarters and expanded operations. Okay, but where? In last November’s municipal elections, virtually every candidate expressed support for redeveloping Greensboro’s downtown. Voters might have expected the City Council to follow through on this.
But the Council approved over $300,000 in incentives for United to locate way up in the Lake Jeanette area! Instead of using the public purse as leverage to promote a sensible policy, the Council helped contribute to suburban sprawl and the lines of commuter traffic on N. Elm St."
Talk about things that make you go hummmm? How much you want to bet Don Vaughan sleeps on the couch tonight? After all, Mayor Nancy Barakat Vaughan went way out on a limb when she wrote her December 29, 2013 article entitled, City Handles Incentives Effectively. But Mayor Vaughan was correct when she wrote:
"It's irresponsible to suggest the council haphazardly offers incentives to every company that makes a request."
That's right, you see there's nothing irresponsible about fraud, is there Don?
Please continue reading Incentives In Greensboro: Part 30: The News & Record Proves Me Right... Again
