"A company developing a for-profit downtown parking lot and restaurant has received nearly $200,000 in low-interest loan money from the city — despite repeatedly missing deadlines and benchmarks for progress.
The project, which originally was scheduled to be finished nearly a year ago, is still months from completion.
It all goes back to 2012 when the city made a $200,000 loan to Greensboro Parking Group LLC.
The company planned to create 180 parking spots on Barnhardt Street, an area off of South Elm Street still struggling to catch up to the downtown revitalization taking place just a few blocks away.
The loan agreement also said the company would build a new restaurant and create 20 part-time and 12 full-time jobs."
The article doesn't say it but Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann is a partner in the company and they owe $16,000 in back taxes.
And this from Madam Mayor "Incentivize it" Vaughan:
"In April, a similar controversy developed when it was learned that the city had given a $1.5 million forgivable loan to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum — and released the first $750,000 before it had a signed loan agreement.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said release of the Greensboro Parking Group loan is similar enough to make her uncomfortable.
“It was obviously mishandled, the checks being cut before the project was complete,” she said."
City officials are saying a mistake was made-- mishandled. It wasn't. The only mistake was following orders from Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann and then Mayor Robbie Perkins who brokered the entire deal start to finish. We reported it then and the status-quo ignored us, tried to pass us off as crazy. We were right-- they lied and now the media proves us right-- again.
Are you ready to listen?
