Robbie Perkins Strikes Back, Part 4

 In Robbie Perkins Strikes Back?, when I began this series, I included a list of all the documents the City of Greensboro had previously released to former Mayor Robbie Perkins concerning the sale of the Dorothy Bardolph Building to developer Marty Kotis for $900,000.

Strangely enough, despite the fact that even though the City of Greensboro claimed to have been approached by 7 potential buyers they had been unable at that time to produce the names of those 7 buyers per Mayor Perkins request.

As I pointed out in  Robbie Perkins Strikes Back, Part 2, all 9 members of the Greensboro City Council refused a higher bid of  $1 Million Dollars by Mark Schweibinz of Property Resources of Raleigh claiming it wouldn't be fair to Marty Kotis to extend the bidding period.

And as John Hammer to say in the Rhino Times:

"A number of people expressed interested in buying the building but didn’t know about the sale until after the upset bid process had closed.  Only one went to the expense of hiring an attorney to come to the City Council meeting and make a late offer.  The city is in no hurry to sell the building; why would the City Council consider an offer that was below the appraised value?  When the city buys property it often pays above the appraised value.

City Attorney Tom Carruthers told the City Council it could reject the bid, accept the bid or decide to accept the higher offer and leave that open for upset bids. The City Council by a unanimous vote chose to accept the $900,000 offer from Kotis."

Now here is where it gets really greasy.

In his January 15, 2016 Memo to Assistant City Manager David Parrish, Ted Partrick. Engineering Manager, Engineering & Inspections Department writes:

"On or around March 30th, 2015 Property Management was given the go ahead to order the appraisal for the potential sale of the Bardolph Building.

 On Tuesday March 31st, Rocky Jones, Property Management Administrator, ordered the appraisal through Sherri Colvin of Colvin, Sutton, & Winters and Associates giving a deadline to complete the appraisal of April 30th, 2015.
 The completed appraisal was emailed to Rocky Jones on May 13th, 2015 with two color hard copies delivered the next day, May 14th.
 A sign was placed in the front of the building on May 19th, 2015 and was prepared for advertisement on Greensboro Television Network and Greensboro-nc.gov.
 May 20th, 2015 Property Management was requested to remove the television listing, the website listing, and the sign in front of the building. A delay was requested to accommodate the needs of the tenants who had not been informed of a potential sale.
 August 6th, 2015 Property Management was directed to proceed with advertising the property on Loopnet, through a listing package to commercial real estate brokers, on the Greensboro Television Network, and online at Greensboro-nc.gov. These are the customary advertising outlets used by the City, with the addition of the commercial listing on Loopnet and the listing packages.
 We received a verbal offer from Kotis Holdings LLC for $700,000 on September 8th. After some discussion the City countered that offer at $1.1 million.
 October 10th received a counter from Kotis at $900,000 which was accepted by the City on October 13th, 2015 pending the written offer to purchase and 10% deposit.
 After finalizing the agreement and working out details, the bid was advertised in the Greensboro News and Record legal ads section on November 17th, 2015 with a 10 business day upset bid period that would expire on December 3rd at 5 pm. No upset bids were received.(Exhibit F and K)"

All seems well and good except that in Robbie Perkins Strikes Back: Part 3 I submitted the following public information request:

"Building For Sale Cheap 

Please send me all communications between any and all persons and/or companies who expressed interest in buying the recently sold Dorothy Bardolph Building.

And please, as I have made this PIRT public I hope you will act quickly.

Thanks
-Billy Jones"

Now we get to find who did what as today I received the following reply from the City of Greensboro:

"Dear Mr. Jones,

Thank you for your public records request (PIRT 5423) for all communications between any and all persons and/or companies who expressed interest in buying the Dorothy Bardolph Building.

Please find the attached records responsive to your request.

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Sincerely,

Katherine Carter, Public Records Administrator

Communications and Marketing Department - 336-373-3282

City of Greensboro

PO Box 3136, Greensboro, NC 27402-3136"

Ms Carter's e-mail included this attachment filled with communications. 

Didn't see anything in there mentioning NAI Piedmont, the company Robbie Perkins works for.

Also of note is the fact that the City of Greensboro only paid to advertise the property for sale in the News & Record after it had been effectively sold to Marty Kotis-- the upset bid period as noted in the
January 15, 2016 Memo to Assistant City Manager David Parrish.

Now I ask you, would you pay to advertise a property for sale after you've already sold it? Because that is exactly what the City of Greensboro did. Yes, the City is complying with the law but barely. From the looks of the dates of the communications sent to me today they are in the habit of keeping the sales of municipal properties as secret as possible allowing only a chosen few to know they exist. Only this time someone forgot to tell Robbie and the shit has hit the fan.

Well Robbie, you asked for it, the very system by which Greensboro sells municipally owned properties is corrupted and broken and we've got you and your greed to thank for showing me the way to show everyone the truth. I hope it left a bad taste in your mouth.