Isner's new gig
South Elm St redevelopment 101
"In business you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate..."
Begin original post keeping in mind that everywhere you read Issacson it should read Isner:
From Market Watch: U.S. posts smallest gain in jobs in 3 years:
"The U.S. added just 74,000 jobs in December to mark the smallest increase since the start of 2011, suggesting that the nation entered 2014 with less momentum than other economic indicators had signaled."
What's most tragic about that is the fact that Greensboro and Guilford County alone need more than 74,000 jobs to recover from the economic crisis and Greensboro has the ways and means to make a huge dent in the problem but Greensboro's power brokers like Bob Issacson, his business partners, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro and the Greensboro City Council choose to stand in the way. You see, in Greensboro there is only so much money so developers fight one another for a piece of the taxpayers' pie.
Case in point: From Fox 8, The Downtown University Campus:
"The organizers of the Downtown University Campus selected a site on the southeast corner of South Elm and Lee streets for construction Tuesday.
In 2007, the City Conucil approved a plan to clean up the area after discovering it had environmental contamination. Now $7 million and nearly seven years later, they are ready to start building on it.
Construction here will expand downtown Greensboro, starting with a shared university campus. It will serve as a facility for a nursing program for North Carolina A&T, UNC-Greensboro, Guilford Technical Community College and Cone Health.
Mayor Robbie Perkins said he’s excited for construction to begin on the now-safe site.
Greensboro Mayor-elect Nancy Vaughan agreed it would be a worthy continued investment for the city."
Problem is: that property was sold to Issacson and company on Tuesday, March 19th by the Greensboro City Council for an "unknown" purpose:
"Council members agreed to sell about 7 acres south of Lee Street to the South Elm Development Group for $428,000 an acre. The development is expected to be worth at least $50 million.
The development group will act as a master developer on the site, working with other companies that want to build or own specific buildings in the redevelopment.
It’s unclear what will be built on the property. The developers would like to see a proposed downtown university district there. It likely will be a year or so before any construction begins."
But was it really unknown? Really? Many of us had heard talk for years and on March 8 someone identified as cityboi posted the following to UrbanPlanet.org:
"Downtown advocates and educational leaders are taking advantage of the colleges and universities that border downtown by proposing a downtown university district. So far its just a concept and not an official plan but it could include a building or a small campus where all of the city's colleges and universities would collaborate. Cone Health of Greensboro would also be involved. This would be different from the NC A&T and UNCG joint research park on the east side of town. I created a few drawings below showing where this university district could go. I placed the district in the southwest quadrant of downtown bordering the greenway. I included an architecture school because the educational community is trying to lure an architectural school to Greensboro. It would be the third school in North Carolina. NC State in Raleigh and UNC Charlotte both have architectural design programs. An architecture school in Greensboro would compliment UNC Greensboro's interior architecture program as well as NC A&T's architectural engineering program. Students from the different colleges can collaborate on one project. A&T students would work on the architectural engineering while UNCG students would work on the interior architecture. Students at the joint architecture school would come up with the exterior design.
I chose this strategic location off of Lee Street because its just a few blocks east of UNCG expansion projects (Spartan Village). It would also tie in with Greensboro College expansion site and the South Elm/Lee Street development which will include educational facilities, residential, a hotel, international market, retail and civic space. In addition, Gateway University Research Park is also on Lee Street about 3 miles east of downtown so it would be on the same corridor.
My concept includes an art park and a small amphitheater near the architecture school as well as signature bridge sculpture over the Eugene Street bridge. Since the architecture school would be a joint school, I would call it the University of North Carolina School of Architecture. Architecture students could use the art park for outdoor class assignments.
universitydis1.JPG
students can walk or ride a bike on the greenway between the developments
universitydis2.JPG
universitydis3.jpg
(mixed-use, retail, restaurants, student housing) UNCG Spartan Village going up 4 blocks west of the site I proposed for the joint university campus/architecture school. Spartan Village would be an extension of the downtown university district."
So is cityboi just someone pitching ideas? His profile suggests otherwise. It includes a link to this site promoting the efforts of Action Greensboro. In looking through his topics and posts cityboi seems to have a lot of insider information.
Back to Bob Issacson and company. So now that we've established that it was known all along that there was intent to build the Downtown Campus on City owned property on the corner of Lee and Elm, why did the Greensboro City Council sell said property to Issacson and not directly to the State of North Carolina who will now end up buying or renting the property from Issacson and company? Does this qualify as some sort of insider trading?
To add insult to injury, Issacson and company have yet to write the check to pay Greensboro for the property. So while the developers are looking to scam the state out of $Millions of Dollars, at the same time they get away with not paying City and County property taxes on 7 acres valued at $428,000 an acre.
Funny, if you're poor and cannot afford to pay your property taxes the city and county takes your home but if you happen to be an owner of one of Greensboro's most successful law firms the Greensboro City Council meets in closed session to work out a deal to keep you from having to pay your taxes. Now you know why economic development meetings are held in closed session-- crooked bastards!
But unlike those who will try to make me out to be, I am not against progress. I stand against corruption but not against progress. that is why I proposed the following in my letter to the editor of the News & Record earlier this week:
"We've all heard talk of a downtown university campus to be built in Greensboro. Problem is: like everything else, how do we pay for it?
Well luckily for Greensboro the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center boondoggle brought to us by the Community Foundation and the City Council has provided us the ways and means to build the downtown university campus at no further cost to the City.
That's right, let's make lemon aid from lemons. Let's use the existing buildings and properties paid for by the City to house the downtown campus. And if the TPAC supporters are genuine in their support for Greensboro's economic development they'll quickly get on board and donate their $35 Million Dollars to the Steven Tanger Campus of the University of North Carolina.
And we can do it with no further costs to the City of Greensboro."
And what do we do with the property at the corner of Elm and Lee? Well being that Issacson and his partners never paid us for the property why don't we begin by founding a public-private partnership to create a tax paying corporation to build a world class downtown Greensboro Aquarium that includes yet another college campus specializing in Marine Biology, Aquaponics, Pharmaceutical engineering, Chemistry and more while at the same time attracting millions of visitors a year to downtown Greensboro and bringing thousands of high paying jobs to Greensboro.
Then we'll be able to afford a performing arts center anywhere you want to put it.
Be sure to like and share our Downtown Greensboro Aquarium project on Facebook and please share this post with everyone you know.
Update: Via Fec:
"No worries. Cityboi is the son of Isaac Cain.
From Wordup in 2010:
Ladies and gentlemen, I present Derek Cain, son of Isaac Douglas Cain and UNCG Class of 2002."
Issac Cain is yet another Greensboro banker and wannabe developer who has long sought incentives and investors for his proposed downtown Greensboro Triumph Center.
In March of 2012 I attempted to verify Mr Cain's claim that he had signed a contract with Steve Einzig, President of Booking Entertainment to provide services for the Triumph Center. Mr Einzig has yet to reply.
The current effort to build a downtown performing arts center, like Mr Cain's effort, is a shell game.
