"We have reached this determination after diligent efforts to pre-lease the buildings on the parcels and to finance construction,"
Translation to all this is there were no takers, no matter the price for this grandiose project in downtown Nampa. Mayor Tom Dale and his URA board failed to see and learn what happened at the Ada County Courthouse retail part of that project, it was a huge flop.
Nampa Officials may very well have another "IDAHO CENTER" financial flop on their hands and it will have to be fed property tax dollars until the building site is re purposed. When you hear the words "PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP", become very nervous. It is a game of they win and taxpayers lose.
THE GUARDIAN tried to get Nampa officials to back off and let the people vote on this project by taking legal action but had to back off when faced with the possibility of paying NDC legal fees. NDC spent $108,000.00 to fed off THE GUARDIAN the only issue was to let the people of Nampa vote via a bond election for the library and the police building. THE GUARDIAN now feels vindicated in efforts to head off this boondoggle project.
I am sure this will help "visionary" and former mayor of Nampa,Tom Dale in his campaign to unseat Kathy Alder as County Commissioner. His failure to read the tea leaves when the Ada County Courthouse retail effort failed will be his legacy to the taxpayers of Nampa
ReplyDeleteYup, no bid, 3 Ada County residents on the UR board, over $100,000 to a premier Boise law firm to write the contacts and they forgot to put in a bonding requirement for the developer. Tom Dale and the rubes on former UR board got taken by the slickers from Utah. Looks like Boise is next
ReplyDeleteYa gotta love it . The surprises from Tom and company just keep coming.
ReplyDeleteThis just sets it in stone on just what a failure Team Tom and Company was for the middle-class people of Nampa.
DeleteThe gift to Nampa from Tom Dale that will keep taking money from taxpayers. Gardner is another carpetbagger who will get paid millions with no skin in the game. The joke is on everyone in Nampa and those who continue to think Urban Renewal is free money and a good deal. I wonder just how far this puts Nampa taxpayers in the hole.
ReplyDeleteTeam Tom Dale and the gifts that keep on taking.
DeleteAnother financial disaster is in the works with the Canyon County Fair Board. A 4-day event does not warrant a $40million dollar place to hold the event. Somebody needs to put a stop-and-think order on what they want to do. Get a grip people... how many times do we have to have a non-elected body put all of us on the line for this kind of money. A vote on the Fair Boards plans seems appropriate given the monetary stakes in all of this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteGardner has left Nampa in a financial lurch, the Idaho Center is a disaster. How many times does it take to get people's attention before they figure it all out?
The follies continue in Caldwell. Kings and the plaza: Be careful what you wish for. Tom and King Nancolas are good buddies.
ReplyDeleteSad really. I just happen to know someone who wished to relocate his business there, but the Gardner Company indicated the following.
ReplyDelete1. Costs of rent and maintenance would be excessively prohibitive.
2. The idea of having a service industry business in the same complex as the library, etc. seemed to be extremely offensive to the folks at Gardner.
On another note, the only restaurant I know for a fact was willing to located there pulled out because the terms of the contract were just too vague. Basically it has come down to nobody will “rent” or buy if they cannot make any profit beyond monies to Gardner.
Finally, the library was needed and has been for some time, the Police Station was not needed. The people I know would have voted for the Library, but not the Police Station. Mayor Dale was wrong and the voters pretty much told him so last November. It is a shame that most of the voters supported Bob Henry. He is already proving he would rather fleece the taxpayers just like Dale did. It is a legacy that just won't quit.
Let's give Mayor Bob Henry a chance to get his "sea legs" before we compare him to the spend thrift ways of Previous Mayor Tom Dale. I can't help but wonder what all this will translate to for Mr. Dale's chances in the County Commissioner race.
DeleteSo far Mayor Henry and his first 100 days in office have been going well. My gut feeling tells me that he has been turning over a lot of rocks, looking under the rugs, and looking in the corners to see what kind of dirt Tom Dale left him to clean up.
DeleteAfter Mr. Long left to follow his wife as a well paid barista for Starbucks Beth Ineck was appointed NDR director. The first thing Bob Henry did was to relieve her of her duties overseeing the Idaho Center. Tom Dale was the force but it was Beth who approved contracts, negotiated with Hawley and company, the hotshot lawyers out of Boise who wrote the contract with Gardner and presented to the UR board. She also was the force driving the adoption of the Mercy Hosp. rehab. I think she is probably sending out resumes this morning.
ReplyDeleteCliff Long was one of the driving forces in the formation of the new and improved NDC who brought the new police building and library to Nampa without a vote of the people. Tom Dale was overheard saying that spending $108K on fending off a legal challenge to allow a vote on these projects "was protecting taxpayers constitutional rights".
ReplyDeleteThe real question here is do the taxpayers of Canyon County want former Mayor Tom Dale as their next Canyon County Commissioner? There needs to be some accountability is all of this and it rests with the former Mayor and his City Council that formed NDC in spite of a legal challenge to allow taxpayers a chance to vote on these two projects. Urban Renewal is a fraud on property taxpayers.
Speaking of accountability, have we forgotten what the decisions of Rule and Alder have cost the taxpayers of Canyon County? There is a serious lack of brain power on that county commission. Nice choice-Alder or Dale. Is there a write in candidate in the wings?
DeleteI asked Tom Dale why they didn't put building the police station up for a vote. His reply was "Bob by preventing that vote we protected the peoples constitutional rights". You can't make this stuff up.
ReplyDeleteTypical answer from those who come up with solutions, that create more problems.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see just how long it will take for the TVCC contract to implode on Caldwell's URA. They pay half rent, get generous subsidies from UR and have declining enrollment numbers. Will this end up as just another empty building in downtown Caldwell?
ReplyDeleteWhen the Oppenheimer Bros. came to town as the lead developer, they made it clear they were not going to assume any risk of ownership in any of the downtown work they did. They built the building, presented a bill for their work and left town. They did the job for the amount quoted. Gardner on the other hand signed onto the Nampa Library project as a "partner" in the project and now they are exercising their escape clause. Too bad Mayor Tom and his underlings fell for this line of baloney from Gardner.
I noticed a troubling issue in the IPT today. Why are those involved with this project, having a secret meeting and finding ways to hold secret meetings concerning this issue. The problems in Nampa will not get solved until the Team Tom Dale holdovers are cleaned out of City Hall. I sure hope that the people in charge are working on this.
ReplyDeleteNo quorum and nothing decided are the key points in the public meeting law. Otherwise two county commissioners could not go to lunch together. A quorum is defined as half the membership of any given body plus one more. Hope this answers your question about the "secret meeting".
Deletepaul
Last night there was some kind of secret meeting at the old lodge hall in Nampa that was attended by some old political has beens including old Tom Dale himself. Sure would have liked to have been the fly on the wall at that one.
DeleteWhat is urban renewal? Urban renewal is primarily the act of revitalizing a failing urban area in order to restore economic vitality and improve the safety of the area, although the urban renewal statute is flexible and can be used for development, as well as redevelopment. Understanding that redeveloping urban areas is much harder and more expensive than new development. All 50 states have some form of urban renewal law.
ReplyDeleteWhy is urban renewal important? Urban renewal is critical to the success of local communities and the long-term prosperity of citizens living in urban areas. Without urban renewal, there would be no incentive for developers to tackle the challenges associated with redevelopment, and our deteriorating downtown areas would be subject to increased crime and safety problems, while continued growth on the fringes of communities would add to the problem of urban sprawl. But thanks to the urban renewal, cities and towns across the state have been able to save older parts of town and make significant improvements to their communities.
Why can't the private sector take care of the problem? Redeveloping land is considerably more difficult than developing new property. Previously developed sites often lack necessary infrastructure, access and improvements to make them useable. Additionally these sites are often burdened with contamination from years of neglect or through prior uses. With such problems plaguing the sites, there is no demand for the property and the market fails to support it. The tools provided to local authorities through urban renewal are the only way to support the redevelopment of such sites.
Successful Urban Renewal projects 1. Embarcadero San Francisco, CA, USA 2. Downtown Milwaukee, WI, USA –3. Tom McCall Waterfront Park, Portland, OR, USA 4. Klyde Warren Park, Dallas, TX, USA - 5. Atlanta Beltline, GA, USA - 6. Santa Monica Boulevard Master Plan, CA, USA - 7. urban renewal projects include the design and construction of Central Park in New York.
So is it really a bad thing?
Urban renewal is not a bad thing in principle but it leads to corruption, waste, fraud and abuse of property tax dollars. If used for renewal and allows voter participation of debt it is a good thing but more often than not UR Boards are allowed to take on huge debts, create massive tax shifts and are used as give away programs for development of agricultural land. It is nothing short of welfare for developers. And when developers are asked to form public private partnerships we get what happened in Nampa, Idaho. Gardner Co. got the bid to build the library but wimped out on their part of the agreement leaving taxpayers again to suck up the escalating costs of the project.
DeleteIf UR boards want big dollar project paid back with property tax shifts paid for by property owners then they need to let property taxpayers weigh in on the project. Govt. Obligation Bonds carry the full faith and credit of the taxpayers whereas, Revenue Anticipation Bonds issued by UR boards do not.
We see so many members of UR boards in Idaho more than willing to create a pipe dream project and do not explain who and how the project gets paid for when undertaken by no more than the whim of a UR board in the name of what they call progress. I call it a huge deception when people do not understand urban renewal is nothing more than a massive property tax shift that robs schools, fire, police, roads and other tax supported entities of much needed revenue. Developers call UR funds "entitlement money". Nuff said!
To reply to your scholarly treatise I would note you have not listed any Idaho projects and as many will attest to put it plainly Urban Renewal SUCKS as it has been used in most towns in Idaho
DeleteThankfully, significant gains in not trusting urban renewal, and those involved in it have been made in Nampa. People, let us keep the ball rolling in the right direction.
ReplyDelete