Remember last January (2008) the City of Worcester awarded this parcel to Pharmasphere for $1, although an abutter had offered 50,000. Click here for that story. Construction was to begin last March on a 5.5 million dollar building and they were suppose to move in next year (NOW).
As of last September, they had not purchased the property, but had signed an LDA (Land Disposition Agreement) that stated that they would take title as soon as they got the appropriate permits. The kicker was the City was given them until September of 2009 to get the permits, but this could be extended until September of 2010 as long as they were "diligently" working on the permit. At that time and since then I have questioned how does one enforce a "diligent" standard.
Now in today's paper, I read the City of Worcester has granted a 2.5 million HUD Section 108 loan to Pharmasphere, who has yet to take title of the property for $1 and pay one penny in real estate taxes. The long and the short of this is that the City of Worcester has more or less cosigned on a loan for Pharmasphere, who by I was told last year had all their financing in place. Granted there is some collateral, but it looks like the lien will be on some assets of the company and the any lien on real estate most definately will not be in a first position.
The long and the short of it is that this parcel has been sold for $1 with 2.5 million loan from HUD guaranteed from the City of Worcester. If you think that these guaranteed loans can not come back to cost the City of Worcester, look no further then the HUD Section 108 loan for Gardner-Kilby-Hammond.
Makes you wonder if we put out an RFP for the parcel in the first place that stated a sale price of $1 and a 2.5 million HUD loan guaranteed by the City of Worcester, who may have bid on the parcel.
WRRB/Telegram District City Council Forum 10/18
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This forum is for all district council candidates; all candidates are here
today. Format: 14 total questions, 4 questions across districts (for all
candida...
6 months ago
6 comments:
I sat at Union Station last night and looked across WOrc Center Blvd and thought to myself....gee........the lights are still on in the soon to be demo'ed parking garage. One of the 1st things you have to do PRIOR to actaul demo is utility disconnects.
If this place is coming down the pre demo work should have begun. I'll betcha the lights in there all have mercury in them and have to manually, individually removed.
Once again I ask, has Berkley even applied for the permit.
If you were a city councilor who was truly concerned about progress on this mega project...... would you be asking these questions???? I would be.
BTW in scoping out Union Station while I was waiting, I couldnt help but notice the new bus terminal.......and let me say this is a nice looking edifice........but behind and above it to the reat is the under side of the RR infrastructure....all rusted and pigeoned dung'ed........just is not compatible with a new intermodal trans center...............i know the RR owns this....but wasnt there some grumbling about this ugliness a while back?
Bill who owns the old Standard foundry site....................city or a private owner?
Standard Foundry owned by the City of Worcester.
julie jacobson strikes again
ben
Bill I need to know the sales tax on a case of Jahngemeister before I come today and place my order.
Those extra nickels add up for those of us who pay for our beer by returning empties at $.05 a pop
I am figuring roughly about an extra $1.50 (30 nickel cans) if I wait until tomorrow.
Sorry, I dont get it. Julie strikes again???......meaning the city strikes again?
I'd be worried that Main South CDC gets their hands on the property. I wonder what the zoning is there......manufacturing or residential?....prob. isnt an issue anyway.........CDC will just ask council to change it to suit themselves....unless they run up against spot zoning by attempting to change it
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