February 03, 2010

Boys Club

Glad to see that the City of Worcester after reviewing the two bids recommended Acorn, although I don't see how they could not have when:

  1. Acorn purchase price netted 275k more to the City of Worcester then Winn/WBDC
  2. Acorn's due diligence period was 90 days versus 12 months
  3. Acorn is paying a deposit of 10K, that they will lose to the City of Worcester if they do not close in 90 days. On the other hand, Winn would pay no deposit and the City would have received nothing after their 12 months if they did not close.
  4. Acorn has more units and they are all market rate, no low-mod income

At the same time, this same scenario would have ended up with Winn getting the bid in prior years. What has changed???

I truly believe people are starting to see that all of these low-mod income development projects are big business and alot of people are making alot of money on this except the tax-payers of Worcester. The Chandler Business Group deserves alot of credit for this sea of change.

Lets hope this ship continues to keep turning.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

"The Chandler Business Group deserves alot of credit for this sea of change." VERY TRUE, you guys were 1 year ahead of the curve on this subject!

Harry T
Worcester,MA

Paulie's Point of View said...

I think more folks are getting involved..you see what Beth P is doing..our business group..still along way to go but we are moving in a better direction..to few making all the decisions in this city..our private investments are not their monopoly money

Jahn said...

T&G reports today that the Mayor of Fitchburg has just whacked the comm. dev'ment person AND building commish in one fell swoop and replaced both with one new hire.

Saved Fitch 80$K.

Anyone get a sense we may see a "two-fer" in any Worc. offices?

I gotta dust off, my resume as I once took urban geography. Stay tuned for Director Jahn and a limited access southwest Worcester Beltway.

signman said...

what amazes me is how the city bought a piece of land on Pleasant St. for $400.000 plus then made a park for another $500.000 plus... when we have two parks with-in one mile of there...and I can count on my fingers how maney people use it. The CBA asks for the 4000 square foot lot on corner of Wellington St from Dennis H. so we can clean up and enhance the entrance to Chandler St. what is our response.... they let the neighbor use it for free for a dumpster and parking... and say they need the money and want to sell it to us.... three years plus now and still sitting there looking like hell. Need to add CDC to our name and might get it....

Jahn said...

Signman, didnt the city already own that Winslow/Pleasant St pocket park site? If they didn't then we sure got our pockets picked on that purchase.

Anyone care to know where that school was trucked to and dumped for back yard fill and it wasnt all masonry fill either. MY lips are sealed.

Problem is the most/all of the money for this park may have come from Washington which is 99% of the problem. I can assure you if that had to be paid for completley out of the city's poickets , it would never have been built .

Dittos' for the Union Station re-make, new airport terminal, Nolo housing, & other projects I cannot even think of right now. I recall back in the mid 70's one of these parks was built behind the old YMCA ...Allen St possibly (?) and I think it is now privately owned.

Does anyone see the nexus between Washington DC "free" money and "urban Problems" and now there is a push on for a "corridor"(?) park along N Lake Ave. I am still scratching my head wondering what is really going on with this idea. There has to more to it than what is being said. Then after waiting out that foolish temporay light they have there I drive by Holmes Field on Plantation St and chuckle to myself when I see the maasonry walls of the bathhouse there crumbled on the ground........caused by only one thing...lack of proper maintenance. I am wondering here if the park laong N lake ave might have somethign to with annual spring regatta held on L. Quinsig. It is till held there...right? (What a drunken orgy that Regatta used to be before they built UMass up on the hill....Worc's own miniature Woodstock...only think missing was live entertainment)

signman said...

Jahn

The city bought the property from an asian guy that owns property at the top of Pleasant st. The same guy that was grading his land and B.H. stood in front of the grader till Dave Holden came and stopped him from working.. .. now they reward him by paying him top dollar for that land that no one else could or would pay for. This was the old Winslow St school that was first bought for condos and ending up burnings. Any ways my point is we the CBA-CDC want the Wellington st lot... Dennis will not give it to us wants it back on the tax roll.. but they took the lot on Pleasant St off the tax roll and spent all kinds of taxes cleaning it up... please talk to me like I am a two year old... I just don't get it. I never was much for commenting hear... hoping this will help our cause.....silly blogha

Jahn said...

Signman, I never knew that Winslow St School was bought for condos and then had a fire

The place was razed in the winter/spring of 1979.

BTW has anyone taken a look at the unpaid taxes on Worc Common Grds 48 Mason St site. They have paid nothing since June of 2009 when it looks like they were about a year and a quarter behind. They are now behind for all three of the last due
payments.

Yup, check out that mission statemtn for Worc Common Grd and then compare to their actions...whats the old adage.....talk is cheap......and has the sidewalk even been shovled in the last 2 months? Once maybe and it wasnt even the requisite 4 ft wide. Priceless.