Monday, December 10, 2007
Voting 'no' on the Hancock
From the RoundTable blog
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Brian Wishneff
Wishneff is a member of Roanoke City Council.
Roanoke City Council members made a poor decision last Monday when they voted 5-2 to provide THB, LLC (a partnership of Ed Walker and Scott Graef) with a $880,000 grant for renovation of the Hancock Building, the former Grand Piano building on Campbell Avenue. Sherman Lea and I cast the two no votes.
As stated at the council meeting, we had no issue with the developers' request for a grant. I would have probably made a similar request had I been in their shoes. This development team has completed many terrific real estate development projects in our downtown, including the Hancock project, and should be praised for their pioneering development work.
My issue is with the mayor, four council members and the city administration. As I stated at Monday's meeting, if we as a community and city council believe having more apartments in our downtown is important, then let's have a discussion and debate of the merits and need for such a program. If the argument for such a program is persuasive, I would fully support it.
If we are going to have a publicly supported incentive program it should be available to any downtown apartment developer that meets established criteria. That is my first problem with what council did. Where is the information supporting the idea we need more apartments downtown? Where is the set of program criteria for an incentive program available to anyone?
Instead, there is no evidence of the need for more apartments downtown, no evidence that this or any other apartment complex needs a public subsidy and no incentive program designed for everyone. Instead, council voted to provide such a grant to a single developer for a single project with no supporting information about the need. Such a rush to action causes unnecessary suspicion in the public about why this developer and why now.
The second issue I raised about council's vote was the way in which the council report was written. The council report and proposed agreement with the developer stated that this transaction was a loan. It is not a loan. It is interest-free and none of the money has to be paid back unless the developer sells any of the units as condos in the next 10 years.
No interest payment and no real requirement to pay back any of the money. Does that sound like a loan to you? Calling it a loan gives the appearance that the mayor, four council members and city administration are trying to put one over on the public.
The other issue I raised was that the agreement we received did not name the principals of the developer. Even the signature blocks had no principals' names. As I said in the council meeting, how can I vote on such an incentive program without knowledge of who the principals are? They could be my cousins, for all I know, and I would have a conflict of interest.
I believe the mayor, four council members and city administration purposely left off the names of the principals in an attempt to obscure and hide from the public the names of the principals and that it is a grant not a loan.
Later, the city manager objected to my characterization that the city administration was trying to hide the names of the principals from the public. She said that in every incentive agreement brought to council in the past, principals' names were also left off. She said not listing the principals' names on incentive agreements was how they had always written draft agreements for council approval. She specifically pointed to the Cambria Suite Hotel and Ivy Market agreements as examples of projects where we approved incentive agreements where the principals' names were not listed.
I questioned the city manager's assertion that not listing the principals' names was common practice and asked the city clerk to send us a copy of the two agreements named by the city manager. We received the two council reports and draft agreements Tuesday and, not surprisingly, a principal's name was listed on the signature block.
Sadly, we were not told the truth again. As I stated at council meeting, I believe the mayor, four council members and city administration were trying to hide who the principals of THB are and being less than honest with the public by calling it a loan rather than a grant.
I wanted the public to know why Lea and I voted against it.
