What caught my eye was the "estimated value" line in the Application Information section of the structural permit. This information would be supplied by the applicant, not the City.
$8 million dollars is the estimated value of this parking garage. Not the oft repeated $15 million number. And, this $8 million dollars would include the new flood proofing designs that were so onerous that the developer said it would kill the project.
The City taxpayers, through the up-front proceeds from the sale of the parking meter assets, is paying for this garage to the tune of $6.34 million. We were told there would be 350 parking spaces and no more than 20% of the building devoted to retail and other uses. The permit weighs in with 349 parking spaces, but the full first floor being retail (or 33% of the building) devoted to non-parking functions). You will recall that the supposed need was for the parking spaces, not more retail. Schouten reports that 100 of the spaces are actually required for all that retail, netting the taxpayers 249 spaces.
What to make of the $8 million "estimated value"? Three possibilities leap to mind. First - the taxpayers of Indy are paying $6.34 million, or the very hungry lion's share of the price for this garage/retail building. Even if the per square foot construction costs of retail were equal to that of parking spaces (which I trust is no where near true), the cost of the parking spaces would be $5.33 million. So, we have paid too much for what we are getting. We have been led to believe that the costs were closer to $15 million by our City leaders, so our contribution would part of $10 million in costs for the two floors of parking.
Could the developer be so bad with money that he would spend $15 million and only create $8 million in value? Possibly.
The last thought is that this $8 million value just might be what gets into the database for assessed values for property tax purposes.
I don't know what the costs truly are. I have outstanding open records requests for just that information from the City. But, the Ballard administration's self-proclaimed transparency is still not evident in its divulgence of public documents through City Legal.
Until further information is provided by the City, we are left with at least three possibilities - the taxpayers are paying more than their share of the building - the developer is very bad with money - or the true value of the new garage is deliberately being low balled.
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Who is the "owner" & will they pay property taxes?
The developer group is the owner and, yes, they will pay property taxes.
The taxpayers are paying for the garage so that Keystone can rake in the profits. Eight million will be the highside of the costs of this garage, not the low side.
Another example of transferring wealth from the many to few.
I have been complaining forever of how the media just accepts as given the statement it is a $15 million garage when similar garages don't cost anywhere near that. From the beginning the $15 million figure was all about making it appear that Keystone was actually kicking money into the project. In fact, our $6.5 contribution probably cost the whole thing.
Now with this flood problem, Keystone may have to actually kick money in on the construction. But Keystone still gets 100% ownershp, 100% of the profits from the commercial rents and 100% of the profits from the parking. We taxpayers get nothing.
This parking garage needed no public investment beyond zoning approval and minor sidewalk upgrades.
When will someone step in and stop this outrageous public graft?
There was probably a reason that lot was empty for so long. If the city paid for the lot, then someone more crafty than myself should be able to find out how many millions we paid for it.
Sundog - the old Marathon lot sold in 2011 to 6280 LLC (the Keystone legal entity for this parcel) for $1.8 million. It had an assessed value in 2010 of $435,300, and an AV in 2011 of $999,800.
There is no sales disclosure form online for the Marco's Pizza lot - having already been acquired at some earlier time by 6286 LLC. So that sales price is not known to me.
Over two months ago I requested all of the attachments to the agreement between the City and Keystone for this deal. One of those attachments should be the budget for all of the parts of the project. But, true to form, the City has not turned it over.
BTW, the City owns nothing in this deal. You and I get to pay $6.34 million, but we own nothing in return.
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