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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-21-1998 Meeting I I I REAL ESTATE MEETING COMMITTEE ROOM - April 21, 1998 PRESENT: Hons. Larry Sconyers, Mayor; Todd, J. Brigham, Mays, Kuhlke, H. Brigham, Shepard, Beard, Powell, Handy and Bridges, Commissioners. Also Present: Jim Wall, Attorney; Randy Oliver, Administrator and Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. Mr. Mayor: Do you want to have a presentation by Mr. Simon? Mr. Kuhlke: I feel that this is a significant real estate transaction that Mr. Simon is asking us to participate in. Mr. Todd: I don't feel it County. I think that this is probably a good project but is a good deal for the taxpayers of Richmond Mr. Paul Simon: We came up with the idea to trade the UDAG for the Convention Center. In other cities in Georgia the Convention Center is owned by the city and supported by county dollars. If you approve this project we would spend about $11.5 million on this project and it will bring more investment because we plan to expand this whole area. We are also willing to offer a 5% commission off of the public room rentals, gross off the top. Mr. Oliver: And that money can go back into CDBG to be used in other areas. Based on last year, the gross rentals were about $200,000 so 5% of that is $10,000. When the new space opens, I would anticipate that that would at least double but those rates will probably go up about 5% a year. Doing some rough figures you're talking $2.5 million over a period of time. This is all new money. Mr. J. Brigham: You're asking us to trade our $7 million in return for you spending about $3 million to expand the Convention Center and it will become ours. And we will receive a continuous steam of income from the various sources including a percentage of the gross funds. Mr. Simon: That's right. Commissioners held a lengthy discussion to weigh the merits of approving the project as proposed by Mr. Simon. Mr. Wall: To update you on the Olde Town properties, we hopefully will be in a position to close this out. The Richmond I group has pulled out of the general partnership and the Pinnacle Corporation is being substituted. The state has signed onto that and there may be some changes but they still intend to close by April 30. Mr. Oliver: We're looking for a letter from the state saying they're comfortable and then I sent a memo to Mr. Mack this morning about doing due diligence because I know nothing about the new corporation. Mr. Wall: pinnacle is the new partner and the limited partner is still the same. We will be checking them out. The next real estate matter involves the Board of Education. Last Monday Pete Fletcher and Ben Allen asked me to meet them on Walton Street which is one street below Hale Street toward Laney Walker. When they did their original proposal, they thought they had roughly seven acres in that craig School site. As it turns out, they had sold some of the land to the motel that fronts on Gordon Highway and they have about five acres. They talked to me about the possibility to closing off that street at the scale gate and coming east so that trucks could still come off of Gordon Highway, go through the scales and get back on. It would be an inconvenience from the standpoint that trucks coming in from South Carolina that turn on Walton Way would have to go all I the way down and circle the block and come in there. Billy Carroll is opposed to it and it may not go anywhere. During the course of that discussion, I had heard some conversation about the Farmers Market and the possibility of getting that property 2and I talked with Earl Harris. If we want to pursue that, the Board of Education may be willing to go in if we wanted to basically relocate a Farmers Market, a much smaller Farmers Market. There are many things to be worked out, the scale revenue is about $70,OnO. They would need office space and at one point when we were looking for storage facilities, that area may be a possibility and I'd like to know if you are still interested. If it's not a viable alternative, then Craig School will be a two-story school and basically, it's their problem. It's not our problem; it's a question of whether we want to try to help them out. I think they wanted the Eagles Way building for storage. At least that was my understanding. Mr. Mays: If that's what they're proposing it for then I think we should keep it ourselves. Mr. Beard: I think you need to get all the information. Mr. Wall: I'll do that. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting I was adjourned. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission NWM