Questions follow shopping center in Richmond Developers, city get new chance to present due diligence Nov. 23, 2013 10:39 PM | As New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” The East Side retail development is back, or at least back in the news, and this time the investors are exploring other means of getting taxpayer investment in the project. Richmond developer Scott Porter appeared before the city’s Community & Economic Development Loan Fund board last week seeking a 10-year, $500,000 loan for working capital for Crossroad Commons, a 60-acre site on National Road East near the intersection with Interstate 70. It would be the largest draw on that loan fund recorded. Readers will recall that these same development investors received a commitment of a half-million dollars in Economic Development Income Tax funds from Mayor Sally Hutton, before going to the Richmond Common Council, where public hearings during late summer on the balance of funds created a wide-reaching public backlash and due diligence questions that neither council, nor the developers, could answer. Maybe this time it will be different. In fairness, and as this newspaper has stressed repeatedly, nobody is opposed to retail development, and certainly not a business. It is where that retail development relies too much on public largess that questions necessarily arise over unduly influencing private market decisions and whether a project can stand on its own. The developers are entitled a renewed presentation and update on relevant information, providing it again gets conducted in a very public manner with a thorough public vetting. If they wish to avoid all that, they can go to a bank, where loans are supposed to originate and where confidentiality of negotiations is expected and respected. In the meantime, what the public should find appalling at this juncture is how Richmond Common Council member Don Winget is again back and shilling for this project. We would suggest he has an important decision to make, and should arguably have made it before this. If his fellow council members or local Republican Party officials are not willing or prepared to discuss with Winget the necessity of avoiding even the appearance of conflicts and undue influence in his public dealings, then it falls to voters to leave him at the woodshed when the next council election rolls around. https://youtube/watch?v=1MhZTS_QgFs
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 08:04:25 +0000
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