Quote Originally Posted by davewindsor View Post
I wouldn't say hypocrite and I don't believe they would move at a break even point anymore. I can understand Beal's hesistation at this point after reading the Omni thread where Ferchill is getting raped by Wells Fargo over losing the Hilton Garden to foreclosure. Ferchill overleveraged himself with the Book reno and is losing buildings and it's sending a ripple effect to other large scale developers where they are scared of overleveraging themselves and going down the same path. I'd be surprised if there's going to be any other large scale development going on after this. Unless buyers are willing to fork up the coin in pre-condo sales, I wouldn't hold my breath. Maybe he's trying to sell himself as a "redeveloper eztrodinaire" for precondo sales, but it doesn't look like buyers are interested in precondo sales in downtown like they are in Chicago and Manhattan.
Well, with Ferchill, the difference is he is losing hotels. The apartments in the Fort Shelby are better than 95% leased, and the Book-Cadillac is not far behind. There has come to be an oversaturation of hotels downtown, with the aforementioned Hilton Garden Inn, the Westin, Doubletree and all three new casino hotels. The problem is, there is a lack of residential, with the infusion of workers downtown had seen this year and will continue to see through next year. Washington Square is at it's highest occupancy ever, almost all of the new apartments/condos/lofts are occupied. There is no better time to go through with a project like this. As a resident of the state of Michigan, I feel that they need to be true to their word and go through with this project. They promised within 90 days of the most recent tax credit, they would begin construction. I think that since the taxpayers are footing part of the bill for this building for the sake of creating jobs, they need to live up to their promise and actually make the project happen.