EDC votes to demo Tiger Stadium

[kraig]

Kraig, if you understand how business works, maybe you can explain why you're holding the OTSC to a higher standard than a private real estate developer.

These types of projects are *never* done with "cash on hand", nor do 100% of monies need to be "in-hand" before work can begin. The City could have turned this property over quite easily, but they refused to do so.

This decision by DEGC is purely political. If you look at their track record, it becomes quite clear that DEGC has more interest in demolition than they do development.

I'm holding them to the standard of a group that is familiar with the city's system and had more support from the city than people want to acknowledge. In case you haven't read all of my other posts, I'll reiterate.

The OTSC had the support of City Council, the City Planning Commision, Senator Carl Levin and 4million dollars, one of their Board members was a former employee of Maryann Mahaffey, one was a former member of the City Planning Commission and one was the floor majority leader up until January 1st. In the middle of a tight mayoral race were both candidates stated support for the project, there were just too many ample opportunites to get the deal done that were not pursued. Conservancy groups all over would give anything to be in the position that the OTSC was in. So if it seems that I'm holding them to a higher standard it's because opportunity knocked and they didn't answer.

You also need to have enough cash on hand to meet your benchmarks, or deadlines in this instance. It's not just about real estate. It's about how you're going to run your business.

The DEGC is going to do whatever the Mayor tells them to do. The OTSC should have had Cockrel tell DEGC to turn over the property.