Good Morning All!
Here is a quick update on the acquisition efforts for Main and Clinton. Unfortunately, good old fashioned greed has come into play. Although Phyllis Cohen and I remain steadfast in our efforts, a few of the other property owners have decided to play the greed game. Even my cousins have decided to triple their asking price from just a few months ago. Robert Bauman inherited his fathers building several months ago. Robert now owns the two stores next to my property. They were once the home of Weiss Jewelers, and the Planters Peanut Shop. During the RenSquare battle my cousin was more than willing to sell his building for 200K. When Ren was defeated, his price went to 600k. I officially told him to pound salt yesterday. The best part of this negotiation was how the price went up from 500k last week, to 600k this week. That was the final straw. This is a cousin no less. Quan Cho died last year like most of the other owners. I was working well with him, but his two sons are now "taking over" the negotiations from Arizona. They have a significant parcel as well. I am continuing the efforts to acquire all the property necessary to see my plan come to fruition. It will get done. Fortunately, between Phyllis and I, we still have the biggest piece of the pie. I am hopeful that Robert, and the other younger property owners will see the light. If they do not join the coalition, I suspect they will ultimately get much less than the fair price I would have paid them. Time will tell.
By the end of the week I will step up my campaign to get MCC back into their original location. We have not heard back from Anne Kress. Somewhere in this I sense a hint of Maggie still lingering. Regardless of that, I will continue to fight for the best possible scenario for downtown. I have new signs going up on the corner. I hope they will raise awareness and get the public to ask MCC what happened to their original location. I still find it fascinating that the "old" location went from perfect, to unsuitable in a week. Politics are really amazing. The entire problem at this very strategic corner can be fixed by simply getting MCC to come back to their original location. The two new "problems" with the site have been removed. One was no staging area at the corner during the MCC construction. The other problem of no room to expand was never mentioned until they decided look for other locations. Both of these alleged deal breakers are now gone. I own the corner, and they can have it for their staging area. I also control the buildings next to their proposed site and they can have whatever room for expansion they want. The real beauty of my design is it's versatility. I can scale it up, or down. So, problems solved! Why isn't MCC still wanting to come to the best spot in downtown?? Why isn't MCC interested in salvaging SOME of the squandered 24 million dollars already spent on this fiasco? My guess is more political Bull Shit! Somewhere in this is Maggie and the cronies that didn't get their deal. I somehow see Maggie having a tantrum and saying...if we don't get this, nobody will! We will see. I am nothing if not tenacious. Besides, I am still fighting the good fight for the benefit of all.
I will predict that the property owners who got very greedy and are trying to hold me up for their outrageous greed will ultimately get exactly what they deserve.
Talk soon, Neil
