Arkansas Blog

Yeah, more of that free money. We are all beginning to have a little more faith in greed.

Somewhere down the road we will get that with free money, you get what you pay for.

It'll be a while.

Just as an aside and not to leave readers with a limited impression, "the downtown TIF-hole"
includes the entire block upon which once sat the old Mountain Inn.

The developers now say, after paying 25k per month for a very limited time, they own the property,
"fee simple." I think a lawsuit is in order if there was anyone with a brain running the City of Fayetteville.

I don't understand the incentives for developers. They are going to develop anyway, hence the name "developer". If there is a chance they can borrow some money, build something half-ass, and make some jack, then they will do it without the incentives. Little Rock is about to have their version of a big hole in the ground when the River Market tower is complete. Why did the city give Moses Tucker incentives and special permitting favors to construct a nineteen story condo project, especially in this market?

IMO incentives should only be used for manufacturing or larger industrial projects that truly create new jobs and products. A lot of these new development projects don't created anything new, sales or taxes. They just pull retail shops and customers from other areas of the city, and truly don't create anything new.

Developer is just a nice name for someone with his hand out. They seldom have enough money for the pretty pictures they want to show you to get your money. Some do. Most don't. They're game is to get enough of your money to borrow someone else's money to pay them their fee. Guess where the first check goes once all of the papers are signed. They had their fee before the hole was dug. The TIF money was probably the margin that allowed the bank to claim that there was some equity in the project. Somebody got stuck with this but it was probably not the developer.

It is interesting that these guys in Fayetteville now want another bite at the apple, claiming ownership and another equity position. They obviously didn't have the investors signed up to begin with and were counting on the hole to close the deal. The city doesn't want the hole or the money so they will probably role over and throw good money after bad.

The Rivermarket tower had to go up once the papers where signed. Now it will just be another bad right off in the banking mess.