Aggieland Proud said:
I already cannot vote for John Nichols because of his attitude about neighborhood integrity. He recently wanted to relocate the Pebble Creek Parkway entrance, the main entrance into the Pebble Creek neighborhood, so that it would connect to the new Corporate Parkway coming out of Midtown. That would potentially bring commercial 18 wheelers driving right through the middle of a large, established residential neighborhood. His comment was that road connectivity was more important than neighborhood integrity. I'm sorry but that man does not deserve to be mayor, much less be on council.
Corporate Parkway, as I recall, was originally named Pebble Creek Parkway as the road would extend and curl back around to Highway 40. I'm not sure how that equates to PBC having "commercia 18 wheelers driving right through the middle of a large, established residential neighborhood", that would hinge more on the fact if the road was extended south and what it connected to.
officerfred said:
Lets try this again.
PS3D Respectfully, the city purchase of the mall's largest retail anchor space along with over 7 acres is certainly "mall redevelopment".
The city stated that they wanted to protect the other retailers and businesses in the mall by this purchase. So clearly the city is stepping in here with taxpayer funds to redevelop the mall. I bet none of these folks would have paid 2X for a property that sold only 7 months ago with their own money.
I view this as a rescue of CBL Properties, the REIT that owns the mall. A mall operator that hasn't invested a nickel to make the mall better in decades. Now we know why. They knew that our city would use taxpayer funds and come rescue them. If the city must be involved, I would prefer the city use incentive funds to encourage private redevelopers that could fairly bid on the project. At least then they could place benchmarks that could protect us, the taxpayers.
Watch the meeting everyone and inform yourself. Make your own decision. But ask yourself why we don't have more details. Why is it that they can talk to insiders and do this kind of deal making without any public transparency? Ask yourself who stands the profit from the sale of this property? Who is at risk?
Do you believe the city "appraisal" of $6 to $11 million for a property that sold only 7 months ago for $3.5 million?
My view is that this purchase will serve as a ball and chain for City of College Station taxpayers for the next decade.
Last but not least. Here are other recent purchases of similar properties across the US as dozens of Macys closed locations have sold in the past year to private investors. Do a quick search for yourself.
Macys in Kentucky sold May 2022 $2 million
Macys in Tennessee sold Nov 2021 $4 million
Macys in Colorado sold June 2022 $3.5 million
We need to hear from the people who recently filed to help lead our city. Do not vote for someone unless they can explain their position on this issue. God Bless College Station.
There is no question that they overpaid for the property and their lack of communication with the pubic is troubling.
But CBL Properties has invested in the mall (the renovation in the late 2000s/early 2010s), and while they've mismanaged it--high rents and generally sub-par tenants, like replacing the vacant Luby's and a few others with a large discount clothing store...they're not going getting a bailout from CoCS, directly or indirectly, especially if CoCS causes the store to remain vacant (which it almost certainly will). They have never owned the Macy's property and would probably take anything they could get.