Independence H-D said:
I have sent this thread to a buddy who is from CS and is now an investigative reporter with a H-town news station.
I've sent it to a couple Houston news outlets. Have not heard anything back.
Macy's Debacle - What went wrong [Staff Edit OP]
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Last: 2 hrs ago by Craig Regan 14
I've sent it to a couple Houston news outlets. Have not heard anything back.
I guess building a hotel was on their radar if according to Mr. Yancy they intended to acquire the entire mall
Bolded part is part of what's broken with CoCS. An official, a sitting councilman, elected to serve his constituents, has to learn details of a large purchase the city made via a public message board. As an elected official, you should have any questions you ask answered quickly and within reasonable detail. If I am reading between the lines properly that has not been the case. That's the problemBob Yancy said:EliteElectric said:
And this is why there needs to be complete transparency. I had no idea, and I bet neither did most of us that the Grand Station guy tried to buy it. The only story I have ever heard is that the city blocked Jim from buying it. Speaking plainly, the city wouldn't get into these boondoggles if they simply stayed in their lane and quit playing roulette with our tax dollars.
Agreed. And I have to retract a portion of my earlier statement about an intense focus on a rec center being the driver…because I've just learned from these documents- for the first time- that the actual intent, at least at one point, was to acquire the entire Post Oak Mall.
I'll not be commenting on this thread further until I've read these documents thoroughly and had my questions answered.
Transparently
Yancy
Agreed.
Dumb question, did any of this go through the Planning & Zoning Department first or did council/staff act on their own?
Good question to ask in an open records request.
What went wrong? It's easy to answer.
The city involved themselves in an area that they are not charged to participate in. The city is not a real estate brokerage company.
Firstly, they should not be attempting to restrict the use of any property beyound the zoning guidelines that are already inforce and secondly, they should never consider purchasing any real estate without a justifiable current need or projected future need with the public having input into the eventual purchase.
Hopefully, the city officials and anyone considering running for city office will consider this $8+ million fiasco and not even think about repeating it again.
I can see it being vacant for many, many more years.
The city involved themselves in an area that they are not charged to participate in. The city is not a real estate brokerage company.
Firstly, they should not be attempting to restrict the use of any property beyound the zoning guidelines that are already inforce and secondly, they should never consider purchasing any real estate without a justifiable current need or projected future need with the public having input into the eventual purchase.
Hopefully, the city officials and anyone considering running for city office will consider this $8+ million fiasco and not even think about repeating it again.
I can see it being vacant for many, many more years.
How about we just sell it to Jim Lewis at a loss and call it a day?
Don't assume Mr Lewis wants any part of the tar baby now - and if he does i bet he wants a discount off the original price.
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Going back to the first page of this post and the renderings for this "gaming center", a Taj Mahal with massive amounts of very large store front glass. That rendering is another example of pie in the sky and typical of city engaged architects that are wonderful at spending other people's money on paper. I'm quite certain their proposed lease rate wouldn't even come close to justifying what is shown in that rendering. Just another dog and pony show here. This needs to be gotten completely to the bottom of, because this sure smells like a number of city staff did the taxpayers a massive disservice, to put it extremely mildly.
What's even more infuriating is that they learned nothing from the Chimney Hill debacle.
They still think they did nothing wrong with that
When the guy who is tasked with answering those questions (the city manager) is in on the cover up, of course he's going to stall and make it difficult to get the truth. He's part of the problem there.
The city manager was a VP of a construction company before he worked for cities. No wonder the buildings are grandiose and over the top. "Kid in a candy store with unlimited budget" comes to mind. Doing a huge disservice since 2018.
Hornbeck said:
The city manager was a VP of a construction company before he worked for cities. No wonder the buildings are grandiose and over the top. "Kid in a candy store with unlimited budget" comes to mind.
Yeah, I'm in that line of work. $12/SF annual rent for what is shown there, not to mention who knows what kind of tenant improvement allowance was being discussed, is a freaking pipe dream. These people have zero business playing in the CRE sandbox. None of them understand it. If they did, they be in the private sector. By the same token, they would have us all believe they understand the game better than those of us who have been doing this for 25 plus years every day.
This, 1000x thisRafterAg223 said:Hornbeck said:
The city manager was a VP of a construction company before he worked for cities. No wonder the buildings are grandiose and over the top. "Kid in a candy store with unlimited budget" comes to mind.
Yeah, I'm in that line of work. $10/SF annual rent for what is shown there, not to mention who knows what kind of tenant improvement allowance was being discussed, is a freaking pipe dream. These people have zero business playing in the CRE sandbox. None of them understand it. If they did, they be in the private sector. By the same token, they would have us all believe they understand the game better than those of us who have been doing this for 25 plus years every day.
And their budget assumptions on some of those documents to me are a complete joke. They read like a sophomore level group ag economics project. Crazy
"sophomore level ag economics project" Great reference.....that was Nichols dept at A&M right?
The COCS have a repeated history of this. In the mid 90s the Burger Boy & Barber shop debacle at University & Boyett. The Wolf Pen amphitheater that is nothing as it was originally designed. The Chimney Hill Bowling Center acquisition, and now the mall. No one should be surprised, you should expect it.
Didn't they even have a vote on the amphitheater and voters were against it, but COCS was like "Well, we're going to do it anyway"? I was pretty young, but seem to remember hearing my dad gripe about it.
Well hopefully this debacle will be the last, we have one council member that finally has some sense, and he is doing his best to get rid of the property that should have never been bought
CSMC2014 said:
The COCS have a repeated history of this. In the mid 90s the Burger Boy & Barber shop debacle at University & Boyett. The Wolf Pen amphitheater that is nothing as it was originally designed. The Chimney Hill Bowling Center acquisition, and now the mall. No one should be surprised, you should expect it.
There was the locally owned sandwich shop at Main and Patricia, the city forcefully purchased using eminent domain for "parking" then flipped to Texadelphia, a franchised sandwich shop. That was on the early 80s.
Clucky said:
Didn't they even have a vote on the amphitheater and voters were against it, but COCS was like "Well, we're going to do it anyway"? I was pretty young, but seem to remember hearing my dad gripe about it.
If I remember correctly, they did the same thing with city hall. Multiple times voted against by the citizens then pushed through by city staff & council via issuing certificates of obligation which do not require voter approval. My memory is fuzzy, but I think it was around 2003ish and then 2008 that the city hall issue was brought to voters via bond & failed.
Yancy literally started a whole post trying to get ideas for what to do with the old Macy's. I and some others indicated that the city should go ahead and sell it. There is a little confusion about whether the city tried to sell it. It is important to know that they did not. They sought submissions for redevelopment. That isn't a serious attempt to sell.
Yancy then went on WTAW and was trying to sell his pickleball complex idea.
https://wtaw.com/college-station-councilman-investigating-repurposing-the-city-owned-macys-store-for-indoor-pickleball/
If citizens are going to get the council to sell the property, they are going to have to stay on top of this council.
Yancy then went on WTAW and was trying to sell his pickleball complex idea.
https://wtaw.com/college-station-councilman-investigating-repurposing-the-city-owned-macys-store-for-indoor-pickleball/
If citizens are going to get the council to sell the property, they are going to have to stay on top of this council.
Brian Alg
Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government and Moderator Restraint
Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government and Moderator Restraint
I agree with you
in fact, the mayor in an email to me said 'the property is in fact on the market"
I cannot find any commercial listing anywhere why would he say that? If a property is on the market it has to have a price and be seen to sell it.
in fact, the mayor in an email to me said 'the property is in fact on the market"
I cannot find any commercial listing anywhere why would he say that? If a property is on the market it has to have a price and be seen to sell it.
Because he wants you to quit asking?
happyinBCS said:
I agree with you
in fact, the mayor in an email to me said 'the property is in fact on the market"
I cannot find any commercial listing anywhere why would he say that? If a property is on the market it has to have a price and be seen to sell it.
From my vantage point, the mayor has a somewhat tenuous grasp on the truth.
Like we are a bunch of college students and he knows better.
Ultimately, the councils will come and go. We need accountability from Brian Woods and Brian Woods only. He needs to answer for all of this and come clean with whatever their plan was and now is.
This rests solely on his shoulders.
We are clearly a weak council/weak mayor setup leading to the city manager essentially driving the vision of the city. It appears to me we direct our ire at the wrong parties.
This rests solely on his shoulders.
We are clearly a weak council/weak mayor setup leading to the city manager essentially driving the vision of the city. It appears to me we direct our ire at the wrong parties.
My understanding is that they are treating the request for redevelopment bids as a sale. Money was a 40% consideration in that thing. They weren't trying to sell it. They were asking people to participate in auditions for redevelopment proposals.
Quote:
EVALUATION FACTORS
Award of the contract shall be made to the responsible offeror whose proposal is determined to be the best value and benefit to the City resulting from the negotiations, taking into consideration the relative importance of price and other factors set forth in this bid:
15 Points Qualifications, experience, and key personnel, especially as it relates to
similar type projects.
40 Points Overall value and impact of proposed redevelopment project on the
surrounding area as well as the entire city, through the fostering of a
strong sense of place and generation of sustained activity over the long
term.
40 Points Overall financial benefit to the City, such as the purchase/lease price,
value of redevelopment, ongoing City-related costs, and incentives
requested by the Bidder.
5 Points References
100 Points Total maximum possible points
The evaluation and review process will produce a list of the top-rated proposals submitted by
Bidders which may be selected for interviews and/or presentations if deemed necessary by the
Evaluation Committee. Following any interviews and/or presentations, the Evaluation Committee
will make a final determination of the top-ranking Bidder and begin contract negotiations.
Brian Alg
Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government and Moderator Restraint
Brazos Coalition for Responsible Government and Moderator Restraint
At first I thought the glassy part was a rehabbed part of the original building design but looking it at from a near-identical viewpoint, looks nothing like it, nor addresses the other side.RafterAg223 said:
Going back to the first page of this post and the renderings for this "gaming center", a Taj Mahal with massive amounts of very large store front glass. That rendering is another example of pie in the sky and typical of city engaged architects that are wonderful at spending other people's money on paper. I'm quite certain their proposed lease rate wouldn't even come close to justifying what is shown in that rendering. Just another dog and pony show here. This needs to be gotten completely to the bottom of, because this sure smells like a number of city staff did the taxpayers a massive disservice, to put it extremely mildly.
https://www.google.com/maps/@30.6234651,-96.3004953,3a,30.9y,294.85h,92.18t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sTUn22kXOAyI0RSDetEvNBA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-2.18409474916335%26panoid%3DTUn22kXOAyI0RSDetEvNBA%26yaw%3D294.8492500052084!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDIxMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
If you wish to sign up to speak as a group at a COCS meeting...
please DM me.
We need at least 10 people there to get 10 min
please DM me.
We need at least 10 people there to get 10 min
"Its not a bug. Its a feature!"CSMC2014 said:
The COCS have a repeated history of this. In the mid 90s the Burger Boy & Barber shop debacle at University & Boyett. The Wolf Pen amphitheater that is nothing as it was originally designed. The Chimney Hill Bowling Center acquisition, and now the mall. No one should be surprised, you should expect it.
All of the role playing reminds me of "Jethro thinks he wants to be a naval frogman but Granny is concerned her tonic has transformed him"
As mentioned before, real estate is for sharks and whales, not some social influencer who just landed a real estate job.
As mentioned before, real estate is for sharks and whales, not some social influencer who just landed a real estate job.
I received the annual cost from the city
Utilities
Roadway Maintenace fee 2308.86
Electric 63,023
Water 930.00
Sewer 1046.00
CBL shared maintenance 41,418
Insurance 4768.00
ADT security 3719.00
Landscaping and mowing 746.00
Total 118,000.00
So about 10,000 a month average
Utilities
Roadway Maintenace fee 2308.86
Electric 63,023
Water 930.00
Sewer 1046.00
CBL shared maintenance 41,418
Insurance 4768.00
ADT security 3719.00
Landscaping and mowing 746.00
Total 118,000.00
So about 10,000 a month average
happyinBCS said:
I received the annual cost from the city
Utilities
Roadway Maintenace fee 2308.86
Electric 63,023
Water 930.00
Sewer 1046.00
CBL shared maintenance 41,418
Insurance 4768.00
ADT security 3719.00
Landscaping and mowing 746.00
Total 118,000.00
So about 10,000 a month average
Basically wasting an additional $10k month on top of the $7.5mil…….
Instead of hiring more public works folks, police officers, firefighters, etc. Shameful waste of our hard earned money.