Originally Posted by
soonerguru
Put me in the camp that is quickly souring on TIF. Boulevard Place has driven me there. I am utterly disgusted by the way this project has played out.
1. Initially, when presented, the Boulevard Place proposal offered vignettes about serving as "workplace housing" for service staff at Omni.
2. There were going to be "affordable units" offered, and price points suggested were in the $700 range for studio apartments.
3. The city offered money from its GO bond for affordable housing as incentive.
4. Cathy O'Connor hailed the Boulevard Place proposal as the choice because it offered more affordable units than competing proposals.
5. This was going to be a panacea - a bright, high-impact residential complex with both market-rate and affordable units. There was going to be a day care center. The list of promises goes on and on.
Why was this group really chosen? That's what I want to know. It's been five years and they haven't delivered anything. They only keep coming back with palms out begging for more public money. There will be no day care center. There will be no studio units less than $1,100. There will be few if any Omni employees living there.
TIF is a great tool, and one I have avoided having knee-jerk opposition to, but this proposal has absolutely made a mockery of it and provided ammunition for those who are opposed to it. TIF should not serve to ensure that developers make millions on a proposal when they are receiving public money.
We have gone five years and nothing has happened with this proposal. It seems clear to me that the developers did not have the financial ability to pull this off, which should have been easy to glean by doing due diligence. They just made a lot of exciting promises to sell the rubes and reneged on all of them in short order. So, we will have a large apartment complex for high-income individuals in an area that is prime real estate. TIF is supposed to be a tool to rebuild blighted areas, and, as Pete has pointed out, this is not a blighted area by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm disgusted by how this has played out and again, I wonder, why was this group awarded this precious site?