So now we know why Carl Essa could never make the Canada Dry property work: It has serious environmental issues, as Troublemaker reports. We’d never find this out from the N&R, because editor John Robinson’s wife has a financial stake in the property:
The Editor of the N&R is financially involved in the sale of the Canada Dry building. His wife’s family owns it. The city wants to buy it. The last offer made was over three million dollars. The first appraisal was incomplete. The property has serious environmental issues due to several underground fuel tanks and the cost of that clean up is yet to be determined.
Wonder why we have not seen a feature story on that local government maneuver? How come we did not see a story about council rejecting the first appraisal due to all of the unknowns present? Wonder why we did not see an editorial applauding the council for being awake enough to read the first appraisal and seeing it as incomplete? Did I miss something? Gotta look after the tax payer’s money right? When the N&R editor gets up in the morning and goes to work is he more interested in what is good for the elite city staff instead of what is good for the people?
Troublemaker is also bothered by more evidence of micro-management by Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson:
Why is the City Manager so closely involved in the negotiations for the purchase of the property? Is Johnson a certified property appraiser? By law if he is not, he should not be able to come up with amounts for the property. Is he an expert in the cost of commercial demolition? Does he have knowledge of the cost of environmental clean up? Is it that the deal has already been made? Is Mitch working for the property owners to get the price they want? We will continue to follow this story. A tax payers money is a terrible thing to waste……
Is this another shining example of Mitch Johnson paying an amount that enormously exceeds any appraisal completed on the property? Think Willow Oaks and Bryant Electric.
Tomorrow night’s meeting will be very interesting, because it’s clear the city wants to make this deal.
