Just a wild guess, but anyone working in the private sector who made $400,000 go poof while being told it would go poof would probably be told to pack up their desk. (Unless they had a federal backstop, which would then put them in America’s growing fascist economic sector.)
Yet here we are with the city of Charlotte having spent $400K on options to buy parcels of Eastland with absolutely nothing to show for it. This was a straight-up riverboat gamble and city staff lost. Totally. They demonstrated zero understanding of the market dynamics surrounding the property and absent the rejection of the city’s $7.4m. offer to buy the property, the city would today own a 90-acre blackhole. There was and is nothing good to be had with such dealings.
For an idea of just how out-of-whack even that $7.4m. offer was, check out what a beat-up but still functional dome just sold for: $583,000. Granted, it is the Pontiac Silverdome outside of Detroit. Still, tens of millions are not required to immediately re-develop it. However, the city had to sell the Silverdome given the upkeep costs and to get the thing back on the property tax rolls. Gee, that sounds very much like the pressures we warned about back when Charlotte city staff first started down this Monopoly-board path with Eastland.
Except that they were playing at real estate mogul with real taxpayer dollars instead of the pink and blue variety. By rights they should be pink-slipped and told to roll the dice elsewhere.
