Lots going on in this N&R article on the City of Greensboro’s rejection of $5 million in economic development bond money for three sites owned by high-powered developers.
For starters, note the money quote from Roy Carroll, who just a couple of weeks ago was defending himself in front of the City Council during the recent debate over the downtown noise ordinance:
Land Port asked for a nearly $3.5 million loan for grading and other improvements to 100 acres of Carroll’s property. The company also requested a $355,000 grant to make water line improvements.
On Thursday, Carroll said he was a little surprised by the city’s rejection and felt his land was sound. He said he is disappointed with the city and probably will stay out of the next round.
“With this council, I don’t think I’m going back and ask for any type of participation,” he said.
Good. Then there’s TDO Land Holding, partnered by D.H. Griffin and Arthur Samet, which was seeking $2.5 million to build a bridge in Triad Business Park. Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul:
The project is in the Kernersville city limits, so it won’t ever earn Greensboro tax revenue. But TDO has offered to give the city the $1.1 million in incentive money that Kernersville plans to pay the park.
Mayor Robbie Perkins –who’s heading to Israel on the city dime in order ‘to yield economic development opportunities for Greensboro’—– called the ‘scoring’ process by Assistant City Manager Andy Scott and Greensboro Economic Development Alliance president Dan Lynch ‘artificial numbers.’ But there’s no bigger economic development advocate than Dan Lynch, and if he says the sites have issues, then they have issues.
Carroll’s biggest issue, according to the N&R, is the roughly 100 acres is divided by two major streams, which would make it “difficult and expensive to develop under strict environmental guidelines.”
