Another word about the delayed Elm Street mixed-use development.
Lindbrook’s request for a $100,000 forgivable loan is definitely a parking issue, but I was by the way that parking dominated the Greensboro City Council’s discussion during Wednesday night’s meeting. The Council did ponder the propriety of handing over taxpayers’ money to help Lindbrook eat 15 downtown parking spaces, but I never heard them discuss the propriety of handing over the money period. Perhaps if they would have if downtown parking in general hadn’t taken over the debate.
As you can imagine, City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s answer was to purchase more property. Council member Trudy Wade spoke up and noted that market value for the lot was “$365,000 or whatever” —- Johnson did not correct her —- so they could take that money and buy more property. Except there’s one small problem —- Lindbrook’s ony paying $180,000 for the lot, and the city’s picking up the first hundred-k. Kind of reminds you of the horse trader episode of the Andy Griffith Show, where Andy stands to make a profit on the old cannon but ends up costing the county money.
Which leads us to why a developer who can come up with $3.6 million for a project needs 100k from the city. That’s easy —the city hands out free money. And you’re crazy to turn down free money.
