Winston-Salem City Manager Lee Garrity says everything’s cool —- taxpayers’ money isn’t going toward Billy Prim’s 1 percent fee for “soft” stadium construction costs. But the bottom line remains the same:
The city’s loan for hard construction costs does free up money for Brookstown Development Partners to use to pay soft costs. Garrity said that many of the soft costs already have been paid for and that the independent banks lending money to finish the stadium had examined each expense in detail.
“Without our money, they couldn’t finish the project,” Garrity said. “(The banks have) put this project through an incredible amount of review, so in their minds, every cost is legitimate, even the soft costs.”
No doubt Winston-Salem residents also chuckle when they read that “Samet Corp., the Greensboro general contractor that is building the stadium, has agreed that the stadium’s cost will not change.”
