Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Yeah, and he's always irate about something. Sky is always falling with that guy.
With that said, it's well past time to get some announcements.
The announcements haven't come as quickly as everyone would like, but they have been trickling in. When have you ever known anything to happen quickly in South Carolina?
I love when people call this a boondoggle. No one has personally benefited from the way this money was spent. Hardball capital is in charge of running the stadium, and Hughes is making payments on his $15 million purchase of the land. I am sure Hughes and his team would give anything to be collecting rent from tenants right now.
It's so exhausting when people assume all "taxpayers" think the same way they do. This project costs about $7 per City of Columbia resident per year of the lease, and really those are not the people paying for it. The cities portion of the debt service for the bond is being paid for over the next 30 year by H-Tax money. If you really don't want to pay for this project, then don't eat or drink in the city of Columbia. The city has not spent very much money on public projects like this, when compared with other cities or metro areas of similar size.
Why is it that people want to hold the city accountable for relatively small issues like this, when we have a state that has neglected our roads into the Billions of dollars, and the city has neglected the water system into the hundreds of millions.
Based on the content of your last paragraph, it would appear that you agree with the assertion that governmental oversight of such projects is problematic. No one has to personally benefit for something to be designated a boondoggle. I invite you to look up the definition for yourself Thus far, this project fits the definition to a T. I hope that you are correct and I am wrong.
Yeah, and he's always irate about something. Sky is always falling with that guy.
With that said, it's well past time to get some announcements.
Agree he can be a bit dramatic at times when perhaps it's not warranted. There have been times though when his pieces were highly dramatic/sky is falling even and I thought it was warranted. Those pieces involved the state of our sewage system and related government laziness/moving money to the general fund from the "sewer" fund and associated river pollution. I hope he never loses his fire over these particular issues. I continue to be fairly irate at the amount of untreated sewage that goes into our rivers each year .
Letters of intent are only that. It's not a lease and it's not known how many of those 41 retailers are still left. But what is certain is that we will get leases signed sometime in the future and phase 2 will begin in the near future. This is a long-term 20+ years or 2 DECADES project and things get built slowly in Columbia(not a bad thing).
Based on the content of your last paragraph, it would appear that you agree with the assertion that governmental oversight of such projects is problematic. No one has to personally benefit for something to be designated a boondoggle. I invite you to look up the definition for yourself Thus far, this project fits the definition to a T. I hope that you are correct and I am wrong.
Definition of boondoggle
1
: a braided cord worn by Boy Scouts as a neckerchief slide (see 2slide 4b), hatband, or ornament
2
: a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft <The project is a complete boondoggle—over budget, behind schedule, and unnecessary.>
I totally agree that the state of South Carolina should not require H-Tax money to only be used on dumb projects. I do not think this project is over budget, behind schedule or unnecessary, but I am only speaking of the baseball stadium itself. The city has no obligation to spend any money on parking structures until Hughes delivers. I don't think you are wrong about the retail portion of the project, and I do not think this should have been sold as some sort of package deal. The stadium would be an asset on the balance sheet of a for profit entity. My issue is with the state forcing H-Tax dollars being forced to be used 100% for projects like this by the State Government.
I hope more than anything the retail part of Bull Street is successful and happens as quickly as possible. I would love to get tons of property on the tax rolls to essentially convert H-tax dollars into general fund dollars for the City to improve water and roads. I honestly don't know of any other plan that would have made this area a tax dollar producing development. Some risk is involved, just as any for profit venture. I would love a conversation about other revenue producing projects for this site.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.