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I'm telling you, I can't imagine how defeated all the smart growth advocates must have felt in Atlanta when the TSPLOST failed. I couldn't believe it!
On a side note, Virginia and Maryland changed their gas tax to fund transit and D.C. is building the streetcars on our own dime, however, none of us seem to be able to pass a tax like L.A. did that would fund MASSIVE transit expansion's. Now that is impressive.
TSPOLST wasn't a great package...even organizations like the Sierra Club were against it. We will (and already are) making improvements, just not all in one package.
BART to San Jose is long-overdue. A huge upgrade to the system and will really make San Jose and the rest of the Bay feel more like one unit.
BART to San Jose sounds like a waste of money. Does San Jose need high frequency transit to the rest of East Bay? For San Jose to San Francisco, there's Caltrain, which needs electrification and an extension to downtown. (Caltrain seems oddly neglected)
The same can be said of any transit project. I mean really, public transit is not a human right or civil right, nor is it guaranteed in the constitution.
These are discretionary projects that legislators and/or taxpayers want.
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Does San Jose need high frequency transit to the rest of East Bay?
Well, 500,000 cars a day traverse the SF and SJ border in the East Bay and tens of thousands of workers travel to the South Bay from the East Bay.
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For San Jose to San Francisco, there's Caltrain, which needs electrification and an extension to downtown. (Caltrain seems oddly neglected)
I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but sadly its not back on. They've secured an investor that will help them dig out of bankruptcy, but the legal drama has only begun. They still have to fight to regain control of the site among other things. It will probably be a few years before this whole mess is sorted out and only then will the Chicago Spire have any hope of proceeding. I hope they sort it out as soon as they can because it would be nice for the skyscraper rivalry between NYC and Chicago to start up again. Lets face it, Chicago is the only city in the US that has any hope of competing against NYC in terms of large scale projects/buildings like that.
Im happy Seattle's Icon Tower and SlS Hotel tower are both fully funded and breaking ground . The SLS Hotel will be Seattle's second tallest tower . And they only have SlS Hotels in Miami , New york , Beverly Hills , Las Vegas and now Seattle .
I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but sadly its not back on. They've secured an investor that will help them dig out of bankruptcy, but the legal drama has only begun. They still have to fight to regain control of the site among other things. It will probably be a few years before this whole mess is sorted out and only then will the Chicago Spire have any hope of proceeding.
Agreed, it's not back on..but what legal drama mess do they have to figure out? The mess is because of debt. The site already has $200 million sunk into it underground. The thing missed in this article, or at least it was in the WSJ, is the company willing to invest $135 million. The debt is at $115 million, meaning the other $20 million would be used for other things. The interesting thing is Atlas is a huge holding company with over 70,000 apartments and units managed across the US. Out of the 1200 planned units in the Spire, Atlas said it will purchase 550 of them, or almost 50% of them. They also said they'd work closely with the developer to ensure this gets done. Essentially when all is said and done with, Atlas may sink at least a half a billion dollars into this. According to a user on another forum who is in real estate development, companies like Atlas are usually very conservative with this sort of thing. Related also was dealing with something starting last summer
I don't know whether it will get done, but to have the backing of a company like Atlas who is basically going to buy the entire debt then hand over $20 million, and then agree to buy almost 50% of the units if/when completed says a little bit.
Atlas Chief Executive Steven Ivankovich told The Wall Street Journal Friday that his firm hopes to partner with Mr. Kelleher's company to ensure that construction of the Chicago Spire is completed. He said the project's 2.2-acre site on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive is "possibly the best residential development land in all of North America, if not the world."
Atlas also plans to acquire up to 550 units in the building that it can then rent out, Mr. Ivankovich added in an email. The company already owns and manages more than 70,000 multifamily apartments in the U.S.
Agreed, it's not back on..but what legal drama mess do they have to figure out? The mess is because of debt. The site already has $200 million sunk into it underground. The thing missed in this article, or at least it was in the WSJ, is the company willing to invest $135 million. The debt is at $115 million, meaning the other $20 million would be used for other things. The interesting thing is Atlas is a huge holding company with over 70,000 apartments and units managed across the US. Out of the 1200 planned units in the Spire, Atlas said it will purchase 550 of them, or almost 50% of them. They also said they'd work closely with the developer to ensure this gets done. Essentially when all is said and done with, Atlas may sink at least a half a billion dollars into this. According to a user on another forum who is in real estate development, companies like Atlas are usually very conservative with this sort of thing. Related also was dealing with something starting last summer
I don't know whether it will get done, but to have the backing of a company like Atlas who is basically going to buy the entire debt then hand over $20 million, and then agree to buy almost 50% of the units if/when completed says a little bit.
Everything has to go before the bankruptcy judge/court for approval in paying off the bankruptcy debt, they can't just sink money into it. It's a long process, so for the foreseeable future they cannot touch the Chicago Spire site as it is out of their hands until the bankruptcy gets resolved first.
Everything has to go before the bankruptcy judge/court for approval in paying off the bankruptcy debt, they can't just sink money into it. It's a long process, so for the foreseeable future they cannot touch the Chicago Spire site as it is out of their hands until the bankruptcy gets resolved first.
Yeah, I never said they would start up right away nor did I ever say anything about timeline. I'm talking about the fact that they have the backing of a company that owns and manages over 70,000 units in the US who clearly knows a little bit about the real estate market, and appears to be committed to seeing this thing happen, while investing at least $500 Million by the end of it.
It would be frivolous to think that construction would start in the next handful of months, even if they had the approval already. The deadline for the plan is March 10th, and October 31st is the target date for bankrupty exit.
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The developer hopes to secure court approval of a bankruptcy-exit plan, which hasn't been filed yet, by Aug. 31 and emerge from bankruptcy by Oct. 31.
IMO if everything goes to plan, the nearest completion we'll see is 2018-2020. People don't realize how much work was actually done. All they see is a big hole in the ground right now. There's actually 34 caissons drilled 120 feet deep into the earth at the site already. The foundation work was actually completed in 2008 to a tune of almost $100 million, which is more than a lot of buildings cost period.
Yeah, I never said they would start up right away nor did I ever say anything about timeline. I'm talking about the fact that they have the backing of a company that owns and manages over 70,000 units in the US who clearly knows a little bit about the real estate market, and appears to be committed to seeing this thing happen, while investing at least $500 Million by the end of it.
It would be frivolous to think that construction would start in the next handful of months, even if they had the approval already. The deadline for the plan is March 10th, and October 31st is the target date for bankrupty exit.
IMO if everything goes to plan, the nearest completion we'll see is 2018-2020. People don't realize how much work was actually done. All they see is a big hole in the ground right now. There's actually 34 caissons drilled 120 feet deep into the earth at the site already. The foundation work was actually completed in 2008 to a tune of almost $100 million, which is more than a lot of buildings cost period.
I'm not saying it won't happen, I'm just saying don't count your chickens before they hatch. The developer can submit any plan they want, but at the end of the day its the judge who has the final say in the matter. The October target day is a best case scenario. The only thing we do know for sure is that it will be a while before the developer is allowed control of the site. And while the foundation work may be complete, the new contracts required to resume construction won't happen immediately after the developer regains control of the site. These things take time, so while the backer may be willing to commit $130 Million now, there's no guarantee that they will still be in a position to invest the full $500 Million when everything is said and done. Lets wait and see how the bankruptcy issue plays out before we start celebrating anything.
Unless BART is passing through major job centers in San Jose and East Bay, a rapid transit line seems overkill and transit money sounds like it should be spent elsewhere.
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