Adam Welch

Adam Welch posted the below comment under my post entitled "Harrison Square Financing, part 2" I put his comment in italics. He posted his comment in regards to my discussion with Pat Roller and Greg Leatherman yesterday.

I spent an hour and a half talking to them about Harrison Square. Adam apparently thinks that I can convey EVERYTHING that was said in that conversation in one blog post... It is IMPOSSIBLE...

I will however try to better express my interpretation of Greg Leatherman's explanation of why the proposal was dropped from 300 rooms to 250 rooms.

Before reading this post please consider the following facts (Adam you especially should consider the below facts!):

1. EVERY official City communication I have EVER read regarding Harrison Square says that for the financing package to "work" the hotel must have 300 or more rooms.
2. The official Request for Proposal REQUIRES the hotel to have 300 rooms in THREE separate places. In fact the RFP states that any number less then 300 will cause the bid to be unacceptable.
3. I attended a Northwest area Partnership meeting in late February. At this meeting I was handed a flyer advertising a 300 room hotel...
4. On January 17th the RFP was modified to allow for fewer then 300 rooms... No reason was given...

EVERY step of this process Fort Wayne has said that the "Hotel must have 300 or more rooms to generate enough revenue to pay the costs of the project."

Here it goes, Adam is in italics and my comments below are in red...

Wow, where do I begin? I usually stay away from posting a lot on blogs, but after reading Mr. Sylvester’s summary of his meeting with the city I had to respond.
You are always free to respond Adam. This is a blog where I encourage discussion of issues...

First of all, I have to admit that I was not in the meeting and have no idea what was said, but can you HONESTLY expect city employees to have answers to some of those questions. This project is still in planning, and not everything is figured out in one day Mike. Also, you mentioned how Mr. Leatherman had referred to Hurricane Katrina. Again, while I was not in the meeting, I highly doubt that Greg solely spoke of Hurricane Katrina. It was only a few weeks ago that Greg mentioned in a Journal Gazette numerous reasons for the hotel being 250 rooms. One which I remember from the top of my head was due to the situation with the Holiday Inn. Personally, I feel you should include all the parts of the story if you are going to include some of it.

Yes I do expect City employees to be able to answer all of the questions I asked. They want this project to be voted on in LESS THEN ONE MONTH.

Adam have you ever been involved in financing decisions in the corporate world? With a project of this magnitude no finance manager would bring this project to their Corporate Board, they would be laughed out of the room and told to come back with some facts...

Greg actually mentioned several things. He agreed that the hotel request had been lowered from 300 rooms in January. He stated it was due to increased construction costs due to events such as Hurrice Katrina. He said that since construction costs had increased the hotel would generate more property taxes for the project.

All of this is CLEARLY explained in my post and to be honest with you his explanation does not make sense to me. He is correct that construction costs have risen in the last couple of years. The RFP was send out in December of 2006. When the RFP was sent out you CANNOT believe that Fort Wayne sent out an RFP with the WRONG construction costs, or can you Adam?

My current guess is that Fort Wayne DID NOT TAKE the increased construction costs into account until they received only one bid, and that bid for 250 rooms... Then they went back and checked their number...

There are other explanations that would make sense as well... Many of those are more cynnical and I choose not to express them... I am sure you can come up with some other ideas if you use your imagination...

Greg also did mention the Holiday Inn. He has mentioned it in the press and he mentioned it to me...

Adam, there is NO WAY ON EARTH that I can explain every nuance of a 90 minute conversation...

It seems to me Mike, that the city and ALL proponents are in a no-win situation with you. Do I respect some of the points you bring up? Yes, and many of your questions will eventually have answers. But you have to realize Mike, that no matter what the city would have done, you would have criticized it somehow, someway. If they hadn’t allowed you to speak with them, then you REALLY would have criticized them. They couldn’t win.

Actually Adam I would highly encourage you to do some research about my INITIAL response to Harrison Square on this very blog.

Please go and read my first post on Harrison Square...

It is entitled, "Harrison Square, new plans unveiled for downtown baseball stadium in Fort Wayne." It was posted on Dec 21st, 2006.

Adam you say that eventually there will be answers to my questions. When will that be? Will the plan be finalized on March 23rd and then voted on a week later?

Adam I only criticize people and projects that I do not think are good for taxpayers...

You are CORRECT. If they did not speak with me I WOULD HAVE criticized them. I hope everyone else in Fort Wayne would criticize them as well if they did not answer the public's questions...

I can’t have said it better than the way Scott did in his post. Do some of your questions really have any significance to the project as a whole? Absolutely not. You are trying your absolute best to find issues with this project, and that is truly disappointing knowing how much this could do for our city. Look at Scott for instance—he is coming back to Fort Wayne. I know at least three people who have told me they WILL LEAVE if this project doesn’t go forward because it would show the path that this city is heading for.

I have heard other people say that if Fort Wayne keeps wasting their tax dollars they will be forced to move away Adam...

Do you know how much property taxes are going to go up with the CSO project and the unfunded pension liabilities we currently have? I maintain that we need to address teh COS problem and the unfunded pension liability FIRST and quit spending money on frivious projects...

How do you draw jobs to Fort Wayne if your property taxes keep skyrocketing? Answer; you DO NOT.

One last thing in reference to Mark’s post. Mark, you must realize that this is not the same type of project as the ones completed in South Bend and Gary…..NOT EVEN CLOSE. If you take a look around the country at cities who have completed these projects the way Fort Wayne plans on, not one city has had a failing project—not one. Gary and South Bend did things much different. They built a stadium thinking it would revitalize. This isn’t just about a stadium Mark. This is about a multi-use development project. To become more informed on this, read the Bluepring Plus and Baseball Plus reports. If you do, you might see what I am talking about. Take a look at Greenville NC and Greensboro SC. Even take a look at Dayton. They are now planning on condos and retail space to accompany their ballpark…..something our city has already included in the original plan.

Since this is directed at Mark I will ignore it...

We must support our leaders such as Sam Talarico and Mayor Richard who truly are doing their best to make our city a better place. It’s so disappointing that we have this “keep it as it is” attitude. Numerous times in our city’s history we have had opportunities to improve our city and each and every time, we have failed to act. If that’s the kind of city you want, then fine. You better get ready to continue to say good-bye to the youth of this city then.Notice how almost every major leader in our city has supported this project—the mayor, Talarico, Tim Pape, Paula Hughes, the Chamber of Commerce, Bob Taylor, Chancellor Mike Wartell, Mark Pope. This list goes on and on and is comprised of Democrats, Republicans and business leaders. This isn’t about Libertarian, Republican, and Democrats Mike. This is about shaping our future to be the best it can be. Now I feel it’s time for you to stand up and join these leaders as someone who wants what is best for our future.

Adam we have a perfectly good baseball stadium and have no reason to move it. It they would have chosen a different "anchor" project I might have supported the project...

73% of the residents of Fort Wayne are AGAINST the project, if not more. I have asked at least 100 people what they think of this project and well over 73% of them are against it.

Why is this project being rammed down our throats?

God Bless
Adam Welch

Good Grief
Mike Sylvester