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Penguin flys the coop
Penguin Real Estate Investors -- the development company owned by city-resident Robert McNeil -- is no longer in the running to buy the Flats.
McNeil sent a letter to RDA president Joe DiSciullo on Monday officially notifying the authority Penguin was no longer pursuing the property. Read a copy of the letter here.
The letter also had been e-mailed to Council President Karen Jorgenson and City Manager Harry Walker. Walker unexpectedly had to leave work Monday and did not attend the council meeting, and at the meeting Jorgenson said she had yet read Penguin's letter.
Council's session was uncharacteristically short last night and there was no discussion about the Flats or the latest offer from developer Iacobucci Homes, although council members apparently have received copies of the company's proposal. Several several council members were seen leaving the meeting with green folders marked with gold lettering that read "Baker," as in Baker Homes the parent company of Iacobucci.
McNeil sent a letter to RDA president Joe DiSciullo on Monday officially notifying the authority Penguin was no longer pursuing the property. Read a copy of the letter here.
The letter also had been e-mailed to Council President Karen Jorgenson and City Manager Harry Walker. Walker unexpectedly had to leave work Monday and did not attend the council meeting, and at the meeting Jorgenson said she had yet read Penguin's letter.
Council's session was uncharacteristically short last night and there was no discussion about the Flats or the latest offer from developer Iacobucci Homes, although council members apparently have received copies of the company's proposal. Several several council members were seen leaving the meeting with green folders marked with gold lettering that read "Baker," as in Baker Homes the parent company of Iacobucci.
posted by Daily Local at
11:00 AM
10 Comments:
I sat and watched as Lehr and Harry G treated Mr. McNeil as though he was inferior to them. It was a truly offensive performance.
The manner in which Lehr and Harry Gordon Walker III treated Mr. McNeil was an insight into their character. In my opinion if you check with their professional peers you will find that Walker and Lehr are not held in the highest esteem.
You have to keep in mind that only last summer an anonymous benefactor had the gratitude of the city council and administration for a gift that allowed the city swimming pools to open and have a program for the children of Coatesville. That anonymous benefactor was Mr. McNeil.
I believe that Lehr and Walker decided to insult and ridicule Mr. McNeil until he gave up his bid to help Coatesville. Penguin Real Estate Investors’ offer did not mix with Walker and Lehr’s plans that came out of the alleged negotiations with the power plant representatives at the Tavern in southern Chester County
While you are checking out Lehr and Walker’s backgrounds check out electric power authorities. You see Exelon is a competitor to any powerplant that would go some where in Coatesville. Exelon owns the rights to the transmission lines here. There is no way that Exelon would allow a competitor to just hook up to their transmission lines. But an electric power authority is a private and at the same time a public entity and as such is in part an extension of the local community in the area. Exelon cannot deny the local community access to their power lines. A power authority also needs to have local people on its board. Think about it.
I'll bet Mcneil won't donate to open the pools this year after this situation.
How can one consider having a city council meeting without the city manager?
Maybe Coatesville ought to pitch itself to be the next home of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players", it seems we already have the personnel.
The Assistant city manager was there but he didn't say much. But they were not organized on a lot of things, council didn't have the proper paperwork in front of them so they could vote on issues, etc. typical meeting.
The problem with this City Council and their administration is that they continue to think small. Lehr and Walker may have fancy degrees on their walls but they are sorely lacking in the field of economics. Walker and the Council don't realize that the longer you wait in this economy the less likely development is to occur.
Take for instance Chetty towers. At the start of the new administration Chetty had the required deposits to begin building. All he needed was approval from the codes department. The new council put that process on hold for 6 months. What happened, the economy took a downturn and Chetty lost the homebuyers, ergo his financing to build.
Now, the City has four suitors for the flats (or did), instead of acting quickly to move this process along walker thinks a bidding war is the best for Coatesville. In this lagging economy (and in a town like Coatesville) the money and time is not on our side.
It's simple economics and something this administration is sorely lacking an education in.
Oh, 5:55 am, I hope I'm wrong and you're right, but I fear you're being naive. Your post assumes that Walker is acting for the best interests of Coatesville.
Immediately I see two problems with that viewpoint. First history. This city council and Walker have had an agenda for the city that has not been in the long term interest of the city. One has to ask just what is in this for Walker and the council? Has Walker or members of the council received any emolument for their support? I don't know that they have, but I'm suspicious of a city manager with no long term ties to the city telling us that the answer is a natural gas plant.
Second, at this point, I am fairly well convinced that nobody has a really good handle on what revitalization means for the city of Coatesville. Attracting higher-income inmigrants pretty much went away as a strategy with the demise of the golf course approach. Attracting new jobs doesn't seem to have gotten much attention (and the natural gas plant would contribute almost no long term jobs).
So, what's left? Pretty much, I'm afraid, just a continuing slide into oblivion.
Baker Properties has a very good handle on the development potential and economic potential of Western Chester County. The City of Coatesville would have been at the epicenter of that development if the government had not changed.
The fact that a big time player like Baker Properties is not taken a $2 M loss and left but is willing to invest $5M + speaks volumes about the future of Coatesville. You have to keep in mind that even if Coatesville did not have the do nothing bloc of four and an incompetent administration and the redevelopment was on track it would not have reached even a half way point in 2013.
The people who own property in Coatesville do not understand that they are sitting on a gold mine. It just will not turn to gold for about 5 years.
The first step is to tell the dealers to take a hike. This does not involve reducing the size of the Coatesville Police Department and putting an incompetent man as the department head as the Walker Administration has done.
Why can't anybody see what is really going on in Coatesville?
It seems to be so obvious that there is a certain "element" in Coatesville that does not want the City to prosper. They seem to feel that if Coatesville is successful it will erode their perceived "power base".
This group seems to be afraid of losing their followers if they buy into the revitilization because it will force out the poor and they will no longer be able to keep them down any longer.
They are so afraid of losing their position in the community, that they will do whatever it takes to make the City stay where it currently is.
It is not the County, or the Republicans who control the County doing this to Coatesville, but the citizens themselves.
Everybody is so afraid that if Coatesville prospers, "where will we live", and "where can we go" will be the most common phrase in the city. All we really need to say is "how can I benefit from this".
People talk about jobs coming to the City. Well if you're already without a job now, what makes you think that you will want a job when the economic boom hits Coatesville. With all the jobs out there, if you don't already have one you probabaly wont' want one then.
Let's stop kidding ourselves, it is alot easier to sit back and complain about what it could be like, then it is to say how can I help.
Let's all take a good look at what really is going on and maybe, just maybe, we will all do some reflecting about how we can step up and demand that this administration finally start doing what is right for this community, and everyone around it and stop giving in to the element that does not want the City to prosper.
And to that "element", we all know who you are!
to 6:35
Welcome back once every 2 months he comes on with his king pin drug dealer that is manipulating all of chester county and is keeping Coatesville down. Oh and he had JFK shot same man all these years.
The only offer in writing by a power plant company is the one from FPL. It states that FPL will lease the flats for one year for $175,000 per year. It may continue the lease for 2 more years at increasing lease rates if certain conditions are met. All the other statements, for instance the $10 Million are verbal statements.
Harry G. Walker said that the payment in lieu of taxes to the City of Coatesville would be $3.5 Million per year. However; the FPL plant that Walker and others visited in Sayreville is going to have about 2 times the output of the plant proposed by FPL for Coatesville and the PILOT to Sayreville is $640.000. It does not seem very likely that FPL would pay almost 5 times the PILOT to Coatesville related to the output of the powerplant that they pay to Sayreville, NJ.
Below is an excerpt from Jonathan Tuleya’s article about the Sayreville trip:
Tuesday, “March 4, 2008
Officials tour site of power plant
TRIP UNDERTAKEN AS COATESVILLE WEIGHS FUTURE OF THE FLATS
By R. JONATHAN TULEYA, Staff Writer
Electricity generation has generated cash for Sayreville’s municipal coffers.
The borough has negotiated a payment in lieu of taxes contract, or PILOT, with FPL. Under its terms, Bertrand said, the power company has agreed to pay the borough $640,000. The money goes directly to the city, without a portion going to the local school district or county government.
When FPL pitched its plant plans to Coatesville City Council in January, a company representative talked about making a similar contract with city.”
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