Abramson and his Field of Dreams......

Much is being made of the recent announcement by the Cordish Group who developed 4th street live and their newest venture of developing the old Water Co. site. While many look at these projects and say they are great for the City, one question remains:

What gives?

Mayor Abramson is always quick for a positive photo and news op and based on my observations Abramson could sell ice to an eskimo. Problem is anyone can sell but delivery is tough. If it takes to long to deliver the ice starts melting and is actually worth less by the time it is delivered. Delivery problems, scheduling problems, these are things that I continue to challenge the Mayor on.

Let's recap some of the events around his photo and news ops and look at the facts with the 3 biggest developments.

ARENA:

In 2006 I was the only Mayor candidate against an arena deal because quite frankly I believed it would not live up to the hype it would cost too much money and they could not deliver it. All at our expense. I advocated that the arena project should be set aside until we had a firm grasp of the details and a guarantee on site construction. I preferred investing in new small business and existing business retention.

As usual the "Field of Dreams" mentality of Mayor Abramson took over and we are still seemingly no closer to achieving the goals as outlined by Abramson and the Louisville Arena Authority. Notice how quick the LAA gets to do all the talking when there are problems?

Here is the latest from the CJ:

Arena's new financing package to be ready by Aug. 28, Host says courier-journal The Courier-Journal

I love some of the comments in the article, for example:

"The Louisville Arena Authority will have a new financing plan in place for the downtown arena when it next meets Aug. 28, its chairman, Jim Host, predicted yesterday."

How many promises have been made to date on financing? Good thing Host is not a psychic or something. He would go broke with bad predictions. He declined to state publicly what the new financing plan might contain, but a line of credit with banks has been discussed. Host said talks with financial companies and consultants are continuing in earnest, and he may go to New York in the next few days to discuss arena-related matters.

Want to bet Deputy Mayor Will Sommers IV son, Will Sommers V bank will be involved? He is a VP at a Bank.

We are still discussing financing that should have been in place prior to starting this project.

Field of Dreams indeed.

MUSEUM PLAZA:

Another great photo and "breaking" news op by Abramson concerns Museum Plaza.

Museum Plaza partners paying to move utilities courier-journal The Courier-Journal

The futuristic skyscraper is meant to reshape Louisville's skyline when completed in 2011. It is the vision of arts patron Laura Lee Brown and her husband, Steve Wilson; developer Steve Poe; and attorney Craig Greenberg. Greenberg said the four developers still haven't secured the $300 million construction loan necessary to complete the project because of instability in the financial markets.

Another project announced that was to be great for Louisville yet one problem still persists.

There is no financing in place.

But hey we have committed to some money haven't we?

Louisville will issue $47 million in bonds to help pay for a flood wall at the building and new streets, lighting and other infrastructure improvements.

The state of Kentucky has agreed to help the project with a 30-year taxing district that allows 80 percent of the taxes generated by the development to pay for infrastructure improvements. The state also will rebate sales taxes on construction materials used at the site.

Field of Dreams.

See the pattern yet?

And one other recent example.

CORDISH GROUP:

The developers of Fourth Street Live, the Cordish Group, gave Abramson one more opportunity at a "breaking" news photo op.

Seems Cordish is now going to develop the old Water Co. site and spend at least $200 million minimum.

Sounds great right?

But here we go again.

From Business First:

City, Cordish reach agreement on Center City project - Business First of Louisville:

The agreement doesn’t establish a firm start time for the project.

It allows Cordish until September 2010 to secure financing, in light of the current difficulties in the national credit markets, according to Chris Poynter, communications coordinator for Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson.

That date could be pushed back if needed, according to city officials.

Poynter also acknowledged that attracting major retailers is difficult now, as many have scaled back or canceled expansion plans because of economic conditions.

So they admit they will have a hard time attracting business for this space, which really considering the Red Cheetah debacle who would be surprised, and once again have no FINANCING in place for this project.

Field of Dreams.

The pattern is a simple one. Call the press get some coverage showing all these "positive" projects being built and people will forget about the real things like the hemorrhaging of dependable jobs from our community.

Here is some more on Cordish Group for your review.

Martin: Cordish Is Drunk on Power - News - The Pitchpage 1 - The Pitch

Cordish: “All your party are belong to us” : BlogKC

Field of Dreams mantra? If you build it they will come.

Unfortunately this is not a TV movie this is real life. We should be spending money retaining existing business and growing new business based on reality not dreams.

Mayor Abramson and cronies just do not seem to be able to grasp that concept.

Tell you what maybe I should announce I will invest $1 billion dollars into Downtown Louisville and get the commitment from you the taxpayers for at least 10% of that back.

I have no financing in place but hey the Mayor could get another great photo op with no substance to offer.

Sounds like a plan huh?