The
For Rent banner hangs on the side of the building facing 8th Street, the other side faces Pawlowski's Hole. It's been a rough year for
The Farr Lofts, with another one in store. Prior to the unilateral decision by the Arena Cabal, the loft residents lived next to the Rite Aid Drug Store, and always had the prospect of more interesting and changing stores on their block. Now, after gagging through no less than two years of construction, they will be next to a traffic jam called the Hockey Arena. Surviving merchants have just received their
first fine, for not completing the additional NIZ tax forms on time. Welcome to the Hole. Unlike most of you, I will have an
opportunity to publicly complain about these outrages today. Any message I can convey for you?
Ask them how the dust situation on their furniture and clothing is doing.
ReplyDeleteAsk them how many of their constituents approve of the arena project and particularly: the manner in which the expenditures are planned to be accomplished.
ReplyDeleteAlso, ask Pud's people if he will go away when the this debacle leaves us all with a tremendous debt to pay.
Ask the Fleckster how much the trades union has paid him for his consulting work so far this year. Ask how much he's been paid by Pawlowski. Ask Barber how many LV tenants he has attempted to recruit to the NIZ, and what rents he is quoting them.
ReplyDeleteRetired ASD teacher here.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I'm glad you have this opportunity.
The usual, rehearsed answers will be readily available. What I hope to hear are focused, follow-up questions from Dr.Thode, and you.
This onion has been way too difficult to peel back. Keep pulling.
Ask why downtown businesses are continuing to be punished by this secretive legislation - the penalties being assessed by the PA Dept of Revenue for late filings.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, over in Bet'lem:
ReplyDeleteThat city's abandoned Farr Shoe building (100 years old, Broad & New) is patiently being remodeled. It will soon house 1 and 2 BR apartments, more modestly priced to reflect the reality of the market. I also understand that there will likely be another addition to the city's restaurant row/nightlife with an Irish Pub to be located on the expansive ground level.
No KOZ, no NIZ, no F***ing government subsidies for investors, just entreprenuers doing what they are supposed to do - take risks with their own money.
Talk about a tale of two cities...
Voice of Reason
When you steal from a thief, there is one sure thing --- the thief will, in the end, never call the cops.
ReplyDeleteJUST SAY NO TO THE NIZ
Tough year? All but one unit is leased! That is a pretty good thing.
ReplyDeleteStop fear mongering.
http://farrlofts.com/units_leased.html
@12:56, i notice on their homepage that they're offering one month free rent, that's not usually done with such a high occupancy rate. this post concerns the degradation life quality that the arena project is causing the tenants.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of quality of life issues ... DEVON LASH has an article in PRAVDA, er, ah, The Morning Call decrying the condition of public swimming pools in the City With No (Spending) Limits.
ReplyDeleteApparently, the City's pools are NOT up to speed with all applicable Handicap Accessibilty regulations and have other issues, as well.
Seems to be a lot of hand-wringing and worrying over where all the money is going to come from to make everything right ...
Funny, then, that the price tag for Chairman Pawlowski's magnificent PALACE OF SPORT has increased from $ 160.0 million dollars to $ 220.0 million dollars in the same time it took NEELAY BHATT of PROS CONSULTING to issue their report.
Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
JUST SAY NO TO THE NIZ
The Bethlehem Farr's building has taken well over $1 Million in state assistance.
ReplyDeleteThe link above directs to the Allentown Farr Lofts, which took about $600,000 in assistance.
welfare for the wealthy.
ReplyDeleteHas Joyce Marin fled the Farr Building yet?
ReplyDeletePlease tell them we're not all opposed to this project. Tell them some of us are excited about the arena and having an opportunity to go downtown again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for passing this along.
Why don't all the people who are not opposed to the Palace of Sport simply pay for it with THEIR money and leave the money (i.e., taxes) of people who are opposed to the $ 220.0 million dollar ice hockey rink alone?
ReplyDeleteEverybody who wants this thing, send the Brooks Brothers some money. Kind of like how everyone sent Obama $ 20 four years ago. Then, when the Brooks Brothers have $ 220.0 million dollars piled up --- they can build THEIR hockey rink!
Why does Big Government have to get involved in the risky business of financing minor league arenas and create things like a corrupt NIZ to make a giant mess?
No wonder no one seems to know exactly where all the money needed for the city's pools is going to come from ...
Sincerely,
DROWNING IN DEBT
Voice of Reson @ 11:26 am - Your post is incredibly inaccurate. The Bethlehem Farr building has received plenty of subsidies, including most recently $500,000 in RCAP funding (check old Mcall articles and State sites). Further, the developer you reference as an “entrepreneur…taking risk with its own money” couldn’t be further from the truth either. The Pektor’s (Ashley Development/ PennCap Properties) have taken full advantage over the years of many State subsidies, probably more so than any other local developer. For instance, Riverport received $5.0mm in RCAP to build the parking deck and they are currently developing a site that is KOZ. You either are friends with the Pektor’s promoting their agenda or a Pektor pretending to be someone else in order to tell more lies. O’Hare and Molovinsky know this but let it slide because it would go against their argument. They are now bed fellows with the Pektors in order to garner information for their blogs, so they can’t comment against them. The Pektor’s and Thode are the ones feeding O’hare and Molovinsky information, inaccurate I might add, to promote the Pektor hypocrisy agenda. The Pektor’s put down the NIZ, but are very much willing to take RCAP, KOZ, LERTA and other such programs that gave them “advantages” over their competition. They are only out for themselves and will tell lies and be hypocrites to protect their own. I might also add that they have been trying to purchase land in the NIZ, while organizing the anti-NIZ developer group, just another example of what type of people they are.
ReplyDelete@4:51, VOR has been periodically commenting on this blog for years, my believe is that he speaks only for himself. likewise, i speak only for myself, and receive no information from anybody, except my own research. i have been an independent student of deed transfers and real estate for decades. until yesterday, at the wfmz taping, i never met or spoke to steve thodes. i have never met or spoke to pektor. that Lone Ranger tag on the sidebar is quite accurate.
ReplyDeleteI know and admire Dr. Thode. i got to know him when he sat on Bethlehem's Planning Comm'n, which I cover for the weekly Bethlehem Press. I do speak to Dr. Thode and many other people concerning the NIZ, including numerous Township Commissioners and Supervisors, Bethlehem City officials, TCC members and some developers.
ReplyDeleteIt's called research.
I have never met or spoken to Lou Pektor. I have spoken to his daughter, Lisa, once. It was about the NIZ.
I have also spoken to several developers.
Are you suggesting that we should all just sit back and rely on city news releases?
I am willing to speak to anyone, and feel it makes my blogs more informed.
But I have full control over what I write.
@4:51, there you have it, both bernie and my replies. we are very different bloggers. bernie is a one man newspaper, covering and reporting the news throughout the valley. he attends six or so meetings a week, as an observer. i only attend a meeting to speak, on an issue i care about. i became involved with the arena because of my concern for the previous merchants. when i started blogging about it last spring, the public didn't know, at that point, that private developers (besides the arena) were eligible for NIZ loans.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous May 4, 2012 4:51 PM sez: "...Your post is incredibly inaccurate..."
ReplyDeleteI am not Lew Pektor, and am not a developer. I am pro-development and pro-urban. What I am against is a special law, designed to benefit one section of only one city in a state. I am also against misuse of tax monies. I am saying that the Bethlehem Farr building will succeed in that city, not because it is surrounded by special zones, but by and large by a more old fashioned entreprenuerial strategy. You, nor others will ever sway my opinion or make me stop issuing opinions by trying to distract from the main issue, which continues to be-
The NIZ is bad, short-term and long-term. It is selfish, shortsighted and destined to fail. The people who proposed this thought they'd pass it through, no one would notice and that would be that. Your argument about my comment misses a much bigger point and is really an attempt to separate fly poop from pepper.
VOR
Anon 4:51:
ReplyDeleteOuch. Sounds like above all else, you're not a Lou Pektor fan. You'll have to take me at my word, I am not Mr. Pektor, and not a developer. I choose the handle VOR because I usually weigh in on the side of compromise and logic, always in an effort to try to solve a problem. My record speaks for itself at this and other blogs. It seems that your vitriolic reaction was due to an exposed nerve being hit, and that possibly you have a personal problem with Mr. Pektor. Sorry about that, but-
The Farr building is not in a NIZ or any other subsidized "zone", designed or concocted after midnight by scurillous characters, hoping to sneak one by a slumbering populace. A long time ago someone told me that if it quacked like a goose and waddled like a goose, it's probably a goose. The NIZ that you defend does not pass the sniff test. Arguing about Pektor obfiscates what remains in the foreground and what has been clearly noticed by most. A clever manipulation caused a small section of a part of only one city in the entire state of Pennsylvania to receive a benefit that is unfair and simply wrong, especially when the proponents attempt to defend it by saying "but it's good for everyone!" Sort of like, "this will hurt me more than it will hurt you". BS.
Lots of people are on to your scheme. trying to distract attention by throwing aspersions at another developer is doomed to fail. It's too late, the jig is up.
VOR