The bonds which financed the construction of Reillyville, aka Allentown's NIZ, have been downgraded for the second time, into the lower b grade. The bonds only pertain to Reilly's City Center Real Estate Company. Lets face it, if the NIZ was ever more than a project custom designed for Reilly, is questionable. Moody's lowered the rating because they believe that the cash flow depends on too few tenants. Reilly contends that with ADP coming aboard, the revenue stream is secure. All state taxes, including income, generated by the tenants are used for Reilly's debt service. In addition, his pot was sweetened by allowing the cigarette taxes to be used from distributors he purchased. Reilly even owns the Morning Call building. Critical analysis of the district is pretty much limited to this blog.
The rich diversity of Allentown's former architecture is being replaced by the ugly new towers as shown above. The walls are the windows, and the windows are the walls in these new cookie cutter monstrosities.
Don't worry about the Reillys, they're set for generations to come. If you're wondering where all the millennials are in the supposedly fully occupied Strata Lofts, question the Morning Call....They print that occupancy myth as a fact.
photo:Morning Call
The longer Allentown refuses to engage and welcome critical discussions regarding development and quality of life issues the city's recovery swill be stymied.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that with such news that the "Mayor" and City Council would hold a special meeting to get the facts about how this could impact the city and allow the public to ask questions.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, what happens if the bonds are defaulted on? Could the taxpayers be ultimately liable for the repayment of those bonds? How will the downgrade on the bonds for the Reilly projects affect other projects (like Jaindl)? Will the downgrade slow future investment and construction in the NIZ (by Reilly or others)? I would invite the agency that downgraded the bonds to the meeting as well, so they could offer their perspective and answer any questions.
In addition to informing themselves and the public, the "Mayor" and Council would also be sending a signal to the bond rating agencies that there is proper oversight of what is going on in the NIZ.
Holding that type of meeting is what any competent board and mayor would do, if they truly represented the residents of Allentown.
I was at both of the AHL hockey games that were played at the PPL Center in Allentown on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively. Both events drew over 8400 fans, which is an excellent attendance record for this particular minor league facility. It must be noted that local ice hockey fans, who do, indeed, prefer that all fights only take place on the ice just between professional players, have done nothing but financially support the unique, one of a kind Neighborhood Improvement Zone legislation proposed by Senator Pat Browne and then co-opted, for propaganda purposes, by former Allentown Mayor and now 47-times over convicted felon Ed Pawlowski.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, the cheapest ticket for a Phantoms' AHL game at the PPL Center in Allentown cost $ 10.50 but now, five seasons later, that very same cheapest ticket for a Phantoms' AHL game at the PPL Center in Allentown now costs $ 16.50 --- considering that the local AHL team actually got THE most expensive minor league ice hockey rink in THE entire world for absolutely nothing, I find this particular price hike to be extremely amusing.
Meanwhile, I patronized a couple of different restaurants downtown after the AHL game on Friday night. I, myself, had a lovely time but I did notice that the transformative NIZ definitely had a 'mostly empty' feel all over on this particular evening and that, if I were 25-30 years younger, I would surely have to have been left feeling at least a little disappointed for what should be fairly obvious reasons. Bottom line : I'm not sure where millennial chicks like to congregate on the weekends but, for the most part, I'm pretty sure it's very seldom in the NIZ because I really have been going to AHL games at the PPL Center in Allentown consistently since the very beginning.
By the way, were we not promised going into the whole 'NIZ New Deal' that the PPL Center would consistently host events (including AHL games) on something like 250-300 nights per calendar year???
Perhaps Slightly Off Topic But Still Sincerely & Respectfully,
ROLF OELER
What is the average attendance for Allentown hockey game ?
ReplyDeleteThey’ve done well—even after the expected drop in year 4-5: http://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendance/att_graph.php?tmi=11538
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