The image is from back in 2007, or earlier, and the only bank now in Ramsey Town Center is The Bank of Elk River, which did some litigating before siting itself in the Corborn store, at the southwest Town Center commercial node corner.
There's no "community bank" that was ever opened across Sunwood from City Hall, but future plans always are subject to change.
Regarding the word "community" showing up in Town Center related banking names, Pioneer Press reports:
Town Center dad, son get a deal - Sandisons allowed to plead to single conspiracy count
By Nancy Ngo - nngo@pioneerpress.com - Updated: 08/26/2009 11:22:04 PM CDT
The father and son at the heart of a scandal that marred the Ramsey Town Center project pleaded guilty to conspiracy Wednesday in a deal that erases more than two dozen other federal charges against them.
William Garfield Sandison, 65, of Forest Lake, and son Ross William Sandison, 42, of Grant, had originally pleaded not guilty to a 29-count indictment accusing them of everything from money laundering to bank fraud. The charges stemmed from the funding of the $1.3 billion project that was supposed to create a suburban oasis in Ramsey.
In back-to-back hearings Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz allowed the Sandisons to change their pleas to guilty on one count of conspiracy. The rest were dismissed.
While admitting to the charges, both distanced themselves from the troubled 322-acre development, which still sits mostly vacant.
Paul Engh, the attorney for Ross Sandison, said his client was "not admitting to anything with the Ramsey Town Center development and whether it succeeded."
We in Ramsey know that story; and the lawyer was being clear in case of potential civil suits premised on willful or negligent misrepresentation against either dad or son. Ms. Ngo's report continues:
In the summer of 2007, a Pioneer Press series unearthed questionable financing, self-dealings and nondisclosures related to the Town Center loan.
The stories also described how the project ran into troubles as early as 2003, when its developer encountered financial problems. With the conviction of the Sandisons, attention turns to the remaining defendant, Curt Martinson, who maintains his innocence.
The Sandisons' deals pave the way for a likely lesser punishment than if a jury would have found the pair guilty of the charges outlined in an original federal indictment in April. And William Sandison might be asked to cooperate with federal investigators in their case against Martinson, according to comments at Wednesday's hearing in the St. Paul federal courthouse.
"In return for your help, the government may ask me to give you a lesser sentence," Judge Schiltz said.
The original indictment accused the Sandisons and Martinson of inappropriately using a $35 million loan intended to develop Ramsey Town Center — a development of restaurants, shops, offices and some 2,800 homes in the Anoka County suburb.
The loan to Town Center developer Bruce Nedegaard, who died of cancer in late 2006, was originated by Community National but was shared by 20 banks. William Sandison was formerly president of Community National; Ross Sandison was a former vice president and later president. Martinson was a former executive vice president.
In the original indictment, federal investigators accused Martinson and the Sandisons of using the Town Center project to steer money from the other banks into Community National or their own pockets. The men were accused of using some of that money to pay for meals, entertainment, landscaping at their homes and other personal expenses.
Prosecutors also accused the Sandisons and Martinson of creating side businesses that then lent the Town Center development even more millions — and paying themselves back before the other banks or the contractors. The three men never told the other banks about the other loans or their involvement in the other entities, the indictments alleged.
Plea deals with a hint of odd-man-out are interesting in waiting to see if another shoe drops. If there are buried skeletons, perhaps the Sandisons know where. I recall Dave Orrick's earlier Pioneer Press reporting, here, having info about a now defunct title company:
Without the deep pockets to develop Town Center, Nedegaard had a strategy: Spend money to prepare a tract of land, sell it and use the proceeds to prepare another.
He turned to Community National for the money to get started.
Executives from at least two banks that pitched in on the $35 million loan now say they would have had pause if they had known about cozy relationships between some Community National bosses and Nedegaard.
A few months before the loan's approval, Nedegaard started a title company called Powerhouse with some executives at Community National, including CEO William Sandison and his son, as well as the attorney who drafted the Town Center loan. According to the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Nedegaard had the largest stake. The operation was based out of Community National's building in North Branch.
A title company collects fees for researching property deeds. On a $1 million sale, Powerhouse could collect roughly $2,200 in fees, according to rates supplied by Darlene Milless, who ran Powerhouse's day-to-day operations.
In a big project like Ramsey Town Center, a lot of titles and money change hands. And Powerhouse benefited.
However, few of the businesses and people involved contacted by the Pioneer Press say they knew that Nedegaard and the bankers at Community National also owned Powerhouse.
"That's a violation," Minnesota Department of Commerce spokesman Bill Walsh said. "It's OK to refer (business), but you have to disclose your interest."
Jim Deal bought about 26 acres from Nedegaard to build office buildings. Powerhouse's name was all over the paperwork. "It was Nedegaard's choice," he said.
Same for the city of Ramsey.
"Any time we'd do any documents with Bruce Nedegaard, we had to use Powerhouse," Norman recalled.
The Department of Commerce conducted an investigation - sparked by another Nedegaard project - into Powerhouse in 2006 and subsequently shut it down. It turns out Powerhouse was operating without a license, reports from that investigation reveal.
Side deals included more than title fees.
John Feges, former president of Nedegaard's Town Center corporation, said he was kept out of discussions involving such financing.
"I guess because I ask tough questions, they didn't want me in on the bank stuff," he said.
But Feges said he believes there were many side deals in which Nedegaard's Town Center corporation paid fees to Community National or its officers.
In one case, William Sandison and Community National officer Jerome Peterson each pocketed $20,000 in a complicated deal involving a $3 million letter of credit, according to a lawsuit pending on the deal. The money came from Nedegaard's Town Center company.
[...] Nedegaard often told friends that his investment in a European pipeline was on the verge of coming through. Some say he told them the deal concerned oil in Bulgaria; others say diamond mines and natural gas via Swiss investors.
Creditors later discovered Nedegaard transferred $600,000 to Swiss bank accounts in two transactions, according to bankruptcy fillings. Why he did so remains unclear.
Columbia Heights City Council Member Bobby Williams suspects his friend was scammed.
"It's a kooka-dooka, hocus-pocus deal. That's what I think," said Williams, who himself lent Nedegaard $250,000 for the pipeline deal, which he said was wired to an overseas account.
Williams said Nedegaard told him he had invested $10 million and was planning to get back $12 million.
[...] In early 2006, Darlene Milless, the Powerhouse employee, walked into Nedegaard's Columbia Heights office and saw a number of IRS agents packing up boxes and taking them. And even though Feges had left the Town Center company by then, workers called the former president in a panic.
"They came in and seized everything he had," Feges recalled of the agents' actions.
By then, the life Nedegaard had built for himself was falling apart.
He defaulted on his $35 million loan in the fall of 2005, prompting Minnwest to assume the lead role from Community National, according to bankruptcy filings. Minnwest went digging through Nedegaard's past and financial health. They found Nedegaard had been in trouble before.
A year earlier, he had pleaded guilty to a federal charge. Prosecutors accused Nedegaard of falsifying financing information in the 1999 sale of a Prior Lake town home, according to court records. He was fined $25,000 and given a year's probation.
Interesting questions are when and how did Ramsey officials first learn of the felony plea, who on the council and in other official positions knew of it and when did they learn, who outside of city positions was informed and why, and whether there was any duty to give notice to lenders and if so, was notice given?
Had any one employed by the city had past dealings of any kind with Nedegaard, if so, what; and who "bird-dogged" the deal between land owners, Nedegaard, and the city - or did Nedegaard fall out of bed one morning saying, "I'm buying into the future of Ramsey."?
Did Nedegaard at any time "kite" his financials, and if so were any others complicit in assisting in ways that misled bankers?
If the Sandisons know much, and are talkative with Federal prosecutors and investigators, it will be a hoot; and we might even find out who had beneficial drawing powers on those Swiss bank accounts about which Orrick reported, which still, now even after the Nedegaard development went through bankruptcy, are shrouded in mystery.
Jim Deal entered the Town Center picture when Highway 10 "mapping" involved his two properties on Highway 10 being bought with contract assistance from Tinklenberg Group; Nedegaard and his LLC showed up in title to some Highway 10 parcels at one point in time; and if security interests are not recorded in the normal course one can always wonder why. Deal and Martinson both attended Deal's 2008 fundraiser for Tinklenberg's congressional candidacy in 2008 held at Town Center; but we should not read too much into that - after all Attorney General Swanson attended and I believe no one would suggest she had any role in Ramsey land visions and revisions. I certainly know of none.
The reported involvement of Darlene Milless with that fraudulently improper title company is interesting in that the Milless family owned and sold land to Nedegaard's LLC, making a land profit; as well as participating in ongoing LLC improprieties via the Title Company. We can remember Milless among others, via this archived "ramsey03.com" webpage content screenshot quoting her and others in Ramsey (with not all photos archived) and indicating her involvement in Ramsey's Charter Commission [at the time charter changes were made in anticipation of the Town Center development proceeding]:
