We go instead, by thought, to the ex-urban Greater Chicago environs. To Orland Park. (Wikipedia, here. If you care to look, fine, but it is not necessary to follow this post.)
If nothing's to be learned why Orland Park?
The easy answer is perhaps there's a learning curve opportunity. Some deja vu element that could jog somebody's learning, sometime, somehow. Even officials have learning curves. Some do. Some cannot stand the heat and should, per Truman, get out of the kitchen:
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| Original, here. |
[Click the image to enlarge and read. Underlining and arrow added.]
How about that language? "... a public private partnership with Flaherty & Collins to construct a luxury residential community that will serve as the catalyst for future developments."
The Green Arrow on the image notes there is also, here on the Orland Park village website, more language worth noting,
The Village of Orland Park announced its intention to enter into partnership with Flaherty & Collins Properties for the first phase of re-development of the Main Street portion of Downtown Orland Park. Based in Indianapolis, Flaherty & Collins is a recognized leader in the development, construction, and management of multifamily housing, being one of the largest, most active, and most experienced multifamily property developers in the Midwest.
Flaherty & Collins Properties and the village are co-petitioners for the first phase of re-development that will include nearly 300 luxury residences, over 8,600 square feet of interior amenity space, 4,000 square feet of commercial space and structured parking on approximately four acres in the downtown’s Main Street area.
Downtown Orland Park at 143rd Street and LaGrange Road will blend historic Old Orland with the village’s present and future, offering a pedestrian friendly mix of residential and retail uses. [...]
“Throughout my tenure as mayor, I have always been motivated by purposeful planning and development that advances the quality of life that we all enjoy in Orland Park,” said Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin.
The first phase of Downtown Orland Park, Ninety 7 Fifty On The Park, developed by Flaherty & Collins, will include nearly 300 luxury one and two bedroom for-lease residences on approximately four acres. A staggered height building, ranging from three to five stories will provide attractive facades along 143rd Street, Ravinia Avenue, Main Street and Crescent Park Circle. Parking is proposed in a structure on the interior of the lot, screened from the street.
“This will be a pedestrian friendly area where people can live, shop, visit, enjoy and spend time,” said Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin. “It will offer an easy commute to Chicago,” he added.
Describing the residential development, Chris Kirles, vice-president of development at Flaherty & Collins, [at least it is not Ryan Cronk working the street there too] said, “Ninety 7 Fifty On The Park is situated at the hub of the newest downtown area and is integrated with the existing park, bike trails, forest preserves and retail, making it a true live, work and play environment.”
“There are a limited number of transit-oriented developments throughout the country, very few in suburban Chicago and nothing in the southern corridor. This is an extremely unique opportunity and we are excited to be involved,” Kirles added.
[...] “Orland Park’s new train station is a beautiful focal point of Downtown Orland Park,” McLaughlin said.
The residential development plans call for nearly 8,000 square feet of first floor “store front” resident amenity space with a mezzanine level. The amenity area will be wireless throughout and will include a state of the art fitness center, tanning salon, cyber café, business center, private cinema, game room and leasing office.
Kirles noted, “Centered around the Metra Station, 9750 On The Park will set a new standard for transit-oriented development in suburban Chicago.”
“Train service first came to Orland Township in the 1870s when the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railroad completed its connection between Chicago and St. Louis,” McLaughlin said, adding, “That was the start of Orland Park’s original downtown and now, 120 years later, we see rail service playing another important part in the village’s history.”
Four thousand square feet of retail space will provide support to the residents and act as a catalyst for future phases. Covered and secured garage parking will be available for residents with on-street parallel parking available around the perimeter of the property. The four story parking garage will be completely screened from the street and allow residents to park on the level on which they live. Green construction will be used throughout the development to reduce expenses.
Kirles added, “Orland Park is an exceptional community led by proactive leaders with an extraordinary vision. It has been a pleasure working with the village to help bring this project to reality.”
[...] The mayor added, “This new downtown not only offers prospective residents a true lifestyle center in which to live, shop and be entertained, it also ensures our village’s reputation as one of the most desirable communities in the nation --- enhancing property values, strengthening our local business community and guaranteeing that Orland Park remains among the best communities in the Chicago metropolitan region.”
[italics added] Do others get this impression:
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| Flaherty & Collins, playing Orland Park. |
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| Flaherty & Collins, playing Ramsey. |
Aside from that, what else?
And it is worth looking at Orland Park, because the questions are tough, and editors there ask tough questions.
Tough questions must be asked, answered
SouthtownStar Editorial August 5, 2011 11:40PM
Updated: August 7, 2011 2:14AM
We were out of the room when the money guys changed the rules. Somebody should have told us. In the old days, entrepreneurs sought rewards, took risks and did it with 100 percent of their own money (and their bankers).
The new rules? They get all the rewards, but you (as in, you the taxpayer) take the risk. For the developer with fancy brochures, it’s nice work if they can get it.
Under the new rules, the proposed 295 luxury apartment complex near the 143rd Street Metra station and Crescent Park Circle in Orland Park will be built with village money, perhaps as much as $65 million in bonds.
Bonds are borrowed money with interest. Debt.
What does Orland Park get for its sugar daddy role? That apparently is still being worked out. Queasy yet? We are, too.
So while we appreciate Mayor Dan McLaughlin’s enthusiasm, we are resoundingly not persuaded by McLaughlin’s assertion that “somewhere we’ve got to make a decision that’s good for the village regardless of how many people are gulping.” We’re gulping, too. Enthusiasm is no alternative to due diligence. Somebody needs a very powerful magnifying glass to read the fine print coupled with a skeptical perception.
It’s hard not to hold out hope that this can work because it’s so darn pretty. Plus, the village gets to trade aging boomers for upscale yuppies. (Though we’re still not quite understanding why the village foots the bill to house these upscale yuppies? Or exactly why it was so important to trade off real businesses used by real, existing Orland Park people — think Randy’s Market or Orland Bakery — to lure these yuppies to an “aqua lounge?” Or why we want Orland Park to be another Naperville, a town village leaders kept bandying about?)
This uncertainty is not our alone. The village government needs to be clear with everyone about liability if the project doesn’t produce the anticipated stampede of renters. Banks normally demand and taxpayers deserve some benefit other than being left with someone else’s large sack of dirty laundry. As far as we can tell, developers Flaherty & Collins Properties are assuming no financial risk.
Flaherty & Collins Properties is a big player, mostly successful, in such developments and has tended in recent years to seek to shift its construction costs to partners. That trend ripened in 2009 with a Charlotte, N.C., condo project called “210 Trade” — which would have been the tallest residential building in the Carolinas. It sort of blew up. Court records there say Flaherty & Collins’ subsidiary, Charlotte FC LLC, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, listing liabilities of $53 million and assets of just $197,492.
Village trustees could vote whether to approve the development at a board meeting next month. The village seems anxious to break ground this fall and be ready to rent by spring 2013.
Before any such approval, tough questions have to asked and answered. They haven’t been up to now. Keep asking, Orland Park villagers. You deserve to know. And ultimately to choose.
Down-playing downside risk (and Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Collins being disturbingly light in it) seems a parallel pattern. It reads as if they could surely use a referendum on the thing in Orland Park and are not getting any, just as taxpayers in Ramsey deserve and are not getting one.
Perhaps there are other parallels? Something to look at in wrapping up the post? Surely playing the "transit oriented development" card deck is a parallel, with the proposed Flaherty-&-Collins Ramsey-rental-ramp-wrap set to be adjacent to the soon to be built Northstar communter rail-stop project allowing a direct Ramsey-Downtown express commute, as well as to the Twins baseball park.
There is this in Orland park, a spiffy "Metra" transit rail stop built I believe in 2007, on 143rd St. - near if not directly adjacent to where the FC adventure in Orland Park is set to stand - see also, here and here.
Moreover -
Parallel Public Bonding is in Play. Should there be doubt, reporting is:
$65M bond sale possible for start of Orland Main Street project
BY MIKE NOLAN mnolan@southtownstar.com August 4, 2011 2:16PM
Updated: August 5, 2011 2:58PM
Orland Park could sell as much as $65 million in bonds to finance construction of the first phase of the Main Street triangle development, which will include nearly 300 luxury apartments.
Speaking this week to the SouthtownStar’s editorial board, Orland Park Mayor Dan McLaughlin and other village officials said the village will partner with Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties, which has built other high-end apartment developments in the Midwest.
Village business leaders got a preview of the transit-oriented residential and retail project last week, and village planners will get their first look at it next week.
Orland Park and Flaherty & Collins are expected to have their partnership agreement ironed out in the next week or two.
Flaherty & Collins will build the apartments, which would be near the 143rd Street Metra station and Crescent Park Circle, while the village would pay the cost of construction, selling perhaps as much as $65 million in bonds, officials told the SouthtownStar.
Still, the village hasn’t yet decided on some of the financial aspects of the project, such as how it will be paid for, Paul Grimes, Orland’s village manager, said. The village expects that should bonds be sold, rent paid by tenants of the apartments would be sufficient to cover debt service.
However, depending on how the bond sale is structured, taxpayers could be on the hook for some of the cost, particularly if the apartments don’t rent as briskly as officials hope.
[...] The apartment complex development has been given the highfalutin name “Ninety 7 Fifty On The Park.” It would also include 4,000 square feet of commercial space.
The 295 one- and two-bedroom apartments would rent for an average of $1,500 a month and would attract young professionals who would commute to jobs downtown, as well as empty-nesters, according to the village.
The thinking is those renters could eventually become homeowners, helping offset Orland’s “aging population of baby boomers,” according to promotional materials about the project the village has issued.
Those materials describe 9750 as being “like no other apartment development in the region,” with renters enjoying amenities such as private outdoor courtyards, a heated saltwater pool, a fitness club with a yoga studio, a game lounge and “aqua lounge.”
[... there is more, check the online item]
Also, there are before/after "photo gallery" visuals accompanying that reporting, this link. It is a reminder of the below [since scrubbed] top pair of images the Met Council and City of Ramsey previously had online on their respective websites [the bottom images were only on Met Council's site in Oct. 2002, with Elvig running for Ramsey city council that election]:
[See also, the opening image of the opening report of the three-part Town Center report Dave Orrick of Pioneer Press authored; starting here.]
Bottom bonding line: It appears the Orland Park people are preped to eat the whole enchilada. In Ramsey it's a changing target, but it was reported as a five to eight million second position behind a Pittsburgh lender's $26 million first lien. Bad, but perhaps bigger plungers are running the government of Orland Park.
Had enough?
Wrap up time then, okay?
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| Orland Park's Mayor Dan. Kin to Bob Ramsey? (Pic. from Aug 4 must-read press reporting, As complained of in the opening image.) |
Would you go snipe hunting with Mr. Flaherty?
With Mr. Collins?
Mr. Flaherty will be in our town, Ramsey, Monday for a city hall meeting. Or so I am told.
We can show up. We can ask him how he likes Chicago. Better than Ramsey? Or would you guess he likes them both unless one or the other gets sense enough to spit the hook.
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If you want comparative demographics, there is that, each community being predominantly white, and distanced from anything like downtown Indianapolis where Flaherty-Collins have rented out almost all of the expensive Cosmopolitan on the Canal housing units [without it catalyzing jack, on the ground floor retail-commercial level, where it is elevator down, to shop or to enjoy a fine restaurant meal].
Compare:
Orland Park.
Ramsey.
__________UPDATE_____________
A gloomy construction day while the main Orland Park Metra station was being built, here. I wouder if it cost thirteen million, more, or less - and if the lion's share was from having to negotiate and pay BNSF or another rail company [one NOT owned by Warren Buffet's Berkshire firm]. It is interesting that the bulk estimate and funding sources were commented on, here, but no cost breakout was given. I will try to pin that down via email.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
For next week, Aug. 15, there is this, re the terms to be inflicted upon and borne by our city, per the Flaherty-Collins adventure in Ramsey Town Center. Make of it what you will at your own peril. It is content-free notice, as best as I can read it. Mushroom-the-citizens, content-free.
The agenda item says -- Stuff the HRA might not like.
If sane and conservatively sensible, the HRA would like little or nothing of that entire awful deal package, or of its fairly clear foreseeable vast downside potentialities for City of Ramsey.
_________FURHTER UPDATE_________
Free brochure:
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
More housing? More stinking housing? What cannot those bozos understand about restaurants and shops?
Would any reader wanting yet more crammed-in shared-wall housing at Ramsey Town Center before buildout of restaurants and shops, please leave name and rationale for that thinking in a comment to this post.
I certainly know nobody wanting that in the circle of people I have talked to. Heidi and Darren, Colin, the mayor, but beyond that small group, WHO WANTS MORE OF THE SAME?