Back in November, I wrote a post about Prince Charles Holdings’ request for more money for the parking deck that they are still building in downtown Fayetteville. I predicted the Fayetteville City Council and the Mayor would fund the company’s request. They did. I ended the post this way:

When they ask for more money in a few months, I’ll change some numbers around and re-post this article.

https://crosscreekdivide.com/2019/11/21/1-4-million-more-tax-dollars-downtown-parking-deck/

Well, Prince Charles Holdings has asked for more money. This is about the fifth time they’ve done so. It’s not as much a fulfilled prediction as it is clock-work at this point.

But the details of tonight’s City Council Agenda and exactly how they are going about the latest increase has me riled up. So you get about the 15th parking-deck-post on this site. My apologies in advance…

Investment Income

Apparently, the City of Fayetteville earns interest on the millions of dollars in bond money we borrowed to finance the baseball stadium and purchase the parking deck downtown.

All of the money we borrowed hasn’t been spent, yet, in part because Prince Charles Holdings can’t seem to finish the deck on schedule. It was supposed to be finished in October, and we don’t have to pay for it until it is finished, so the millions we borrowed to pay for it are presumably sitting in an account somewhere, earning interest. Apparently, we’re earning a lot of interest: $189,063 to this date, according to the city’s numbers.

“Great!,” you might think to yourself. “The city’s at least getting some money back. We can use that to offset the cost of the project and save the taxpayers some money!”

But…

…then the powerful forces of the Fayetteville bureaucracy go to work, and suddenly it’s not so great anymore.

Instead of giving this investment income back to the taxpayers or using it to lower the principal on the debt the taxpayers owe, our City Council and city managers want to give all of it to Prince Charles Holdings. They will vote to do so, tonight.

Are you even surprised anymore? Yeah, me neither.

Keep in mind that the initial cost for this deck was 7 Million Dollars. It’s now pushing 18 Million. 2.9 Million is being transferred out of the general fund to cover the overage. This means that other city services will have to be cut if we don’t raise taxes.

Segra Stadium Standards

Perhaps we could have used some of that $186,095 to offset the cost of our new baseball stadium which is also over-budget? But that’s too easy and too obvious.

Today, the Observer published an article stating that our new stadium already has cracks and water leaks. Fayetteville has hired an engineer to analyze and document the defects. This is a good thing. It’s smart government. Why? Fayetteville is battling with the contractor, Barton Malow, over the total cost of the project. Fayetteville can now use these structural defects as leverage to negotiate the final cost of the project and save the taxpayers money.

This is responsible city management. This is how it’s supposed to work.

So why the double-standard?

Despite the fact that our leaders sold the parking deck and the stadium as a package deal, they now refuse to treat these projects the same way even though it is in the city’s interest to do so. It’s baffling, really.

I don’t know who invested in Prince Charles Holdings. It’s not public record by the way, and the city won’t tell us. I do know that they are very powerful behind the curtain.

Do you know of any other entity that is treated this way by the City of Fayetteville? City management goes out of its way to enrich these people. Our elected leaders gladly vote “yes” to repeated cost increases and waive penalties for missing construction deadlines.

Several months ago, Mayor Colvin had an apt analogy when Prince Charles Holdings asked for more money for the deck:

I actually agree with him. Any bank would keep the interest that it makes on its own money for itself.

We’ll just give it away.

The Fayetteville City Council has invested millions of your tax dollars in order to encourage and stimulate economic growth downtown. Mayor Mitch Colvin recently made the personal decision to capitalize on that growth and purchased a commercial building downtown. But, Colvin’s building lies in an area the Fayetteville City Council designated as a “Historic District,” and our good Mayor was recently introduced to the red-tape of Fayetteville’s “Historic” bureaucracy that has long been the hindrance of many a good Cross Creek businessman.

You see, a few decades ago, the City of Fayetteville made a policy decision to preserve the “historical integrity” of several areas, including downtown.

“Design Guidelines” keep each structure looking the way it did when it was first built. You could say we want these areas to look “olde” and true to their original architectural style, including my personal favorite, “Richardsonian Romanesque.”

These guidelines are still in place, and if you want to upgrade a building in the historic district, you have to follow certain rules.

First and foremost, you have to submit an application for a “Certificate of Appropriateness” from the Historic Resources Commission before you do any work to your building. It’s a very simple form. I found it online in a few minutes:

Mayor Colvin submitted multiple COA applications, but his contractor made changes to the structure that were not included on the applications and were not pre-approved by the Historic Resources Commission, setting up a great deal of drama.

Battle with Commissioner

Bruce Arnold is a member of the commission. Arnold, along with his wife, own multiple downtown businesses. Arnold attempted to bring attention to the unapproved changes to Colvin’s building a few months ago. This caused a bit of a media stir, with Arnold even claiming that Colvin threatened to sue him over his allegations.

The exterior work on Colvin’s building is now completed. Of much concern to members of the Historic Resources Commission, Arnold in particular, were the paint on the building and the installation of glass and aluminum doors.

Colvin asked the Historic Resources Commission for permission to “amend” his prior applications to include all of the changes that were made the building. He argued that old photographs show the doors were once aluminum and the building was once painted, so Colvin gets to do the same in 2020.

Despite his photographic evidence, Colvin was apparently worried about the vote. He had his attorney, Jose Coker, of the Charleston Law Firm, try to keep Bruce Arnold and the commission’s chairwoman, Liz Varnedoe, from voting because of “prior statements” each had made about the changes. In short, Colvin claimed they were “biased” against him and couldn’t be impartial.

They voted anyways. Colvin won, 6-1. Arnold was the only dissenting vote.

Colvin Can’t Take a Win

Apparently, winning 6-1 wasn’t good enough for Colvin. So the very next day, he decided to trash Arnold on Facebook:

As of today’s date, Colvin’s post drew over 271 comments. Most of them are in support of Colvin, and many imply that Colvin is being singled out because he’s black. It’s not hard to see why. Colvin capitalized two words in his post: “RUDE” and “WHITE.” He also included the hash-tag “doublestandards.”

One Man’s Opinion

Colvin admittedly made changes to a historic building without prior approval. He then asked for special treatment from the commission. He got it. He won 6-1. But it wasn’t perfect enough for him, so he’s got to trash the dissenting voter, call out his businesses, and imply that race is involved.

And we wonder why Fayetteville is so divided?

Colvin’s complaints are old and tired and do nothing to bring us together as a town. I realize we are in the time of the “untouchable” executive, but a Mayor, like a President, should follow the same rules as everyone else and shouldn’t attack those who seek to hold him accountable to those rules.

If you don’t like the rules, you have more power than anyone to change them. Give that a try instead of attacking your constituents on social media.

Thanks for reading.

While the Mayor and the Fayetteville City Council are “up in arms” about contributing 7.5 Million in city money to the planned Civil War Museum, these same politicians are poised to give another 1.4 Million tax dollars to Prince Charles Holdings for a parking deck that the citizens of Fayetteville won’t get to use.

If you have missed this blog for the past few years, here’s a refresher:

P.C.H. is building a parking deck right now. They are behind schedule. We (the city) are buying the deck from P.C.H. “at cost” once it’s finally finished. After we buy the deck from P.C.H., we are obligated to lease most of the spaces in the deck to P.C.H. for 15 year terms for a really cheap price. It seems strange, right? Why would we buy the deck from P.C.H. just to lease it back to P.C.H.??? Well, it’s called an “economic development incentive.” Instead of giving P.C.H. cash (which is unconstitutional), we are being creative and “economically encouraging” P.C.H. to invest downtown by allowing them to make money off of a parking deck exchange. Presumably, this passes constitutional and legal muster, although many, including yours truly, disagree.

Now, the cost of the deck has risen, again. P.C.H. is falling on hard times, again. Taxpayers need to bail them out, again.

The City Council will vote to give P.C.H. the money at the upcoming meeting on November 25. Perfect timing, now that the election is over.

The cost of the Prince Charles parking deck has now more than doubled the entire cost of the City’s expected contribution to the Civil War Museum. At least the public will get to go use the museum, and with the rate of construction on Hay Street, the museum will probably be completed long before we ever see a Hyatt Hotel in downtown Fayetteville.

By the way, we’re not even borrowing this money in the form of bonds. (That was the original plan). This “extra” money that we have gladly used to line P.C.H.’s pockets is being taken from the general fund, away from important “city” obligations (loose leaf pickup, police, fire, parks, speed bumps, etc.).

Breakdown

This thing is beyond ridiculous.

It’s honestly starting to feel like we’re being scammed, and the frustrating part is that our City government is complicit. Simply wait until after the municipal elections, then throw another 1.4 Million Dollars at our new “business partners,” even though we have a completely enforceable contract price of $14,845,000 $16,345,000 already.

Here’s exactly what will happen at the upcoming meeting: all of the council members and the Mayor will express “grave concerns” about giving P.C.H. the additional funds. They will post-pone the vote a few weeks seeking “assurances” that Fayetteville will “recoup its investment” over time.

A few weeks later, they will vote to give them the money.

It’s happened before.

When they ask for more money in a few months, I’ll change some numbers around and re-post this article.

UPDATE – NOVEMBER 25

Tonight, the City Council and the Mayor unanimously voted to give our development partners the money. They claim it is for “SOFT COSTS” that the City is obligated to pay under its contract with the developers.

The developers have already breached the contract in two ways:

1. The original price went up 1.5 million several months ago; and
2. The deck was supposed to be completed October 1. It isn’t finished.

City Leadership hasn’t seemed to mind either breach.

But I hope you will sleep at night knowing that you, as a taxpayer, honored your end of this deal.

Maybe you’ll get to park in the deck one day.