ACHD

Simplot, Gardner Projects Differ In Funding

The announcement by the J. R. Simplot Company to build a nine story headquarters at 11th and Front while Gardner plans a new project at 8th and Main brings to mind the differences in funding.

Simplot’s project won’t depend on public money like the Gardner project which depends of lots of public money–just for the foundation.

Simplot may very well create a demand for parking structures and bicycles, but by the time the new building is a reality, the CCDC Central District will nearly be expired (2017)…then there is Team Dave’s desire named street car.

Taxpayers–under the current Gardner scheme–will fund a good portion of the basement foundation in the form of a “transit center.” Citizens will have no voice in the project which depends upon money from half a dozen agencies. Don’t forget this location is at least the fourth “perfect location” for a transit center.

One of the troubling aspects includes a “ballroom” in the Gardner structure planned for the Center on the Grove which depends upon future public tax money from the Greater Boise Auditorium District.

Idaho’s constitution mandates agencies must seek voter approval to spend future tax money. GBAD has a hearing set for May 21 as the first move to circumvent the public and get a single judge to “confirm” the ballroom is “ordinary and necessary.”

If the project is viable, we suggest Gardner put its hands in its own pocket to secure financing and charge rent for its real estate.

NOTE– The GUARDIAN is in Vietnam where the government doesn’t worry about public’s thoughts on spending, so we may be a bit slow posting comments.

Comments & Discussion

Comments are closed for this post.

  1. chicago sam
    May 9, 2014, 10:18 am

    The Gardner company has in the past few years completed a raft of major building projects nearly all which depend on govt. money or are non-profit such as medical property’s. They have no problem backing out of a deal if they aren’t going to make any money or can’t convince the agency they are working with to put up more money. Their welshing on Nampa recently is a prime example. It is always troubling when the chief legal counsel of the Gardner company is a full partner in the law firm which draws up the contracts. Hearing on May 21st needs to be well attended with some questions asked.

  2. Idaho is becoming California. Simplot is old-school. Why pay for something when you can get the lib-tards to fund it for you. It’s all about the middleman sir, end result is not important. BTW a certain “non-profit” who’s coffers overflowith is gonna go on a development spree I’ve heard from the wife.

    Nam? Careful what you post from over there in commie land… they don’t have an NSA like we do but they do things at Obama wishes he could to people who dis the government.

  3. It will be interesting to see if Gardner gets the same escape clause on this project they got on the Nampa Library fiasco. I know Gardner did everything “by the book” on their retreat from the Nampa project but I doubt they had any intention of doing anything in downtown Nampa or they would not have asked for the escape clause. They used it to get the project then squirmed out of their part of the deal.

  4. Zippo. I don’t know why I even bother. Lib-tards? Really? Comments like that only make you look like a kook and Dave, shame on you for allowing that ad hominem.

    Idaho is becoming California? What does that even mean?

    Care to discuss CA Prop 13 and Howard Jarvis and the damage he and the ill advised Prop 13 did to California? That which you hate about California is mostly a result of conservative actions. California has a huge population of conservatives in Orange and San Diego Counties. In fact, just about anywhere outside of LA County and SF County is mostly conservative.

    Care to discuss Idaho’s 1992 Prop 1 property tax initiative in which Idaho voters overwhelmingly rejected the attempt to copy Jarvis’ miserable failure?

    Care to discuss the heavily subsidized railroad industry which pulled out of downtown Boise and left it the wreck it was? And didn’t pay a dime towards cleaning up the mess they made. Yet we locals can’t subsidize the rebuilding of downtown Boise? And by subsidize, I mean only a few dollars a year of your property tax bill is attributable to the existence of urban renewal districts. No one has ever proven otherwise.

    However, I, and others, dislike Gardener’s Grove project a lot. The current CCDC board seems to have gone off the deep end with the bike lanes etc. But that doesn’t mean urban renewal districts are bad. It means that our oversight of them is bad.

    You need to speak up, but you have to polish your arguments, educate yourself and bite your dang tongue. You’re going nowhere with oversight if you walk into a CCDC meeting and start spewing words like libtard and Californian.

    I called for this city to bring Robert Bruegmann here to speak. So far no one has stepped up. I can’t afford it.

  5. Conservative? Cali-Mexico? Not for 30 years. Railroads go where there are bulk materials to ship. We stopped cutting trees and such, and stopped producing big heavy things to be shipped. Even MK Rail is gonna leave now. If you speak of Amtrak leaving, they lose money even in the NE corridor.

    Government in business means extra money given to the middlemen. I call this waste.

    Vocal people like me stopped the Vietnam war for example. It happened because we refused to give traditional respect to the process, empty suits, and liars with a title. Don’t underestimated the power of inflammation and contempt for lying office holders. I pay taxes too pal, lots of people like me are more mobile than ever and will vote with our feet or go Galt if need be. Good! you might say, but then who holds up the bottom tier of your pyramid?

  6. I protest on this blog in a voice which you are not comfortable with? Fair enough. I am not yelling fire in a crowded theater nor making treats of harm. Further, I project some original and intelligent ideas at times.

    What I protest is the tax and spend attitude of nearly all in office whatever their party affiliation. There is no respect for the taxpayer. They see us as low hanging fruit to be plucked until the tree is bare. They pass laws and hold committee hearings to justify their civil theft of what we earned.

    However, what I protest most of all is the status quo group of apathetic citizens who, in spite of controlling less of their own money with each public meeting, stand idly by while finding it perfectly okay to be robbed so long as the robber is a public official.

  7. Boise cynic. Mr Bruegmann is still a potential speaker in the future. These things don’t happen overnight. And it won’t be Boise bringing him in, it would be COMPASS if it works out.

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