Condos in Limbo

The Montgomery Wards condos are still in legal limbo, more importantly they are still sitting empty.

They say "Build it and they will come".  WHO says?  WHO is coming?  WHERE are they?

The Trinity River Vision should take a lesson from the Montgomery Wards condo fiasco.  Not more of the how do you switch money around and take people's stuff for less lesson, a don't put your cart before the horse lesson.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Business Press.  Notice the Fort Worth Way at play.  Also, notice the word Vision and tax abatement...and there's that name again, the North Central Texas Council of Governments.  Yeah, they are everywhere.  WHO are they again?  WHAT is their purpose?

Be sure and read the article, YOU can't afford not to.

That group is owed millions by some of the project’s developers.
In all, the contractors were left holding the bag for about $6.5 million, he said.

A grand vision

Despite protests from historic preservationists, and with the help of a city tax abatement, the eight-story behemoth was gutted and a six-story hole carved out of the facade’s center, opening up a brick-paved plaza with space for outdoor dining, parking and shoppers. Stores and restaurants opened at street level and pricy condos were laid out on the upper floors.

“An example of preservation in the context of urban redevelopment,” the North Central Texas Council of Governments gushed when it awarded developers of the 46.19-acre Montgomery Plaza, Weber & Co., one of its 2007 Celebrating Leadership in Development Excellence Awards.
   
“The bottom line is the majority of the money owed is from a insurance incident: Pipe busts, floods multiple floors, insurance company pays, owner takes the money, doesn’t pay the bills, allows bank to foreclose on property voiding all liens, then buys the property back under a different name, lien free,” owner Kip Wadleigh wrote in a message posted on the website of Hardwood Floors Magazine.
 
“That company declared bankruptcy and bought it back,” “Bought a $50 million property for $18 million and did away with all the liens all the subcontractors had taken out. Hard to believe that’s legal in the state of Texas, but I’m told it is.”