Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Do the math

Recently Durango told you how Bud Kennedy mentioned (on his Facebook, not in the "news" paper) that the citizens of Fort Worth got screwed by Cabela's. 

That same paper posted some pretty telling info about Cabela's but never said, we're sorry for telling you it was the greatest thing ever, we were wrong. 

How many more projects and TIF's is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram promoting, and more importantly, WHY?

Remember those citizens that sued the city and spoke against Cabela's were labeled by the paper as naysayers and anti-business, when in reality, they were just speaking the truth.  YOUR numbers don't add up.

Growth surrounding the Cabela's sporting goods store in far north Fort Worth may have shown the store to be less of an economic development magnet than expected...

Cabela's said it wouldn't put a store in Fort Worth unless the city and other local governments agreed to finance infrastructure improvements around its Interstate 35W site through a tax increment financing district.

They did, but a city study last year showed the district significantly underperforming expectations. Taxable property values in the 981-acre district surrounding the 200,000-square-foot store had climbed to $45 million by 2011, but the figure by then had been expected to be $200 million.

Over the 20-year lifespan of the TIF, it had been projected to attract $573 million in new retail, hotel and commercial development. Activity would have to speed up very soon to meet that goal.

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