Friday, May 06, 2011
Peru Puts Litigation on the Agenda for Monday
It appears that Peru has plans to fight for the North Commercial TIF...
the following is on the agenda..NEW BUSINESS
MOTION TO APPOINT SPECIAL COUNSEL REGARDING TIF LITIGATION
If the only reason we are being sued is because of the new Holiday Inn Express and their request for being a part of the TIF, are we residents of Peru going to have to pay his legal bill by hiring special counsel? Is that the meaning or is this routine defense procedure?
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36 comments:
The way I see it we, the residents of Peru, are going to be paying for both sides of this litigation. WE LOSE NO MATTER WHO WINS!!! I thought we already had 2 TIF lawyers. As you say Lois, is this just a procedure to add them to our payroll?
Not sure exactly what it means but, there is another closed session regarding litigation on Monday's meeting agenda.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY LOIS AND ALL OTHER MOTHER'S WHO MAY READ THIS!
meant to sign post 1034 Linda
Thank you and wishing you a great day full of sunshine.
Back to the TIF, Peru has hired Atty Regan of Ottawa to act in their defense. Court activity on this is scheduled to begin tomorrow in Ottawa.
(from WLPO news) 4/27/2011
The city of Peru is officially being sued by the La Salle County Board and Dimmick School District.
Dimmick Superintendent Ryan Linnig says they filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the Thirteenth Judicial District Circuit Court opposing Peru’s North Commercial TIF District. Linnig says he and the county support Peru using a TIF for blighted property like the Kings Inn but not for the new Holiday Inn Express. A resolution passed by both boards says they have “genuine concerns and doubts whether Peru has sufficiently established facts to support the creation of the TIF District”. Both Dimmick and the county think the TIF will have a negative impact on their tax revenues.
Linnig says with 47 TIF districts already in La Salle County, city leaders need to only use TIF’s when “truly appropriate and necessary”.
There seems to be a new building and business next to Fastenal and close to the new Holiday Inn Express. Since there is no name on the building I was wondering if anyone knew what it was, who owned it, and if it would be included in the new TIF that is being questioned by Dimmick and the County.
1:48 It's Complete Integration and it is in the proposed TIF. The property was aslo in an entreprise zone and the enterprise zone benefits were better so we used those incentives. I know because it is my company.
Who are the owners of Complete Integration? Is there any related party transactions to the prior administration or to the developers of the Holiday Inn Express? Is this parcel part of the lawsuit too?
Is this law suit another example of the benefits of Mayor Harl doing his job for Peru ?
Is the Mayor the cause or the solution to this issue ?
When was Complete Integration completed? The 2010-2011 phone book lists it as a La Salle address. Was it being built about the same time as the hotel?
6:09
I don"t understand your comment of "Is this law suit another example of the benefits of Mayor Harl doing his job for Peru? Is the Mayor the cause or the solution to this issue?"
If Mayor Harl has some control over this lawsuit I would be interested in knowing what it is.
The idea of putting this area under a TIF was started before Mayor Harl became Mayor. If you were Mayor of a city of 10,000 would you make every effort to accomplish a investment of over $8,000,000.00 in that city or would you not utilize every tool which could achieve the investment?
If you don't make some form of incentives available you are not going to be in the horse race, as evidenced by the total of 47 TIF's in LaSalle County. Would this total put us second in number in the State of Illinois?
Could someone inform me what the Superintendent of Dimmick grade school pay is per year, how many students are in the school, and what additional financial needs the school has as their presently at a expenditure of $23,000 per year per student? What are are some comparative cost per student at our other area grade schools?
6:09 Most likely the idea of TIF is the cause of this issue. The court system is going to have to come come up with a solution for the issue and again the Attorneys At Law will be the ultimate winners. They make the laws in this case TIF to test the law to create another law. This as taxpayers is what we must stop.
To 4:38 Anon: Don Baker
7:40 I agree with you totally but what you people don't seem to understand is that this $8,000,000 project was being completed with or without the TIF. I personally think people do not see this particular area as blighted or in need of incentives as it was being developed long before the Holiday Inn Express was built. In other words, why does this particular business need incentives but Taco Bell, Wal Marts, Mc Donalds, Cabin Fever, etc,. etc., did not especially since it is already built, up and running.
I see, according to the News Trib Twitter section that the ECONO building has been sold and they are seeking the new owners. Does anyone know anything regarding this issue?
To 4:38 It's my business and I'm Bob Baker. The TIF district has not been established so there is no benefit to our company. As I stated before the property is in an enterprise zone and we used the enterprise zone benefits during construction.
I am aware that there is a TIF map, but I believe there is also an enterprise zone map. How do I go about getting access to that map since inception of the zone and determine how changes were made/approved and who benefited from additions or deletions within the map?
9:58 Are you trying to convince me that the Holiday Inn Express was going to be built with or without the TIF? Iam fully convinced that it was built without a TIF as I see it every time I go by it and yet it presently has no TIF.
I also think it would have been built if a TIF was already there, but since it was built without a TIF I'll never be able to prove that It would have been built if a TIF was already there.
You had best check the incentive that the group that built Wal-Mart Super Center got before comparing it to the above mentioned TIF. The 50% reimbursement of citysales tax up to $6,500,000.00 doesn't sound bad to me if I was the Wal-Mart group owner.
Thank you Mr. Baker for clarifying to me that the TIF district has not been established as of yet. If a TIF is established as an incentive to bring business into town why are we spending money fighting Dimmick and the county for a business that is already established? And, if the Holiday Inn Express would benefit from this proposed TIF will we have to provide the same benefits to the other businesses surrounding it? And, did or could the Holiday Inn Express benefit from the enterprise zone?
Has anybody ever viewed the TIF maps posted on the City website? Does anybody notice how much "jumping around" is done on those maps? Where would I find answers to the logic of what parcels were included in a TIF and what parcels were excluded.
Hey Bob - congrats on the new building
Everybody -
This is thing is complicated. I do believe the district is needed and I think Peru has a good shot at winning the case. All the brouhaha is over the new Holiday Inn Express. It is the opinion of some people that since it was built before the TIF was finalized, the district is not legal. But hold on folks… I may be getting old, but my memory is still pretty good. I seem to remember that the reason the TIF was even thought about was to get the hotel built. I even remember that the owner had to change the name of the property in Oglesby because of franchise conflicts.
I also remember City of Peru Resolution 2009-01. It makes for some interesting reading – “A Resolution of Inducement Regarding the City of Peru North Commercial TIF District.” This resolution was dated February 2009 and mentioned the Janko Financial Group, by name, as proposing a hotel redevelopment project. Because TIF districts take a long time to create, a resolution of inducement is commonly used to allow the development of a property with the understanding that it can be included in the district when it is officially established. That is why I believe Peru will win the case.
Ask the clerk's office for the TIF ordinances - they already have them bundled up in a PDF. You can read the history of the entire thing.
You should also read this article in the NT Achieves: Peru takes first step on new TIF, hotel plan - Published: February 17, 2009
The Dimmick School Superintendent's salary is posted on the school district web page.
Good question ANON 5:10 - "where would one find answers?"
Brian, the Oglesby property was to be sold when the new building The Holiday Express was finished. Janko was no longer interested in the Oglesby property. It seems that the franchise is only interested in managing the property in the early years of its existence. That all was determined before the new building was constructed.
Brian - what new building are you congratulating Bob about?
Brian: Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the city's attorneys and council members to do some research regarding this resolution you mention above? Why should the citizens have to pay for a law suit if it's already written in black and white that the Hotel will be included in the TIF when established.
Can someone who has used Enterprise Zone benefits also use TIF incentives?
The hotel in Oglesby was re-branded because Holiday Inn Express was no longer franchising buildings that were less than three stories. So the re-branding was paid for by Oglesby by giving back pillow tax and the new Holiday Inn was paid for by Peru with TIF monies. We all win.
Anon 740 am, I am sure that the TIF lawyer and developer need the money more than the school children.
1:04PM
We all win? Or do they all win?
Which Holiday Inn was paid for by Peru (the Oglesby one or the Peru one)? It sounds to me as though the developer is in on a win win situation.
If you are wondering where the rest of the comments are, I am too. When Google has the misfortune to have technical errors in their update, it caused major chaos and as you many know the blog was down for about 24 hours. They have stated that lost comments will be put back sometime. So if yours is gone, feel free to rewrite your comment for all to read once again just in case......
Lois....please, if at all possible, the Blog needs to somehow check the validity of the entries. 1:04 writes that Oglesby paid for the re-branding, which is true. BUT, Peru DID NOT pay for the new Holiday Inn Express. That's ridiculous. The developers invested close to $10 million dollars to improve the area. I wish people would READ, BEFORE they write entries to the blog.
First it was $8 million dollars - now it almost $10 million? Someone needs to get that amount varified if possible.
My name is Larry Bianchi. I am not anonymous! I am an ivestor in the Peru Hotel Group LLC which is the Owner of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Peru. I also represented the Ownership of the Hotel in negotiations with the City of Peru over the TIF incentives. My intent in writing here is not to try and change anyone's mind concerning the Peru North Commercial TIF or the legallity of our TIF Agreement with the City of Peru. However, I would like to correct some factually incorrect information that has appeared in this blog.
The Total Cost for the development of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Peru was approximately $8.3MM. Based on estimates from the City of Peru's TIF Attorney, our project is likely to receive reimbursement for eligible TIF expenses in the amount of $1.2MM over the next 23 years (eligible for more, but unlikely to receive based on forecasts). This cash flow over the 23 year time frame equals a present value of approximately $500K. Our excess costs to develop this site due to the flooding issues and land costs were approximately $900K. Therefor, our project is to receive TIF proceeds which equal about 56% of the ADDITIONAL COSTS that were incureed to develop this particular site.
The Peru North Commercial TIF was established by the City of Peru on 24 March 2010. Therefore, contrary to comments in this blog, this TIF has legally been in existence for over one year.
The Oglesby Hotel Group LLC has and continues to own and operate the Hotel in Oglesby for last 17 years contrary to comments in this blog about the Ownership only being interested in owning and managing the hotel "in the early years of its existence." This Hotel was an Holiday Inn Express for the first 16 years and now is branded a Best Wetern. The Ownership group invested an additional $600K in rebranding this Hotel as a Best Wetern. The Ownership is receiving an incentive from the City of Oglesby in the form of sharing the hotel/motel tax revenues over a 10 year period. It has been estimated that the Hotel Group will receive between $75K - $100K over a 10 year time frame. This is a present value of approximately $60K vs. a total new investment of $600k or 10%.
I hope that everyone who reads this blog finds this factual information helpful in understanding some of the issues that have been discussed here. I would be glad to respond directly to any other questions that any one might have concerning our project. My phone number is 815/228-3826. My email address is lbianchi@jankorealty.com. Thanks for the opportunity to add to the discussion.
$8 million or $10millon..private money working to improve all of our lives. It didn't cost the City a dime to get the hotel.
Whether it was 8 or 10 million, it was private money to improve all of our lives.
How did it improve all of our lives?
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