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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Developer still wants to build RiverPlace; officials doubtful
Diamond Mine Direct
By JOY BROWN

STAFF WRITER

Developer Brad Burgess admits he has failed to meet his obligations to Findlay for his RiverPlace project, but he still wants to build the $90 million shopping, entertainment and residential complex on a former tire dump along the Blanchard River.

But there's at least one catch:

He wants the city to guarantee an initiative against the project that was approved by voters a year ago won't cause legal roadblocks.

Burgess and his firm, The Thayer Group, also must deal with a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed in October by Environmental Resources Management, which he hired to clean up the site. The company claims it is owed $250,000.

That suit is the latest setback in what was a heavily promoted plan to build a "cultural corridor" between downtown and the University of Findlay campus.

Plans included a baseball stadium, performing arts center, retail stores and apartments for 400 people.

The project seemed to be on a fast track until the flood of August 2007. The flood caused many residents to wonder if a big new development next to the Blanchard River would increase Findlay's flooding problem. In November 2008, voters approved an initiative designed to block the development contract between Burgess and the city.

Today, the 28-acre site stands empty.

"We still are very interested in resurrecting the project," Burgess said this week.

He said he was encouraged by the passage of three city and county tax issues on Nov. 3, which he said eased his fears that Marathon Petroleum Co. might leave Findlay soon.

"One of the things that made me more interested in Findlay lately is that Marathon will be staying for a long time," Burgess said.

Burgess also admitted he has not honored his contract with the city.

"There are a few obligations on my part that I need to complete. I will say that no, I did not meet my obligations," Burgess said.

The 2007 contract required Burgess to pay Findlay $750,000 to be used to relocate the street department, and to pay $833 a month on the land starting in January 2008.

City officials said he has not paid anything.

"But the city has to do their part to resurrect this as well," Burgess said. "We need both the city and my company to move in a parallel process to meet our obligations."

The faltering economy was a factor for him not fulfilling his obligation, Burgess said, but citizen opposition to RiverPlace was decisive.

"The RiverPlace development could have gone forward if there hadn't been a vote to overturn that development agreement," Burgess said.

The initiative also requires City Council to seek approval of citizens before any construction begins, and prohibits speedy passage of legislation that has to do with work on the site.

Burgess said he learned residents started circulating a petition to get the initiative on the ballot in fall 2007, before his payment to the city was due.

"I wasn't going to throw money down the hole" for a project that might not proceed, Burgess said.

City Law Director Dave Hackenberg has said he doesn't think the voter-approved initiative is legally binding, but the city has not sued Burgess for breach of contract.

"If they felt I was really liable, I think they would've pursued me," said Burgess.

Findlay had been hoping Burgess would fulfill the contract and avoid any city lawsuits.

Now, city officials said they have lost faith in Burgess because of his lack of communication during the past year and because of legal entanglements his firm is facing elsewhere:

• A breach of contract lawsuit, for $198,220, was filed against The Thayer Group by architectural design firm HKS Inc. earlier this year in a Kentucky court.

• The Thayer Group filed a suit in 2008 against the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet for canceling construction of a planned luxury hotel at Kentucky Horse Park in Burgess' hometown of Lexington.

The project stopped when a financing structure proposed by Burgess, involving the creation of a nonprofit foundation to sell tax-exempt bonds, was not completed by a state-imposed deadline.

Separately, a $40 million, multi-use downtown development in Fayetteville, N.C., also proposed by Burgess, didn't come to fruition this year, although it didn't go beyond closed-door talks with officials, according to Doug Peters, president of the Fayetteville-Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce.

Peters, the former president of GreaterFindlayInc. and part of the initial planning for RiverPlace, said the Fayetteville project was derailed by a railroad company that would not sell Burgess the land on which he wanted to build a baseball stadium for the minor league team Fayetteville SwampDogs.

Burgess, according to The Fayetteville Observer, said he didn't think the city was giving him enough "support."

In Ohio, Burgess faces the lawsuit filed over cleanup work done at the proposed RiverPlace site.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, claims Burgess hired Environmental Resources Management of Rolling Meadows, Ill., to clean up the land to meet the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Work took place through September 2008 until Burgess told the firm the project "was being delayed indefinitely due to public reaction and other concerns," according to the lawsuit.

The cleanup remains in limbo because the federal government still considers it a "brownfield" and has been prodding Findlay officials to do something about it.

After two failed attempts for grant money, the city will apply a third time for a Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund grant, according to Lydia Mihalik, grant administrator for the Hancock Regional Planning Commission.

The deadline for applying is Jan. 15, she said. Cleanup could cost more than $1 million, Mihalik said.

Asked what role The Thayer Group intends to play in the cleanup, Burgess said he would not comment on pending lawsuits.

Meanwhile, the proposed site for RiverPlace could be used for another purpose. The Army Corps of Engineers has said the property may be needed to build a wall or levee for flood control.

Burgess said the development he envisions and flood control measures the Corps wants can work in tandem.

Burgess said he intends to call Mayor Pete Sehnert soon to "talk to him about what can be done to get (RiverPlace) back and active." He said he hasn't been in touch with city officials because "we don't have a development to do up there right now.

"The real estate market has been dead. We have to meet certain requirements of our finances," Burgess said. But "the economy is starting to make a marked recovery.

"We certainly have been working to survive," he said of The Thayer Group. "We have other projects we're trying to get off the ground," including three that are in the "pre-development stage" and range from $20 million to $40 million, he said.

"It's a very slow and methodical process. Some people just don't understand the gestation of real estate development," Burgess said.

City officials think Burgess' project is long overdue and hold out little hope it will occur.

"I was going to go to court to get that (voter initiative) wiped out. I still might," Hackenberg said Friday. "Had Burgess showed any indication of proceeding with this development, I would've done that, and he was told that too, many times. But he never made the first move to do anything out there."

Hackenberg no longer is optimistic about the project.

"I don't see it happening," he said.

Mayor Sehnert said Burgess will have to show Findlay the money before he'll believe the project will move forward. He said he doubts the city will see a dime from The Thayer Group, particularly with all the lawsuits it is involved in.

But Peters, who has worked with Burgess in Findlay and Fayetteville, remains a supporter.

"Brad is a legitimate guy. I consider him to be a great ally and I would work with him again in the future. He has a great track record with the industry," Peters said.

"Lots of folks were involved" in promoting RiverPlace, Peters said. "Brad's and the firm's credentials were detailed. Everything was out in the open. Then the flood happened and it just scared the bejeebies out of everyone. And the ballot initiative gave it (RiverPlace) a black eye.

"As I was leaving (Findlay), I think Brad was asking the city if it could provide him with a ruling, or assurances that this (initiative) can be overcome. Essentially, when all that happened, I think Brad said, 'I entered into an agreement, but the voters overturned that, so the deal's off.'"

Riverplace "started as a concept of bringing all the folks to the table in a good faith effort for the benefit of the community," Peters said. "Then Pete Sehnert was elected into office, and there were some neophytes in local government. We kind of had this 'nobody really knows' thing going on for a while, and Brad moved on."

City officials still contend the old tire dump is prime land for development.

"I certainly think everyone in the city would be happy if a viable development occurred out there," Hackenberg said. "I'm not even sure if (the initiative) needs to be (overturned in the courts). But if a viable developer, someone who had the dollars to do their project, would show up, absolutely I'd get rid of it."

Brown: 419-427-8496,

Send an e-mail to Joy Brown


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8 Comments

Latest comments listed first.
Dale wrote:
Developer still wants to build RiverPlace
“ This issue needs to be put to bed, so to speak. This contract was broken, and the city of Findlay should be thankful.

It is never a good idea to build in a flood plain, and building next to the Blanchard River sure fits a flood plain. Somewhere here common sense has been forgotten in the name of money.

The city of Findlay is buying properties that border the river to raise them because of the flooding potential. You cannot correct the flooding problem by building more things in areas that border this river.

If you look at all the new housing on the east side of Findlay, and are old enough to remember it as farm ground, you would know that farmers did not plow that ground in the fall due to the low lying conditions. Now that all that ground is built up the water has to go somewhere.

Sorry, but the city of Findlay needs to scrap this RiverPlace idea. Use some common sense. ”
Sunday, November 22, 2009 10:30:44 AM
John F. Kostyo wrote:
Move On
“ The City of Findlay and its citizens are without equal in their engagement of trust and support for developers who fulfill their promises and representations. At the same time, our citizens should not be vilified or blamed for the admitted violation of their trust through self-serving excuses. I respectfully suggest that for the great citizens of Findlay, trust, once broken, in not a value on which the breach itself may be blamed. Brad Burgess and his Thayer Group are singularly responsible and liable for their conduct. The people of Findlay can only be held responsible as good, well intended and trusting individuals. We welcome good and honest development, those who fulfill their promises and act in a responsible, commercially reasonable manner.

The RiverPlace project now stands as the cumulative fiasco achieved through unilateral direction of Findlay, Hancock County, politicos invested to save the pretense of leadership in the waning days of a discredited mayoral administration. Findlay voters rejected the administration as the reprehensible fraud that it was and rejected RiverPlace as the consummate error of well intended and well meaning community leaders twisted to trust the colorful words and representations of an overly promoted developer. Moreover, one may only responsibly question how the entirety of such a project may be proposed and approved while pending consideration that the property may be needed in the plans of the Army Corps of Engineers for a wall or levee for flood control?

Review of the underlying contracts that purport to formalize RiverPlace reveal documents devoid of material terms sufficient to require the commitment of good faith and commercially reasonable enforcement.

The Courier should publish the contracts in their entirety. Then, each citizen may engage and exercise the standard of care their elected representatives failed to follow, namely: common sense.

It is more than reasonable to state that if Mr. Burgess has honored his words, promises, and representations by making the payments required of his business, the likelihood that voters would have approved an initiative to repeal development legislation might be in question. At this date there is no such question, only the anemic echoes of an even more anemic city official.

I suggest that responsible leadership cannot be found in a plea of excuses or any excuse. If a contract is not enforceable on its own terms, it must fail. That failure is the responsibility of those who wrote and approved the contracts in the first place.

We trust our courts to preserve our lives, protect our property and determine lawfully enforceable truth. If city officials desire to seek a judicial resolution of this matter, they are more than welcome to engage in such pursuits. At the same time, a full judicial review of the contracts or conduct of city officials who lack the fortitude to meaningfully review their own conduct may not be a desirable venture.

We live in a democratic republic. The people have spoken. Move on.
”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 9:31:18 PM
jgreenlese wrote:
river place
“ Get rid of the city lawer and and get one that knows the law first, then look at this project! ”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 6:34:44 PM
chriss wrote:
hmm
“ Why don't they simply shift this plan to the east a little bit. The land just north of Tiffin/Center streeats, between Crystal and Blanchard is for the most part outside of the flood range, still close to downtown, and is is already developed with housing and business. Buy up the area and develop it into this into Riverplace (or some other name if they so wish). We need the development but not at the expense of losing a natural landscape. ”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 5:15:02 PM
Don wrote:
wetlands
“ What part of less soil to soak up the rain to prevent it from flooding does the City not understand? The City took paradise and turned it into a parking lots and the wild life was lost and we need to go to a museum to see them. ”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 3:54:05 PM
Colin Baird wrote:
RiverPlace Proposal
“ The citizens of Findlay voted this proposal down once. What part of NO doesn't Burgess understand? This guy has champagne tastes, and a beer pocketbook. On top of that, his word is about as worthless as a screendoor on a submarine. CASE CLOSED..!! ”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 8:15:57 AM
james wrote:
not in the 3rd ward we will fight
“ Well Mr. no free lunch aka hack

The people are in the process of drawing up a papers with the appropriate language
That will bind in court
The people of Findlay will sign it and here we go again
That ground is needed for flood space
 ”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 7:18:22 AM
R wrote:
developers
“ Go ahead Findlay take out some more wetlands. You seem to have done so in the past. You get pressure from these developers and BOOM they get what they want. If you let them buld that in that area I would like the county residence to sue the heck out of you. It will just displace water to some other area just as the proposed flood projects will. We pass a sales tax for the county and you still want to consider this when some of the sales tax money has flood moneys involved. ”
Saturday, November 21, 2009 5:36:24 AM
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News Briefs Firefighters discover 20 marijuana plants in house
After fighting a house fire early Monday at 815 Howard St., firefighters found 20 marijuana plants in the residence.

"They ran across it and called us," said police Sgt. Justin Hendren with the Hancock County METRICH Drug Enforcement Unit.

Police seized all 20 plants, and Hendren said charges are pending.

High-powered growing lights, fans, and a box filled with dried marijuana were also found in the house, according to a police report.

Investigators said an electrical short started the fire before 3 a.m. Monday.

The blaze caused an estimated $12,000 in damage to the residence, owned by Amanda Crawford. No one was injured, according to the Findlay Fire Department.

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CAREY -- Carey offices, including administrative, income tax and utilities, electric, wastewater treatment plant, and public works, will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day.

The curbside recycling program will be held Tuesday through Thursday, Sept. 7-9.

Findlay trooper named sergeant
Trooper Jacob L. Fletcher, assigned to the Findlay post of the State Highway Patrol, was promoted to sergeant Wednesday by Patrol Superintendent Col. David Dicken.

With the promotion, Fletcher will stay at the Findlay post and serve as an assistant post commander, according to the patrol.

Fletcher began his patrol career in 2002 after graduating from the 139th Academy class and has been assigned to the Findlay post since.

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The Toledo and Findlay campuses of Owens Community College will be closed Saturday through Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

There will be no classes and the college offices will be closed.

Classes will resume and offices will open again on Tuesday.

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