When the past and future collide, the present can get messy — especially when an expensive and politically charged downtown improvement project hangs in the balance.
Hoping to avoid such unpleasantness, the city may spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more than expected on a $1 million elevated walkway linking the proposed Courtyard by Marriott Hotel with the Embassy Theatre and old Indiana Hotel – a walkway officials say is crucial to the success of the $125 million-to-$160 million Harrison Square development.
The city put themselves in a poor negotiating position and hotel developers took advantage by calling this walkway a "dealbreaker". Give me a break. Of course they'll spend "hundreds of thousands of dollars more". Most of us knew this original estimate was completely bogus. AWB pointed this out in a previous post:
I’m no architect, (but I know one). I doubt it will only be $1 million. Who gave that estimate?
At this point the city has no credibility. Why should we believe ANY of the numbers they've been using after this report? I've been telling people from day 1 that the city's numbers in almost every single aspect of this project were overly optimistic. The walkway is a prime example. Can the city even tell us how much this is going to cost now? Of course not, just "hundreds of thousands" more. So $2 Million, $3 Million? When the cost overruns come pouring in time and again will we still be getting a "good deal"? Obviously the News Sentinel thinks so...
2 comments:
There are going to be numerous cost over-runs...
This is just the beginning.
Mike Sylvester
Hope everyone who thinks the stadium for the Wizards should stay at its present location does send a note to their councilman and to the three at-large councilmen before next Tuesdays final vote on the $18 million "temporary" bond. This is our last chance to stop this before going to court. You can find contact information at the www.cityoffortwayne.org website, click on City Council and then click on the name of your councilman and John Shoaff, Sam Talarico, Jr. and Dr. John Crawford who are our at-large members. If we stop the ball stadium, they can probably get by without the sky-bridge. John B. Kalb
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