Can you imagine anything more absurd than a $60 million condo/hotel development with a huge public subsidy taking place when the citizens of the community, the elected officials, and probably the city manager--are completely clueless as to the details and viability of the developers' financing scheme? Can you imagine having to get questions answered not in a public forum, but via email exchanges with the planning department? Can you imagine the elected officials not standing up to demand a vote on the developer agreement? Does all this nonsense solidify Oshkosh's reputation--when it comes to development anyway--as a banana republic, or what?
On its website, C.D. Smith construction offers as a "service" what they call a "Design, Build, Lease" (DBL) option. They say that, "With the financial resources of C.D. Smith, we have the ability to build and then lease the building back to the client." Is this the service that Five Rivers developer Tom Doig has solicited from C.D. Smith? We don't know.
Miles Maguire of Oshkosh News wondered yesterday what the Northwestern would say, and ended up with a very charitable take on an editorial that actually said this: "A company the size and reputation of Smith isn't going to become involved in a project with doubts." There, doesn't that inspire confidence?
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