Look what washed up

Ah, The Banks Project has washed up in the news again.

For those of you not in the know, The Banks is the area between Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ballpark on Cincinnati's Riverfront. It's been ten years in the planning that some sort of mixed use development - apartment and condo living, shops, maybe even the extravagance of a little neighborhood grocer - has been in the plans for that area. In the meantime, we've been treated to the spectacle that began as a mud pit and has since transformed into a parking lot and grassy field.

In this, the ninth year of planning, not a single spade has been turned, much less an apartment rented out. The fight between the Cincy Port Authority, the City of Cincy, and Hamilton County has lead to a fair standstill in the development. We've heard the need for set-asides for minority and small businesses, the desire to keep the development squat so as not to cheese off the businesses of downtown proper, the hopes for mass transit to the site, and every other possible impass that you could imagine - from race to dollars.

It's been a true quagmire with only one gleeming, subsidized project completed: the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center - which has been, admittedly, struggling a bit to remain afloat what with admissions being lower than expected.

And here's where the ugliness washes up, yet again.
According to a Cincy Enquirer article today, it looks like the Banks folks want to build a couple of restaurants on a little piece of green right there behind the Freedom Center, a little piece of green that it appears the city and county gave exclusive development rights for to the Freedom Center about six or seven years ago.

And now the city and county want the land back, but the Freedom Center is asking for $1 million for the rights.

Hah!

The city and county folks have logic like this on their side:

"I think that's the most outrageous thing I've ever heard of," Commissioner Pat DeWine said.

"They are essentially wanting taxpayers to pay twice for the same piece of property. I'm not going to support that," DeWine said.

"I would certainly hope the Freedom Center would just give those rights," [Commissioner Todd Portune] said, adding that he planned to contact the organization to discuss the issue.

Well, if he's going to discuss the issue, he's clearly serious.

Be wary, Freedom Center folks, for you clearly have no leg to stand on:

The city and county gave exclusive development rights for the lot in question to the nonprofit Freedom Center in 2001 and 2002.

Wait, the city and county gave the rights away?

Just gave them away?

Not sold them, not loaned them, not leased them - gave them away.

And then...

"The ($1 million) was arrived at through discussion/negotiation, and followed two independent assessments of the value of (the lot)," [Paul Bernish, chief communications officer for the Freedom Center,] said.

The assessments, done in the fall of 2007, stated the land is worth between $3 million and $5 million.

So the Freedom Center - which is struggling financially, as the article points out, partially because the foot traffic that the Banks was supposed to provide has been on hold because of the stupid in-fighting between county and city - the Freedom Center wants to bring in some revenue by selling an asset that they own?

Those evil, evil people!

The city and county gave them something, and now the city and county want it back, and the Freedom Center is asking for the city and county to pay for it?

Why, you would almost think that the Freedom Center owned that land.

The city and county gave exclusive development rights for the lot in question to the nonprofit Freedom Center in 2001 and 2002.

What, they do own that land?

Oh, and the city and county want to steal take it back without offering compensation? And the Freedom Center folks are willing to sell it at between thirty-three and twenty cents on the dollar?

Sounds like the Banks folks screwed up and want somebody else to bail them out.

Oh, or they could be mad that the Freedom Center yelled "no take backs" after signing to get the development rights back in 2002.

'Cause unless they yelled, "no take backs"...