Let's add context here. A huge factor is that, in the year before conversion to Hudson-Related, RIOC budgeted $1.6 million in revenue from Main Street leases. Although Hudson president David Kramer told the Wall Street Journal that H-R would "shock and awe" the community with its Main Street revitalization, the revenue never came close to meeting even what RIOC was already getting in 2011.
(I hate aggressive military memes in civilian contexts.)
The community was cheated, but RIOC never explained or acknowledged it. Interestingly, in a disgusting way, the webpage that previously hosted that 2011 budget was swept out when RIOC set up its new website. The evidence is now officially tampered with. Will RIOC ever tell us why it destroyed an important public record? Yet another transparency cover-up?
Also missing from the discussion is the deal-making RIOC/Rivercross insiders handled behind closed doors. The H-R Main Street Retail conversion was voted in as a tradeoff for votes when Rivercross went public, leaving its Mitchell-Lama roots. The board members voting for this public corruption all received windfall profits as their once bargain-rate condos went public. Not one of them recused in the vote, although all of them pocketed thousands of dollars in value.
100% agree. The $2.365 million capital commitment was the board’s main selling point in 2011: wayfinding, lighting, storefront upgrades, the whole revitalization package that was supposed to fix a 22 percent vacancy rate. Yet not long ago RIOC itself paid for wayfinding under pressure from the Business Alliance. Was that on top of the promised investment that produced so little, or instead of it? Fifteen years later the public still has no clear, itemized record of what that money actually bought or that it delivered measurable improvement for the struggling storefronts. RIOC approved the deal, accepted the promise, and never required proof of results or tied outcomes to the profit share.
Let's add context here. A huge factor is that, in the year before conversion to Hudson-Related, RIOC budgeted $1.6 million in revenue from Main Street leases. Although Hudson president David Kramer told the Wall Street Journal that H-R would "shock and awe" the community with its Main Street revitalization, the revenue never came close to meeting even what RIOC was already getting in 2011.
(I hate aggressive military memes in civilian contexts.)
The community was cheated, but RIOC never explained or acknowledged it. Interestingly, in a disgusting way, the webpage that previously hosted that 2011 budget was swept out when RIOC set up its new website. The evidence is now officially tampered with. Will RIOC ever tell us why it destroyed an important public record? Yet another transparency cover-up?
Also missing from the discussion is the deal-making RIOC/Rivercross insiders handled behind closed doors. The H-R Main Street Retail conversion was voted in as a tradeoff for votes when Rivercross went public, leaving its Mitchell-Lama roots. The board members voting for this public corruption all received windfall profits as their once bargain-rate condos went public. Not one of them recused in the vote, although all of them pocketed thousands of dollars in value.
100% agree. The $2.365 million capital commitment was the board’s main selling point in 2011: wayfinding, lighting, storefront upgrades, the whole revitalization package that was supposed to fix a 22 percent vacancy rate. Yet not long ago RIOC itself paid for wayfinding under pressure from the Business Alliance. Was that on top of the promised investment that produced so little, or instead of it? Fifteen years later the public still has no clear, itemized record of what that money actually bought or that it delivered measurable improvement for the struggling storefronts. RIOC approved the deal, accepted the promise, and never required proof of results or tied outcomes to the profit share.
This is why RIOC (and other government entities) hate transparency. They hope people will forget and will delete the information if necessary.