Is the City Giving Away Our 20 Million Dollar Hospital Site For One Dollar?

[Betsy Voinovich]

I'm giving this topic its own thread, not that it doesn't belong in a thread about honesty in local government, or civic accountability, but this is outrageous, and I know that a lot of people see the civic accountability title and they scan past it, not because they don't care, but because, like me, they wait until they have time, or energy to delve deeper and sometimes they never get back to it.

But this is outrageous.

I'll copy what's in the last post of that thread, and hopefully Jim or Dan will move the rest of it and maybe Mark can keep the thread going here.

In Mark Kindt's last post he's copying excerpts from Public Records. The first is from a deposition, Transcript, page 97. I'm not sure who is answering. I think it's Mayor Summers.

Question: "Okay. What about an appraisal for the hospital itself?"
Answer: "We still own that hospital, and you know, what its future plans are remain undecided. So, you know, the idea of selling it is not-- it's not clear what's going to happen to that."

The next excerpt is from Deposition Exhibit H and is pretty simple.

"20 million." (Book value. City-owned Hospital Buildings and Land.)

The next excerpt is from the 2015 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report)

"The City will retain ownership of the existing Lakewood Hospital site and all other property currently leased to LHA (Lakewood Hospital Association). The Lakewood Hospital site (consisting of 5.7 acres) will be available for redevelopment." (Note 22, page 88)

And the last note:

Media reports quote Mayor Summers as stating that the former hospital site would be transferred to the recommended developer for $0 or $1.

Yes, that's ZERO or ONE DOLLAR.

As if it wasn't enough to have given away our hospital.

WTF.

Mark's too polite to say that. And actually, he doesn't waste his time saying things like that, because he has much more valuable things to say. I just wanted to make sure people saw this.

Betsy Voinovich

[Mark Kindt]

Yes, I am quoting from the Mayor's deposition in the taxpayer litigation. Council Member Anderson also uses the $20 Million dollar figure in his writing.

[Bridget Conant]

And the answer is....

YES

They certainly plan to GIVE AWAY the site, with improvements made, to a developer who CONTRIBUTED to Mayor Summers’ campaign.

They also HIRED FORMER MAYOR ED FITZGERALD, Who will now be intimately involved in the entire development.

It stinks to high heaven.

[Peter Grossetti]

And the answer is....

YES

They certainly plan to GIVE AWAY the site, with improvements made, to a developer who CONTRIBUTED to Mayor Summers’ campaign.

They also HIRED FORMER MAYOR ED FITZGERALD, Who will now be intimately involved in the entire development.

It stinks to high heaven.

But, but, but .... they had the prettiest pictures in their slideshow presentation!

[cmager]

If we as a group chip in and give Summers (oops his campaign, *cough, cough) DOUBLE what the developer gave him as campaign funds, will Summers instead give the hospital site to our group for $1. In the spirit of the doubling the amount of greater good, we could even dig deep and pay $2. What say Summers, and will Butler approve?

[Jim O'Bryan]

If we as a group chip in and give Summers (oops his campaign, *cough, cough) DOUBLE what the developer gave him as campaign funds, will Summers instead give the hospital site to our group for $1. In the spirit of the doubling the amount of greater good, we could even dig deep and pay $2. What say Summers, and will Butler approve?

CM

Kind of unfair. I was speaking with a real developer doing a lot of work in Cleveland, Chicago and elsewhere about LH site development.

I asked him straight up, "If I gave you $20 million in property for $1, I paid to clear the site, gave some incentives to build and those who would buy, and threw in $28 million in cash, none of which had to ever be paid back or accounted for. Could you build something and develop the site?"

The response, after thinking about it for a couple seconds was, "Fuck yes, are you nuts? Even an idiot could develop that site."

So at least we know there is a 50/50 chance with the group that was chosen.

Lakewood we have been played, wake up.

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[Mark Kindt]

Is the City of Lakewood truly contemplating the transfer of a $20,000,000 municipal asset to a private party for the nominal value of $1.00?

[Bill Call]

Mayor Summers could be lying about that. Or he could be pretending to lie. One never knows.

Will the two new members of Council stand up for honesty and openness or will they just settle in and fit right in?

[Brian Essi]

Is the City of Lakewood truly contemplating the transfer of a $20,000,000 municipal asset to a private party for the nominal value of $1.00?

A point of clarification:

The narrative portion of the Summers deposition in column 1 of Mr. Kindt's analysis above is from his January 20, 2016 deposition in the Taxpayer Lawsuit.

The Exhibit H in column 2 is from Summers' deposition on October 25, 2017 in the records case--which Summers testified was created in the fall of 2016.

[cmager]

If we as a group chip in and give Summers (oops his campaign, *cough, cough) DOUBLE what the developer gave him as campaign funds, will Summers instead give the hospital site to our group for $1. In the spirit of the doubling the amount of greater good, we could even dig deep and pay $2. What say Summers, and will Butler approve?

CM
Kind of unfair. I was speaking with a real developer doing a lot of work in Cleveland, Chicago and elsewhere about LH site development.

I asked him straight up, "If I gave you $20 million in property for $1, I paid to clear the site, gave some incentives to build and those who would buy, and threw in $28 million in cash, none of which had to ever be paid back or accounted for. Could you build something and develop the site?" The response, after thinking about it for a couple seconds was, "Fuck yes, are you nuts? Even an idiot could develop that site." So at least we know there is a 50/50 chance with the group that was chosen.

Lakewood we have been played, wake up.

Unfair - only a smidgen. We'd be offering Summers a couple more thou, and the City an extra $1. We could hire someone who has the skills to do it, and we'd be able to feather our nests, too.

[Mark Kindt]

Mr. Essi, thank you for your clarification. I will update my analysis. The media report that I cite on the nominal transfer cost is from Crain's.

[Mark Kindt]

Here is the relevant page from the Crain's article.

[Mark Kindt]

And, here is the entire article.

[Stan Austin]

Now this is definitely alternative reality.

[Jim O'Bryan]

Now this is definitely alternative reality.

What is an alternative reality is the BS they fed the residents of Lakewood during two elections.

How would this of gone had City of Lakewood, Mayor Summers, Build Lakewood, Kevin Butler, Jen Pae been honest with the residents.

We lose $178 million, give away all the property for a $1.00, spend another $7 million getting property ready, and give Ed FitzGerald $28,000,000.00 with no guarantees.

A far cry from $120 million in investments coming in to Lakewood.


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