Kevin Whited over at blogHouston.net picks up on the latest boondoggle of the Metropolitan Transit Authority — providing kickstart financing for a couple of blocks of commercial property along the Metro light rail line in Midtown.
The entire deal is really preposterous for a transit authority to be getting into. Metro bought the blocks from the developer for $7.2 million with “the expectation” that the developer is going to buy the blocks back and build a bunch of condominiums (in an already overbuilt market) that will supposedly house 1,000 happy light rail riders. According to the developer, everything is really O.K. because — get this logic — it could have been worse!:
[Developer Robert H.] Schultz said Metro may join in developing a parking garage on the site that could be used by rail riders but that the agency chose not to invest in other parts of the project.
“They didn’t want to extend that kind of money. They wanted to be much more conservative until they could see this thing was going to happen,” he said.
[Metro real estate vp Todd] Mason agreed, saying, “Metro does not want to be a developer and take on a lot of risk, but we want to be an enabler of projects like this one.”
As noted earlier here, Metro isn’t good enough in doing what it was chartered for to be taking flyers on financing speculative real estate deals. Where is that type of activity described in Metro’s charter?
METRO needs a reality check! The State needs to cut the amount of “Windfall” sales tax revenue (currently filling METRO coffers at a rate of $1.3 million each and every day, and growing!) METRO has to squander on non-transit speculation!
METRO seemingly does not realize that they have already diverted $7.2 million in precious taxpayer resources fronting the deal for the developer!
Not only are the poor, minority, elderly, and handicapped bus transit dependent riders hurt throughout the service area as a result of METRO continually slashing bus service (contrary to the promise of a 50% increase made by METRO now seemingly so as to dupe voters into approving the “Solutions” scheme), but now the school district, and the County Hospital District are not going to collect property taxes which are desperately needed for serving the crush of illegal aliens! Those most vulnerable are being victimized by METRO’s incescent addiction to the euphoria of squandering our tax money on enhancing and expanding wasteful urban rail.