As previously pointed out in this blog, Keith Stoltz has made some sound and wise investments in Democratic leaders (original post is here). In Delaware, owning Democrats is a good plan, especially if you’re going to destroy the City of Wilmington.
Mr. Stoltz will be building 300,000 square feet of retail shopping & restaurants just outside of the City limit — Free parking, no city wage, no environmental issues, and lax government oversight (County Executive Paul Clark’s wife is Mr. Stoltz’s attorney).
In summary, who will visit Market Street to shop with roving Meter Maids dishing out $40 tickets to every 5 minute “over-the-time” shopper? Who will travel the maze of roads to get to the Riverfront to pay higher prices and risk crime? The answer is no one will. Anyone coming from Stanton, Elsmere, Newport, Newark, Hockessin, Centreville, or Brandywine Hundred will be able to go to Delaware’s “Brinton Lakes” rather than anything in the City. It will be cheaper, faster, cleaner, safer. Perfect in every way. Mr. Stoltz knows this. So do the Democratic politicians that he has strategically bought over the last 10 years.
- Investment in Market Street? 30 plus million taxpayer dollars.
- Investment in Riverfront? Over a 350 million taxpayer dollars.
- Stoltz investment in Democratic politicians $70,000.
- Affect on Wilmington? Bankruptcy.
So, the News Journal has missed the actual story. The real impact of this development will be on the 75,000 residents of the City of Wilmington where record crime, record unemployment, and collapsing infrastructure are turning Delaware’s signature city into a wasteland. Where banking is shrinking, Dupont is shrinking, lawyers are leaving. Now Mr. Stoltz has killed retail & restaurants as well.
This seems beyond opportunistic.
Oh, perhaps Mr. Stolz might not have done anything that would warrant criminal charges, but when a city is being ruined, it’s criminal.
As a center city resident only a stone’s throw from the old Dupont building, once the City’s symbol of pride and significance, I find it heartbreaking.
It would have been nicer if Stoltz put his real estate fund money into redeveloping the entire area west of Market St.
Maybe some other deep-pocketed visionary will take up that mantle.
While property owners have the right to sell off land and developer to develop, NCC Adequate Facility LAW says that they have to pay for the infrastructure upgrades if they want to proceed ahead of the government planners.
Our biggest problem is the collusion of HIGH DEM coffers and the development industry such that the government bureaucrats are keeping their jobs by doing what they are told…..even Ralph Reeb kept his job, having been moved over into the DelDOT shadows after the shenanigans of Minner/Markell era came to light. Sure, Wicks finally stepped down once the last nail of the Lewes bus terminal snafu story was broke.
Why is DelDOT broke but for the last decades of spending for the searing pace of residential sprawl and the myriad promises made because the people at the top said “Get ‘er done”.
So, as to Keith Stoltz’s plans for Greenville, the Pam Scott-Paul Clarky memo of June 2008 should have made clear to everyone that there were things being cooked up in the Coons’-now-Clark Land Use Deptartment that were going to force the costs of facilities infrastructure (ROAD IMPROVEMENTS – A NEW 141 BRIDGE etc.) onto the public, despite the concurrency laws on the books.
The laws that now permit builders to skirt the law for adequate facility before you build, my friends, are the Workforce Housing and Redevelopment laws that allow builders to skip over DelDOT’s traffic impact study requirement.
Because Stolt/Saul Ewing is going forward with these projects as Redevelopment projects, they aren’t constrained by traffic impact studies which would prohibit development if there is not adequate infrastructure. The public USED TO HAVE THE RIGHT NOT TO BE impacted by record plans. IS Jack Markell going to allow his transportation agency to approve so much construction that it clogs up the roads? There isn’t enough funding in DelDOT even if the public would be forced to pay for the improvements. (Also, isn’t it clear that the 141 improvements near Barley Mill are linked to the Stotz projects already?).
Also compounding infrastructure costs was the 2009 tweaking of the Suburban Transition Zoning law that uncoupled density from mass transit. We will now match Sussex County for urbanized high-density sprawl in rural lands in the form of age-restricted communities. The Para-Transit budget is already up to the rafters..just you wait~!
In Wilmington, 100′s of apartments/condos and 100′s of thousands of sf of office space sit, brand new, never occcupied and empty.
The price of this realestate will be knocked down in a wave of developer bancrupcies, and will give Stoltz stiff competition.
If the prices fall far enough, you may actually see a bloom of revitalization in Wilmington as these locations become a bargain.
I dined with several fellow Wilmingtonians–all Democrats and nice folks–last evening, and the subject of the Stolz development project came up. I pointed out a couple of the difficulties the project would create for Wilmington, using your arguments, Charlie; but was met with uncomprehending stares and counter arguments involving a new film theater and other in-the-City projects that were believed to provide a counterweight to the Stolz project, which was universally believed by my fellow dinner companions to be a good thing for the City.
As we left the restaurant, one of my companions noted that though it was Friday night, the place was sparsely populated. I pointed out that no one drove into Wilmington for dinner if they could help it, and that most people who worked in Wilmington wouldn’t think of living there; but he seemed genuinely puzzled, though he predicted the restaurant would go under.
How did we arrive at such totally different conclusions? Why were they so positive? (In denial, actually; at least as I saw it.)
I saw no possbility for constructive and realistic dialogue, as we seemed to be from different planets!
[...] The impact on the city of Wilmington – already struggling in this recession – could be catastrophic. There is no finer example of “business as usual” where land use is concerned, and is very [...]
Not that this matters now, but how long would it likely have taken to sell 700 condos?
All I can say is that there are twenty condos selling per month on average this year in ALL of New Castle County according to the mls.
Stoltz didn’t have to build & finish the condo’s within any timeframe — All he had to do was “start” the condo’s (e.g. pour some concrete or run some sewer). After “starting”, he had a right into perpetuity to build condo’s. Given how the Governor is killing business opportunity with high energy costs and unsustainable gov’t spending, maybe even 20 years won’t be long enough before the condo market in Delaware returns. However, Stoltz would always have the right build them.
By accepting the “compromise” plan, at least Stoltz is locked in at a 70% square foot increase (with no condo’s) versus voting ‘no’ and locking in a 180% square foot increase.
Crappy options, both, but the law is the law. That law was brought to you by the now complaining County Council… Elections mattered in the past. Elections matter in the future.
“Elections mattered in the past. Elections matter in the future.”
No they didn’t, and no they won’t unless money and politics are forever separated. Otherwise it will be more of the same: poor planning leading to environmental, cultural and economic degradation.
I do agree with your article though.