During the council meeting tonight they were discussing the lease for Sanford (they will be leasing back space for physical therapy, and before the vote Ryan says this, ‘If I do the math correctly that comes to $16.50 a square foot. At that rate we should just lease the entire facility back to them.’ LMAO. You got the feeling it was a dig on how the council got hoodwinked on this because Poops didn’t think it was too funny. A former city councilor(s) who just left said to me, “This was the stupidest thing the council ever did (approving this purchase).”
Well they have done dumber things, but I want to keep this short.
Curt Soehl also did a little butt chewing of the finance director who should have been wearing a bib he was slobbering and sputtering so much. Soehl said what I said months ago, borrowing for infrastructure projects (streets) is a bad precedent and he wasn’t going to stand for it. Now Curtist the Blurtist has made big statements before and still voted for the crap, 6th street bridge, bunker ramp, Elmwood golf club, etc. so I’m sure he will fall in line. He also added that ‘My fellow councilors have expressed with me they are not happy with the way they are being treated in this process by the administration.’ Well Curt, do something about it. I have persisted with councilors over the past few years to write policy that requires directors to work with the council, and if not, do it on your own. I suggested yesterday to a city councilor that the city council as the legislative body needs its own attorney. I suggested they put a local firm on retainer (opposite of city hall’s attorney, Woods Fuller) and contract out an unbias look at policy within an hourly rate. The council tells me they are continually be railroaded by the city attorney’s office and they are pretty frustrated. Curt, lawyer UP!
If we completely leased it back to them, then that would turn a socialistic experience into a capitalistic one, wouldn’t it? But let’s not stop there, either. How about if we privatized our pools, our snow removal, and our policing and fire? I could imagine City pools with Baywatch lifeguards, snow removal done with flame throwers, and policing involving a commission system for ticket allocation, while fire would ask up front, with hoses in hand, as to whether the structure is insured, or not.
In my experience – a commercial lease in a mixed facility has a sq ft charge for the private space and a pro rata common area maintenance charge for parking lot, snow removal, sign, hallway lights, etc. It is not clear from the comments whether there is a CAM charge. My market experience would say that CAM is at least $6/ft2 for medical space. A lease of $10 ft2 for the private space has to be close to the low end of the market especially for medical space. A lease of $16.50 plus CAM is probably even a bit low in today’s market for that kind of space. Maybe take out $2 ft2 since the building is tax exempt. Either way I don’t see the City got a great deal or a bad deal. Go to some of the realtor sites and check out prices.