So now the agency is out of money, owes Reno's general fund about $2 million besides having a negative cash flow for the agency, and, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the City Council acting as the Redevelopment Agency Board is attempting to deal with the monetary debt by "slashing programs, eliminating positions and hiring outside marketing to do the agency's work."
The agency had a developer on board, DDR-OliverMcMillan, who they fired in April for failing to sign tenants to the new development projects. The developer did open a 12-plex theater, but only after a Redevelopment Agency loan. At last the City Council has realized mistakes were made and they are now trying to get the giveaways under control.
Long Beach, on the other hand, is still on a slippery slope. Their beloved Queensway Bay project (18 acre retail/entertainment complex) can't seem to get enough traction to have a groundbreaking.
The Long Beach Business Journal reports that the lead developers, once again the same DDR-OliverMcMillan, want a divorce from each other, at least on this project, thus putting the issuance of the project's $43 million revenue bond for a parking garage on hold. As if that is not bad enough, the required minimum of 67 percent leased is compromised by Edwards Theaters talking about Chapter 13 protection, purportedly to break some bad leases, which puts their multiplex and IMAX theaters in the Queensway Bay project in jeopardy.
And, of course, as with all Redevelopment projects, the first projections are all rosy and glowing with profits until the contracts are signed and then somehow more realistic numbers are revealed with lower square footages to be built, lower attendance, lower sales, and in Long Beach's case, the last bite at the apple was an increase of "entrepreneurial profit" for the developer from 12 percent to 15 percent. That's the latest rip-off in Redevelopment-to guarantee private profit with public money.
You might think the Queensway Bay project would be on indefinite hold, but no, who should be riding to the rescue; it's not the U.S. Cavalry, it's the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). Actually, it's the investment arm, California Urban Investment Partners (CUIP). Our school teachers, public safety personnel and most other public employees in the state will be able to provide Long Beach with wheelbarrow-loads of money to pour into another rat hole.
Will the Queensway Bay project ever get built? Probably. There is now enough money so that the agency will not have to look stupid from embarrassing questions, and the bonds will just be paid off from the next Ponzi project.