Dear editor,
Having lived many places I have never seen a municipality with quite the same propensity for shooting itself in the foot as Frankfort.
In addition, I came of age in a similar town whose "urban renewal" project in the 1960s gutted a charming town center for a shopping mall that was ill-conceived and went bust within a year. It took 50 years for the town to finally recover. (Google it: Rockville, Maryland Urban Renewal project).
With all due respect to our current city commission, arguing over the construction of the parking garage at this junction is a moot point. It was an original condition by the state. In my opinion, accepting that condition was a reasonable risk for the opportunity to finally get a significant part of downtown into private, taxpaying ownership.
I won't pretend to understand the intricacies of TIF financing. However, on the most basic level it seems no different from what most householders do for things they don't have ready cash to purchase. We finance them, sometimes with great terms, sometimes not so great depending on current economic conditions. This is much the same.
My understanding is that if the federal grant is approved we get the parking garage (mandatory, remember) with significantly less local cash to outlay. That will be one less condition the developer will need to meet.
I believe this is a golden opportunity for Frankfort to make a significant change for the better. Retail, residential, commercial, office spaces — all these will provide revenue in the form of property taxes and local payroll taxes. Additionally, people who live here — spend money here. Non-resident state workers spend lunch money in our community, that's about it.
Also worth noting — now that it's proven folks can be effective working remotely — we may not even get back the pre-COVID state workforce population.
We have a developer ready to make a major financial commitment to our community. I think we need to get started ASAP.
Anne B. Cockley
Frankfort
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In her letter, Anne Cockley voices her total support of the
Pdeal between Bevin’s Secretary of Finance Landrum and developer Johnson/CRM, including our local governments bailing out the developer’s contractual obligation to build a 300 car garage on parcel B&C. She is contending that the taxpayers should pay approximately $8.5 million to build the parking garage for the privately owned hotel, which Johnson owns the land on which it sits.
I was recently apprised that she is Eric Cockely's mother. He is the City of Frankfort's Palnnimg Director, who has been working with the the developer for the City on Parcel B&C. It should be no surprise that she is supporting her son wholeheartedly!
I don't live in the city but I'm down there a lot eating and drinking and kayaking, etc. so maybe I do have a dog in this fight. I also grew up just a few Beltway exists south of where the author did, and I've seen the results of 'planning' run amuck as well, not to say that these cases are equivalent. My question is - is there a single university degreed urban planner among any of the principals involved here, or is it just amateurs trying to wing it based on what they THINK might work?
For the record, Frankfort didn’t “shoot it self in the foot” with the capital Plaza “redevelopment” plan of Matt Bevin, that being to tear everything down. Frankford and it’s local business community’s economy was assassinated by the hostile Bevin administration!, aided and abetted by Terry Bradshaw, Cindy Steinhauser, Mayor Bill May, can you judge executive Houston Wells in all city commissioners at the time and most county magistrates at the time.
It should be noted that four years down the road from that travesty of destroying our convention center, that all city commissioners and mayor have been replaced.
Once all of these new businesses are built, how much are they going to charge in rent, etc. Frankfort residents cannot afford high rent and high level food prices (on a daily basis).
Will it be built and then sit half empty for years when businesses and the public cannot afford the new price level?
Good point, as there are plenty of apartments already existing or on the drawing board for high-end renters to choose from. What Frankfort needs most is low income housing, but I don’t believe that’s what Mr. Johnson in CRM have in mind. For instance, just down Wilkinson Boulevard, and up on Hemp Factory Hill next to Jim’s Seafood and overlooking Lock 4:
“The proposed project on the property that resulted in the zone change request is a multi-family development with 60 total units — 48 apartment units on the ridge and 12 townhome units on the front”.
This development will reduce the already meager demand for the proposed nearby apartments to be built in the old Capital Plaza. Who is gonna wanna live down in the bottom with a great view of two office buildings, A parking garage and a hotel, when they can have such a grand vista of the KY River?
The naiveté expressed in this letter is abundant, as they shoot their own selves in the foot. She admits that the urban renewal shopping center in the middle of Rockville, MD, project in her hometown was ill conceived and it took 50 years for it to recover. But in the remainder of her letter she promotes doing nearly the same thing for Frankfort. Geeze! Whose side is she on?
What could be more ill conceived than destroying our 44-year-old Convention center for no good stated reason, that during its last full year of operation, had 66 events and 111,000 people attending them, bringing in nearly $20 million in tourist dollars and it only cost $4000 above operation cost? That is a 9,996% gain on the investment. And what are we going to replace it with, some apartments with commercial space built on the ground floor for brick and mortar stores.
Why is it ill conceived? Because there’s no demand for commercial brick and mortar stores in that part of town, nor apartments. Commercial brick and mortar stores are going out of business in the suburbs’ shopping centers. The capital Plaza area commercial stores known as The Shoppes, built around the fountain Place, failed miserably back when brick and mortar stores were booming everywhere else, especially in the shopping centers. Now they’re all going down the tubes as our economy shifts from brick and mortar to virtual shopping, or big box stores.
In my lifetime, downtown Frankfort has never been a Mecca for shopping since I was a little boy. Everybody travel to Lexington or Louisville to do their shopping, some even to buy their groceries. After Eastwood shopping Center opened up, commercial establishments dried up in downtown like a milk cow who’s calf had died. Some successfully moved to the suburbs in or near the shopping centers, but they’re pretty much all gone now.
Sam Walton’s big box stores have proven to be far too competitive.
The construction of the parking garage is another boondoggle that the author seems to like. The same one-term Republican governor who demolished our convention center, also demolished the hotel’s parking garage, which was only 40 years old. As part of the deal with Developer Johnson, he purchased the 12 acres for $1000, and agreed to construct a new 300 space parking garage. The city and the county did not purchase the land as they were not allowed to, as the state cut the deal with the developer Johnson.
The reason, the only reason, that he got this 12 acres for $1000 was because he agreed to build a parking garage. Now there are some who split hairs on the city commission that say that his agreement never required him to pay for it, and they appear ready to borrow money and obtain federal grants to pay for it for him. Why would we do that? It doesn’t make a lick of sense. Whose side are they on?
The city is only going to collect property taxes on property that is worth something, and if it’s a failed commercial district, that’s virtually worthless, there’s not going to be much tax collected. So the whole “gold mine” mentality of getting a significant part of downtown into private, taxpaying ownership, is a myth until proven otherwise.
Tell me, what stores are going to come down to downtown Frankfort and occupy those commercial establishments that are going to be built underneath apartments? All we have to do is look at the rest of downtown, where there’s apartments above the stores on the ground floor. Is that a golden opportunity?
The only thing that’s been a proven winner downtown in the last 50 years has been the convention center, and in private hands of professional promoters, it could make a lot of money, as well as bring a lot of people downtown again. Nothing else that’s been proposed even comes close to bringing in 111,000 people in close to $20 million per year. Nothing! Prove me wrong!
But remember, I’m batting 1000 here as I predicted snd wrote columns about everything that’s going on right now three years ago. It didn’t take Nostradamus to figure this out.
“ that will be one less condition the developer will need to meet?” Seems to be sentimental tears being shed here - for a rich developer ? Over an unnecessary concrete garage?
The naiveté expressed in this letter is abundant, as they shoot their own selves in the foot. She admits that the urban renewal shopping center in the middle of Rockville, MD, project in her hometown was ill conceived and it took 50 years for it to recover.
But in the remainder of her letter she promotes doing nearly the same thing for Frankfort. Geeze! Whose side is she on?
What could be more ill conceived than destroying our 44-year-old Convention center for no good stated reason, that during its last full year of operation, had 66 events and 111,000 people attending them, bringing in nearly $20 million in tourist dollars and it only cost $4000 above operation cost? That is a 9,996% gain on the investment. And what are we going to replace it with, some apartments with commercial space built on the ground floor for brick and mortar stores. Why is it ill conceived? Because there’s no demand for commercial brick and mortar stores in that part of town, nor apartments. Commercial brick and mortar stores are going out of business in the suburbs’ shopping centers. The capital Plaza area commercial stores known as The Shoppes, built around the fountain Place, failed miserably back when brick and mortar stores were booming everywhere else, especially in the shopping centers.
Now they’re all going down the tubes as our economy shifts from brick and mortar to virtual shopping, or big box stores.
In my lifetime, downtown Frankfort has never been a Mecca for shopping since I was a little boy. Everybody travel to Lexington or Louisville to do their shopping, some even to buy their groceries. After Eastwood shopping Center opened up, commercial establishments dried up in downtown like a milk cow who’s calf had died. Some successfully moved to the suburbs in or near the shopping centers, but they’re pretty much all gone now. Sam Walton’s big box stores have proven to be far too competitive.
The construction of the parking garage is another boondoggle that the author seems to like. The same one-term Republican governor who demolished our convention center, also demolished the hotel’s parking garage, which was only 40 years old. As part of the deal with Developer Johnson, he purchased the 12 acres for $1000, and agreed to construct a new 300 space parking garage.
The city and the county did not purchase the land as they were not allowed to, as the state cut the deal with the developer Johnson. The reason, the only reason, that he got this 12 acres for $1000 was because he agreed to build a parking garage. Now there are some who split hairs on the city commission that say that his agreement never required him to pay for it, and they appear ready to borrow money and obtain federal grants to pay for it for him. Why would we do that? It doesn’t make a lick of sense. Whose side are they on?
The city is only going to collect property taxes on property that is worth something, and if it’s a failed commercial district, that’s virtually worthless, there’s not going to be much tax collected. So the whole “gold mine” mentality of getting a significant part of downtown into private, taxpaying ownership, is a myth until proven otherwise.
Tell me, what stores are going to come down to downtown Frankfort and occupy those commercial establishments that are going to be built underneath apartments? All we have to do is look at the rest of downtown, where there’s apartments above the stores on the ground floor. Is that a golden opportunity? The only thing that’s been a proven winner downtown in the last 50 years has been the convention center, and in private hands of professional promoters, it could make a lot of money, as well as bring a lot of people downtown again. Nothing else that’s been proposed even comes close to bringing in 111,000 people in close to $20 million per year. Nothing!
Prove me wrong! But remember, I’m batting 1000 here is that predicted everything that’s going on right now three years ago. It didn’t take Nostradamus to figure this out.
I don’t think there’s enough attorneys and artist to rent out all the new businesses they want to build — aren’t they the majority already that keep old downtown rented now?
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