Edgewater Village on July 6: Streets have been finished for months and make a nice bike route waiting for homes to be built.
In April, developers of Edgewater Village along Albany’s Willamette riverfront were eager to build more homes. So why no construction activity since the streets and utilities were finished in the spring?
To apply for building permits, the developers must have street numbers. To get numbers assigned, the lots first have to be created. To create lots, it’s necessary to file a final plat of the previously approved subdivision. And as of Monday, the final plat had not been filed.
This I learned from the Planning Division at City Hall. I then called Vasili Rozakis, the son-in-law of developers George and Paula Diamond, who has been a contact person for city officials. Rozakis told me Tuesday the final plat was all set to be submitted. All the engineering work and drawings are done, as I understood him, and it was just a matter of a few days before the formalities would be met.
In April, the Albany Revitalization Area changed the terms of previous agreements to allow the Diamonds to proceed with private bank financing totaling nearly $10 million in order to finish building the 60 homes planned at Edgewater Village.
The developers told the advisory board of the Central Albany Revitalization Area they intended to build the remaining 28 attached homes (townhouses), 15 single-family residences, and one duplex — in multiple groups (several at the same time)to achieve construction efficiencies — as soon as all the plans and other details were finalized. Baldwin General Contracting of Albany will do the building.
In 2007 CARA helped with the Edgewater financing with a $2.4 million loan. In 2017 it added a city payment of $367,800 toward street construction costs. The city’s loan is being forgiven in steps as the houses are completed. All have to be finished by the end of 2020. (hh)
We have been told by CARA many times how Edgewater is booming, but it seems stalled to me, and it seems the developers are dragging their feet.
Your post indicates this wealthy Portland developer has plenty of credit with at least one bank.
So why did CARA agree to give him almost $3m of public money? Because Olsen and Ray K believed it was a good idea?
It is projects like these that really cause mistrust of CARA.
Because initially, 11 or 12 years ago, the city was trying to get someone interested in developing that 6 acres of burned-out wasteland along the river, and it was hard going as I remember. The street payment last year was the city’s share of street improvements alongside the property that the city owns. (hh)
No Gordon, it’s not these projects, it’s people like you who have consistently lied and accused people of malfeasance and misfeasance, since well before the first project was authorized.
You fought CARA since day 1, and the sensible people of Albany rejected your absurd complaints at every turn.
You’re just a loser. And an incredibly sore one at that.
Unable to provide a rational counter argument to my position, Bob resorts to a logical fallacy called ad hominem. So who is the real loser here?
https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem
Here is evidence that CARA causes harm to local taxpayers.
According to a recent Albany Democrat Herald editorial keeping the county fair solvent requires a new tax to make up the $250,000 deficit from the county’s general fund.
According to the Linn County assessor in 2017 CARA siphoned over $270k from the county’s general fund without their permission.
http://www.co.linn.or.us/assessorshomep/docs/2017/SAL4E.pdf
Instead of calling it a “lodging tax” the county should call it the “CARA Tax.”
If CARA wasn’t robbing the county’s general fund, the county couldn’t rationalize this new tax. Welcome to the unseen consequences of CARA.
“On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who, at the dawn of decision, sat down to wait, and waiting died.”
Sam Ewing