News that downtown’s Coronado Hotel won’t be sold to Pima County to retain as affordable housing raises two immediate questions.
First, will county officials consider using eminent domain to acquire the property? This prospect could be considered if the eventual buyer proposes converting the Coronado into another use.
The second question is: Could the Downtown Development Corporation, which owns the building, and the Downtown Tucson Partnership, which manages the DDC, have possibly done a worse public-relations job handling this issue? The latest boo-boo of announcing on Dec. 22 that the county would not be the buyer was a hell of an early Christmas present to elected officials.
Word is they are none too happy about the present.
Note: An earlier version of this post said that the Industrial Development Authority co-owned the Coronado Hotel rather than the DDC. (Thanks for the heads up, Downtowner.)
This article appears in Dec 24-30, 2009.
What about the residents?
This story could become even more interesting if the bidding process was examined a little more closely. Word is Glenn Lyons did not conduct a transparent public bid process, which may possibly be illegal. Public bid processes require that the bids be opened publicly at a fixed hour at the time the bids are due. Any process which is not public and delays opening is ripe for tampering/corruption. The fact that $200,000.00 of city money was involved in the project should mandate that a public and transparent bid process be employed in accordance with city ordinances.
The contract between the City of Tucson and the DDC for the Coronado specifies that the city of Tucson must approve any sale. They should not grant this approval given the nature of this bidding process. Glenn Lyons has said that he has to protect the privacy of the bidders. This is rubbish. Since public funds were involved, the bidding process should have been transparent and public.
Glenn Lyons has publicly stated that he has a contract extension somewhere in “a box in the basement” that waives the requirement for city approval. The City Clerk can find no such record. It’s showtime. Can he produce the document or not?
The articles of incorporation of the DDC state that, if they liquidate, all assets must be turned over to the City of Tucson. Let’s analyze that. The DDC property across from El Charro has been transferred to the Industrial Development Authority. The Glenwood Hotel on the Northeast corner of Scott and 14th was sold to the Arizona Theatre Company. Now the Coronado Hotel has been sold. I’m assuming that the DDC has no other assets, so this isn’t this what “liquidation” typically looks like? They have no staff or offices and this activity is being overseen by Glenn Lyons. Does the city council have the political will to demand an audit of the DDC and recoup their assets? In the case of the Coronado, Glenn Lyons has thumbed his nose at both the City of Tucson and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. He maintains that the DDC and the Tucson Downtown Partnership are independent of the City of Tucson. Both, however, are creations of the City of Tucson and the City of Tucson is providing Glenn Lyons free office space in a city building.
Both the City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors have some hard questions to ask Glenn Lyons and the Tucson Downtown Partnership.
Meanwhile, watch for the “quick fix” offering an additional few years of subsidized housing provided everyone looks the other way.
The IDA has nothing to do with this sale. It is the DDC. TOTALLY separate from the IDA. The Industrial Development Authority is not involved with this sale at all. Please correct the post.
Eminent Domain? What a joke that would look even worse after bidding themselves on the property – you can’t do that just because you lost. Besides what is the true public use? Just for a few? Really? No.
JT a great deal of your post is inaccurate. I surely hope people aren’t taking your word on things.
I am so tired of seeing the people that are actually making things happen downtown get vilified by the small town minded.
observer,
You would appear less emotional by explicitly stating what is inaccurate and why. Might also help to identify yourself…
Lets do a run down:
“Word is Glenn Lyons did not conduct a transparent public bid process, which may possibly be illegal.”
Why don’t you tell me who gave you this “word” or are you just spreading rumors? Why not identify this person?
You then use that assumption to draw a conclusion of “The contract between the City of Tucson and the DDC for the Coronado specifies that the city of Tucson must approve any sale. They should not grant this approval given the nature of this bidding process”
Then you state another assumption of “I’m assuming that the DDC has no other assets, so this isn’t this what “liquidation” typically looks like? They have no staff or offices and this activity is being overseen by Glenn Lyons. Does the city council have the political will to demand an audit of the DDC and recoup their assets?”
Why wouldn’t they demand and audit if one were necessary. How much do you really think has changed since Glenn has been there what 2 years? How about the last several years were the books open for viewing? Did they get audited before? Do you even know?
Then you assert “In the case of the Coronado, Glenn Lyons has thumbed his nose at both the City of Tucson and the Pima County Board of Supervisors.”
The entire city? The city council? Can you be more specific about who is offended?
You state:
“He maintains that the DDC and the Tucson Downtown Partnership are independent of the City of Tucson. Both, however, are creations of the City of Tucson and the City of Tucson is providing Glenn Lyons free office space in a city building.”
I guess the City owns the chamber of commerce, moca, united way, and numerous others who get reduced or free space.
Public bid processes mean we know who bid and for how much. All the bids are open at one time.
Who gave me “this word”? Take a pick. Neither the press, the public nor the governing bodies have any idea who bid what or how much. That is not an open process. Glenn Lyons had the bids for over a week now.
The requirement for the city’s approval is not an assumption and I did not say it was an assumption. Here is my basis for the need of approval by the city:
Contract # 0493-90
“Section 15: Disposition of Property
The Contractor shall not dispose of real or personal property obtained under this Agreement, if any, through sale, use, donation or otherwise without written permission of the city.”
Here is another part of the article:
“Article XIII
Devolution of Assets on Dissolution. Upon the dissolution of this corporation, which such dissolution shall result from a voluntary action on the part of the board of directors, court order, or lapse of time, no part of the remaining assets of the corporation, after the discharge of profit, benefit or advantage of any director, officer or the corporation or of the municipality of which it is an arm, agency or instrumentality, but the whole of such remaining assets shall be by the directors distributed in cash or in kind, in fee, absolutely and without return consideration, direct or indirect, to the City of Tucson, Arizona, or its municipal successor, if any, an if none to the State of Arizona.”
I stated ahead of time that my assumption is that the DDC has no other assets. You have refused to identify yourself so I’m going to call you Mr. Lyons. Mr. Lyons, are there any additional assets owned by the DDC that you are aware of? Of course the city should demand an audit. It does appear that the DDC are liquidating their assets.
The city of Tucson put $100,000 of general funds into the Coronado Hotel. They also put $100,000 of CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) fund into the Coronado Development. Both the DDC and the Tucson Downtown partnership are said to be public/private partnerships. They are very definitely quasi-governmental bodies. In the case of the Coronado Hotel, both the city council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors made clear their desires. Your hero, Glenn Lyons, continually talks of protecting Boston Capital, the privacy of individual bidders or his fiduciary responsibility to private parties. The reality is his primary responsibility is to the elected public bodies and the public itself. If he or the DDC or the Downtown Partnership are not up to that obligation, they should get out of the business of public/private partnerships and stop taking public funds.
Whether they are public or private they need to comply to the law and to their contractual obligations. The City Clerk says there is no record of any addendum to the contract waiving the requirement of city approval to sell the Coronado Hotel.