Local: David Joseph isn’t going to lose one thin dime when Cub Foods closes
Late word tonight from someone in the know that the agreement between Cub Foods owners and MidTown Plaza developer David Joseph says that Cubs essentially agreed to pay him rent for the space for the entire length of their 25 year lease.
So when they close up shop in mid March — with only a handful of senior employees moving north to their Glen Hollow location — they will continue to pay rent for the remaining 15 or so years remaining. City taxpayers will, however, remain on the hook for $5.3 million in TIF district bond payments for the next 11 years. About 90 percent of the sales tax revenue generated by the shopping center goes to paying off those loans, as does part of the property taxes. With Cub generating most of the sales taxes MidTown generates, we’re going to see less of our taxes going to things like police and fire protection and streets and sidewalks.
But don’t you worry. Mr. Joseph isn’t going to suffer one bit. In fact he doesn’t even have to look for a new tenant. He can just sit back on his fat, politically connected Peoria developer ass and do nothing and still rake it in. It’s a lot less work than renting a house to crack dealers, and a lot less dangerous.
But then there is the following sentence from my 2004 article on the redevelopment scheme:
In return, Joseph agreed to keep a shopping center open at the site for the life of the TIF, Sandberg said. Beyond that, there are no guarantees, he added.
But, I’d sure like to see the complete written agreement. Was there language that specifically defined an “open” shopping center? Without an anchor store, the $5 million MidTown Plaza is no different than any of the hundred or so storefronts you can find all over the city.
I would propose that the city communicate to Mr. Joseph that a taxpayer financed, $5 million shopping center that doesn’t have an anchor store really isn’t a shopping center at all, and if he doesn’t get a replacement in there ASAP to start paying sales taxes, then …
Well, let’s just say that the the the area surrounding the corner of East Nebraska and Knoxville is starting to look mightly “blighted” and in need of redevelopment. Maybe even blighted enough for the use of eminent domain. I think it’s a perfect location for some Habitat for Humanity homes. I’m sure they’d appreciate the city making a “take it or leave it” offer on their behalf to the current owner.
Is this ethical, or legal? Well, I don’t know about legal. But it sure is one HELL of lot more ethical than that the city did last decade, which was to put the squeeze on little old ladies on behalf of David Joseph.
I mean, I’d rather spend $5 million to create new owner occupied homes than to continue to put money in the pocket of a leech like David Joseph.
January 14th, 2009 at 7:39 am
I have said this before… if the public giveth then one has a responsibility to the public to do good with what is given. If one fails to do that then the public should taketh away what was given.
If D Joseph can’t run Midtown or Campustown (both of which involved eminent domain) to the satisfaction of the communities they serve, then the city should eminent domain them back and sell them to someone who will.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:24 am
Don’t think for one minute that Cub Foods is going to pay someone rent for twenty-five years without any return; they will be in bankruptcy before you know it. This is just a start of their restructuring plan. David Joseph is not a bad guy, he is a businessman, and in the end he will treat Peoria right. I don’t know the man but am sware of his reputation.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:28 am
OMG, the rate for a 125×125 ad on Peo Pundit is $60. That means if an advertiser cancels after 5 days Billy doesn’t lose a stinkin’ dime for the ENTIRE month.
Its all a matter of scale and also the fact that no one who is trying to make money via their own business endeavors wants to take a loss. You can’t fault the developer for that, maybe the city should take note and try to protect themselves in future developments like this.
As for the eminent domain issue, I wouldn’t have agreed to it in the first place so I wouldn’t agree with it now.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Exactly. No businessman/developer wants to take a loss on these projects. That’s where the general public comes in. Any profits however, well, that’s THEIR money.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Perhaps it is time to invite moo and oink grocery stores to open another location:
http://retail.moo-oink.com/
The sad reality is that Peoria is turning into a ghetto, as the city continues to aggressively and recklessly annex and develop on the far north side of town (near Grand Prairie and north and west of Route 6).
Does the city even have a plan to redevelop blighted areas?
January 14th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Isn’t it really “Yousef” and he’s a member of Peoria’s uber-connected Lebanese community?
January 14th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
11Bravo: It’s more than a matter of scale. Last time I checked, I wasn’t sucking at the public tit like David Joseph.
Vonster: Let’s not bring ethnicity into it.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Billy,
Your article is my point, exactly! David Joseph rammed MidTown Plaza down THAT neighborhood’s throat, and now He’s feigning sympathy for ” the community ” . Baloney!
He sure didn’t have it when he enlisted the city’s eminent domain muscle to force the homeowners out. And now, he’s shedding crocodile tears for ” the community ” . The nerve!
January 15th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Joseph is a leech. You want to make a profit? Absorb the risk – don’t spread it out to the taxpayers and homeowners. Over on PJS people are complaining about what a ghetto the Midtown neighborhood is. I lived right behind the current Cub’s site on Peoria Ave. in 1999. It was NOT a ghetto then. But not a Dunlap subdivision to be sure, which I appreciated. Did tearing down the houses on Dechman and forcing out solid citizens contribute to the blight? I only wish I had done more to defeat this plan and to tell Joseph and Thetford to GTH. I never understood why Thetford was so rabid about this plan. Guess she thought it would make her legacy. In the end it lost her re-election because her constituents understood that January 2009 was coming.