Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Watkins project delayed in Meridian, fireworks at Jackson City Council

The Meridian Star reported today:

"Construction of a new police station has stopped and isn’t scheduled to resume until March 15, project developer David Watkins confirmed Tuesday.

Watkins said the project, renovating an old grocery store building on 22nd Avenue into a new police station that will serve the entire department, has taken significantly longer than expected to finance.

He said there have been significant delays in closing on the new market tax credits, which are an important aspect of the project’s funding. Watkins said the original closing date for the tax credits was expected to be December 15, 2011. The date has been pushed back, he said, because of problems with coordination between the numerous entities involved with the tax credits and because it took longer to than expected for the tax credits to be allocated for the project.

Watkins stressed that the project is not unfunded, there is just a delay in accessing the funds.

“The tax credit closing has taken much longer than anyone anticipated,” he said. “There’s money in the project. We just can’t get access to it until there’s a closing.”

He said the delay will not cost the city anything.

“The city’s not obligated to pay anything until the building is done,” he said. “The impact on the city is, it’s an inconvenience because we’re pushing the project (construction) back 45 days
.” Rest of article.

Then there was the controversy in Jackson this week over the extra costs of renovating Metrocenter:

"The Jackson City Council balked Monday at spending $250,000 to install wiring at the Metrocenter mall, putting the city's once-imminent office relocation in limbo." Article

I spoke to several commercial realtors and developers yesterday about this problem and they all said the exact same thing: wiring such as what is needed for this project is always paid for by the tenant, especially in older buildings. Copy of lease agreement between Jackson and Watkins

Want to guess what the lease agreement says about wiring? Nothing. Look on pages 8-12 of the lease- maintenance, service, utilities, and alterations.The lease is silent about the matter of wiring, much less the landlord paying for its installation. What happens if the city does not move in after signing the lease? Lawyers can correct me if I interpreted the lease in error but it seems one of the remedies available to Mr. Watkins is the ability to collect damages of 12 months rent- $487,000. Stay tuned.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kingfish...what type of 'wiring' is in question?

Is this 'wiring' for electrical systems or 'cabling' for communications systems (i.e. ethernet, phones, coaxial, security)??

I haven't seen that clarified anywhere?

Anonymous said...

I reas somewhere that it was for cabling as you suggested. back when Belk moved in there was no internet ;-)

Anonymous said...

Just WIFI it......

Anonymous said...

Visions of Earnestine. One Ringy Dingy.....

Anonymous said...

This space is being changed from being just open floor area to offices and offices need power for equipment.

Anonymous said...

Here we go again. ANOTHER Watkins project where we find the cart before the horse. By now it should be a foregone conclusion that if it is a Watkins project it will be a project that undoubtedly has financial problems and be late, late and then late.

Note to Meridian area readers. When you read stuff like this:

Though there is no definite completion date, Watkins said work on the building is “50 percent complete” and that he expects the building to be ready “sometime this summer … before the fall.”

Keep in mind that with a Watkins project you won't see the project completed until 2013 or 2014. NOTHING Watkins works on get completed as promised on time.

Anonymous said...

12:10; there is not ten square feet in that old mall that didn't already have power supplied to it.

Anonymous said...

Another con-job by "The Con-man"!!!Its about time Watkins paid his OWN bills!

Anonymous said...

Kingfish, you wrote: "I spoke to several commercial realtors and developers yesterday about this problem and they all said the exact same thing: wiring such as what is needed for this project is always paid for by the tenant, especially in older buildings." Having being in the commercial real estate business for almost 30 years, I can tell you this isn't true. All tenant improvement items are negotiable, and if the lease didn't address the particular items, problems would have arisen. While a few items may be "customary" for one party or the other to provide, all lease transactions stand alone, and nothing is required without being in writing.

That being said, I didn't take the time to read the specifics, but the language that controls the tenant improvements in this lease should be found in Exhibits "C" and "E." If no reference is made in those sections, there's going to be an argument between the parties. In such a case, the tenant will often times be left with the expense of making any improvements that were not agreed to at the time of lease execution.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing is, Watkins seems to be able to remodel, renovate and redecorate his own home with no money problems! Spent thousands! Wow! Wonder why no such issues there! Lol! Welcome to another fleece!



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