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It was the same process Wallace would use a couple of years later when his firm became the master developer for the city of Joplin.
The city officials who watched this presentation were from Corpus Christi, Texas. The presentation was titled "Corpus Christi: A New Vision."
In a city publication printed a few months later, the project was described in this fashion:
"A master plan for redevelopment of property stretching from Sam Rankin Street to Interstate 37 to the waterfront."
That plan included mixed-use development, a water park, and a hotel.
The vision, according to the city publication, would "enhance streetscape and restore economically depressed neighborhoods."
And perhaps it would have, but Wallace-Bajjali Development Partners walked away from the project a few months into it, when city-owned land it wanted to use for the project was not made available:
"There wasn't enough low-hanging fruit that they could wrap their arms around and get involved right away," said Mayor Joe Adame, who recruited the developers to Corpus Christi and strongly supported the plan.
Bill Durrill, whose family owns several large tracts of the land proposed for development, met several times with the developers. Those meetings ended several months ago, he said.
"They lost interest," he said. "They didn't see enough skin in the game."
The Corpus Christi project is still included on the Wallace-Bajjali website as a public-private partnership accomplishment despite the departure and the lack of skin in the game.
Is there enough skin in the game in Joplin?
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Is there enough skin in the game in Joplin?
***
Investigative reporting you will not find anywhere else and news you will not find anywhere else. Please consider taking a voluntary subscription to the Turner Report/Inside Joplin and help this operation continue to grow.
7 comments:
They are so low. I'd say there's some skin if there's any truth to selling off school property to them so they can build their low income apartments. The question is, is the whole city willing to provide that low hanging fruit, or just CJ Huff?
They will walk away from Joplin too. They'll have several million dollars in their pocket and won't have turned a shovel full of dirt. Pay them off and be done with it.
Can someone tell me why we need these people at all? Is this saying Joplin doesn't have any talent that could figure out how to fill in the blanks, so to speak? I'd think Joplin citizens could figure out what they want to have built without these professional dreamers telling us what they think we should want. It's our town. Send them back to Texas to join their buddy Rohr. And send Woolston with them.
The taxpayers have lots of skin in the game. Wallace Bajjali probably not so much.
Yes, development would have occurred naturally with no direction from a low fruit picking con man directing the show. I have spoken with a number of South Main Street property owners that had intended to rebuild. The city along with the master developer quickly put such restrictive and prohibitively expensive requirements on what would be allowed through establishing these various commercial zones that they just gave up. Several simply just went a few blocks north and rented a space. Now we are getting nothing but a bunch of the same looking strip center buildings all owned by the same people who the master developer has dealings with. The city is now in a bad spot, as they now own virtually all land on the north side of 20th street from Connecticut to Murphy Blvd, which includes a couple of residential homes rebuilt by the owners and subsequently bought by the city. The homes are sitting empty today. The master developer arranged the purchases at prices many times above true value because the higher the price the more he got paid. Now they are stuck and will never recoup our spent money, at least not in the near future. And when his contract is up, he will walk away because he is dumb enough to buy back property at the same price he got the city to pay for it. I would guess he waited to walk away from Corpus Christi until his contract was up. What is amazing to me is that these people that the city picks to serve on these boards are all supposedly savvy professional people. Presidents of companies, and banks, and utility companies etc. One applicant to the land board was actually a professional certified appraiser and property investor. He did not get picked to serve of coarse.
All these guys are "in bed together." That's why it's the way it is.
So, on top of the tornado, we now have Wallace Bajjali, city council and perhaps the school district all creating more damage.
I think it's time for everyone who can to get out of here. This is an awful mess. I'm looking for someplace else.
Do not pay them off. Do not finance their projects they will soon be chasing lower hanging fruit. They have made proposals in Arkansas and Dallas. The public private ponzu scheme continues.
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