The city’s development office has petitioned the Planning and Zoning Commission for the sale of 23 city properties including the multiple parcels associated with a proposed $400 million redevelopment of the shuttered and nostalgic Poli and Majestic theaters Downtown, according to a legal notice published Thursday in the Connecticut Post. The P&Z is scheduled to meet Monday 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.
New York-based Exact Capital Group is proposing a performing arts center, preservation of the Savoy Hotel into 200 rooms, two 18-floor towers across the street, with retail and underground parking, that would become the tallest buildings in the central business district, and another 10 floors of housing units on Housatonic Avenue. The proposal is featured on the Exact Capital website, see here.
According to the legal notice a “City of Bridgeport Planning and Zoning Commission Public Hearing Notice” involves “Petition of Planning & Economic Development–Seeking a favorable recommendation for the disposition of 23 City owned properties.” The parcels for the theater development are grouped with many other properties in the city. What are the values?
A seven-page memorandum of understanding (MOU) is currently before the City Council for approval to allow the city to negotiate a more detailed land disposition agreement (LDA) shaping the terms and timeline of the proposal with Exact Capital. A green light from P&Z on the associated properties will further the LDA.
Some City Council members assert they want more say in the Downtown development plan. The next full council meeting is Aug. 7. A public hearing on the theater plan is also scheduled for that night.
Exact Capital Managing Partner Craig Livingston announced at a news conference last month that he hopes for a ground breaking to take place next summer following an approved development deal with the city with financing in place. He said financing for the development is a work in progress.
Mayor Joe Ganim is touting the development proposal as the most significant during his two tenures as mayor.
My spy’s tell me that the deal with the City and Exact Capital will include a future casino in phase two.
The Savoy Hotel and Casino. Don’t tell Foxwoods or Mohegan.
Ganim wants to keep this on the down low.
This is going way way toooooo fast–AND THERE MUST be a reason for that. So..”something” is going to The P&Z Commision and the City Council has not signed off on it. Why is that. Is it possible that the mess from the DTC City Council nominations will carry over onto the next CC meeting which will happen AFTER The P&Z meeting. This is absolutely backwards. Only after the CC sign off on any contract should purchases(or whatever) goes before the P&Z. The Ganim Administration is trying to castrate the City Council by bringing this to the P&Z. I have already signed up to speak to the CC on August 7th about the Poli/Majestic/Exact capitol deal. Now,I have to go to the P&Z meeting this coming Monday. Does the Ganim Administration have the P&Z in the bag.Is this going to be a run-around the City Council? All of this stinks to high heaven.
Is there not supposed to be a 30 day period that an announcement needs to be made before a matter goes before The P&Z.
And what is the price of this sale of 23 city owned properties.And who is “Buying” these properties.
I actually left a comment on The Exact Capitol website. I will also be calling all 20 members of the City Council and ask their position on the petition going before the P&Z before the full City Council can act in this matter. This seems to be an attempt to do a run-around the City Council. If anyone is interested in this issue,please contact CC members,contact the mayor’s Office. Also,ANYONE WHO CAN MAKE IT TO THIS P&Z meeting this coming Monday.
And if anyone can also leave a comment on the Exact Capitol Website. Thank You To All.
Hope springs eternal….but experts on OIB..can the City Council override any action by The P&Z???
This is one immediate example that the City Council is at a huge disadvantage because the CC has no legal resource to turn to on an immediate basis. ALL CC candidates must be asked with the CC elections; Will you,as a CC member,advocate a permanent legal resource available to the CC and provide members of the CC independent counsel from the City Attorney’s Office. And,please remember, The City Attorney Office is led by a POLITICAL appointee,not someone who is completely independent and impartial.
Maybe i am passionate about good governance. Excuse the multiple posting. New ideas just kept on popping in my head.
*** Now the U.S. Military is being stopped by Trump on making any new sanctions, etc.. concerning trans-gender soldiers. No special bathrooms, no wearing make-up or dresses if you wake-up feeling like balls across the nose one morning or wear a jock & fake rubber dildo, or fake nails, facial hair & wigs or pink tee-shirt & socks while in dress or combat uniform! ***
Mojo..that is a disgusting comment and has absolutely nothing to do with this posting. You should be embarrassed of yourself. There is aso the fact that you are a coward who doesn’t have the balls to state your name and you hide behind a phony name. I responded to your comment this one time but never again will I ever respond to you. Every time I see “MOJO” I will always remember this sick,psychotic posting.
Frank, Mojo does not hide behind a handle. He’s Ralph Mojica, former City Council member who is a charter member of OIB. One of the good guys. Been here from the beginning. You can agree to disagree with him.
I wish I could be one of OIB’s good guys
Troll, you’d be bored with mass adulation.
*** Stop over reacting over a simple opinion blog regardless of weather it’s about the blog-tittle or not. I’am a Army Vet. who happens to agree with Trump this time concerning this particular military ban on TG’s. *** too far left or too far right, leaves America un-balanced. Being in the middle gives you room to move either way, no? ***
It’s wrong to ban them just like it was wrong to ban blacks,gays, woman. However the government should not be paying for their sex change operation. For me, it’s not a matter of what gender your brain identify with or the safe life style you choose. It’s still a cosmetic surgery. Your brain may not feel what your anatomy is but it is your body and that’s is just a fact. Isn’t the brain just and organ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGdWf1GsRrc
*** What happen to all the different ideas that keep popping in your head on everything & anything ;and you call me out on the same multi-blogging that you’ve also been doing??? *** Shame, shame, shame on you! ***
I thought those who wear the uniform are patriots.
Jim: A casino would be great news for the city at this point (we need a better cash machine than downtown parking meters…)– only it should be located on remediated land where the power plants once stood(waxing futuristic!…) But we have to remember that what’s good for Bridgeport isn’t something likely to get a “yea” vote in Stamford.(Oh! I meant Hartford…)
*** Human & civil rights may be important, but maintaining a serious , uniformed, well trained mentally & physically force of one to protect and serve America & all of its citizens at home and abroad, is a matter that has been part of our history, good or bad since our past, present & near future. The ideas behind past American military history and at our present time, is to make it a better, uniformed, strong and fast acting cohesive force that not only accomplishes it’s mission while protecting its troops in action. The main idea has always been to unite, not divide our military branches; black & white, men & women, young & old, religious or not; respected and united, one for all & all for one! Not personal , sexual, fadd-following, mental gender disorders, individual self rights, etc. changes, where things have gotten so liberal that mankind thinks and feels that everything under the sun needs to be changed in order to make it better! *** STOP THE WORLD, I WANT TO GET OFF ***
just curious what you think of this interesting fact – According to the Military Times, data from the Defense Health Agency indicate the U.S. Department of Defense spent $41.6 million on Viagra and $84.24 million total on drugs for erectile dysfunction in 2014.
Are you kidding me with that bullshit that you espoused and 45 tweeted. That’s the same bullshit that General Macarthur and others tried to use to keep Blacks out of the Armed Forces. Thank God for President Harry Truman who had the moral conscience in 1948 when he said this is wrong, immoral and unjust and authorized the use of Blacks in the military.
Had he not there was the distinct possibility that you would have never had the opportunity to serve in the force that you brag about today. Thank goodness President Harry Truman wasn’t as shortsighted as you as ya boy 45.
*** You sound as liberal as they come to compare a much larger group, (Blacks) not being able to serve in a combat capacity during the “Big One” ; to maybe a 1% total of TG’s in the U.S Military. The U.S military has to set certain guide lines that in the civilian world, might be much more acceptable! Those that don’t agree can band together and fight the TG’s ban in court! ***
*** Harry Truman would not of had anything to do with my military service, since Puerto Ricans have served & fought in every U.S war since after the Spanish/American War. Way before Harry Truman’s presidency during the end of the Big One. ***
*** As a matter of fact, it was FDR that pushed for black soldiers to be used in combat situations not Harry Truman. When Truman became President, after only about a month Germany surrendered and the war with Japan lasted about a year. Truman later after the war, 1948′ pushed for black soldiers to be integrated into the military in general. You think Mr. “The Buck Stops Here” would be pushing for TG’s equal rights & everything else their asking for in the U.S Military? ***
After the WWII German prisoners of war were treated better than black war heroes. Black war heroes came back to America and they were still second class citizens, schools, housing employment was still segregated in large parts of America.
I see you are still replete with pomposity as you were as a city councilman. I see you always have something to say about today’s crop of politicians, but the fact is when you were on the council you had your head so far up Joe’s ass that if he farted he would have blown your brains out. You did nothing to help people of color and Mackey and I knew that you were a lost cause when we went before the council with issues that effected Blacks and Latinos on the fire department.
*** Yes I remember all the race card playing on issues that the council had limited powers to do anything realistic about. Now some of those that claimed to be minority leadership were fired and have moved on. I worked for my district not for you ass-wipe and your local union problems, why didn’t you cry to the black council members if you thought I was not helping your cause? I got no complains on my time on the council, how about you while on the Fire Dept. — ***Never mind, I don’t want to read the bull-shit.***
*** Oh, all your blogging on the military and Harry Truman was incorrect as usual.***
Excuse me I never came to you to help me do anything. I came to you because I thought you had a social conscience and that you might want to help YOUR people Puerto Rican’s to achieve fairness and righteousness in the fire service. I soon discovered that you were just born Puerto Rican and that you became a white man years prior to coming on the city council and like a lot of white men you thought you were smarter than anyone else and I see that hasn’t changed.
What I did learn early on was that you were worthless and wouldn’t/didn’t do anything that white people didn’t tell you to do so at that point I dropped you like a bad habit and started going straight to the head white man in charge, Mayor Joe Ganim. That’s how we got our building on Barnum Ave and fair hiring and promotional exams because you as a white man couldn’t/wouldn’t lift one finger to uplift another Puerto Rican other than yourself and that’s a sad legacy for your pompous ass. Finally you smart ass, In 1948, President Harry Truman moved toward fully integrating black Americans into the military. At the time, members of his own party spoke out against the plan. The Washington Post reported on the objections in June of that year. You’re so busy trying to be white and right that you’ve lost all perspective.
“The Oppression of Black Fighters in WWII”
http://ontheblacklist.net/10-things-about-the-oppression-of-black-fighters-in-the-wwii-that-you-might-not-know/
*** That’s funny, you came to me to see if I could help the Puerto Rican cause on the Fire Dept. Using the race card again I see! And I see you finally used Google to get some true info; good for you. By the way, do you really think I care about what you think about me and your usual racist black vs white, B/S; Don’t humor yourself. The only thing your interested in as far as social conscience & fairness is concern is yourself & your usual black agenda! You and your entire past, present & future rants and raves on city issues are & have always been one-sided; the world according to Don Day ! *** It’s your world squirrel ***
Playing the race card, huh stupid? What other forms of discrimination are so routinely diminished and delegitimized in this way — cast as a game, a tactic or a stratagem? You’re a smart ass shouldn’t you have known this or does thinking you’re white precludes that consideration?
The truth is that the people who accuse others — without a shred of evidence — of “playing the race card,” claiming that the accusations of racism are so exaggerated as to dull the meaning of the term, are themselves playing a card. It is a privileged attempt at dismissal. You seek to do the very thing you condemn: shut down the debate with a scalding-hot charge.
I think you have a self inflated opinion of your intellect and I find your attempts at intelligent banter disheartening to say the least. I am and will always remain pro-black with unyielding and unabiding love for my people and I have and will continue to make that known for the rest of my life, in this forum and any others. You ought try that sometime, unconditional love for your people, it’s the best.
One other thing tío Tom, accusing someone of playing the race card is a tool of the intellectually weak and lazy when they cannot counter a logical argument or factual data.
*** And you can counter logical & factual data? What are you tripping on your own B/S again? You jump from TG’s in the military to local politics, then blacks in WW-2 to how rightness you wear trying to help the Puerto Ricans in the Fire Dept. & then to how I didn’t meet your expectations while I was in the council. And now how your suppose to be a proud black man, etc… You sir don’t know me from Adam in any way or form to be talking your B/S like it really means something to someone! Well, Let me surprise you, it don’t. So why don’t you tell your personal B/S to somebody who cares or is on your level of stupidity ! ***
*** Oh by the way, I’am done with your one-way B/S blogging there Uncle Holmes. ***
Tío Tom, I’m supposed to be a proud Black man just shows the level of your stupidity. I had no expectations from you because going in everyone we talked to warned me that you weren’t going to do anything to help Puerto Rican’s because you were just born one and hasn’t actually been one in years. I may not know you, but I do know what you didn’t do to help Puerto Rican’s in the Bridgeport fire service and I do know your failures as a city councilman and I do know who’s ass you had your head up as a councilman. So now you’re dismissed and in the future don’t come for me unless I send for you, Tommy.