Saturday Star Follies

A few interesting stories from Saturday's Star to talk about:

1. Do you remember this blast from the past: Windsor Star 10-09-2004 "Francis confirmed in an interview that a deal could be signed within days to sublease two floors of vacant tower office space that have been costing city taxpayers a staggering $77,000 a month in rent." What happened in the 2 years between then and now? Did it take Eddie that long and $2M of taxpayer money down the drain to figure out he inherited a lemon? Just like he lost a ton of money in the Tunnel by keeping rates uncompetitive. Seems like a pattern of management failure.


2. Remember that a source of mine called the sublease deal at Canderel, "THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY" for a tenant. I wonder if that is why a financial firm like Stewart, Fisher & Associates Inc. considers the move "economically wise." They can figure out the dollars that they will save on the rent and renewals over the life of the sub-lease and how much cash they can put in their pockets for "leasehold improvements" right now.
   


3. Speaking about the Spitfires, I see that Private Financial Group financial advisers is also moving to Canderel. Peter Dobrich is President of Private Financial Group, a boutique financial advisory firm in Windsor, Ontario. He is also an owner of the Spitfires. I wonder if he too negotiated a DEAL OF THE CENTURY. I bet that he asked for a "rent inducement" to secure the Firm's agreement to become a subtenant of the Canderel project. I thought about asking him about it but he would probably neither confirm nor deny any such approach. Typical media-type response.
   
   Now the Canderel deal is "confidential" and the Arena deal is "confidential." Don't you find it interesting, as Chris Schnurr, the Ward 2 Candidate, wrote: "That’s standard in the industry for arena agreements with these clubs, to protect the business interests of the owners...was the reason cited in the Windsor Star. But what about the interests of the taxpayer?"
   
   When describing the Spits' deal, the Mayor used this language: "We're very pleased we're able to secure a major tenant. That tenant has signed on for 20 years." It makes me nervous when I see the word "secure" used because then I think about "rent inducements" again and wonder if the Spitfires also got the DEAL OF THE CENTURY at the arena.
   
   Now the Spits could demand big bucks too...20 year tenant who will occupy 40 of the 48 nights the arena bowl needs to be used. That gives them great bargaining power, especially after Dobrich must have negotiated his Canderel sublease and knew how poor the City was as a negotiator. I'll bet he was smart though. He'd never ask for a sum of cash. He probably would suggest some kind of a formula for the payment.
   
   What is really funny about this too is that the inducement would have to be a huge one from the City. I am sure that you have forgotten, dear reader, that the City was competing against Project Ice Track for the Spits and locked them up before the Raceway people knew what hit them. I bet the Spits asked for big dollars from the Raceway people too, probably based on some formula as well and the City had to match or better it. If it is big enough, it could help him pay off the big price he and his partners paid for the Spits in the first place. They supposedly paid over $5M for the Spitfires, one of the highest prices paid for an Ontario Hockey League franchise.(According to the Star, "in recent OHL transactions, Oshawa was sold for $3.8 million in 2004, Belleville for $3.5 million in 2004 and North Bay, which moved to Saginaw, Mich., in 2002, for $3 million.")
   
   One day we may find out.
   


4. We are seeing the kind of money that is being used at the Canderel building: $580,000 to renovate third-floor office space at 1 Riverside Dr. W., and $350,000 for renovations on the fourth floor of 1 Riverside Dr. W. The Star says "The building and development department, which does not disclose applicants' names [for building permits] recently issued building renovation permits." I'd like to know if that is the City's costs. I have heard amounts in the multi-millions as the amount the City will have to pay out.
   


5. Good thing we got those 1,000 jobs. Just in the nick of time as our unemployment rate is "now tied for the worst in Canada with Saguenay, Que., at 8.8 per cent." "Some 15,000 more factory jobs were lost, most of them in Ontario and Quebec."
   
   Some more stats: CMHC Housing outlook for Windsor says fewer people are moving to Windsor, apartment vacancy rate is highest in Canada at 10.3%, 2-3 times higher than most other places, rents are high here, mls sales are down and are projected to slow down even more over the next 2 years and home starts are falling.
   


6. The story on the mayoral candidates "Mayor's foes face uphill fight" was different than the others. In the Councillors' profiles, there was a bit of an introduction but then the position of each person was set out. In this case, I thought that there had been a debate the night before. First Wonham made some allegations and Eddie gave his response. Chams made his comments and then Eddie gave his side. Beydoun was barely mentioned (I assume that he did not tell Roseann much or she would have given him more coverage). We found out about the candidates but in a much more disjointed way than the Councillors.






7. Have you ever wondered much Editorial writers make and how well they live? Obviously not very much and not very well from this statement in Saturday's editorial. "The 1,000 jobs to be created by Sutherland are not equal to the standards of the automotive industry but they have wages that can provide for comfortable lifestyles." Geeez, didn't they see that the pay is $9-10.25 per hour in the classified ad I posted! If that amount of money, about $21,000 per year, brings a comfortable lifestyle...


8. Gord Henderson is good....when his column to make Eddie look good by bringing in jobs turned out to be wrong-- "The source said people are mistaken if they assume this is just another minimum wage call centre " and it is---and that Eddie played a key role, it was really Sandra, he finds "a toxic minority in Windsor" who are "moaners" "peeing on the welcome mat" with "nasal drip." I am not one of those. I am just one who wishes we were told the truth.


9. I just had to add this one in. In Monday's Star, this story "Bypass will let trucks avoid Montreal bottleneck." In this case, "Prime Minister Stephen Harper, striving to make inroads and shore up his slipping popularity in Quebec, came to the seat-rich suburbs around Montreal yesterday to pledge money for a $1-billion-plus traffic beltway."
   
   Eddie has had three years to accomplish something similar and has produced zippo, zilch, nada, nothing, even when he had the Prime Minister, Premier and the US Ambassador eating out of his hand. Just keep on snubbing and threatening lawsuits! It's pathetic already.