Last Friday, some interested parties from Louisville hopped a plane to Baltimore, where they paid a visit to the corporate headquarters of the Cordish Companies on East Pratt Street.
From what we hear, the Louisville contingent was welcomed in and given plenty of records to pore over.
Metro Council president David Tandy, economic development chief Bruce Traughber, Metro Development Authority’s David Morris and auditor Mike Norman made the trip, hoping to find some answers to the question asked all over Louisville and in the Metro Council chambers — what happened to the $950,000 that the city gave the developer to turn a bowling alley with a sports bar into a . . . sports bar with a bowling alley?
The issue has become a political football of sorts — especially for Tandy. Our sources say the group spent many hours pouring over receipts, presumably that justify the lavish spending on renovations at the Sports and Social Club on Fourth Street.
If the report shows that somehow Cordish did spend the money on renovations, then what? Does that mean the Mayor was justified in granting the money? Does Tandy, pondering a run for Mayor, come off as a supporter of the Mayor and Cordish if the report is anything but harsh toward the use of the money?
Or does Tandy, who’s unavailable today, bring back receipts showing that Cordish used a chunk of the money for some other purpose, calling out the Mayor for not holding the company accountable for so many tax dollars?
Norman was tasked with producing a report on the trip that is supposed to include a detailed accounting of spending on the sports bar. It is scheduled to be released sometime this week. No one who’s seen the place, of course, believe that Cordish spent the $950K on renovations.
“I look forward to their report to the community,” said Hal Heiner, an outspoken critic of the spending. “I hope they don’t leave it that they complied with the contract, which doesn’t provide any openness. I hope they roll out just how the $950,000 was spent. So far, the Cordish excuses have been weak and an affront to the taxpayers. I don’t understand the secrecy.”
7 responses so far ↓
1 David Harpe // Aug 11, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Cordish Bowling Alley Renovation Report
Labor: $500,000
Material: $450,000
Cordish Bowling Alley Renovation Detail Report
Labor: $500,000
Material: $450,000
2 JasonL // Aug 11, 2009 at 4:38 pm
lol
like anything will happen with this. ridiculous
3 James R. // Aug 11, 2009 at 5:29 pm
What about the incredible waste of taxpayer money to make the mess out of Trevilian Way by the Zoo which was pushed by Jim king when the City has a huge deficit?
4 Voter // Aug 11, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Tandy,Traughber,Morris & Norman upon getting details of the spending of the $950 large, need to get some opinions from industry comparatives. The handling of actual reporting to the public will demonstrate the sencerity of the exercise. A line item reporting of what was spent and how?…..could & should be looked at by someone in the community who has a history & experiance in such renovations. THAT opinion would carry a lot of insight!
Wonder if Cordish is picking up the tab for the trip expense of four people to go chase down info that should be available on a leger sheet from the project?…..Surely a Multimillion dollar company like Cordish must have a sofisticated booking system to readily tell what they spent on such a project, with backup receipts ,billing and info at their fingertips!
With all the Spin about how they are so qualified to be the premier developer of these commerical retail projects, it seems to be a no-brainer to give an immeadiate accounting of such spending. Think Tandy & Traughber have plotted a contrived game plan to cover their asses?
Can’t wait to see these answers they come with after having months to fabricate what they say. Hell , TANDY couldn’t even give an immeadiate response about his babysitter, that took him hours & hours to CRAFT that answer?
5 Crutnacker // Aug 11, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Do you guys have any idea what bowling pins cost? How about those little bags of powder?
6 Chris Thieneman // Aug 11, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Does anyone remember when Cordish was building Lucky Strikes that NO ONE was allowed to call it a “bowling alley”? Now it seems to me that is exactly what Cordish brags about, getting rid of, a “bowling alley”.
How convenient!!
My family owned and operated 3 bowling alleys with a total of 100 lanes.
After being in business for 15 years we completely renovated the alley that had 44 lanes, from top to bottom. Price tag? 1,000,000 bucks. for 44 lanes. Cordish spent roughly the same amount on just 10 lanes. Though it still looks just about the same – minus 7 lanes. Great job if you can get it.
I am looking forward to see what Tandy does with his Vanderbilt education. Judge what Cordish did with the money by using the accounting classes (pure numbers) that he learned from?? Or his political science classes where he learned how to suck up to the most powerful local politician he could and ride his coattails by being his puppet? Anyone taking bets????
7 Voter // Aug 12, 2009 at 1:03 am
You can bet that Tandy is using his Big Vandy Football background to go up there and show he’s TOUGH, demand answers ,and produce the answers that need to be gotten from Cordish. Then he’ll use his creative legal cunning skills to help Traughber figure out how to manufacture a spin that dosen’t really produce any accurate accountability! Then he’ll trot into Mayor Happy Pants office, so the Mayor can pat him on the head and say “good bitch”…..and throw him a bone.
Can’t believe it’s going to cost the taxpayers the expense of sending FOUR people to Baltimore to have a meeting planning on how to cover this shit up!
Totally crazy!….The MAyor should have said,” give up the info or Else” and put some pressure on them. he should have said” IT’s not an unreasonable request from the taxpayers & the Metro Council”, he should have said ” give it up or get out of Town”…..and Tandy being Pres. of the Council should have taken a reporter that wasn’t biased on the trip to have an accurate reporting of no colusion on the Traughber / Tandy Twins Expedition?…..Better Yet!….They should have taken Chris Theinman along with a local expert like the “City Block” guy to have someone who actually knows what the Hell they are looking at!
What do you think local business guys like the City Block group could do for the Downtown Entertainment climate with that kind of free money, after they have learned to do it on their own for the past 20+ years…..
It’s time for The Metro Council to quit screwing around, Take the Gloves Off, and start acting like they have some brains and fuduciary responsibility to the voters and taxpayers of this community. If the President of the Metro Council comes back with some Bullshit answer like it’ll take another 60-90 days to compile a report and go over the info, he should be removed from his duties as the president of the Council.
I agree …..It’ll be interesting to see how that GREAT VANDY education plays in here?… Tandy is a past master at giving answers without answering the question and solving the problem.
Remember that he entered as a councilman originally as being appointed when Willie Bright died…..Hummm?…..Who appointed him?….Could it have been the MAyor?
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