IS IT TRUE? Part 2: April 12, 2011 Apartment Refurbishment Reflects Waste in Government Pricing
IS IT TRUE that a well done project on the eastside in the area of income properties just celebrated its completion?…that the old Stonehedge apartments have reopened under the name Abbey Court?…that just last summer that the people of the neighborhood were upset at the prospect of Stonehedge being converted to low income housing?…that Stonehedge was purchased for $4.25 Million last summer and has just undergone renovations in the amount of $2.7 Million to bring the total cost of the project up to approximately $7 Million?…that when you divide that total cost by the 250 units that Abbey Court now offers that the cost per unit works out to $28,000 each?…that Abbey Court offers 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units at prices ranging from $514 to $874 per month?…that the average rent per square foot per month amounts to about 70 cents?
IS IT TRUE that the City of Evansville should take some lessons from the developers of Abbey Court when it comes to budgeting for apartment style units?…that the recently announced projects by the Office of the Mayor somehow manage to have per unit budgets that are over 8 times as expensive to construct than Abbey Court has been?
IS IT TRUE that the Cedar Trace Apartments III located at 2000 North Seventh Avenue is a project to construct 48 new apartments consisting of 14 one bedroom units, 24 two bedroom units, and 10 three bedroom units?…that a thinking person would be inclined to expect the cost of Cedar Trace III to be about 48/250 of the $7 Million spent on Abbey Court?…that such a thinking person would be very wrong to make such an assumption?…that the total development cost stated in the Mayor’s press release of February 28, 2011 is exactly $5,760,000?…that this development cost works out to exactly $120,000 per unit or 329% more per unit than Abbey Court was refurbished for?…that we wonder who in their right mind would embark on such an overpriced project?
IS IT TRUE that Cedar Trace III is a relative bargain when compared to another program announced in the same official press release?…that the VISION 1505 project located at 1505 North Third Avenue at the site of the abandoned SAFE HOUSE takes overspending to a new level?…that VISION 1505 proposes to refurbish the old SAFE HOUSE into 32 apartments at a staggering cost of $7,677,308?…that this works out to $239,916 per apartment?...that we once again wonder who in their right mind would embark on an even more overpriced project?
IS IT TRUE that Abbey Court was done at market price and will be a sustainable investment that pays off for the private developer?…that if the Abbey Court project were to have been completed by the City of Evansville with a SAFE HOUSE style of refurbishment budget that Abbey Court would have cost nearly $60 Million and would have to charge over $4,000 per month for a 1 bedroom apartment to make ends meet?…that we understand that government projects have some red tape and restrictions that raise the prices but in no way accept the assertion that the government should be spending a 700% premium over private pricing to get things built?
IS IT TRUE that in a world of a government that pays $100 for a hammer that can be bought at a big box retailer for $20 that people just shake their head and laugh?…that the people whose money is spent so frivolously are the taxpayers of America, nearly 118,000 of whom live in the City of Evansville?…that the $100 hammer is a better deal than the $239,916 apartments being proposed by the Mayor’s office?…that it is not so much the value of government that is raising the debt of the nation and all of the cities and states in it?…that it is the callous disregard of our elected officials to make rational decisions on what to pay for things that has saddled us with a staggering amount of debt?…that just because Uncle Sam hands a place like Evansville a token tax credit does not make it right to spend $239,916 on an apartment that could have been bought on the open market for $28,000?
IS IT TRUE that it is no wonder that the McCurdy Hotel stands vacant and a home to pigeons and Indiana brown bats?…that at prices like these the McCurdy will cost over $20 Million to restore?…that a good policy for elected officials should be that “if you would not spend your own money on something do not spend your governments money on it eitherâ€?…that after all the governments money is our money?
