Alder: Never say never on Edgewater

November 29, 2011

edgewater2 — After the Madison City Council turned away a proposal to provide additional funding to the controversial Edgewater project earlier this month, the developers refuse to allow the project to die. Mayor Paul Soglin says the developers have not yet submitted necessary paperwork, but the city would sign off on the project.[/media-credit]

Despite funding being shot down at city budget meetings earlier this month, Edgewater Hotel developers are determined to pull out all the stops to secure city funding for the proposed $98 million renovation.

Ald. Mark Clear, District 19, one of Edgewater’s leading advocates, said developer Robert Dunn will pursue the requested $16 million of tax incremental financing funding by taking the project through the city process this week.

As of now, the city has only approved $3.3 million in funding, a sum Dunn has said is not nearly enough to complete the project.

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The funding process, however, must be completed by the end of the year for the project to be eligible for city money.

Clear said Dunn will have to reach at least two agreements with the city, one of which is an official TIF agreement.

“What the [City] Council does is authorize the creation and signing of the TIF agreement and all the parameters of that, but doesn’t get into the details of the legal agreement,” he said. “Attorneys on both sides will hammer that out.”

Mayor Paul Soglin said the city has received no paperwork from Dunn or any others involved in the development process.

“All we’ve got is the letter they delivered to City Council meetings two weeks ago, and even that is not complete in terms of financing,” he said.

Dunn has acknowledged that the end-of-year deadline is extremely tight, and City Attorney Michael May said earlier this month that it would be nearly impossible to receive all necessary approvals by year’s end.

Clear, however, has not given up hope.

“Never say never, and if Bob [Dunn] says he’s going to do his part, then that certainly does increase the odds,” he said. “He’s highly motivated, and that may mean that the agreements are easier to reach because he won’t negotiate additional details. There isn’t time.”

Clear added that Dunn’s time limit puts the city in a solid position to negotiate the project.

Soglin said that if the paperwork is completed by the year’s end, he will support it.

“All city officials will sign all necessary paperwork if it can be done by the end of the year, but it’s a considerable amount of work,” he said.