DILIGENCE OR NEGLIGENCE? 02/17/00
By Ted S. McGregor Jr.
Analysis by Ted S. McGregor, Jr.
“I think the council really has exercised honest and forthright due diligence. ” That’s how, in January, 1997, then-Mayor Jack Geraghty described the events that led up to the city’s decision to participate as a partner in the River Park Square project. Now, three years after that controversial decision and just seven months after the new mall opened, the degree and quality of that due diligence is being reexamined as a way to understand why the parking garage – the city’s portion of the deal – is failing to meet expectations.
As the specter of having to tap the city’s parking meter fund to help the garage stay afloat has emerged as a real possibility, the scramble for solutions has begun. A few want to refinance the entire deal; others flirt with the idea of somehow reneging on the pledge of the parking meter money; and some want to stay the course, waiting for the second phase of the mall to open and the additional parkers it could bring. But even after just seven months, the garage’s performance is so far below expectations that some are saying holding course isn’t really an option.
How could so many people be so surprised by the garage’s performance? Weren’t the best consultants in the country hired to test the feasibility of the entire project, specifically the garage? That Walker Parking Study, most agree, is where the garage’s problems begin. How a document that appears to be so deeply flawed came to be relied on so heavily for this project raises new questions about that study and the city’s self-described due diligence.
https://www.inlander.com/spokane/diligence-or-negligence-021700/Content?oid=2173738
