The thinking is using a number of fire stations or police stations in the COP financing, she says.''You have to look at an asset and make sure you own it free and clear and an asset that has reasonable appeal as collateral,'' Cohen-Vader tells GlobeSt.com. ''Fire stations and police stations and jails are great, because investors know that the city is not going to walk away from those kind of assets.''
There have been rumblings that the fire station at Colfax Avenue and Speer Boulevard, adjacent to the convention center, would be used.
''We'd need to use an aggregate of several of them,'' Cohen-Vader says. ''No one fire station is worth $15 million or $20 million.''
At the end of the lease, whether it is 15, 20 years or another length of time, the ownership reverts back to the city, she says.
As far as citizens or fire and police are concerned, there would be no difference in the operation. In fact, they wouldn't even know that the city has mortgaged the buildings.
The city won't know for another month or two whether there will be any cost overruns.
City councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt is horrified by the idea of mortgaging fire stations to fund cost overruns at the convention center.
Mayor Wellington Webb declines to comment, saying it wasn't his idea and it may be one that is here today and gone tomorrow.
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