Gridlock spreads
Thursday, Oct 15, 2015 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Rauner on the sale of the Thompson Center…
The Republican governor, embroiled in a political dispute with the Democrat-led General Assembly, said his proposal was unrelated to what he has dubbed his “Turnaround Agenda” that includes seeking pro-business, union-weakening legislation in exchange for a state budget.
OK, well, it’s good to know that he won’t hold up a budget in exchange for legislative approval of the building sale.
* But the other party is another matter. Kurt Erickson writes about HB4313, which was introduced yesterday by House GOP Leader Jim Durkin regarding the proposed sale…
Durkin’s plan would apparently bypass a lengthy public hearing process imposed by the General Assembly to keep governors from moving too quickly in shutting down state facilities.
Durkin’s proposal calls for establishing a base price for the 16-story building through an appraisal process. It would then allow officials to either auction off the building for no less than the highest appraisal price or sell it through a sealed bidding process.
In the latter case, the proposal would allow the building to be sold for less than its appraised value. […]
Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said Rauner offered few details about the sale in an announcement Tuesday, including where current workers would be moved and how other services done at the building would be affected.
“That will all have to be examined,” Brown said. “I’m not sure rushing is a good idea. Usually when you rush things, that’s when you make mistakes.”
On the bright side, using Brownie’s logic, by January of next year we ought to get one incredibly fantastic state budget.
/snark
…Adding… Mayor Emanuel, however, supports the sale, saying it could add $20 million a year to tax coffers.
- Marty Funkhouser - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:33 am:
Well, the House would certainly know about rushing and making mistakes.
- GraduatedCollegeStudent - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:35 am:
===Durkin’s proposal calls for establishing a base price for the 16-story building through an appraisal process. It would then allow officials to either auction off the building for no less than the highest appraisal price or sell it through a sealed bidding process.
In the latter case, the proposal would allow the building to be sold for less than its appraised value. […]===
I’m sorry, I’m too suspicious of the Governor and his executive branch employees to trust that this isn’t a way to give his business partners public assets on the cheap.
The hearing process is necessary.
- Liberty - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:36 am:
The cost of the building adjusted for inflation is 380 million. Not a time to give it away.
- Wordslinger - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:41 am:
Meh, the governor chooses his hostages. This isn’t one of them.
Either way, it’s small potatoes when you’re running billions in the red, throwing people out of work, shutting down social services and stiffing vendors all in the name of some obtuse political agenda, the benefits of which you can’t articulate beyond dorm-room talking points.
- Team Sleep - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:41 am:
“Usually when you rush things, that’s when you make mistake.”
Yeah - like when you unload a ton of approp and BIMPs with a week to go in spring session.
- cdog - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:44 am:
Not feeling too hopeful for the union people in that building.
- Xavier Woods - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:44 am:
What will happen to the both CTA Stations there? I am guessing that is something that needs to be brought up in a public hearing.
- thunderspirit - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:50 am:
== I’m sorry, I’m too suspicious of the Governor and his executive branch employees to trust that this isn’t a way to give his business partners public assets on the cheap.
The hearing process is necessary. ==
Or anyone else who might be in the Governor’s mansion, regardless of their political affiliation. There’s no particular partisan affiliation required to hand out sweetheart deals.
This kind of plum is exactly the sort of thing the hearing process is designed to curtail.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:50 am:
Bruce Rauner has no credibility to lead Illinois into making any decisions regarding its assets. Quite the opposite. His disrespect towards the government he heads is so toxic, he simply should not be trusted.
What we know of this man’s past indicates a disinterest in values - just the cost of something. This is a man so disconnected to what each of us holds dear, he shuts down our access to our own historical past. What we value, he sees no value. What we cherish, he stares at blankly with a wide grin on his face.
Bruce Rauner is incapable of seeing anything without judging how much he could get if he pawned it off. He is the wrong person to look towards for solutions regarding our state. Illinois is just another one of his addresses.
- Norseman - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:50 am:
This bill will not be Rauner’s hostage, but it will be a hostage in Rauner’s impasse.
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:51 am:
Does the assessment price of the building include the bed bugs and roaches? What are the key phrases the realtors can use? “Large building for sale, plenty of space, especially in the center of it; comes with own petting zoo. It’ll have you itching to get into it.”
- CharlieKratos - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 10:52 am:
Maybe this deal is the price being put on a passed budget.
- Demise - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:07 am:
Public input required for gay marriage. Public input on selling state assets, though, is too inconvenient. Got it, Gov’ner.
- Former Hoosier - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:13 am:
The current process is there for a good reason. I say “No” to circumventing this process. And…if/when the building is sold…follow the money. Might it lead to one of the Govs. private equity pals?
- Wensicia - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:17 am:
Rauner says “Jump”
Durkin says “How high?”
- Juvenal - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:20 am:
=== Allows the administrator to enter into a lease, a public-private partnership with a real estate developer, or other agreement that directly or indirectly gives the State a right to use, control, or possess some portion or interest in the real property. ===
It is the Chicago Parking Meter deal all over again.
And $10 says Jones Lang LaSalle is involved:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/oct/14/jones-lang-lasalle-hmade-335-millibehalf-tenn/330388/
Real estate firm earns more than $3 million from Tennessee outsourcing contract
“NASHVILLE — Real estate management giant Jones Lang LaSalle has so far made $3.35 million in commissions from striking private office leases on behalf of Tennessee government agencies since its state outsourcing contract began in May 2013, figures show….
…The Times Free Press asked for the lease information as General Services and other Haslam administration officials last week defended the work JLL has done even as Republican Gov. Bill Haslam eyes privatizing new real estate and energy management.
That would include facilities management for state university and college campuses, state parks, prisons and armories.
But a controversy has risen since it became known top administration officials are discouraging workers on the project to avoid using emails on sensitive items after some information leaked out.”
Reporters need to keep digging on this one.
- Apocalypse Now - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:21 am:
Leading from behind, Mayor Rahminator supports sale saying it would add $20 million to tax revenues. Where has the Rahminator been the last few years? Couldn’t he have suggested this years ago? A good start. Sell more state owned property to private sector and get them back on the tax roles. Of course, some cynics will say it’s a drop in the bucket, but a lot of drops will help to fill the bucket.
- Anonin' - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:41 am:
That governor was really sneaky…slidin’ a few hours before Durkie to claim credit for sellin’ JRTC. Just think all credit could be Durkie’s
- Georg Sande - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 11:50 am:
Brownie?
- Just Me - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 12:00 pm:
I don’t think comparing JRTC to a traditional state facility is fair. JRTC is all office space (even the SOS office in the basement is technically just an office that can move anywhere). As such, I think the resolution is appropriate.
- Newsclown - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 12:26 pm:
First, this is a short but interesting clip explaining a little of the thinking that went into the JRTC design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyxCjRThWX0
Second, all the haters who drone on about “wasted space” in the atrium volume don’t know a thing about architecture or design: they criticize un-occupied space as “valueless” without regard that space and form have to co-exist to define each other. Buildings without variable spaces in them are cave-like, unwelcoming, airless, lightless, and oppressive and unpleasant to spend a lot of time in. Where most traditional office blocks don’t have any windows that can open, and no views to speak of, at JRTC, you have great balconies on every floor.
Look at the youtube video link: The complainers about the “Wasted Space” don’t get for example that this is an entire block to build on, for an office building that, built in standard International Style, like the Daley Center, wouldn’t use a quarter of that block’s space to make more than enough office space. You have a LOT of space left over for plaza use, no matter what you’d build, so what Jahn’s design is, really, is two very wide, but shorter towers, joined in an “el”, with a big plaza in front. By taking the side walls off the towers and encasing part of that plaza, and connecting it to the building, you make it a space that’s all-season and multi-purpose, and brings light and views everywhere. If the complainers had their way, filling up the “wasted” space with wall-to-wall floors of cube farms would create too MUCH real estate, more square footage you could afford to heat and cool and rent out, but without any of the visual benefits of Helmut’s design.
There is no need to build a duplicate of the Stratton Building in Chicago, or a faceless, impersonal fortress file cabinet tower: we can do better, and on deeper reflection, Helmut got more right than wrong in his design. The open-floor-plan work spaces that were avante-garde back then are the hottest thing in hipster office spaces today, for example. The reduced workforce and ever-advancing computerization mean you don’t really need huge rooms of file cabinets and steno pools. JRTC today is the “right” size for the existing state workforce, and neatly centralizes everything.
Speaking of heating and cooling, the most common complaint, did you know that Jahn specified triple-insulated glass that would have mitigated much of that problem, but during the execution of the design, to shave costs, they substituted single-pane glass you wouldn’t use on your own home today? This is bad stewardship of a workable design run by careless people. Just like the ice cooler HVAC system that was built with the wrong steel and rusted out, the good carpet that was nixed for carpet designed to last just two years (and is still in place, threadbare, because nobody had the political guts to ask for the money to replace it). Or the panels that fell off due to the wrong spec adhesives being used. Most faults of the building are from contractors cutting corners or the state refusing to fund maintenance at proper levels. How would a new state building be run any different? Jahn was not infallible, but most of what people hate in the building was stuff done by the contractors, or due to poor stewardship by the state, which is a terrible, terrible tenant.
As to the noise, well, that’s why there’s a large soundproofed auditorium on the lower level, that’s where the noisy events are supposed to be held, but it’s lazier and easier to perform the events in front of the captive food court audience. The food smells? Jahn didn’t anticipate EVERY food vendor that got a contract would use a deep fryer and keep it close to their counters, instead of properly vented outside.
I think the whole proposal is really just a stunt, with a side benefit of being something to try to hurt Mayor Rahm with, since creating this disturbance would inconvenience him and the city no end.
The thing to do is fix the cut corners and use the building the right way, rather than commit to the horrific mess and needless expense of a tear-down and re-location. Considering the compromises, and the binding agreements and inter-dependencies that tie up this building to so much around it, it wouldn’t make sense to any prospective buyers. Not for a price worth the damage done.
- anon - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 12:33 pm:
But, it’s not all office space. There’s retail, food vendors, a major CTA stop…
- burbanite - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 12:57 pm:
Would he be willing to deal with the budget if he was given this?
- Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 1:21 pm:
==Sell more state owned property==
And increase state lease payments. Good idea. I’d argue the opposite. I would argue that the state purchase more buildings and stop making lease payments. The state has hundreds of buildings that they have probably paid for multiple times over in lease payments. Want to save the state money in the long run? Buy the buildings.
- Mama - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 2:25 pm:
++- Demoralized - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 1:21 pm:
++
I agree 100%. Buying is cheaper in the long run.
- El Duderino - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 2:37 pm:
Great post Newsclown. I’m someone who actually enjoys the view from some of the upper floors of that building and thinks that if some of the major problems with the building could be reasonably addressed, the building should be saved. I’m just not sure the taxpayers of Illinois should foot the bill. I don’t like the idea of a casino there, but think the layout of that building would make a pretty cool hotel.
- dupage dan - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 2:46 pm:
I really like the movie, “Running Scared”. Other than that, the place is a hole.
So, instead of using 3 pane glass, the contractors were told by the state to use single pane. Not Jahn’s fault, of course. But, no matter. What’s the plan? Replace all the glass?. Vendors cooking smells reach upper floors - not Jahn’s fault they use deep fryers. The list is endless. Nothing is Jahn’s fault. Fine. But the physical reality remains - the building is not appropriate for the current use.
Complaining that open spaces are better is all well and good. But it is, first and foremost, a building where the state business is conducted. How many folk are turned away, like customers of the old Marshall Field building when green was replaced by red, if the building isn’t open but, instead like most other gov’t buildings?
Tear it down. Except Ronnie’s Steakhouse. I love that place.
- qualified somebody nobody sent - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 4:21 pm:
How is it going to add to “tax coffers” if sold and no longer property tax exempt it will only add to the taxable value of the city, therefore potentially reducing the city tax rate overall. Property taxes are a fixed amount of dollars received regardless of taxable property value.
- Buzzie - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 5:20 pm:
Who would have guessed that Rauner and Durkin would use former Mayor Daley (ie. parking meters, etc) as a role model?
- Shoe Searer - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 5:29 pm:
==I’m sorry, I’m too suspicious of the Governor and his executive branch employees to trust that this isn’t a way to give his business partners public assets on the cheap.==
Yep. The Governor spent tens of millions of his own money, left a line of work that made him money hand over fist, took a new job that has him despised by millions…all for the long con of underhanded deals for his “business partners” on the Thompson Center and other schemes.
Yep. That’s it. A+/10 analysis. Please see teacher after class.
- DuPage Dave - Thursday, Oct 15, 15 @ 9:27 pm:
In the early 90s they had a problem at JRTC with windows exploding. Some of the debris fell in our office area and I still have some pieces of one of the windows in my desk.
It is not exactly single pane glass. It is two panes with a thin reflective sheet in between.
Whatever, the construction did not meet the original design. Heating and especially cooling problems persist. I’ve worked at JRTC since 1986. You need a sweater to wear inside when it’s 95 outside in the summer. When it’s 10 degrees outside you are equally cold.
Rauner’s presser the other day was a joke. I’m willing to take bets that JRTC is still standing and housing state employees 10 years from now.