* Remember that story from the other day about the old Barney’s Furniture store that was purchased for six-figures and is being leased to the state for $2.4 million over five years? Well, you should watch the video of this WCIA TV story for more interesting stuff, but this is from the text version…

A mostly empty warehouse at 2410 South Grand Avenue East in Springfield now holds neat rows of filing cabinets and pallets of paper records which belong to the Department of Human Services. The lease agreement binds Illinois to fulfill at least the first five years of the deal, which adds up to a minimum of $2.4 million.

Procurement Board Member Ed Bedore, an appointee of House Speaker Michael Madigan, tells WCIA the total cost could clear $11 million before the 10-year deal is over. Bedore estimated Illinois could have purchased the property for $700,000. It’s value is listed at $1.1 million.

The Procurement Policy Board is led by Chairman Frank Vala, a Republican appointee of Governor Bruce Rauner. Vala’s five-member panel had the chance to block the Rauner administration from overspending on an inflexible lease arrangement, but it never held a discussion about the terms of this lease. Rick Morales and former state representative Bill Black are the other two Republican appointees on the board. Larry Ivory was appointed by Senate President John Cullerton, a Democrat. […]

The Illinois Department of Central Management Services provided this statement in an email: “The lease was secured through the open, competitive bidding process and was fully reviewed by the Illinois Procurement Board.” WCIA is only aware of one other bid for this particular lease. Those familiar with the Procurement Policy Board’s discussions say the warehouse lease was never even discussed.

The DHS statement also claims the facility owners, Climate Controlled Holdings, LLC, made “additional enhancements” to the warehouse, upgrades the state could not afford to make without a full budget or a specific appropriation.

According to records kept by the Secretary of State’s office, Climate Controlled Holdings is registered to Mr. Thomas Storniolo at 20 North Clark Street in Chicago. The business appears to be a young entity. It was registered with the state in February of last year.

Storniolo’s LinkedIn page also shows him as the Controller of New Frontier Management.

WCIA reporter Mark Maxwell is new to town, so he apparently didn’t recognize the New Frontier Management name.

Old-timers will recognize it, however. That’s the company which used to be run by Bill Cellini and which leased a whole bunch of buildings to the state over the years.

* From a reader who knows how to do research…

Climate Controlled Holdings (CCH) has 3 members of the LLC and has a registered agent named Thomas Storniolo at 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. One of the members of CCH is Andiamo Development LLC. The other two LLCs are registered in Springfield. Andiamo has the same registered agent and address. Andiamo is managed by 3GEN Management INC. 3GEN Management has the same registered agent and address and lists Jeffrey Richards, also of the same address as President of 3GEN Management.

On LinkedIn Thomas Storniolo identifies himself as the Controller/Secretary at New Frontier Management, Co. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-storniolo-3152a564/)…

New Frontier Management lists Thomas Storniolo as the registered agent and is also at 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. The president is listed as Claudia Cellini. New Frontier Developments has the same registered agent and address and also has Claudia Cellini listed as the president.

In a 2011 article on Bill Cellini, Bernie Schoenburg writes “New Vista’s address is listed as 20 S. Clark St. in Chicago, an address shared by several other firms associated with the Cellini family.” (http://www.sj-r.com/x422405742/Cellini-business-interests-remain-extensive-documents-show) The focus of that article is partly on New Frontier Companies. New Frontier Company, on their website http://www.nfcompanies.com/, lists their address as 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. The registered agent for New Frontier Company is Thomas Storniolo at 20 Clark Street, Suite 1600. The president for New Frontier Company is listed as William F. Cellini, Jr.

Additionally, you’ll see that the property was obtained January 3, 2017 for $575,000 (http://tax.co.sangamon.il.us/SangamonCountyWeb/app/saleSearchResults.action?pn=22-02.0-201-029&township=&saleClass=&saleYear=&fromDate=&toDate=&fromAcres=&toAcres=) Yet, it is listed on CMS lease inventory going back to October of 2016 for a lease starting February 1, 2017 (https://www.illinois.gov/cms/agency/property/leasing/Documents/October-2016-CMS-Lease-Inventory.pdf) In October, 2016 CMS is listing a lease starting Feb 1,2017 with CCH for a building they don’t even purchase until January 3, 2017.

The lease started before the property was even purchased by the new owners? That ought to raise some eyebrows. But it’s that Cellini family name which could gin this up even more. This may very well be all smoke and no serious fire, but it’s an easy thing to understand for Springfieldians who’ve seen these types of deals for decades.

* You can read more from the Senate Democrats by clicking here. One brief excerpt…

CMS put out for bid three times the need for warehouse space before settling on the Springfield location. Only two landlords responded – apparently a sign of property managers’ reluctance to do business with the state of Illinois, which is more than $12.6 billion behind in paying vendors.

*** UPDATE ***  From CMS Acting Director Mike Hoffman with all emphasis in the original…

Hi Rich –

First, this lease was handled in the exact same way as every other lease as required by law, which includes review and approval by the independent Chief Procurement Officer.

It was posted publicly on the Illinois procurement bulletin and reviewed by the Procurement Policy Board.

State and Federal law requires the safe keeping of these documents.

The Quinn administration was inappropriately keeping these documents in dilapidated facilities around the state including Dwight Correctional Facility. These facilities were not designed for storage of sensitive materials and some files were incurring damage from flooding, mildew and mold. In addition, DHS staff was unable to access many of these documents without having to travel and incur further costs.

Some of these storage areas also did not have the proper level of security to store these documents.

Under this administration, DHS made the decision to consolidate these documents in a more appropriate facility in Sangamon County – providing better access to the documents, greater security as well as a climate controlled space that would ensure the integrity of these documents as required by law.

Finally, the consolidation of these documents is an important first step in any future digitization effort. As far as the facilities that were used under the Quinn Administration, the storage of these documents at those sites precluded the sale or disposal of these locations of which the maintenance and upkeep costs taxpayers millions each year.

The initial requirement stated by DHS was 26,000 sq ft.

An RFP was put out twice with no responses.

By the time the third RFP was issued DHS’ space needs had already increased to 37,000 sq ft. and there were more sites scheduled to be consolidated which would increase their need even more.

As such, the option was exercised to take the full building of 60,000 sq ft.

It is important to note: that Climate Control Holdings was the only bidder who put forward two properties – CMS took the lesser of the two bids.

Rich, to your question about leasing before they owned:

The law allows CMS to enter into a lease as long as the party shows site control and/or option to buy – they had shown an option to buy.