Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati

Photo courtesy of here.

On February 28th, 2007, City Council unanimously voted to enter into a Ground Lease agreement with 5/3 Bank regarding property on Fountain Square.  In the lease, the City of Cincinnati agreed to pay all hard and soft construction costs for the building that houses Via Vite restaurant.  Those costs were around $2.5 million dollars.  When asked, everyone at City Hall denies that the City had such an expenditure—despite the clear language from the 2007 ground lease—but no one has been able to provide documentation to discredit our claim.  Today, the City attempted to send The Beacon a document which shows no such expenditure, but it’s several months too early!

Construction began sometime around April, 2007.  As you can see from the image above, the draw report sent by the City to disprove our claim is dated December, 2006.  That doesn’t make any sense!

Here is a quick recap of our work so far. 

1.  Michael Earl Patton, The Beacon’s Senior Analyst, discovers the lease agreement.
2.  We send email to City Council, asking about the large expenditure.
3.  No one save Roxanne Quall’s office responds.  She was not on council at the time of the vote in question.
4.  The Dean speaks before council, formally asking for a written response to the inquiry.
5.  David Crowley writes, with some ideas about why the expense was not as we believe.
6.  We visit Crowley’s office to ask for documentation.  He sends us to Patrick Ewing.
7.  Patrick Ewing says to see either Christine Zimmer or Joel Koopman.
8.  Christine Zimmer says to see Patrick Ewing.  When we tell her that’s who sent us to her, she agrees that Joel Koopman is the person to see.
9.  We find Joel Koopman.  We tell him about the February, 2007 ground lease.  He says he doesn’t think the City paid $2.5 million, despite what the contract says.  He says he’ll get back to us by the end of the week.  He does not.
10.  After sending a follow up reminder to Koopman, he says information is being forwarded to City Hall for us.
11.  We receive the following email from Meg Olberding at City Hall:

Dear [Dean],

I understand from the city’s Law Department that you are seeking information about any city payment for the restaurant structure on Fountain Square.

The City expended $4 million on the entire Square renovation project.  The City funded portions of the demolition package for the former Square, portions of the garage restoration package, and the structural concrete package for the renovated plaza and reconstructed 5th Street.

In the outlaying of funding, the City’s money was spent early in the project and the city’s $4 million had been spent by June 2006.  The restaurant’s construction began after that.

The attached spreadsheet provides a summary of the expenditures for the Fountain Square project and has a column marked ““City Draw Totals” (11th column over from the left side of the page) that shows on what City funds were expended.  This should provide the information you are seeking.

If you need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Meg Olberding
Assistant to the City Manager/Public Information Officer
City of Cincinnati
801 Plum Street, Ste. 104
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

As stated above, and as you can see from the picture at the top of this article, the draw report is dated four months prior to the beginning of construction.

So I just sent this:

Ms. Olberding:

Thank you for sending a copy of that spreadsheet.  Unfortunately, the dates do not match our inquiry.  On February 28, 2007, City Council unanimously voted on a Ground Lease agreement with 5/3 Bank.  That agreement states that the City will pay all soft and hard construction costs for the restaurant facility.  The construction of that facility did not begin until April, 2007—so a report concerning expenditures through December, 2006 would not address our question.

Can you provide documentation about City expenditures relevant to the Ground Lease in question?

Thanks,

The Dean

Will they finally be able to show us the money?  Why is this so difficult?

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