The Check's In the Mail

Everyone in Northwest Arkansas knows that Fayetteville has a big hole in the ground instead of the nice Renaissance Tower hotel that was promised by developers more than two and a half years ago. Almost everyone hopes that the project will eventually be finished, but it certainly is not now. It is called "The Big Dig" and worse. The City has received none of the promised income stream from the Tax Increment Finance District it adopted to subsidize the developers and their private venture, and the holders of several million dollars in bonds issued by the city expect to be paid. Now.

“I think they’re going to pay,” said Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams, so he decided not to bring the matter to the Fayetteville City Council for action to collect the $25,042 monthly payment for liquidated damages from the developers. They told Mr. Williams that they would send the check at the end of the month. They missed the deadline at the first of the month, not at the end of the month, so on what authority did Mr. Williams give them a 30-days same as cash deal?

An editorial in today's local variant of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says "there's no reason not to believe them." I, too, think that developers John Nock and Richard Alexander will pay up, but they should have done so two weeks ago, and it would still be prudent to bring the matter to the City Council next week to establish the record and the facts. A lot of people are still waiting for payments from other prominent local developers that were taken at their word.