Some critics are insistent City Hall is straying from a promise that no public subsidy will support the new Steelyard Commons shopping plaza.Let's consider our options for "looking at the situation".
Whether or not they are correct may depend on how you look at the situation.
Steelyard Commons developer First Interstate Properties Ltd. will receive $30 million in federal tax credits and loans from the Northeast Ohio Development Fund.
1. Steelyard Commons, a $120 million project, is going to get $30 million in tax credits and low-interest loan financing from the Northeast Ohio Development Fund.
2. The NODF is a financing program of the Port Authority. The source of its subsidies is the Federal government.
3. The Port Authority is a public agency. The City of Cleveland appoints six of its nine board members. The county appoints the other three.
Thus a public agency, controlled by the City of Cleveland, is planning to provide a quarter of Steelyard Commons' permanent financing with federally subsidized funds.
Just how would you look at this situation and not see a heavy public subsidy for SYC and its anchor tenant, Wal-Mart? (The point of the subsidies is to lower SYC's debt service costs, so they can offer lower lease rates to their tenants.)
From the Land of Oz, perhaps.
P.S. Why is the Sun News getting a total scoop on this story?
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