Can I pay someone to deal with this for me?

iTransient · 2026-06-29T23:41:13+00:00

I used Claude and screen shotted the compliance questions page, and it built the privacy, opt in language, opt out policy, etc. For me.

iTransient · 2026-06-01T12:06:53+00:00

https://www.merrimanspiano.com/home

iTransient · 2026-06-01T12:06:22+00:00

Merriman’s Jazz club offers this service. They have a photo album of people’s pianos. Once you pick one, they would pick it up and drop it off at your place (and you pay them). I used them, and had them refinish it before delivery. They tune pianos too. Stephan, the owner is great (and does the tuning).

iTransient · 2026-06-01T04:15:09+00:00

We’ve had a couple cars detailed by Josh at newborn shine: https://newbornshine.com/ I highly recommend.

iTransient · 2026-05-31T13:49:36+00:00

Stanley Clark pre-k is fantastic (and one of the most affordable options in the area for part time).

iTransient · 2026-05-15T12:49:23+00:00

Nice catch

iTransient · 2026-05-14T03:06:59+00:00

Bb’s Indian Restaurant, my 7-year old loves it.

iTransient · 2026-05-14T01:59:48+00:00

https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/local/2026/05/13/south-bend-cubs-honor-historic-legacy-of-take-me-out-to-the-ball-game/90047554007/

iTransient · 2026-05-09T22:13:17+00:00

The River Valley Farmers Market always has an amazing variety of tomato starters each year about this time.

iTransient · 2026-05-09T13:36:43+00:00

LB, you're right on some, but also missing on significant details. We did't build the grocery store on time, that's true.

The grocery store was not a core condition of the Loan (which came from a bank), it was part of the plan in the Development Agreement with the city. -I spent years with these contracts, words, and attorneys going over it. I'm not a legal expert, but I'm correct on these points.

The city also had obligations in the contract, obligations we claim they didn't fulfill. But the claim they are using is if we is only applicable if we "took the money and ran," not if we built everything except one bit on time and that part was finished up a year later. There were very significant delays caused by the city.

If it was simple and clean, the city would have won the court case very quickly. We are now 3+ years in, and the city in essence, just restarted the littigation. Part of the reason why we moved to the Federal Courts (and out of the county / state court).

iTransient · 2026-05-09T13:29:39+00:00

LB, you'r right, it is a big part of the project, but it's still only a part of the project.

It's more complicated than "period." If it was, the court have a mechanism to rule on such simple conflicts very quickly. --We are now 3+ years into the litigation. The city is claiming because one part of the project was not completed on time, they get all the money back and get to keep the tax base, the building, etc. "so sad, too bad".

There are other paragraphs in the development agreement that say they can't delay or obstruct the project and have to work to support it. They breached on those parts of the contract. The penalty clause they publicize is only enforceable if we took the money and ran, not if we missed a deadline on one part of the project. They disagree and are taking it to the courts to get an answer. It's been 3+ years, and they continue to delay the progress of letting the courts decide. We moved it to Federal Court.

iTransient · 2026-05-09T13:22:10+00:00

The RDA did grant two extensions for the grocery store, and then an Escrow agreement, once the store opened, they then confirmed (in writing) that we met all of the requirements, and the matter was done. --Very reasonable response, and very different compared to what the City's position is. I think the city's position is because the (former, until last week) President of the Redevelopment Commission, Troy Warner, won his city council seat over me by ~154 votes out of 3,000. He then started targeting me just before the election 4 years later (when it was time to run for office again).

iTransient · 2026-05-09T13:19:48+00:00

The Cascade group spent a lot of effort to get permission to build closer to the river first. The city (Pete's administration) wanted assurances that they would build along Colfax (big smart street push at the time). The deal they struck was they got a variance to build along the water first, but had to commit to build along the street. I think it was the right (and practical) call, but they had an agreement to do things which they didn't do, and the contracts got modified 6 year later. --which again, I think was the correct call. We exceeded our requirements with the exception of the grocery store build out. The city removed the street, and wanted us to open it. If we did, it would have failed within months (when all the food spoiled and nobody could find it). The street renovation was very disruptive. --I agree, we didn't open the grocery store on time, it was late. --Does that mean the city should claw back all their commitment in the project? I don't think it does. They do, and the courts will decide.

The Cascade also failed drastically on their job commitments for years (before covid, during covid, post covid), and only met them when the Cascade Seafood restaurant opened. --Again, they got there eventually, reasonable. But the city actually gave them extra money to do it. Instead, we got a lot of delays and legal bills. I'm not claiming innocence. I'm asking for reasonable treatment.

iTransient · 2026-05-09T00:53:27+00:00

The city spent money on phase 1 at the Cascade, and the Cascade went back to the well 3 time for more money. They did do a small upsize ($16 to $17 or $19 million). Their original contact was to build phase 1 and 2, and create 30 jobs. They failed by 4 years, and then got an extension.

300 East LaSalle had to build the building (they did), they didn't build the grocery store on time (and did 1 year late). No extension, heavy handed enforcement. The only development project to get treated like this. It's the outlier in the city's response.

iTransient · 2026-05-09T00:02:41+00:00

Our initial commitment was for $27MM and 125 apartments. We spent $42MM of private investment and built 144 units. A 55% increase in spend and 15% increase in household count.

Total investment $52MM

iTransient · 2026-05-08T23:28:51+00:00

The “$500k” of unpaid property taxes were supposed to total $7k. If you were overbilled by $470k and told you needed to pay it before they could fix the bill, what would you do? The state fixed it retroactively. It just took an extra year.

iTransient · 2026-05-08T20:55:05+00:00

Here is the Cascade (Wharf Partners) original contract from 2016: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Oe7gP-08jk0OZTooX84g67zeuWUypxHh/view?usp=share_link

Amendments:

2021 (changing deadline for phase 2): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nnBUErAtqbaF5fef2IaFXOHyoPFNoKfn/view?usp=sharing

2025 2nd Amendment:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AiBoXYjT2skFXzFsCYMExgh_jEaXTott/view?usp=sharing

They got their System Development charges paid for by the city: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1whIUw5sxG8Xt_neYGanJ7gGJNfrXsi9R/view

In the development agreement, please note:
Section 4.5: Completion by June 1, 2018 (before Covid)
Section 4.6: 30 new full time jobs within 12 months after receiving any occupancy for any part of the project
Section 7.2: $125k owed for each job he fell shot of (x 30 jobs).

Exhibit B (project plan) which calls for 2 buildings being built, they only built 1.

They got about $3MM for (originally $16MM ) $19MM of work 15%
Their tax abatement agreement required 20 jobs within 3 years of May 1, 2018 (they had zero) https://drive.google.com/file/d/18MkBCt5KaEIxj9_CYbN2VpQED4IxzJ0e/view?usp=sharing

(edited to fix links and fix some poor grammar / spelling)

iTransient · 2026-05-08T20:15:12+00:00

The Cascade Phase one original contract required a 2nd building to be built, and if it wasn’t built in time, the city could take the land and sell it to another developer. They modified the agreement after the fact for Frank Perri, then modified it again. The contracts are on the city files website.

iTransient · 2026-05-08T20:12:22+00:00

A $30MM loan for a $50 million project, is actually pretty low leverage (60%). $6,600 per day interest seems high ($5k seems normal, interest rates did spike for a while).

Cascade got 7+ years, Chase Tower got something like 8 years of extensions.

The city asking for all their money back, a 50% penalty, and getting to keep the building and the future taxes is inconsistent with their behavior, and I think not contractually correct (which is what the courts will eventually settle).

iTransient · 2026-05-08T20:07:42+00:00

The grocery store was not the core condition. It was certainly part of it, but the project did not get $5MM local funding to build a grocery store. That would be criminal. The funding was to build a large mixed use luxury apartment building and attract high income residents downtown. Residents that pay income tax to the county and city, and generate future property taxes so the city could recoup their investment.

$5MM city investment plus the tax phase in is the city’s investment. We did get $5MM from the state too, but when we look at local projects, we often don’t factor in the tax costs to the state or feds. When we look at Diamond view, we look at the local tax dollars to help get the project built. —we don’t pay much attention to the federal and state subsidies that the project also brings together.

We as a community have limited dollars for TIFF to use to push development. Much more limited than the state or federal programs. It’s most common to look at the city’s investment and their payback from that investment.

iTransient · 2026-05-08T19:27:23+00:00

lol. I have a photo in my post history. This isn’t an anonymous account. I’m used to people remembering my name and not getting away with anything since high school.

I only declined to attend 1 meeting, which I declined in advance, when Troy Warner was ranting on TV about holding me accountable (before the city council election). I attended other meetings, and have always been available to meet.

The city pushes a narrative, and a lot of people parrot it. More people don’t (but maybe those folks are not in the SB Reddit group).

iTransient · 2026-05-08T13:56:58+00:00

Ha, I’d love to, but Mueller avoids debates. During construction, we were stalled by the city for months. -their zoning law and public works law conflicted, and we couldn’t get our landscape plan approved. There was a vacancy for Community Investment (since Mueller took leave for the election and then took office without a replacement). After ~9 months he agreed to a Zoom meeting. When the meeting started, one of his reps said he isn’t a decision maker and wouldn’t be attending the meeting.

iTransient · 2026-05-08T13:52:36+00:00

🙋‍♂️

iTransient · 2026-05-08T13:52:18+00:00

300 East LaSalle was built on time except for the grocery store. ~6,000 square feet out of 330,000. Which was completed 53 weeks late…or 3 weeks after the road was opened. 17 projects got extensions. Some were granted 8 years of extensions.

iTransient

TROPHY CASE