There’s an all-day event taking place at the University of Michigan School of Business on Friday, March 2nd entitled “The Future of Development: How to Make Money and Make a Difference in Urban Redevelopment.” I don’t know for certain that we’d learn anything there that we don’t already know, and it would be pretty hard to justify sending very many people, as the tickets cost $275 a piece, but it seems to me that Ypsi might want to have at least one person in the room, if only to make the panelists, and those attending, aware of the enormous “opportunity” we know as Water Street. And, who knows, one of them might have a great idea as to how we can get something going. (If we don’t have the money to send someone, and if the organizers are unwilling to let someoen from Ypsi in for free, I volunteer to start a collection drive here at MM.com. I’ll even put in the first $10.) Here’s a clip from the UM release:
…In addition to (Peter) Allen, the one-day workshop will be taught by real estate attorney Robert Berlow of Kickham Hanley; commercial mortgage banker Lawrence Hadley, president of Hadley & Associates; Thomas Wackerman, president of ASTI Environmental, a brownfield restoration and risk assessment firm; and William Watch, president of First Commercial Realty & Development.
The agenda will include lunch and a bus tour of Ann Arbor developments, as well as an optional reception and dinner beginning at 5:30 p.m…
Hmmmm….. I wonder how difficult it would be to get that bus to take a short detour to Ypsi…
[If anyone in the audience has access to chloroform and knows how to drive a bus, let me know. I think I might have an idea.]
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On the subject of Water Street, I went to that public meeting last week, and I’ve been wanting to post something about it, but I just haven’t had the time to go through my notes. Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to do it this weekend.
You might want to contact those in charge of the event and ask how they’re organizing the material. There might be an opportunity for Water Street to be presented as a test case, along with other local projects, like Lower Town in Ann Arbor. The advantage would be that those presenting would have to give the matter some thought beforehand.
pardon my cynicism, but I would guess that this conference will tend to stick to the reality-tunnel of ‘successful’ projects, as doing otherwise would undercut the self-importance of the attendees.
After all, it’s not called “The future of development: How to lose money and bankrupt your city.”