13 posts were merged into an existing topic: Raleigh Stadium/Arena/Sports Discussions
Howard University is working on a lot of joint development projects around its campus in DC – everything in this article except the last project is on university owned land.
Just these five projects have 1700 units, and that’s just the first set of projects on 27 acres that were recently rezoned.
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I stayed in an airbnb by their campus last time I was in DC. Pretty campus, cool neighborhood, clearly gentrifying in a hurry.
I’m unclear on why the AG has to approve this? Sorry if this has been discussed and I forgot.
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Required for a nonprofit to transfer an interest in a majority of its assets
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Not sure there’s much new info here, but the clock is ticking
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wake tech with numerous African immigrants is probably doing economic needs. no hate or indifference but I would say raze and redevelop with neighborhood input.
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I think he’ll approve it just may not be on time though. Jeff Jackson just got into office a few days ago.
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It seems like January 25th came and went and I haven’t heard anything new about the approval of the St Augustine’s deal. Are there any ramifications for the deadline here?
“The North Carolina Attorney General will not approve a land-lease deal to help save the financially troubled Saint Augustine’s University.”
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The rationale makes sense. Fuzzy financials, bad paperwork, unclear roadmap for the future, all of the usual stuff that comes up around St. Aug’s.
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Just read the whole thing. To sum it up, it sounds like the AG is concerned that there is a huge gap between the value of the land and what SA is getting for the land.
SA seems concerned that the new AGs office is using the same counsel that the old AGs office used. Not sure why, counsel is counsel. Acting like a new AG is required to give a new opinion on the matter seems strange.
EDIT: read it again and I misread. They think Self Help is upset that SA didn’t use them for funding and SA rejected their offer for assistance. They didn’t specify when where or how Self Help was brought in, so that part remains a mystery.
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Indy Week has a couple of good new articles that go into more details on both the Gothic Ventures loan and the land lease arrangement with the 50 Plus 1 Sports development:
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WOW, this is actually significantly worse than I imagined. Honestly, after reading these two articles and the WRAL piece, they deserve what’s coming unfortunately.
Another creditor was offering 1/3 the rate from Gothic and repay all outstanding debts, but simply asked the two individuals responsible for this mess to resign and they refused? They are looking for a cash grab, plain and simple.
Their financial troubles are worse than originally reported too:
“On top of the Gothic Ventures loan, the university owes about $9 million in unpaid taxes to the IRS, which has placed liens on its property. SAU owes millions more to other creditors and recently slashed its budget and workforce by half in order to shore up its finances.”
The AG’s office said it asked multiple times for more information to help address its concerns with the 50+1 loan, but the school hasn’t supplied anything. But SAU instead sent a response to WRAL?
These aren’t serious people who would like to see the University succeed. They are looking for an easy way out, without doing any homework, and couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to care when the AG’s office asked.
WHAT A JOKE!
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Maybe all the students can come to William Peace University with me in the fall lol!
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At this point, it’s like whack-a-mole.
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SAU leaders clearly not interested in anything but lining their pockets. Taking a loan just fixes their institutional financial problems. Ramming that revenue sharing partnership through gives a nice pool of funds to skim from in the future 
Hell, they may have even been able to do it if they actually attempted to address any of those asks from the AG. Clear incompetence, 501c3 obligations are nothing new.
Hard to see how SAU can avoid eventual default. Even securing additional financing seems like kicking the can down the road if they don’t address enrollment and graduation rates. At a certain point, it makes more sense for creditors and developers to just wait it out and pick up the pieces after SAU becomes insolvent.
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St Augustine’s lost their appeal over its accreditation status. They will continue to kick the can down the road and pursue a 90 day arbitration process.
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This is beginning to feel like a “Karen Ann Quinlan” sort of case.
Let’s see who’s old enough to catch the reference.