RIVERFRONT: Taxpayers Did Not Sign Up For This! | Written by: Joe B. Kent
Local & National News | February 27, 2024
Local & National News | February 27, 2024
Written by: Joe B Kent
Time has come for Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) to be shut down. If one just reflects, the Riverfront could have been smartly reimagined for $40M. A smart reimagination would have been the restoration of the historic Cobblestone Landing, addressing deferred maintenance of Mud Island and enhancing Tom Lee Park.
This budget season, along with MRPP designate Councilor Phillip Spinosa, Council Chair JB Smiley and Council Parks Chair Jeff Warren should lead the shutdown of MRPP. The shutdown would occur by ending MRPP’s $3M annual maintenance contract and additional subsidies from the Memphis Parks budget. MRPP has consistently demonstrated an unwillingness to perform public maintenance. Besides, MRPP is just not a maintenance organization, and it shows.
Taxpayers never, ever, ever, signed up for what has happened on the Riverfront, while the rest of the City has deteriorated before their eyes. In the end, the Riverfront bill will approach $200M, as opposed to $40M, in mostly unneeded capital improvements and increased maintenance costs.
Now some will say that hindsight is 20-20. But it was known, without hindsight, that the City has a history of not maintaining itself. A clear example is the currently unmaintained City Hall mall area and its Mud Island garage gateway. And that’s just a start.
Again, taxpayers never signed up for Beale Street Landing, Tom Lee Park overhaul, boat docks and moving Brooks from the center of the City to Downtown. And they sure did not sign up for MRPP paying interest on Tom Lee Park construction, as MRPP is currently doing, due to uncollected private pledges, all while taxpayers paid their money upfront.
As the City of Memphis forks out $3M per year to MRPP for maintenance plus more from the Memphis Parks budget, annual interest costs from a $20M line of credit, of an estimated $750K per year, eat into MRPPs primary job now of performing maintenance. In a Daily Memphian article comment, Sam Cantor, MRPP’s Treasurer said,
Cantor’s statement points to the problem. Taxpayers did not know! Nor did taxpayers know that one of MRPP’s primary acts was going to be running Memphis In May out of Tom Lee Park. And there is no way that taxpayers could have known, as MRPP’s meetings were closed to the public, while the City of Memphis Riverfront Steering Committee never held public meetings or reported out.
The fact is that taxpayers are today paying MRPP’s loan interest through decreased maintenance from uncollected private pledges. Just look at the unmaintained Mud Island garage gateway to Renasant Convention Center, City Hall, Federal and County government.
Overall Maintenance and Mud Island
Separate from the $61M in Tom Lee Park capital improvements, let’s examine the topic of MRPP maintenance. In this section, please distinguish between “Mud Island Properties” and “Mud Island Park”. Again, taxpayers never signed up for this Riverfront and MRPP is not a maintenance organization.
For those concerned about Mud Island Park maintenance, they should know contractually, “Mud Island Park” is 1 of 10 “Mud Island Properties” consisting of 202 acres (Appendix/City of Memphis). Mud Island Park is 55 of 202 acres making up Mud Island Properties and Tom Lee Park 31 acres. Tom Lee Park is the 11th property under MRPP maintenance management, for a total of 233 acres under MRPP management.
The following figures are taken from the above table. From 2020-23 and excluding capital improvements, MRPP publicly received $17.8M for operations, property maintenance, and management or an annual average of $4.4M. Of the $17.8M, only $3.9M was spent across 202 acres of 10 Mud Island Properties (Comptroller). This left $13.8M for MRPP operations, Tom Lee Park (31 acres) maintenance and management over 4 years, or $3.5M per year.
Of the $3.9M for Mud Island Properties, $1.6M was for utilities, leaving only $2.3M for Mud Island properties operation, maintenance and management over 4 yrs., or $583K per year. The $583K must be divided amongst the 10 Mud Island “Properties”. So maybe $200K per year, of a $4.4M average annual MRPP operations, maintenance, and management budget, was spent on 55 acres across Mud Island Park. This accounting explains the condition of Mud Island Park.
And since Tom Lee Park was under construction much of the time between 2020-2023, its safe to assume that much of the $13.8M for operations, maintenance and management went toward Tom Lee Park capital expenditures.
Other MRPP Financial Matters
Again, taxpayers did not sign up for this Riverfront or paying interest on the $61M Tom Lee Park redevelopment. As previously referenced and this time more specifically, in December 2022, MRPP established a $20M line of credit at 7.79%, with First Horizons Bank. Due to uncollected private pledges, as of June 30, 2023, the outstanding balance on the line of credit was $9.5M (RDC-2023).
As an example, in 2022, MRPP projected $4M in pledge collections for FY23 (RDC-2022), but only collected $900K (RDC-2023). MRPP’s pushing Memphis in May out of Tom Lee Park may have soured the appetite for pledge donations. As of June 30, 2023, $11.2M in private pledges remained outstanding or an estimated 45% outstanding, near the time of Tom Lee Park completion.
And finally, MRPP is now at work scraping public coffers. At the February 20, 2024, Council meeting, MRPP received a $61K reimbursement for paving the Wagner parking lot. The Wagner parking lot was originally part of the $62M City/County PILOT Extension Fund range of public projects, approved December 15, 2020, by City Council and heard in Economic Development committee on November 17, 2020 (City Council).
Given the former, the City of Memphis publicly paid again for the Wagner parking lot paving. The City/County $62M would have easily covered the $61K Wagner paving costs. The actual Council resolution did not attach a specific value to the individual projects, which included the Mobility Center, Wagner/Cutbank, Shoppers Garage, First Place Garage and Brooks, but $62M collectively, for all named projects.
Conclusion
Taxpayers did not sign up for this Riverfront or paying interest for uncollected private pledges. And MRPP is not a public maintenance organization. And if they are allowed to continue, they will likely continue to scrape public coffers, while using maintenance money to pay off debt and not collect pledges in a timely manner if at all. MRPP must go. Let’s make sure it happens!
Check the Facts
