The elitists have failed in downtown. Bryan Jordan, as the CEO of First Horizons that holds the MRPP debt paper, should do the right thing, by stepping forward and admitting public-privates have failed Memphis. The City Council and County Commission should say the same thing, but are so out to lunch, on the ripoff of taxpayers by public-privates and quasis.

Meanwhile, the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) has failed the City all while a newly funded downtown public policy disaster, in the Sports Authority, revs up for business. There has been no advocacy from Chandell Ryan’s DMC on critical matters such as the Mud Island Gateway that serves downtown’s access to federal, state and local government. Additionally, DMC’s mobility authority has allowed the trolley to fail, while historically spending $100M on downtown public parking projects that benefit local developers.

Trumping the former, it was recently reported by the Commercial Appeal that DMC’s Downtown Mobility Authority (DMA) approved spending $4.2M more on garage maintenance. The garages benefitting are as follows: Shoppers, Justice Center, Peabody, First Place and Barboro Flats. This looks more like an elitist money grab as the trolley fails to run, with the same ole justifying comments coming this time from DMC’s Brett Roler.

Roler, chief operation officer of the Downtown Memphis Commission, said “the goal of the parking study  (2nd study in 5 yrs.) was to prioritize the upkeep of existing parking and extend the buildings' useful life. We want to think of building new parking as an option of last resort". Keep in mind, the last 2018 parking study had the same goal, only to have the unneeded $40M Downtown Garage Mahal Mobility Center built with $40M in local tax dollars.

A closer look at the DMA Board members reveals that only 1 of the 6 members lives in downtown, while the Chair Elliot Emby lives in East Memphis. Clearly not a group that would be concerned with daily downtown trolley service. Let’s take a closer at the DMCs FY24 year-end unaudited financials, while knowing the $4.2M mentioned above will be accounted for in FY25.

First, from the Center City Revenue Finance Corporation income statement, the $3M “Pass Through Income” was not even budgeted. Financial notes reveal “Pass Through Income” comes from tourism surcharge receipts. Might have been a departing Strickland thank you to the elitists (DMC FY24).

At the same time, $5M in expenses against that funding were exceeded by $2M, resulting in some funding coming from the supposedly restricted for public parking “PILOT Extension Fund”. So on what was “Pass Through Income” actually spent? Are our local “visionary philanthropists” ripping public coffers? As a proud local conspiracy theorist, I am confident the “visionaries” are ripping public coffers.

Next, to the DMA Financials. If one conservatively adds $3M in debt service for the Downtown Mobility Center and Peabody garages, which is not accounted for in the financials,  both garages are losing money as well as a $2M loss for garage operations overall. This signals an excess in public garage construction of around 1,000 spaces or the entire $40M Garage Mahal build (DMC FY24).

Spending $4.2M more on garages is even more nuts. And most unusual is spending money on the Peabody garage when the CCRFC owes the City of Memphis $11.5M for that garage! And the CCRFC has a balloon payment on the Garage Mahal in December of 2028 of $30.5M. Where will they get the money? Garages are losing money (CCRFC). Will it be bailout from the Sports Authority?

Alan Crone’s  Sports Authority is revving up for business with $230M from the state and another assortment of funding sources to include MLGW PILOT fees, rental car and hotel/motel tax revenue streams. Those annual revenue streams, to additionally include the NBA tax, position the Sports Authority to spend $550M supposedly for FedEX Forum. But the most such a  renovation should cost is $60-$120M. So that leaves $400M in excess spending for downtown.

And really folks wonder what has happened to the rest of district 8 and the City as a whole? Significant local funding that could go to public coffers have been dedicated to the elitist botching of downtown. WOW ! Even if the elitist said they were not going to spend all of that money downtown, they would not be generous, but only from a civic standpoint, not as stupid as they already are.

Even if one gives  the riverfront gang credit above for their claimed accomplishments they have still failed. For example, the above table does not argue the value of Tom Lee Park but grants credit to MRPP for their claimed success. Even with that credit, Downtown and the City as a whole, have failed to progress while overspending in Downtown district 8.

Seems course correction is in order. And with cash bubbles appearing on the MLGW balance sheet and the Sports Authority, might the public become aware enough to save the City from more elitist downtown spending? That's what needs to happen because excessive public spending, which many times is ripped off, is not the answer for moving Memphis forward....

CCRFC Loan Agreement

Commercial Appeal

DMC FY24 Unaudited Year End Financials