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August 18, 2008
Forest City in the News
The strength of Forest City Enterprises's political connections has long been a factor and hallmark of the development company's success. A federal corruption probe into a land deal on Forest City's home turf reveals how lucrative these connections can be.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cuyahoga County missed a chance to save $2 million on juvenile center
On July 28, federal agents raided the offices of Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Auditor Frank Russo as part of a massive public corruption investigation. The agents seized, among many things, documents related to the juvenile justice complex at East 93rd Street and Quincy Avenue. What the feds are investigating is unclear, but turmoil has surrounded that property for years.
Cuyahoga County Commissioners celebrated as they signed a $2.75 million deal to buy land from Sunrise Land Co., a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, Inc.
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Just seven months earlier, the county could have saved taxpayers more than $2 million by snatching up the property itself up before the land was sold to Sunrise. ...
[O]n July 13, 1999, Sunrise bought most of the land at a County Auditor's sale for about $400,000, then sold it back to the county within months for a more than 500 percent return on its investment.Today, county officials are at a loss to explain why they weren't better stewards of the taxpayers' money in purchasing the property that former Mayor Michael White once called "the worst environmental hazard in the city" -- two years before he recommended it as a site for the juvenile center.
Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio officials can't explain land deal
Cuyahoga County officials are at a loss to explain why the county spent $2.75 million to buy land for a juvenile detention center when it could have bought the same land at a public auction for a small fraction of that price just seven months before, a newspaper reported Sunday.
County commissioners celebrated in late February 2000 when they signed the deal to buy the land from Sunrise Land Co., a move that ended a 14-year search for the home for a much-needed juvenile detention center, according to The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer. In July 1999, Sunrise, a subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises Inc., had bought most of the land at a county auditor's sale for about $400,000. The county didn't bid on the land.
Information on the land deal on Cleveland's East Side was a target in FBI raids last month on the homes and offices of county officials, including County Commissioner Jimmy DiMora, according to the newspaper.
Posted by lumi at August 18, 2008 4:32 AM