Meanwhile, at the ESL Centre ...
While everything with the Rhinos has been happening, something's definitely also going down at the ESL Centre.
How do I know? Because I've sent two e-mails to the centre's board chairman, Jack Driscoll, and I haven't heard back all week, and he usually gets right back to me.
It might be because of what I asked him about: On March 3, the Monroe County Clerk's office filed two sets of liens involving the ESL Centre.
In the first lien, the debtors against whom the lien is placed are the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) and the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation (MCSCC), the agency that oversees the ESL Centre. The secured party listed is M&T Bank.
The second lien, which was filed five minutes after the first one, lists the debtor as MCSCC, while the secured party is COMIDA.
Random occurrence? Maybe not. One of the several bond sales issued by MCSCC to build the ESL Centre was a loan from COMIDA totaling $1,105,000. The maturity date on the loan? March 31, 2008, this Monday.
I'm not a lawyer — if anyone reading this IS a lawyer, or a real-estate person, jump in — but maybe the March 3 filings were simply a sort of restructuring on the centre's mortgage. Maybe the MCSCC board couldn't make the necessary payments, so it asked COMIDA to refinance.
Or maybe the ESL Centre just needed some quick cash because they were having problems paying other bills or having a drop in revenue. Like, for example, the pro shop isn't making money.
But several months ago, Driscoll said the centre was actually making money again — about $300,000 worth in 2007.
However, keep in mind that the centre is still millions of dollars in debt. And remember the existence of several other facts, including:
* COMIDA has come under fire recently with accusations of political patronage and corporate welfare, and that COMIDA is GOP-dominated and pretty much just a tool of the Minarik/Doyle/Brooks Monroe County machine.
* The owners of the majority of the ESL Centre's bonds — and, therefore, the centre itself — are Illinois businessman Leon Lekai and local developer David Christa, a fave of the Minarik machine.
* The ESL Centre is managed by Advanced Arenas, an Illinois firm owned by ... Leon Lekai. So, essentially, as the owner of the centre itself AND the centre's management firm, Lekai basically pays himself to run the centre.
And you also have to wonder how M&T Bank figures into the recent filings, i.e. why are COMIDA and MCSCC taking out a lien from M&T?
Can anyone out there make sense of this?
How do I know? Because I've sent two e-mails to the centre's board chairman, Jack Driscoll, and I haven't heard back all week, and he usually gets right back to me.
It might be because of what I asked him about: On March 3, the Monroe County Clerk's office filed two sets of liens involving the ESL Centre.
In the first lien, the debtors against whom the lien is placed are the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) and the Monroe Community Sports Centre Corporation (MCSCC), the agency that oversees the ESL Centre. The secured party listed is M&T Bank.
The second lien, which was filed five minutes after the first one, lists the debtor as MCSCC, while the secured party is COMIDA.
Random occurrence? Maybe not. One of the several bond sales issued by MCSCC to build the ESL Centre was a loan from COMIDA totaling $1,105,000. The maturity date on the loan? March 31, 2008, this Monday.
I'm not a lawyer — if anyone reading this IS a lawyer, or a real-estate person, jump in — but maybe the March 3 filings were simply a sort of restructuring on the centre's mortgage. Maybe the MCSCC board couldn't make the necessary payments, so it asked COMIDA to refinance.
Or maybe the ESL Centre just needed some quick cash because they were having problems paying other bills or having a drop in revenue. Like, for example, the pro shop isn't making money.
But several months ago, Driscoll said the centre was actually making money again — about $300,000 worth in 2007.
However, keep in mind that the centre is still millions of dollars in debt. And remember the existence of several other facts, including:
* COMIDA has come under fire recently with accusations of political patronage and corporate welfare, and that COMIDA is GOP-dominated and pretty much just a tool of the Minarik/Doyle/Brooks Monroe County machine.
* The owners of the majority of the ESL Centre's bonds — and, therefore, the centre itself — are Illinois businessman Leon Lekai and local developer David Christa, a fave of the Minarik machine.
* The ESL Centre is managed by Advanced Arenas, an Illinois firm owned by ... Leon Lekai. So, essentially, as the owner of the centre itself AND the centre's management firm, Lekai basically pays himself to run the centre.
And you also have to wonder how M&T Bank figures into the recent filings, i.e. why are COMIDA and MCSCC taking out a lien from M&T?
Can anyone out there make sense of this?
posted by Ryan Whirty at
12:19 AM
1 Comments:
If you can't reach me by email you could use my phone number.
Jack
By
Anonymous, at 7:57 AM
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