In the latest Downtown "renaissance" news the owners of the Parker Inn, Parker Inn LLC have filed for bankruptcy protection. State and County taxpayers are on the list of creditors.

     Behind the first First Niagara is NY Business Development Corp and holding the bag in third {as usual} our own Metrograft Authority. The term closed out second should be familiar to Death Ray after the Van Dyke fiasco. Let's see how the People's Gazetto and other cheerleaders for socialism deal with this latest bombshell.

It's a nice looking building though...Imagine if they had to pay taxes on their full assessment how much quicker they would have gone bankrupt.  Can't wait to see the Gazette puff piece.  You would think the Lion King would have saved the Parker Inn.

Looks like the Metroplex gig is up.  It is falling brick by brick.  Supporting business by bonding our children's futures isn't a sound economic strategy after all.  Our kids will have to pay these debts for this fu(king boondoggle.

There are many many businesses that have stated that they are all hanging on by a thread down there. As far as the Lyon King.....did morris/gillen forget to say that all of the eateries had to give free meals exclusively to the actors/staff 'every single day'.....while closing the doors to the walk-ins?

And talk about planning...........Where is morris' Key Bank Banquet Hall located in conjunction with Parker Inn?

The plex has got to be abolished before they add more damage to the already economic train wreck in schenectady!!!!!

   The entire corrupt DEM house of cards is collapsing. Governmental largess for the arts has dried up. Metrograft has bumped up to its debt limit. Good luck getting a dime back from the Parker Inn.

       But Mercury Morris has a plan! Takeover the Parker Inn yanking it off the City tax rolls and giving it a stronger arts theme. A hostel for visiting artistes subsidized by the starving City taxpayers. This way he can control an entire block with flops and half baked business ventures. Only in Schenectady County. To small for a County-too big for an insane asylum.

Quoted from CICERO

It's a nice looking building though...Imagine if they had to pay taxes on their full assessment how much quicker they would have gone bankrupt.  Can't wait to see the Gazette puff piece.  You would think the Lion King would have saved the Parker Inn.

Looks like the Metroplex gig is up.  It is falling brick by brick.  Supporting business by bonding our children's futures isn't a sound economic strategy after all.  Our kids will have to pay these debts for this fu(king boondoggle.

Oh so agreed.   And DV has been wearing his little short skirt shaking those pom poms saying this is all Schenectady's miracle, it's a renaissance.

So DV, now that you have cheered for that savage to make financially struggling homeowners pay the taxes of the rich downtown, are you now doing the cheers for the taxpayers picking up the tab for the financial obligations for these bankruptcies?????    Well????????  

I think there is so much coming out showing the truth about the city, the robbing of taxpayers and the leaders total disregard for the residents and the residential neighborhoods, that DV has become too embarrassed to post on these boards.  He can't handle the criticsm, he can't handle admitting that he has been wrong all along

even WITH the handouts, they're still bankrupt??   Classic

Quoted Text

SCHENECTADY
Parker Inn bankrupt, plans to stay open
New plans include upscale apartments
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

The corporation that owns the Parker Inn, a 23-room boutique hotel at 434 State St., is filing for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection but will remain open during the reorganization, owner Chris Myers said on Friday.
“The reason for the Chapter 11 filing is the need to restructure debt on the building,” Myers said. “Chapter 11 will give us time to submit a reorganization plan that features our plans to subdivide the hotel into a mix of studio, one-bedroom and twobedroom apartments.”
    The Parker Building LLC owes three creditors: First Niagara, the New York Business Development Corp. and the Metroplex Development Authority, which is third creditor in line.
    Myers originally borrowed $750,000 combined from the two banks and $800,000 from Metroplex. He currently owes Metroplex $684,000. The amount he owes the two banks could not be determined immediately. Metroplex loaned Myers $450,000 in October 2001 and loaned him an additional $350,000 in February 2003. Metroplex also provided Myers’ $3.3 million project with a $1 million grant. The project was one of Metroplex’s first deals and had the support of the City Council at the time.
    Metroplex Chairman Ray Gillen criticized the original deal on Friday, saying it was poorly researched. Gillen became chairman in 2004, three years after the first loan was made to Myers, and most of the Metroplex board has turned over in the meantime. “The current Metroplex board had no role in this project. The Parker project was approved by the previous Metroplex board and board chair back in 2001,” he said.
    Gillen said the Parker Inn program was “burdened by too much debt, which will be addressed through the Chapter 11 process. The due diligence performed on the original project was inadequate, especially with regard to debt service versus income from the hotel.” Gillen said Metroplex views Myers’ plan as the best way to restructure the current debt.
    Myers said he plans to turn several of the inn’s 23 rooms into corporate apartments, adding kitchens and other amenities. “In recent months, we have signed leases to convert two rooms into apartments due to strong demand from locally based business people, especially those new to the area, who are looking for fullservice corporate living space,” he said. “The market response to these units has been excellent. Going forward, we plan to convert additional rooms as apartments. We may also explore the opportunity to sell individual units as condominiums.”.......................>>>>.....................>>>>........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00101&AppName=1

Only the Parker Inn is burdened by too much debt? Not the City nor the County-lol. Old Metrograft/New Metrograft nothing improves. No new jobs-no revenue generation. And now more surplus housing for Downtown! What happened to the condo project announced 2 years ago for lower Union Street?

      Death Ray is working overtime trying to distance himself from the latest Downtown debacle. Why didn't he try to restructure this "plan" during his last six years? In two days 2 former DSIC employees were arrested for stealing 90 City tree grates and the Parker Inn goes belly up. And it isn't summer yet. Both Metrograft and the pathetic DSIC must go the way of the buggy whip.

You know - there's a reason respectful presidents do not criticize their successors.

It will be Death Ray's turn sometime - and he's got a lot more crappy deals that were done under his watch.

When gillen took over, it would have been expected that he went over the plex deals with a fine tooth comb and re-negotiated the previous suspected questionable deals. This is the taxpayer's money after all...right? Gillen takes blame, along with the previous chair for this irresponsible 'millions of dollars' project.

Did gillen or any of the plex board members check the Parker Inn's financial status on a regular base? Did they and are they examining ALL of the plex funded businesses' financial status regularly? If they are not, then they are held 100% responsible. The plex are in the role of 'investors'. And they are investing OUR money.

Each and every recipient of plex aka tax dollars, should have to go before the plex board (which should consist of residents) and review their books. If there are any signs of business financial decline, then perhaps their original agreement should be re-negotiated. The plex is the 'gate keeper' of OUR money after all.

Any good CEO knows that when they take over the helm of a business, they look at previous deals and financial standings FIRST. They correct anything questionable that may hurt the business in the future. Not so with gillen/plex! Why should he care? He has an endless supply of taxpayer's money!!!    He is clearly not qualified for the job and he along with the plex should be abolished!!!!!

As trump would say.........YOU'RE FIRED!!!

No matter what Gillen says, the fact remains - Parker Inn FAILED.  Not because of the structure of the loans, but because THERE IS NO BUSINESS TO SUPPORT IT.  This didn't fail because of lack of wisdom from our failed economic planners.  It failed because there wasn't enough demand to meet the supply.  And if they didn't receive millions in subsidies and property tax exemptions, PARKER INN WOULD HAVE NEVER OPENED IN DOWNTOWN SCHENECTADY.  They took a business risk with taxpayer money.  A risk which if fails, the taxpayer is on the hook. A risk which Parker Inn otherwise would never have taken with their own money because they know the business climate in Schenectady sucks.  Why does it suck?  Because of high crime, government largess in the form of crony capitalism, and government-patronageism.

And then a $12 M government paid Hampton Inn is built next door with a free parking lot and millions in Plex funds?

How much did Hampton get from Metrograft?

Quoted from CICERO

This didn't fail because of lack of wisdom from our failed economic planners.  It failed because there wasn't enough demand to meet the supply.

Sure there wasn't enough demand to meet the supply. Then where were the so called 'economic planners'? Ya know the ones that dole out millions of taxpayer's money that support/relocate these businesses? Aren't they the ones that the taxpayers are supposed to entrust their money to?

Gillen 'admittedly' stated that he saw the titanic sinking 6 years ago and did NOTHING!!!!

If gillen was the ceo of a private company.........he would have been REPLACED/FIRED a long time ago!!!!

Quoted from bumblethru

Sure there wasn't enough demand to meet the supply. Then where were the so called 'economic planners'?

Our politically appointed economic planners don't make decisions based on sound economics, but rather what's politically advantageous.