Beating a dead horse is an understatement. I think we get the point and understand you believe it will fail. Are you able to contribute something new or newsworthy to this thread?
Actually what I've said is that at this point no one knows and that any predictions will be based on speculation. I apologize if my attempt at humor was seen as piling on.
Updated aerial photos from 4/27/11. http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.219947228031625.77958.219399881419693 Difficult to tell, but yes, it is hilly around here unlike Houston which is just flat swapland.
This happens all the time in funding of new projects. An idea is floated... seed capital is invested. The idea of seed capital is that it kicks off the project and gets things going - the goal is to take the project from an idea to a provable concept with the seed capital. Once the idea is viable, they do additional rounds of investment to take the company to further stages (hence the terms seed capital, first, second, third round funding, etc). I believe Red invested the seed capital, and because Tavo needed it *badly*, Red probably got a pretty sweet deal for his money. They have not gotten the next round of funding, IMO, which is why they are stalled on construction. They are milking the seed capital and trying to make it go as far as possible. Right now, it is a sales process. They are trying to sell the project to investors. And the selling points are the return on investment to those investors. If those investors believe there will not be a return on their investment, or if they believe the project is not viable, they won't invest. And they aren't investing
In order to avoid flogging a dead horse,... would you care to provide an interpretation of the linked photos?
Maybe, SRT Mike, but I suspect they are holding out on the permitting of Facilities structures until the $$$$$ of the Road Upgrade is worked out. There would be no need to blow that capitol from the on premise budget, if they can get Travis County to sign off that it is "needed", and fund it... The Farm to Market Road budget $$$$$ is HUGE here, and the money flows from that fund to the counties once it is 'green lighted", based upon "need". For an existing road, they just meter current usage and "count cars' but on a project like this the numbers are a little harder to conjure.. A completed facility bottlenecked for access WOULD be a problem....
The problem with rich guys, is they have a penchant for making money. Black holes that consume money at a huge rate with no return tend to be their kryptonite
Whoa there doggie.. we haven't even reached the gloat stage yet. Us doubters put up with alot of heat - we need that
It stretches the bounds of reason that they are holding up a $400mm project that carries a $25mm payment per year and a $10mm penalty for non completion this year, over a $5mm dispute about road improvements. There is no reason it must be solved before construction begins - in other words, they can pay the money now and continue haggling to get the city to reimburse. Sure, that makes their negotiating position weaker, but they are already in a weak position.. if they don't pay the $5mm, they stand to suffer to the tune of over $35mm.
I'm not trying to knock him off the bandwagon of doubters. Your posts are a bit more speculative and telling than Vis' posts have been in recent pages. I will spare my time by not quoting them all.
The CNN report on Circuit of The Americas. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/sports/2011/05/08/mckay.texas.formula.one.cnn?hpt=C2
You are confusing the Event Tax Subsidy with the hard costs of the Road Improvements. Two different items. I think the road upgrades are more than $5M???.....but I dunno. Even if that's a real number WHO signs the check is a big deal. I guess I need to crank up some queires with Austin Commercial, but I haven't had the time. Nor the rappor, with my Methodist Hospital team.
i think 5.6 if memory serves me right. I think the local municpality is trying to set up a special tax to fund it. Who knows TXDots budget just grew by a few billion this year, they might have enough lying around
TxDOT does indeed have "plenty of it lying around"..... We did $9M in TRAFFIC SIGNALS for the City of Houston. One project.. Maybe we'd bid that phase of the roadwork....they have me duct taped to my chair, these days...
don't know much about traffic lights, but that just sounds expensive. you check that you tube video from the facebook us gp friends out?? (post 1334) any idea what all that piping and stuff is for?
Thanks William. The link was posted a few pages back, but no one other than me commented on it. With my jade colored glasses, I didn't find it very reassuring... Tavo had nothing to show but a few computer graphics and a few idle pieces of grating equipment. I also didn't find his speaking particularly confident...
Facebook is covered over in duct tape, too!! LOL! No I have not seen any of those postings. The underground package we saw a link for, was 'water and sewer only'...these big project bid out in multiple phases, where they beat down each one, to the bare minimum $$$. We had an owner recently tell us "Times are so bad, we don't expect you to bid it at a profit." Yea, well......... But it gives you a glimpse into the midset of some developers....
