Harrison Spin
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 5/9/08 @ 1:15 am - Filed Under Local Politics
A follow up post to what John Kalb and Mitch Harper already wrote. Harper points out the discrepancy between what Greg Leatherman was telling people and what Barry Real Estate is telling people.
On April 22nd, the Journal Gazette’ Ben Lanka reported that City Director of Redevelopment Greg Leatherman told the Redevelopment Commission members that 9 Harrison Square condominiums were sold.
Today, May 8th, the News-Sentinel’s Kevin Leininger reports that Barry Real Estate officials say that only “4 or 5″ have been sold.
Now I’m willing to at least give Leatherman the benefit of the doubt and assume he misspoke because he was just misinformed or misunderstood the current status. However one thing that has really irked me is the ridiculous spin being bantered about in regards to the Harrison “waiting line”. According to the spin the reason the condos haven’t sold that quickly is because they are allowing people to make a decision in the order they put down their deposits. Here’s what was reported by the JG:
While Barry is trying to work diligently to convert its list of people with refundable deposits to sales, Leatherman said it has been slow because the company is working with people in the order they placed the deposit.
That excuse is absolutely ridiculous and hopefully Leininger’s story will finally put an end to it. There should obviously be a deadline for making a decision - each damn person in line shouldn’t get weeks to make up their mind. The truth is the project is in trouble and at least Barry Real Estate is being honest about the situation:
“A year ago, the economy was different,” he said, alluding to a soft housing market that makes some people more reluctant to buy and others unable to sell, denying them the cash they need for a new condo. Problems within the banking industry have also complicated financing for the project, but Irwin said Barry is meeting with other institutions and is confident the necessary funding can be secured.
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