Excelius t1_jaigl6s wrote on March 1, 2023 at 5:52 PM

Reply to comment by mmphoto412 in As construction begins on Atlanta’s “Cop City,” Pittsburghers are concerned about an allegedly similar local project by LostEnroute

Strip district is prime real estate now. Could probably sell the land for a few million to a developer that will put it back on the tax rolls, and then move those operations to a less expensive area.

mmphoto412 t1_jaih1t5 wrote on March 1, 2023 at 5:55 PM

I understand that point of view. However the city in the past seems to have a habit of selling valuable real-estate far below market value to someone who is politically connected.

Also, by the time the city buys land and builds another facility, they would likely spend more than whatever was made by selling the property.

Excelius t1_jaiibs0 wrote on March 1, 2023 at 6:03 PM

> Also, by the time the city buys land and builds another facility, they would likely spend more than whatever was made by selling the property.

The city doesn't have to buy land. This site is the former Veterans Administration hospital campus and the federal government gave the land to the city for free.

mmphoto412 t1_jaijil1 wrote on March 1, 2023 at 6:10 PM

They scrapped plans to do this, and to make it exclusively a cop playground. Meaning this property is no longer available for this. Someone posted this elsewhere in the thread.

Nonetheless, they would likely spend more on a replacement then whatever they would make on a real estate sale.

Excelius t1_jaila52 wrote on March 1, 2023 at 6:21 PM

The land already belongs to the city, it was transferred in 2020.

They city may have scaled back their initial ambitions for the site given the ballooning costs, but the land will still be there and could be further built out at a later date. Assuming they didn't expand the scope of the police training center to include the portion of the land that would have been used for vehicle maintenance and storage.

OnyxFiskar t1_jajbnim wrote on March 1, 2023 at 9:06 PM

Part of the stipulation of the federal govt selling the VA hospital and all the facilities was that the city HAS to use it for public safety. They legally are not allowed to use that property for any other purchase. The cost of relocating all of those operations from the strip would dwarf the revenue from what they would recouperate from selling the land and the added tax revenue. Its not even close.

Excelius t1_jajeq99 wrote on March 1, 2023 at 9:24 PM

> The cost of relocating all of those operations from the strip would dwarf the revenue from what they would recouperate from selling the land and the added tax revenue. Its not even close.

Certainly, I wasn't imagining those things would somehow recoup the entire cost, merely offset it.

Apparently not all of the existing operations are on city owned property, in their press release the city claimed that the move would "allow the City to save millions of taxpayer dollars on leases of private properties used by the Department of Public Safety and to move key City-owned properties and parcels back onto tax rolls".

It didn't specify which operations were on city owned properties, and which are on leased properties, nor the time horizon that the "millions in savings" might be realized.