Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Beale Street Landing: Not on Time, Not Within Budget
Posted by John Branston on Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 10:43 AM
The Riverfront Development Corporation says the cost of former mayor Willie Herenton's signature riverfront project has increased by $8.9 million and the completion date is now the summer of 2011.
The cost overrun was not unexpected. When BSL came before the Memphis City Council in May, RDC director Benny Lendermon insisted the project cost, originally pegged at $27.4 million, was $31 million even though various documents from City Hall showed the cost was in excess of $33 million. When Councilman Kemp Conrad asked about "the delta" between the numbers, Lendermon said reports about the higher number were inaccurate.
It is now clear that they were, but on the low side, not the high side. The RDC now says the "current construction estimate" is $35 million.
The RDC reported the bad news last week in the fourth paragraph of a story on its website headlined "Beale Street Landing answers call for reunion of Memphis and the Mississippi."
"RDC has been especially prudent in managing its operating funds and careful in value-engineering various aspects of the project to reduce costs. Increases are due to a combination of delays, redesigns related to historical preservation issues, and cost escalation related to schedule delays. In addition, unexpected Congressional holdbacks have meant that federal funds designated for the project have been reduced by more than $1.4 million below what was anticipated and budgeted. Due to this nearly three-year delay, the RDC expects about $9 million in combined cost increases and funding decreases."
"Roughly $7 million of the cost increase is directly related to construction inflation, which was exacerbated as a result of Hurricane Katrina."
The federal funds "holdbacks" mean Memphis taxpayers will be asked to pay the difference as well as the cost increase. The project is underway at the north end of Tom Lee Park.
Comments (41)
Showing 1-41 of 41
Get the contract first. And then you can charge whatever you want. I am a big fan of the RDC. Huge.
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I am shocked, just shocked that this project is behind schedule and over budget. That cannot possibly be happening in Memphis.
Is it too late to add the skate park to the Beale Street Landing? What's a few million dollars amoung well connected friends?
It would be an incredible urban/park space if built, but even I am slowly becoming aware that this town can screw up even the smallest of projects. Thank goodness the rest of the world manages to operate at a higher level. Otherwise the Arch in St. Louis would be a pair of metal stubs, the Empire State would be a hole in the ground and Hoover Dam would be a rough spot in the Colorado.
Oh my, here we go again only this time with Lendermon and the rest of those good ole boys whose hands are deep in the workings of City Hall, the past administration and developer contracts. Junk it, start over with a simpler, more easily funded and constructed plan. This one was a loser from the get-go. Where is Sidney Schlenker when we really, really need him.......
"This town" didn't screw up Beale Street Landing. It was proposed by the RDC (a Herenton creation) and their consultants and approved by the RDC board at a time when a boat dock made at least some sense because there were companies operating overnight riverboats on the Mississippi River. Those operations are out of business now. It seemed grandiose to some of us, who advocated quicker, less expensive, user-friendly improvements to Tom Lee Park and the cobblestones. Delays, which were predictable, have been part of its undoing. Modest improvements at the foot of Beale and Union could have been completed years ago, even before the RDC was created. Also, BSL was tied to "free" federal funds, some of which were subject to "unexpected Congressional holdbacks." The flip side of a "holdback" is a "coughup" or a "forkover," which is what Memphis taxpayers are now being asked for. Typically, the RDC blames everyone and everything but itself and its own board, which had City Council representation (former members Rickey Peete and Scott McCormick) along with a mayoral special assistant and two former city CAOs. The RDC is supposed to be narrowly focused and more efficient than city government, remember. The current council and Memphis taxpayers inherited this. As proponents say, Beale Street Landing could still be a nice park for a long time. Let's hope so. It will just be an expensive one and it won't open until 2011.
John,
I'm not convinced the city council will be willing to cough up the additional funding necessary for the project to continue. Maybe my newbie status in Memphis is still showing, but from what I've read just here on the Flyer, the city's feathers were ruffled over a $25,000 loss on a block of parking meters and there could be a serious budget shortfall this year due to miscalculations concerning school funding. If the politically suicidal act of raising taxes is being considered just to maintain the status quo, it’s hard to believe the city will be willing to shell out another $8.9 million in additional funds especially when there is no guarantee (or sign) of a stable budget for this project.
Scap the purposeless project and use the remaining materials to build the skatepark we were promised in Glenview Park. Seriously, that drawing is hideous.
My goodness. The public debate that should have occurred years ago is finally starting to take place.
To add a few bits to what John said: (1) BSL was claimed to be inspired by the Riverfront Master Plan, but in fact, it is not. It is the opposite. In the Master Plan, the Cobblestone Landing was supposed to be revamped and made the centerpiece, and BSL was merely adjunct for the largest boats. The decision for this reversal was made by RDC without public input. (2) BSL was supposedly needed for those big boats because the land bridge was going to do away with Mud Island River Park and its boat landing. We all know what happened to the land bridge. (3) The first 2 years' delay and $ millions in design costs had nothing to do with regulatory approvals. It was because the Argentinian designers submitted little more than conceptual pictures. The pictures had to be turned into workable designs. In the process, the design changed quite a bit. (4) There are no studies to show that BSL would bring more tourism or anyone else to the riverfront. It is all hype and speculation, unchallenged because Memphians are afraid to say the Emperor has no clothes. In my opinion, when you subtract the unneeded boat dock and snack bar, what remains is expensive urban art. And ugly as sin.
More questions answered at the Memphis Cobblestones web site:
http://www.memphiscobblestones.com/
urbanut: You may be right on that one. I don't envy the council members having to figure out what to do at this point. But the tax increase for schools, I think, is different. On that one, they made their own mess, with the exception of Strickland and a couple others who saw this coming when WWH packaged a "cut" from schools and some "adds."
This is time for RDC board to assert itself. Lots of big boys and girls and tough guys who know the ropes there. I think it would have been wise to put some FFOR watchdogs on the board years ago and deal with this when it could have done some good instead of Jerry West, John Calipari, Cybill, et al.
BSL $35M does not include sustainability costs of the project, such as ongoing routine maintenance, operating cost, security. I don't recall any of these costs or source(s) of revenue being identified or discussed. Without careful, advance planning of fiscal costs per annum, the project, at any price of construction, risks becoming a neglected, unsightly icon on our riverfront.
Benny Lendermon sure knows how to earn his quarter-mil a year as head of operations of a *cough* Non-profit. He's a regular Lipscomb all right!
Why not change the name from Beale Street Landing to Big Bucks Sinkhole? Oh yeah -- that would confuse people with the sinkhole at the train station...
Mike,
I know, I know- clean it up and keep it like it is. After all, people were just stumbling over each other to get down on the cobblestones during their glory years. Wait, they were stumbling over themselves and I think the city got sued over it if one source is correct.
As for opinions about creative urban spaces, your take on the BSL aesthetics and design is just that- an opinion. I for one find the design interesting in the many small and interconnected spaces it creates. The spaces could only attempt to be more comfortable and interesting than walking out onto the giant green landing strip that is Tom Lee Park or across a bunch or rocks.
Urbanut,
I do have to chuckle (morbidly). I wonder how many kids will climb over the rails and fall off those giant pods? How many muggers will find those small interconnected spaces convenient to hide in? How many skateboarders will accept the challenge? How many MPDs will we have to station down there to protect the public from this thing?
We can have differing opinions, yes, but it still goes to make my point: BSL is really a giant piece of very expensive urban art. You're defending it on artistic grounds. I happen to think utility comes first, and good design derives from purpose and function. What's the purpose and function of BSL? Outside of an unneeded boat dock and a snack bar, nobody really knows. But outside experts told us it was excellent art and would surely attract people to the water. Maybe you, but not me.
More here:
http://www.memphiscobblestones.com/2009/12…
Mike,
To answer some of the questions: The same number of kids that climb over the rail on the promenade and fall onto the cobblestones, or the same number that climb over the rails on the riverboat cruises and fall into the Mississippi. By that argument we should make crime a top priority in all Memphis design. The best solution would be a well lit flat field or parking lot. Skateboarders- sure, why not. I'm tired of hearing about the lack of skate parks in this town and I saw a few using a public space in downtown Nashville over the weekend. They ended up attracting a decent crowd of tourists who were amused by their antics. Police to protect the public from the BSL? Well it would probably be the same attachment needed to protect the public from any public gathering space in Memphis. By some of that reasoning the cobblestones should not be preserved, they should be eliminated entirely. The last thing we should do is make the sometimes treacherous Mississippi River and the harbor more easily accessible to a public with questionable water skills. Who knows if that same child who just climbed over the rail can swim once he falls/ jumps in? We have already seen injuries on the cobblestones, so the physical threat is very real. Talk about a perfect place for criminals- a poorly used and poorly lit massive park and the cobblestones provide a great opportunity to prey on unsuspecting tourists.
If you think that my defense of the project as nothing more than a giant piece of art, I would suggest you travel a little more. Make a trip to Millennium Park in Chicago and then talk to me about merging public art and park into a highly successful and heavily used public space. I already mentioned another purpose for the BSL- a comfortable public space alternative to the massive field and pointless sloped pavement around it. Is it worth the money, maybe- that’s up to the citizenry. Louisville has several spaces along Waterfront Park that utilize creative design and space relationships similar to what BSL suggests. Maybe you should ask the residents of Louisville and their visitors if it was appropriate and worth it.
You're just making stuff up now, just trying to annoy me, like a troll.
The Cobblestone landing is wide open; there's no place to hide. Kids don't play along the rails on Riverside Drive -- but they will be using the "playgrounds" the RDC wants to build on top of those pods. BSL will be open 24/7, giving ample opportunity for use and abuse, and raising the risks even more. The RDC considered none of this as a security problem. In fact, they claimed to the Landmarks commission that it would only cost $100,000/year to maintain Beale Street Landing. You can't tell me you believe that with a straight face.
I repeat: When you subtract the boat dock (not needed) and the snack bar (easy and cheap to build anywhere), what you've got left is essentially an expensive and massive piece of urban art. People like you strut and claim to have traveled and claim to know good art and design, trying to intimidate everyone else into shutting up for fear of embarrassing themselves. The intimidation works, because Memphis has a self-image problem.
Well guess what, my friend: I've traveled, too. I've lived in Rome, Tokyo, and Canada. I spent time in London, Paris, Stockholm, and a dozen other places. The expensive artificiality Memphis is building on it's riverfront doesn't hold a candle to the real thing. On the other hand, Memphis already HAS the real thing, a working, historic Cobblestone Landing, but wants to toss it aside. (Or rather, the RDC does.)
Urbanut:
You obviously don't understand Millennium Park. It's an urban park, alongside a storied and architecturally magnificent boulevard. Pedestrians and tourists were drawn to the area long before Millennium Park existed.
I recently visited Memphis, on a beautiful fall day, and walked down to the Riverfront via Beale Street. Not a soul in sight.
It's about proximity. As far as I can tell, there's no impetus for tourists or Memphians to explore that stretch of no man's land -- with or without an architecturally interesting boondoggle. I wish I could say I was enthusiastic about your civic project but the reality is that I was put off by the crumbling sidewalks, the filth and the isolation.
I like the design and the interaction with the River. And I do think a boat dock is needed. Maybe not for it's original intended use, but I'm a firm believer in, "If you build it, they will come."
We certainly know that if we DON'T build it, they will go.
As far as the $$$ goes. It will be spent on this or more studies or doughnuts for the City Council. Whatever.
If we lose a few kids in the process....
it's a risk I'm willing to take :/ meh
Mike,
Typical response, attack the individual personally when they fail to agree with you and cheer you on. You can claim I'm making things up and you can throw personal insults at me simply because I disagree, but at least admit that all you are offering is an opinion instead of stating it as fact. I too have lived around the world and as an architect I know when to call a project a "duck". The BSL is definitely a “duck”, but such projects have been used to draw tourists and the curious for centuries. You continue to skirt in you rebuttal the issue of how restoring the cobblestones will somehow activate the riverfront in the manor that the BSL is at least making an attempt to do. I do know what I consider good design and planning so I have no reason not to express those views, just as you seemed to express your infinite knowledge is claiming the project is “ugly as sin”. A little hypocritical of you. If you feel intimidated when someone thinks a project looks great when you think it doesn’t, that’s your problem. Kids falling over handrails- you sound like my grandfather. You are right, there is no reason for a kid to be excited or playful when visiting the existing riverfront. There is no reason to expect crime in that vast emptiness because not enough individuals will be there to encourage any criminal elements. You may consider skateboarders as a “negative” but I see it as a group of citizens enjoying a public space is alternative ways. Memphis does have a negative self-image and it deserves some of that. It is making efforts to improve, but it has a long way to go.
Inheells, I understand Millennium park as I experienced (and lived beside) the space both before and after. Underutilized before, heavily used now. You help support my point that the current program for the Memphis riverfront offers no incentive for someone to step off the bluff. You are correct in that the relationship between the existing urban context is not the same as that in Chicago, but simply continuing with the same layout, or “sprucing up the cobblestones” will yield nothing but the same vacant public spaces you have noticed in your visits to the Memphis riverfront.
Urbanut,
I think it might be just about the right time for you to disclose who you are and your relationship, past or present, with the RDC and/or its contractors. Just a suggestion.
None of this is mutually exclusive.
I say...BSL AND cobblestones AND skateboarders AND the snack bar AND children falling over hand rails AND more crime AND AND AND.
God. Bless. America! I want it ALL!!!!!
Mike,
Does it bother you that much that there might be people in this town that don't agree with you?
...and JN, I couldn't agree more...and more...and more!
I'm not sure anyone has noticed, but our tax base is eroding, we owe a king's ransom to MCS, and 26% of the city's population lives below the poverty line (160,000 people). WTF are we building a $35 million boat dock to nowhere? Maybe all the homeless can sleep on it. Oh wait, we'll need extra cops to keep them squatting in poor neighborhoods and increasing the blight. Our city is batshit crazy.
Mike,
I noticed this has obviously gotten you all hot and bothered. I’ll make this simple for you Mike so you can understand: I am making this official, I do not and have never had a relationship with the RDC or any other organization in this city. Not a big surprise seeing as I just moved here in August. Oh yeah, I disagree with Mike on his stance, and of course he makes it personal. The fact that I disagree with you obliviously has you riled up! Do you characterize anyone that disagrees with you on American politics as "unpatriotic" or a "socialist"?
I like the idea of scraping the boat dock for now and just going with the islands. That way, people can still get close to the river within our lifetime.
As far as the cobblestones, I like them, but I think the RDC's plan of putting a walkway along the river connecting BSL and the other park has some merit. It protects large pockets of the original cobblestones, but it provides accessibility for everyone. Just my 2 cents.
Seriously. Stop arguing and just think of all the great football players we will get with BSL AND our rockin airport!
Thomas,
You are absolutely correct about poverty in Memphis. But projects like this do help. I won't go into a dissertation, but listen to what happened to me yesterday....
When I moved back to Memphis in 1998 my place was not ready yet. My home base was my parent's home in the County. I registered my car there and never bothered to change it. In part, because I was indoctrinated on how I had to go through inspection and it was equivalent to Dante's lowest level of hell (according to my family). And in part because I am pretty damn lazy and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Long story short, somehow the renewal was lost btwn my parents home and my home this year. I said, "Screw it. It's time to get legit."
I braced myself, made my peace with God, and scratched out a living will on a cocktail napkin that just happened to be handy ;)
I was about to call my auto mechanic to see if he could fit me in, when something told me to go look at that inspection station on Washington. (I always thought it was for City Vehicles to be inspected)
A beam of light from heaven shown down on 2, 7 car deep lines of average Jane and John Doe cars.
I didn't know where it would lead but I was game. So I got in line. I was worried that I didn't have cash. Would they take debit or a check? Would she ask me for paperwork? My title, insurance? I said a little prayer as I pulled up to the unanimated worker.
"Open your door" "Turn on your lights." "High-beam." "Blinker." "Other side." "Brakes."
She probed my tailpipe (ouch!)
But I marvelled at her ability to say this over and over ad nauseum all day and I still worried it would end with, "Cash only."
Finally, she said, "Congratulations! You passed."
She handed me my paper, I thought, "Ha! You gave me the paper before I paid. Like I'm going to pay you NOW with cash. Suuuucker!"
But all she said was, "Goodbye and Merry Christmas."
My brain was not comprehending...and besides, it's 'Happy Holidays', you twit. Secularism and all.
-now. Why am I telling you this? Because the City should not be in the business of inspecting cars. I appreciate that it is free and, as God is my witness, I have never met a nicer City worker.
But this is an expense that the City could do without. Inspections, where I moved from, were around $30 at any mechanic. You don't even want to know what tag renewal fees were.
But it made me take pause. How many other needless services that could be better outsourced to businesses-good for our economy (a business is paid and creates jobs) and good for the City (Funds for this operation can be better utilized somewhere else-police, fire, parks, libraries).
At any rate, I would be happy, if asked, to find other ways to balance the budget, simultaneously stimulating the economy and perhaps find enough money to fund the over bugetness of projects like BSL and the cost it would take to move The Med to Desoto County.
I'm just sayin'.
Nice little piece Julie. You bring up some very good points. My problem with this entire RDC debacle is that it is the same old cash in pocket crowd that has been fleecing the city coffers for the majority of the Herenton years. Couple that with their underwhelming response to public input, ie skatepark, I'd be in favor of scrapping everything and starting over as well.
Merc,
Educate me. No sarcasm. Truly, I don't get it. I know many of the people on the RDC and many of the people w/ Ffor. I truly haven't met anyone on either side that I find offensive. I understand both sides (I think). But you have one side, fleecing or not, that wants to do something and one side that, please forgive me Ffor for this-I really love you all and your passion for Memphis, as far as I can tell wants to preserve the cobblestones (and I'm all for that. I dig the cobblestones and played on them as a child) and leave the rest as it is now.
I know, personally the guy that started the skatepark stuff. I knew him when it was a crazy idea. He works with underprivledged youth in my neighborhood and is a helluva great average citizen and not a politician.
At any rate, as an average citizen I really would like to see a poppin' riverfront and BSL is the only entity trying to do something.
If I want something done in my lifetime, and I do, I have to bet on the only pony in the race.
If we scrap this, who do we look to do it? And will it be any better and will it be in the next 20 years? And, lastly, where will you find a group to put together a project like this that WON'T fleece the city? Only the names and faces change. The tactics seem to remain.
How do other cities get things built in under 5 years? Is there a magic potion?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Julie I was commenting on their congeniality. I'm sure they are all some very nice people, my problem is with Lendermon, Charles Carpenter, Tomeka Hart, John Bobango are all connected to Herenton and prior/current city paychecks. The fact that Lendrmon reported makes more than the mayor is just ridiculous.
The RDC has IMHO, ignored public input for the most part. They solicit opinion, then when the time comes, they continue to march with whatever their original thoughts or plans were. If this is truly a public enterprise, then public input should be considered and given a priority when ever possible. It just seems a colossal waste of money especially since it's been 9 years and there has been very little progress.
Yes, I say scrap the paid staff on RDC and replace them with a group of concerned citizens that are more concerned about the river front, than drawing a fat paycheck. Give them a time frame and a given budget to come up with a plan. I'm willing to bet that a group like this would come up with a far better plan and actually move forward with it faster and at a lower cost.
I was NOT commenting on their congeniality.
I should have had my coffee before typing. Sorry.
There's a misconception that FfOR doesn't want to do something on the riverfront. We've been advocating for change for a long time, but for affordable/sustainable change that improves our public spaces, cleans up our harbor, and connects the riverfront to downtown.
Please check-out
* the Project for Public Spaces workshop report. http://www.friendsforourriverfront.org/PPS_report_50.pdf
* the success stories posted on the website. http://www.friendsforourriverfront.org/2005/02/success-stories-parks-bring-beauty.html
We've visited with the people who made the Chattanooga riverfront happen. It can happen in Memphis. The Bluffwalk and University of Memphis law school are steps in the right direction.
Merc,
Ha. Actually, I chose the wrong word. I just couldn't think of a better one. It doesn't concern me much that Lenderman is/was paid more than the mayor. He's worth more. Herenton sucked butt.
For the RF,
I haven't checked out your links yet. I will. Though I did check out the Chattanooga site last week. It cost them 120M. In citing what they did with that 120M I can't tell if it went beyond what our boys are doing but the last time I went to a meeting of Ffor, and it's been a while, what I heard is that the main concern was that this land was willed to the City for Public Use. That will was a long time ago. Things change. People change. If public use is the way it is now, then, no. I don't like it. When I say, the way it is now, the last time I took my dog and some neighborhood kids down there to this public land a guy hit my dog in the face with a plastic coke bottle as he was walking by. He pulled out a pocket knife. Someone saw it, called the police and what ensued was tantamount to me having a vicious dog that bit him, they wanted to impound her, they called an ambulance for the bottle hitting guy. I pulled his record later after I got a police report and he had just been released from jail and had a record a mile long. Worse. He stood there holding the knife in front of me and my neighbor kids for half of the time the cops were there harassing me. One cop FINALLY asked him to put the knife away. I was never asked a question about the incident. Just this raving indigent that attached us got his say. This is just one of many harrowing experiences I have had in Memphis. It's not just the crackpots that harass you but the police. I can tell you that if I weren't stuck in this Godforsaken place I wouldn't care if it got better. I'd go home like every other tourist and never set foot here again.
But I am stuck here and it's either got to get better or...I don't know what. It's just got to get better. By any means possible.
I am shocked that anyone would pay Benny Lenderman over minimum wage to do anything.I became aquainted with this wingnut when he worked for the city.He is as dumb as a sack of hammers.How anyone ever thought he could manage a project of this size is beyond me.Just be glad it's not 30 million over budget
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