If there’s been a constant in the three-plus years I’ve covered real estate for the Eagle, it’s been WaterWalk and the steady drumbeat of citizen criticism of a largely inactive project.
Those critics, who largely are justified because as taxpayers they’re equity partners, have reason to be heartened by the aggressive first steps announced by the new man in charge on the east bank, veteran Wichita entrepreneur Jack DeBoer.
A very sage developer told me years ago that there are two kinds of Wichitans: The people unafraid to act, and the people paralyzed by fear, more intent on pointing fingers.
Make no mistake about it: DeBoer falls into the first category, and his decision to pursue commercial traffic at WaterWalk is a decision playing very well, even with some of the project’s harshest critics in the local development industry.
Here’s a little required reading for my commodities speculation fans, courtesy of Rolling Stone.
It becomes a little more obvious, doesn’t it, why all the great verve to convince the easily fooled that commodities markets are governed by supply and demand? Greed.
I remain annoyed, frankly, that President Obama continues to fiddle while these scandals burn.
But as the article points out, the depths to which people have gone over the past 60 years to turn the commodities floor into a casino where only the ordinary man loses probably aren’t correctable in one presidential term.
Intrust Bank Arena GM Chris Presson had it right when he said in Have You Heard? that the arena can’t control who is on tour and when. He was responding to some heat that IBA has booked mostly country acts since it started announcing performances last month.
After he said it, and after reading more comments today, I started to wonder what acts other arenas in the region have booked around the time IBA opens in January and beyond. And you know what? IBA stacks up quite nicely.
According to Pollstar, these are the acts that have been booked at other arenas in the region in January and beyond (bold indicates those not announced for IBA, which opens Jan. 9):
Sprint Center in KC: Bon Jovi, John Mayer, Taylor Swift, George Strait/Reba McEntire and Tim McGraw.
Ford Center in OKC: Brad Paisley, Mayer and Swift.
BOK Center in Tulsa: Strait/McEntire, McGraw and Bon Jovi.
Qwest Center in Omaha: McGraw, Mayer, Bon Jovi and Strait/McEntire.
That’s it folks: John Mayer. Would the Mayer concert be nice to have and increase the diversity of concerts? Sure. But I bet KC would like to have Paisley, OKC would like to have Bon Jovi, and Tulsa and Omaha would like to have Swift. And I’ve had several friends mention that they’re most excited to see Jeff Dunham, who isn’t scheduled to play any of those other cities.
So who is on tour, after IBA opens, that we’re missing here? Remember, you can’t book them if they’re not touring.
Rep. Jerry Moran has sent a letter to major news broadcasting companies requesting that they stop referring to the H1N1 virus as “swine flu.” He noted that the labeling has “magnified” the pork industry’s ongoing economic woes, which is expected to grow to $1.89 billion in losses by the end of the year. In 2008, Kansas’ gross swine market was $406 million, 10th in the U.S.
On the brighter side for pork, the National Pork Producers Council announced today that China has lifted its ban on U.S. pork imports. China implemented the ban in late April in wake of the outbreak of H1N1 flu. China was the No. 3 destination for U.S. pork in 2008, when nearly 400,000 metric tons worth nearly $690 million was exported to the Asian country, according to the NPPC.
Sandwich chain Potbelly is prospecting for franchisees in Wichita. The chain has 216 company owned restaurants in the eastern part of the country and is looking for a cheap way to move west.
The chain’s plan is generally for one owner per store, and hasn’t said how many it wants to put here. Its gimmick is that its a quirky, authentic neighborhood sandwich place complete with potbelly stoves and live music reminiscent of the original Potbelly antique store in Chicago that started selling sandwiches to boost traffic. For more info, go to www.potbelly.com.
Chris Dodd, the day-late and dollar-long U.S. senator from UConn land, has stepped to the plate with a bill to freeze credit card rates immediately – a month or more after those moneychangers stepped out of their temples long enough to jack the rates up to loan sharking levels.
At the risk of causing the heads of all our free market pals to explode, Dodd’s bill, while doubtlessly well-intentioned (Editor’s note: Well-intentioned, meaning “a meaningless cosmetic action designed to fool the electorate into thinking we’ve done something”), is predictably dead on arrival in the Senate, where the poor, unfortunate banks – some of them flush with TARP funds – have convinced senators (read: sent contribution checks) they need more time to comply with the stringent new regulations (read: blast our card holders into bankruptcy to help cover our bad loans).
It evokes memories of President Obama’s pledge to reel in financial derivatives and oil speculators – which has now been quietly replaced by a Barney Frank bill to help both continue running amok.
As does my cynicism about this extremely belated piece of legislation from Sen. Dodd.
WICHITA — Corporate profits lead to corporate jets, and the good news from a survey released by the National Association of Business Economists is that more companies are reporting growing profits than shrinking profits for the first time in more than a year.
The bad news is that it will take perhaps 18 to 24 months for that to start showing up in the aircraft makers’ order books.
I’ll say this for the long-struggling WaterWalk development: Its latest call to the bullpen has summoned the Mariano Rivera of Wichita entrepreneurs.
And we’re going to find out soon how much fastball Jack DeBoer has left, because the bases are loaded down there on the east bank and WaterWalk has nobody at all out. And the fans in the stands are hot under the collar, pointing fingers all the way.
DeBoer’s got a ton of challenges on his plate: The public’s angry about their investment and the lack of progress at the development, retailers and restaurateurs are running, not walking, from leases in this credit environment. His one retailer down there has a front door pointing the wrong way.
And perhaps most significantly, as we’ve seen this week, the only support he’s going to get from City Hall – the same building where the 2003 budget cuts that doomed the project got their start – is moral. This city council certainly wants DeBoer to succeed. But they’re out of money.
City Manager Bob Layton on Friday professed his confidence in DeBoer, which is more than some of the city’s commercial development crowd voiced this week. Some fear that the development will fail, leaving a financially strapped City Hall on the hook for $41 million in infrastructure scheduled to be paid back by the tax revenues WaterWalk has yet to generate.
DeBoer is a brilliant man, a fountain of ideas that he maps out on his trademark legal pad. He’ll need all of them to strike out the side down on the east bank.
But don’t bet against that happening quite yet. It’ll be fascinating to watch DeBoer’s work in the bottom of WaterWalk’s ninth inning.
We don’t know for sure, but we got an interesting release this morning from Beth King, who handles public relations for the arena. According to the release, there will be “a special announcement of interest to fans worldwide” during an 11 a.m. webcast at BonJovi.com.
So far, there are three known concerts scheduled for the arena, which opens in January. Country star Brad Paisley is the first on Jan. 9. Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is scheduled for March 12, and singer Taylor Swift is set for April 1. Also scheduled for the arena are the Harlem Globetrotters (Jan. 22) and the Professional Bull Riders (May 7-8). The Wichita Thunder hockey team will start playing there Jan. 23.
Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer appeared on Fox Business Network today to talk about aviation and the Wichita economy. He was this week’s guest on the network’s Mayor Monday segment.
Interestingly, a little more than a half-hour of this morning’s brainstorming in Chattanooga was devoted to the “vocal minority,” a group of Wichitans who oppose public-private partnerships to redevelop downtown.
There were several calls to action, including one from Mayor Carl Brewer, who said, “We cannot be intimidated.” Others called out Wichita blogger Bob Weeks and one near the front of the room, away from me, said bluntly, “We have to watch who we elect.”
Quite clearly, the information battle on downtown redevelopment has been joined. I’ll have more on the brainstorming sessions, including the focus on the anti-tax crowd, in Saturday’s Eagle.