Blog Title: FlyORH --Worcester Regional Airport

HELP! Just got this e-mail

Is Direct Air in operation out of Worcester now? Have any flights actually arrived or departed? I can't get a hold of anyone from Direct Air and I have a scheduled flight tomorrow from Worcester @ 5:15 pm which I'm trying to confirm.

Kudos To Rushton

It takes alot of guts to talk about one tax rate for commercial and residential, but it needs to be done. The question is will the other city councilors work with him or attack him for not being for the "lowest residential tax rate". Although I hope the former, I predict it will be the later.

Better yet where is:

1. Destination Worcester
2. Chamber of Commerce
3. Choose Worcester
4. Prominent Commercial Property owners

Pilot Program

I have been reading and listening to many people talk about the PILOT idea the past month, especially since the real estate market (city tax revenue collections) have slowed. Some ideas have been pretty good, while some have been somewhat bizarre.

Let me go on record, the City of Worcester, unlike many other urban cities in the NorthEast, has been lucky to have a college base to keep it from being the next Springfield. That said, I still feel the colleges could play a more active role in the "success" of Worcester.

For the 102nd time, I was on a task force some five years ago to look into this exact subject, commissioned by Mayor Murray run by former State Rep Leary. We did an incredible job. It resulted in the formation of the Univercity Partnership, which was suppose to turn the inherent untapped potential of these colleges into dollars that that the host city could not only see, but measure. This was not a unique concept, but that had been repeated by numerous other cities with a high proliferation of colleges.

In Worcester, this was an utter failure, although some councilors (specifically Councilor Toomey) actually praised the Univercity Partnership for all of its great work, when it was shut done some two years after it started. This never made sense, since the recommendation of the task force was that we needed this "partnership" to be an ongoing concern to turn the economic power of the colleges into "concrete" dollars and cents that the tax payers could realize and measure. The mere fact it was being shut down, if you read the task force report, meant that the Univercity Partnership was a failure.

The most ironic thing of the task force was that we read about a prior task force in the mid to late 90's. Upon completion of our task force recommendations, I (as others) was struck by the similarities in the recommendations from these two task forces some ten years apart. In fact our task force suggested and strongly recommended that we meet again (I think a year later), to review and grade our recommendations to ensure that another task force was not convened five years laters to do again for the third time, what had been done then two times already.

We never met again. As I sit here I can almost guarantee you a third task force will be convened and wil recommend what has already been done the other two times.

HELP... E-Mail I received

Cape Air to Erie?

Why can't we get Cape Air to provide shuttle service from ORH to Boston with their code sharing arrangement with JetBlue like the do in P-town, Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket?

Looks like Erie may be next (to Pittsburgh), click here.

Direct Air

Direct Air has 8 cities they are servicing with three destinations:

1. Punta Gorda
2. Sanford
3. Myrtle Beach

This alot of flights for this airline I am really starting to get concerned that this may be a little too much too fast for Direct Air.

Myrtle Beach

Thanks to everyone who sent me messages about the new service to Myrtle Beach starting in March or April. Little busy lately selling insurance. This is great news, although not surprising. Myrtle Beach is the corporate headquarters for Direct Air.

Myrtle Beach should be a popular location and loads should be great. I am just concerned that Direct Air has success in November/December/January and February with Punta Gorda/Sanford and are able to make till March/April.

Click here for story in the Telegram. Check out this from their own website:

Direct Air now offers nonstop flights to Myrtle Beach from Niagara Falls, New York City (Newark), Pittsburgh, Montreal (Plattsburgh), Allentown, Kalamazoo, Worcester , Toledo, Chicago (Rockford), and Punta Gorda (Ft. Myers)! Fly direct to Punta Gorda (Ft. Myers area) from Worcester, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Toledo, Plattsburgh and Niagara Falls, or to Orlando-Sanford from Kalamazoo and Worcester... with fares starting at only $99.00!

This is extremely aggressive and there is no way they will be able to do all of these routes to all of these destinations from all of these cities. Watch for quick cuts in the Direct Air route map, where load factors are not at least 85%.

13.60% Affordable Housing

Thanks Dave "Dewey" Zimage for sending me a link from the Worcester Business Journal showing the percent of affordable housing in each city and town in Central Massachusetts. Congrats Worcester, we exceed the state mandate to have 10% and are ranked number 3 in Worcester County.

Click here for the link.

Maybe after:

1. May Street
2. Burwick
3. Piedmont Street
4. Mason/Winfield
5. City Builders
6. Grand Street

We will be able to claim the number 1 ranking.

Mahoney Results in Paxton

Worcester Boards

I have told that in order for non-residents to serve on Worcester boards that there would need to be a charter change. Let me remind you that I did say that preference should be given to Worcester residents, but not being a Worcester resident should not disqualify you. Qualifying should be expanded to include people, who pay property taxes in the City of Worcester even if they are not residents.

So lets change the charter? I have been told that is not going to happen.

Here is what I plan on doing. From this point forward I will not, and I think other non-Worcester residents, should not any donate monies to local campaigns. Lets make that part of the city charter.

Linear Press Release

www.linearair.com - Linear Air Emily Sanchez, 978-451-0589 esanchez@linearair.com Linear Air, the leading personal jet air taxi service provider in the Northeast, announced the close of $1.3 million in financing which includes new capital and debt. "This new financing was pivotal for us to maintain market leadership during the current economic environment," says President and
CEO, William Herp. "While conditions for fundraising at this time are not ideal, we have a group of investors whose commitment to our success hasn't waivered and remains strong." With the new financing, Linear Air is poised perfectly to launch its aircraft management program designed to assist those who have very light jet aircraft in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, with future potential for national service.

The company's new VLJ Aircraft Management Program will assist those with VLJ aircraft who desire access to aircraft maintenance, pilot training and the potential for higher charter revenues. While the program is most beneficial for Eclipse 500 VLJ aircraft owners, the program applies to a broad base of VLJ owners and aircraft types. "Linear Air is ideally positioned for an Aircraft Management Program within the VLJ space due to our relationships with aircraft manufacturers and our in-house training program," says Herp. "Our ability to ease the pain for others who operate similar aircraft is increasing, especially as uncertainty continues to surround the Eclipse 500 manufacturer, Eclipse Aviation Corporation."

The VLJ Aircraft Management Program is classic in structure. Owners receive 85% of charter revenue, cover all related costs and pay a $2,500 monthly management fee to cover overhead. Linear Air offers owners higher aircraft utilization and higher cost offset through the company's large database of customers without the hassle of handling the transactions.

About Linear Air Linear Air provides point-to-point air taxi service with unprecedented access and affordability. Based in Concord, Mass., the Linear Air fleet includes Eclipse E500 business jets and Cessna Grand Caravan turboprops. Linear Air offers business and leisure travelers access to more than 500 cities in the Northeast and eastern Canada. Linear Air is a FAA-certified part 135 charter operator that maintains a Gold safety rating from ARG/US, the leading independent safety auditor in the aviation industry. For more information, please visit www.linearair.com or call 1-877-2-LINEAR. Despite current economy, Linear Air secures $1.3 million infinancing and gains momentum for a Very Light Jet (VLJ) AircraftManagement Program.

Telegram Comments

Two months ago, I started to get some comments on this blog that were quite offensive. As a result I set up comment moderation, which requires me to read every comment before it is posted. After a couple of days, the distasteful comments stopped and I removed comment moderation, but I will do it again if I have to.

Today I was reading comments on the Telegram on-line version, that were horrible. Why does Harry Tembenis need to personally sign off for his letter to the Editor, but the same Telegram allows people to post viscous comments about people on their on-line version anonymously?
The Telegram should 1) install "comment moderation" versus "report abuse" and 2) require people that post comments ,verify who they are and attach their actual name and address.

Why am I surprised? This is the same newspaper, who allows a sitting airport commissioner/chairman write stories about the airport while not acknowledging a potential conflict. If I can stop stupid comments on my blog, you would think the Telegram could do the same?

Boston Globe Story on Direct Air

click here

City Has Its Limits Solution

Couple clarifications.

It is not a homeless problem downtown and the police do a great job downtown. It is more a gathering of Paulie's Pajama people that does not attract people, who want to spend money. Instead you turn elsewhere.

Do you think Buddy Cianci would allow this to happen in front of Providence City Hall when he was Mayor? No way!! For that matter neither would Mayor Giuliani, when he was Mayor of New York. Paulie, stop worrying about Jordan Levy and lets focus on the true " Mayor" of our City, our City Manager.

We should have the WRTA buses move to the intermodal transportaion hub and move the downtown police station there. We all know that there is space there, so why pay rent to Berkeley for that substation when we could pay rent to ourselves at Union Station? Don't think the commuters using Union Station or parking in the garage would mind the police presence either....

City Has Its Limits

Been busy helping my friend, John Mahoney, run a last second sticker campaign. He did a great job, better then you think. There were almost 4,000 ballots that were blank. Many of which I am sure were truly blank, but I guarantee you that many of them had Mahoney stickers but people either placed it in the wrong spot or did not mark the oval. Actually we have talked to alot of people who after applying the sticker forgot to mark the oval!!!

That said great story in the paper today entitled City Limits. I walked downtown to a local subshop owner by Steve called the Subway right on Front Street aroun 3PM. Good sandwich, nice guy but the people walking around not a professional crowd. I do not know how else to put it.

I can understand why the person in the article mentioned how they feel safe in the atrium of the hospital but not downtown. Here is the biggest problem downtown. Simply put we need to get all of the bus stops away from downtown!!

Final Chapter Part 1: Low to Mod Income Housing

Forget how many years ago, was it 8 years ago???? I gladly accepted when I was asked to be on the South Worcester Neighborhood Improvement Corp (SWNIC) board of directors. There was no heavy lifting and it was fun at first, when we focused on our core mission, human services.

About four years ago,it all changed for me when we started getting into the low to mod income property development game. To date we have focused on two properties:

Cambridge/Hacker

1. $2,050,000 project on Cambridge/Hacker Street for 12 owner occupied units, 9 of which (I may be one off) had to be low to mod income
2. $650,000 of grant monies on Cambridge/Hacker that do not have to be paid back as long as the "affordabilty period is not violated.
3. $1,060,000 loan to BankNorth is still outstanding but Holy Cross is paying the interest.

City Builders Parcel

1. $7,000,000 dollar project on the old City Builders parcek for 25 rental units for low to mod income.
2. $515,000 loan from CEDAC to help buy the parcel
3. $1,900,000 grant
4. $3,300,000 in Federal Tax Credits

In total these two projects represent $9,050,000, which has generated 3 owner occupied units. That thing that really kills me is that anytime we talk about cuts, it is mentioned we will need to cut firemen, cops and teachers. Why not cut projects like these?

Barney Frank

Ironically, in light of my blogs of my low to mod housing blogs, Barney Frank was at Holy Cross talking about affordable housing. Click here for the Telegram Story. What a joke this guy is...

• "America has not done enought to help the homeless"
• "Collapse of the housing market, was a lack or regulations" Whose fault was that? He was on the House Financial Services Committee,which he now chairs, that passess these regulations
• "there is not enough appropriate housing to meet the demand and not enough housing under construction". Evidently he did not drive around Worcester. Burwick, May Street, Mason-Winfield, Cambridge-Hacker, May Street, Piedmonth St, City Builders to name a few.
• “There is a shortage of affordable housing in the United States,”
• “One problem in building affordable housing is neighbors saying they don’t want poor people living near them,” he said.
• “The policy we have followed has so starved affordable housing and so diminished the resources available for the homeless that we’ve ended up in a situation where we’re pitting the homeless against each other. Shame on a society as rich as ours that allows that to happen. And I guarantee you that if we get the right administration, we will put an end to that.

Bottom line is Rep Frank does not think we have done enough regarding low to mod income housing and need to do even more...

Tacoma Narrows

Although most people think of the bridge the falls in the video, I have been following the sale of this municipally owned airport for a couple years. At one time there was a rumored private investor who wanted to buy the airport, but in the end it was to be sold to the county government, Pierce County.

The thing we should all be focusing on is, what price did the City of Tacoma sell the airport to Pierce County? Although the market value, according to Mike Slevin (the city’s interim public works director), was estimated to be anywhere between $10 million and $20 million in recent years as reported in an article written by Niki Sullivan in the News Tribune. The sale price was determined to be $5 million.

In the end the sale price has been dropped to $3 million, why? Turns out, according to the article, federal law dictates that the sale price is determined by expenses incurred over the previous six years. After an audit the the City of Tacoma could only come up with $3 million, thus the sales price.

This begs the question, what have been the expenses incurred the previous six years by the City of Worcester at ORH? The debt expense has been about $600,000 per year so that is about $3,600,000 over 6 years. On the other hand, there has been subsidies on the operating expenses at varying levels by MassPort. My best guesstimate is that the City of Worcester's share is probably around $3,000,000.

Does that mean the most that we could sell the airport for is $6,600,000?

Rumor Mill

Winn Management of Boston has bought property along Water in or near Chevalier Furniture. Alot of their property is low to mod income. In Worcester they have Coes Pond on First Street and Wellington on Main Street.

Part 11: Low to Mod Income Housing

Applications were submitted and money has been granted. Note this article from the Telelgram this past August 20th, click here. Here are the hi-lights:

Southgate and Grand streets will soon be torn down to make way for a three-story, 25-unit affordable housing project. That dream came closer to reality yesterday with the news that the state Department of Housing and Community Development has awarded the $7 million project a $1.9 million grant and $3.3 million in tax credits spread over 10 years.

Jahn before you leave the comment, the cost breaks down to 280,000 per apartment. The most important thing, however, are the buzz words "affordable housing project". In other words, all the units must be for low to mod income.

One other trick that I have learned is formation of the company developing the property. In this case the developer is newly formed corporation called Mechanics Guild LLC, which is a partnership with Stepone Inc., an affiliate of Horne and Johnson (a Natick architectural firm), and the South Worcester Neighborhood Center (SWNIC). Why does this work good?

You take advantage of the non-profit status of SWNIC by transfering ownership of the parcel to the non-profit entity (SWNIC) for $1 , apply for Brownfields clean-up money and avoid having to pay the monies back since the grantee was a non-profit. Once the clean-up is done, you transfer the parcel back to the newly formed corporation. We have seen this before on Mason Street.

Part 10: Low To Mod Income Housing

We had the public meeting at the South Worcester Neighborhood, after the postponed variance meeting, and a new proposal was shown. It still contained the single building with the 20 plus rental units, but now there was two parking spots per unit as required by code. How was this done?

The number of owner occupied units was cut (think to 6 units but I could be wrong from the original 25) to provide the required number of parking spots. People were still unhappy with a 20+ unit apartment building, but were at least happy that there was enough parking. Still unhappy, I asked when the next zoning board meeting would be held for the remaining variances? Answer: There will not be another Zoning Board Meeting, since the revised plans did not need any variances.

Once it was realized that there would not be neighborhood support, the plans were altered so that there would be no need get neighborhood support for a variance. Ironically this was done by reducing the number of owner occupied units, the original intent of the purchase of the land and what the abutters had wanted all along, not a 20+ plus unit apartment building.

The next step was for the developer to apply to whatever agencies that they need to apply to, but they would build the apartment building first (that nobody wanted) and not the owner occupied units (that everyone wanted) later. You can not make this stuff up?

• Grants become loans
• Owner occupied townhouses become 20+ unit apartment buildings
• Neighborhood support, once realized not attainable, is merely circumvented
• Owner occupied townhouses are replaced by a large 20+ unit apartment building

Part 9: Low to Mod Income Housing

Quick Refresher. The old City Builders site was purchased for $490,000 which was presented to the South Worcester Board of Directors as a grant, which later actually became a loan. It was still approved even as a loan, under the auspices of owner-occupied townhouses.


April 20, 2006 Worcesteria in WoMag talking about Southgate Place:

I can not find it on-line, but I have a copy of Worcesteria for that issue. Scott Zoback mentioned the project and refers to the monies from CEDAC as grant to purchase the old City Builders for $490,000. It also referred to a plan calling for 25 owner-occupied townhouses on the site. In other words, I am not nuts and did not imagine all of this.


January 5, 2007

As an abutter, I receive a notice to discuss the plans at the Neighborhood Center and that SWNIC was looking for the neighborhood support. Why? SWNIC is going for a variance on January 8th, 2008. Plans, however, are just for 11 townhouses and for the first time that I ever heard-- a low rise 21 unit mulit-family dwelling unit is mentioned??

The variances were many:

• 93 feet of frontage
• 21 parking spots
• 5 ft 4 inches of relief of front yard setback
• 4.01 feet of sideyard setback
• relief from floor area ratio
• relief from number of stories (1)

The neighborhood meeting went quite badly with most people being upset with a 21 unit apartment building. Needless to say the meeting ended up with no support for the project.

January 8, 2008

I, as an abutter, showed up at the meeting with many other abutters to oppose the variance. The developer requested a postponement was it was granted. We left that night with the promise that we would meet with the developer again to discuss our concerns.

End of Intermission

But first check out Nick K column today. In particular the following part that I have been thinking myself for what was months but now years:


Careful for what you wish for, boys and girls, because Mr. Park and company might just tell you all to go pound sand.

After all, Berkeley Investments, not the city, owns the CitySquare development site, which includes the former outlet mall, the two office towers and the parking garages. In 2004, Berkeley paid $30.3 million for the property, and it has been paying property taxes on it since. The city has no ownership or control over the property.

True, Berkeley is partnering with the city on CitySquare — the city will be providing public money for the demolition of the mall and the construction of new roadways and infrastructure — but should the City Council be telling Berkeley whom to negotiate with or criticizing the company for not moving quickly enough?

If Berkeley just wanted to sit on the property, wouldn’t it be well within its right, as long as it continued to pay property taxes to the city?

Berkeley is a successful development company and one would think it knows what it is doing. They certainly aren’t going to rush into something just for the sake of making some local elected officials happy. They want to make sure that whatever they do makes the most sense for them and the project. It is, after all, not the best economic climate for major development projects.

Intermission Part 2

Just reread alot of my comments on Low to Mod Housing projects. So far it has been fair and accurate.

Let me say this again the South Worcester Neighborhood Center does an A+ (Excellent) job when it comes to human services--its core mission. Our neighborhood needs this agency.

Intermission

Today editorial--Direct Air Novel Approach?

What is their model? They are a public charter (typically underfunded), that lease planes, to serve secondary airports (utilizing subsidies from the underlying airports) to popular leisure destinations. Typically even the leisure destinations that they are serve are secondary--Sanford not Orlando, St Pete not Tampa, Punta Gorda not Fort Myers.

Novel Approach? What about:

1. SouthEast Airlines
2. Hooters
3. TransMeridian
4. SkyValue

I am hoping Direct Air is a success, but calling their approach "novel" is far from the truth when there are 4 airlines that I can think of in the last three years that used the same buisness model.