Talk about chutzpah.
And talk about the perfect newspaper headline that, intentionally or not, lays bare the putrid effrontery to the taxpayer purse. From Tuesday’s Post-Gazette:
“Walnut Capital, Steelers plot $30 million ‘commercial mixed-use’ development next to Acrisure Stadium.”
You simply have to love the use of the word “plot.”
For it’s a $30 million development for which the parties are seeking a $15 million state (i.e. taxpayer) grant to build across the street on the West side of the football complex. It’s a lot still controlled by what’s now known as the Kamin Science Center.
And as the P-G further reports:
“While the football team was not specifically mentioned in the grant request, the application lists the prospective beneficiary as TR3 Landings JV LLC. The company’s address, as listed in state corporation records, is the same as the Steelers headquarters on the South Side.”
The Pittsburgh Business Times reports that Walnut Capital Partners CEO Gregg Perelman is listed as a top officer.
Well, isn’t this all so, so special?
But wait – there’s even more special ancillary news. Again, per the P-G’s Mark Belko:
“At the same time, the Steelers have hired consultants to perform an assessment of Acrisure Stadium, which opened in 2001, to figure out what improvements are needed if the team is going to stay there ‘for the next 10, 20 years, whatever it’s going to be,’ Steelers President Art Rooney II has said. The team’s lease expires in 2031.”
While building up your taxpayer-financed development portfolio around your taxpayer-financed football stadium, for which you can bet the Steelers will expect even more taxpayer dollars to stay put.
Yes, indeed, this is a plot – a smelly plot extraordinaire.
Another Walnut Capital official, citing a confidentiality agreement, declined to provide any additional details to the P-G. The Steelers referred questions to Walnut Capital.
Sweet deal, eh? Sorry, but you can’t clam up and/or be claiming “confidentiality” when you’re bellying up, yet again, to the public trough.
Sure sounds like a by hook or by crook continuing racket, does it not, friends?
It’s quite the racket. Why else would the Steelers and Walnut Capital use a fictitious name in an attempt to yet again shake down taxpayers?
Well?
The P-G’s Belko further reports that “in the application, the development team stated that the project, described as a ‘commercial mixed-use space,’ would allow two [not named] Pittsburgh-based corporations ‘to expand their headquarters, remaining on the North Shore, and increasing economic growth.’”
“’The development … will include a space that will be attractive to new retail tenants, as well as a parking deck that will serve the complex, but also game day and special events in the area,’” the application stated.
“It noted that the project is ‘central to the city’s professional football and baseball facilities, and will increase game day parking options, as well as event space.’”
But if two corporations want to expand their headquarters, those two corporations should pay their own freight.
Any new retail tenants should pay their own way, too.
And if the new parking pad truly will increase game-day parking options and provide event space, gee, guess who should pay for that, too, class?
How about the very rich barons of sport who stand to profit, and handsomely, from such space?
All due props to Belko and the Post-Gazette for exposing this latest bevy of buncombe, this latest corporate cluster cluck and this latest putrid plot to shake down the public kitty for private gain.
For shame! This kind of continuing taxpayer abuse must be shut down – and shut down for once and for all.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
