Scenes from the CR Council - PCI and Second Avenue

Ah, economic development.

You might think it's the stuff of hearty handshakes and ribbon cuttings and shiny shovels turning fresh earth.

But before you get there, you have to make a deal. That's what the City Council did last night. It wasn't pretty. It was not a shining example for the young readers of a civics textbook. But it's done. Thank God.

The council, in case you just woke up, voted 6-3 to accept a development agreement for PCI's $40 million "Medical Mall." Under the accord, the city will provide $13.4 million in for a parking garage and other improvements for the project. That money will be paid back over two decades with property taxes generated by the mall. So, theoretically, no taxpayers will be harmed in the making of this mall.

The council also voted 6-3 to close a two-block stretch of Second Ave. SE so PCI's vision of a single-level, sprawling mall can be fulfilled. The mall footprint will cover the street.

The closure is what has been sticking in the public craw for many months now. A lot of folks are plenty ticked that the city would close a major public street to please a private business. Some of those folks showed up at last night's meeting to make one last plea for pavement clemancy.

They argued that a compromise could have, should have been found. Why not build skwalks or a tunnel or an arch that keeps the street open? They urged the council to reconsider, but my newshound instincts detected some public skepticim that that council was actually listening. Where did I get that idea?

"This period of public comment is a sham," said resident Vern Schueller, arguing that too few council members are willing to stand up to PCI, which he called a "bully." Oh yeah, that was it.

PCI CEO Mike Sundall disagreed that opponents have been ignored. "They haven't been taken lightly," he said.

Sundall recounted the now familiar timeline during which PCI voted to move to Hiawatha, and then, at the city's urging, voted to stay in the downtown areas. They agreed to stay, so long as their medical mall vision could be fully achieved in the cramped confines of central city real estate. That means closing the street.

Left unspoken was the veiled threat that PCI might revive its Hiawatha plans if it could not build how it wanted in Cedar Rapids. These sort of things aren't said in mixed company.

Then it was the council's turn.

Mayor Pro-Tem Monica Vernon wanted to know whether the city was going to be compensated for the impact the closure would have on its transportation system. She was told the city would get $600,000 for the value of the land the street sits on. Not enough, she argued.

"When you mess with a system, like any ecosystem, (the impact) goes beyond a two-block-by-two-block," Vernon argued.

Don't buy it? Just look at the extinction of the Ford Pinto. Tragic.

Vernon also pointed out, correctly, that a final vote on the project was originally scheduled for spring. All the colored leaves are a dead giveaway. This is not spring, folks.

 "We as a council have got to make sure we don't give away the farm," said Vernon, hitting her two analogy limit.

Council member Chuck Swore disagreed, and he didn't appreciate how opponents seemed "eager to threaten us."

"What do I tell all the people who support the project," Swore said. "I think that I've done my due dilligence."

Then Council member Don Karr, who opposes closing the street, kicked it up a notch.

"I do feel bullied a little bit. I feel like I'm getting shoved in a corner on this one," Karr said. And nobody puts The Cowboy in a corner.

Karr called the closure and the city incentives package  "obnoxious," especially when flooded business owners are still struggling.

Karr insisted that he has nothing against PCI trying to make a profit. He then referenced Quark, the money-loving Ferengi on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. (I'm not making this up.)

Council member Pat Shey countered that the project is a "game-changer," not unlike the Jordan Creek Town Center that new CR City Manager Jeff Pomeranz helped bring to West Des Moines. But will the medical mall have a Build-a-Bear Workshop?

Council member Kris Gulick argued that future benefits outweigh the initial pain of closing the street. And he pointed out, to Vernon, that no bank would provide financing to the project until the council sealed the deal. So a vote can't wait for spring.

Soon, this soap opera, "The Bullied and the Game-Changers," had to reach its end. Shey, Swore, Gulick, Tom Podzimek, Justin Shields and Mayor Ron Corbett voted yes, for the development agreement. Vernon, Karr and Chuck Wieneke voted no. Same vote a few moments later on the street closure.

Awww, PCI is breaking up that old Ron Squad. Remember just a few months ago when Corbett, Vernon, Swore, Karr and Shields ruled the school? Now, a main arterial street has come between them. Sigh.

In the end, this was a very typical economic development process. In the end, you felt less than pleased. Maybe we gave away too much. Maybe we didn't have a choice. Maybe it will all work out. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

You can blame the council for making a bad call, or praise them for great vision, but they were playing a game with rules set elsewhere. I've covered a lot of economic development deals over the years. And this was one of them.

A city desperate to keep its downtown from going from its knees to the canvas did what it had to do to keep 315 jobs and bring in a $40 million investment. PCI used that desperation to its advantage in leveraging the best deal it could get. In the end, they didn't even need to promise new jobs.

The council faced two risks - one, that PCI would go to Hiawatha, and two, that closing the street will be a political and traffic headache. Six of them chose to swallow risk pill two.

Compromise would have been great, but it so rarely happens in this sort of negotiaiton, particularly when the business is holding such a strong hand.

And as long as we want our leaders at every level of government to be out there begging  hard for jobs, jobs, jobs, this is what we're going to have to live with. If we tell them to stop, when others are still begging in fifth gear, we'll have to live with that too.

It's easy, when you don't have to balance a budget in a city with a stagnant tax base and growing needs, to say no more corporate giveaways. When you're in charge, it's harder, especially at this moment in our economic history.

If I'd been in their shoes, I would have voted to approve the project, but I wouldn't have felt good about it. Public service ain't all ribbon cuttings and shiny groundbreaking shovels, after all.

"After we're dead and gone, people will be saying, 'That was a good decision,'" Swore said. I hope he's right.