The months-long partisan stalemate over a state budget forced senior centers to close, required social service agencies to scale back and pushed some school districts to the brink of insolvency. Turns out it also inconvenienced developers banking on public money.
The Post-Gazette’s Mark Belko reported last week that Forest City Enterprises and Trammell Crow Co. have put off construction of a riverfront apartment complex at Station Square until they learn the fate of a $5 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant they are seeking for the project. The budget battle, abated in recent weeks when Gov. Tom Wolf agreed to let a GOP-backed spending plan become law without his signature, has held up a debt authorization bill authorizing the capital grant program.
“We won’t start until we know we have that money in place,” said James Murray-Coleman, senior vice president of Dallas-based Trammell Crow. The money would be used for road, sidewalk and utility work.
The 300-unit apartment complex — later phases may include offices and a hotel — is not the only project affected by the budget battle. In all, projects in Allegheny County are seeking program grants totaling more than $275 million. According to the state, the grant program benefits projects with “a cultural, civic, historical, regional or multi-jurisdictional impact” that produce “substantial increases in employment, tax revenues or other measures of economic activity.”
There is no denying that the budget standoff was a grave example of government dysfunction. State leaders should be encouraging development, not impeding it. Yet it’s difficult to feel much sympathy for developers who sit on their hands until the government handouts show up.
Senior centers, women’s shelters and school districts have only so many funding sources available to them. Forest City and Trammell Crow are well-established companies with numerous properties in various cities. They could put their heads together and find $5 million somewhere other than Harrisburg.
First Published: May 7, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
