The previous lease of Roanoke Airport Authority land used for Countryside Golf Club fairways cost the previous owners and now the City of Roanoke $4800 a year. This was attached to the 40 year lease that originated in 1967 when the golf course was built. It actually increased slightly from an original $1000.
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As part of the deal to swap land with the airport to widen the Runway Protection Zone for runway 6 the Airport Commission agreed to a new 10-year lease AT THE COST OF $18,000 a year - a 375% increase!
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According to Brian Townsend, Assistant City Manager, the land was assessed by a rental appraiser. This is more than the City gets from the Meadowbrook Golf lease of $17,500 a year. So not only are they paying on the $4 million debt and losing real estate tax they are now losing $500 a year in this poorly negotiated transaction.
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Even at that Granger MacFarlane, Roanoke City's representative on the Airport Commission voted "NO" on the 10-year lease. MacFarlane said "that he felt that the Commission would rue the day when the decision was made to go from a 5 year lease to a 10 year lease on the golf course property and that he thinks the Commission's negotiation position was given up." Taken from the ROA Commission minutes of November 11th.
2 comments:
Valerie,
That's an amazing revelation!
There is something funny (not ha, ha funny) about this.
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