Are Developers like Bart Blatstein still interested in Coatesville?

At a Coatesville Planning Commission meeting; Ray Iacobucci told us that Baker Properties was pushing them to have final approval for their development in 1995 before the ‘Bloc of Four” took over. Iacobucci had a 6 person team working on their development on the north hill of Coatesville. It received final approval by Coatesville City Council on December 28th of 2005. Mr. Iacobucci allegedly was told that if they did not have final approval before the “bloc” took over Baker would take a $2M loss and leave Coatesville.

Chetty was stuck. He already had $6M invested in Coatesville and was forced to stay. Don Pulver’s hotel was needed in the hotel market regardless of how close it was to Coatesville, so it could go forward.

The “Bloc of Four” and the Walker Administration is the primary reason redevelopment crashed and burned in Coatesville. I believe stopping the redevelopment was the reason the some of the “bloc of four’s” handlers put them in office. The gas fired power plant was allegedly in the planning stages in alleged meetings at the Whip Tavern before the election of the “bloc”. The real money would have been in the “Power Authority” that would sell power over Exelon’s lines. Richard Legree was alleged to say “Patsy may be dumb and crazy but she takes orders”. But that’s another story that involves the drug business in Coatesville.

It is my understanding that if a developer did have some interest in Coatesville; when they saw Patsy Ray in person all interest in developing in Coatesville allegedly vanished.

Now that we have a government that’s interested in moving the City forward instead of praying, building power plants and cutting back on police and fire protection; Bart Blatstein might be interested. The only thing is; the commercial loans have dried up and commercial lending may be nowhere near bottom yet.