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.

You gotta be kidding!

When I was reading the Daily Local article about the Coatesville City Council Elections one thing popped out at me; it was Eric Lacerte’s statement that Coatesville “has no plans for future growth”. I almost dropped the paper.

Coatesville is internationally recognized for its redevelopment plans. Our plans attracted the Knight School of Architecture of Miami University to select Coatesville as the municipality for the 2003 Knight Program in Community Building Design Charrette. Coatesville was selected in a nationwide competition. Chester County’s 2020 plan for preserving open space includes utilizing existing urban areas in lieu of paving farms and forests.

Coatesville is famous worldwide for its plans for future growth among city planning architects. It is also famous among those same architects for its plans being shot down by property rights extremists.

We have the infrastructure place in Coatesville for 20,000 residents. We have about 12,000 now. Housing is beginning to be driven by “baby boomers”. The youngest “baby boomers” are 62 years old. They are not looking for single family homes for 4 or more people. They are looking for townhomes and condominiums, access by foot to restaurants, train, shopping and entertainment. That is exactly what the previous Coatesville Administration planned for.

One million dollar and up family estate homes may be “white elephants” in about 10 years. About the only thing keeping a market for one million dollar + family homes are the entrepreneurs in Chester County’s immigrant population.

We need City Council members that at the very least read news articles about Coatesville.

I would recommend that the Coatesville City Council members take advantage of the many training programs for local government officials. Some members of the Coatesville Planning Commission have taken part in those training programs. Very few Coatesville City Council members have ever taken advantage of the training that is available and it shows.

The Pennsylvania Local Government Training Partnership:
http://www.palocalgovtraining.org/

The Knight School of Architecture of the Miami University School of Architecture:
http://www.coatesville.org/forms/charrettereport.pdf

Managing Change in Chester County Comprehensive Plan (2020)
http://dsf.chesco.org/planning/lib/planning/landscapes_document/toc.html

From the Daily Local News:

“Lacerte said the biggest problem facing the city is that there is no plan for future growth. He said the city moves from one budget crisis to another. "There's no vision to solve the city's problems," he said.”

Read the article here:
http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20091101/NEWS/311019986 

There are two political entities in Coatesville; hint it’s not Democrats and Republicans

The two basic political entities are those who are go along with the drug traffickers and those who are working against the drug traffickers. It does not matter whether they are Democrats or Republicans; the big differences in politicians here is whether they go along with the drug scene or not. One caveat to keep in mind is that there are many naïves who do not understand how things work here.

There is a separate underground economy that operates on trickle down money from drug trafficking in Coatesville. When the undercover ATF and DEA people were here because of the arson, much of the drug trafficking stopped. The legitimate local business here suffered; some people did not have the cash to their pay bills.

There is no long standing drug trafficking business anywhere that does not have support from public officials. Read; Police Politics Corruption “The mixture dangerous to freedom and justice” by Colonel Frank McKetta Retired Pennsylvania State Police.

On the surface Coatesville seems like an ordinary Pennsylvania town. But a drive down any main street on a Friday or Saturday night will tell you that this is a huge drug trafficking town. It is a beautiful town with great potential and wonderful people but one that is held hostage by long time drug traffickers with political connections. I call it “Little Sicily”.

If a shooting occurs in front of several people in Coatesville right now; chances are “nobody saw it”. Much of the tips that law enforcement does get in Coatesville comes from new residents. Coatesville is a city of about 12,000 residents with the infrastructure for 20,000 residents. New residents without long time family connections in Coatesville cannot be easily intimidated by drug traffickers. The USDoJ is well aware that a redevelopment of Coatesville that brings in new people may be the end of the drug trafficking and the terror hold that it has over Coatesville. The drug traffickers are also aware of that fact.

Election of people not connected to the drug trafficking political establishment here will help but what I think Coatesville and Chester County really needs is a full investigation of the city by the USDoJ. Until that happens we will continue to see articles like this one in the Daily Local News:

The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA
'How do you sleep at night?'
Along with most other older Daily Local articles this one is difficult to find. But the same article appears in the DelCo Times:

One year last, double-slayings in Chesco continues to haunt families, police

Monday, July 6, 2009
By JENNIFER MILLER
One year ago, two Chester County families were destroyed and a community was sent into a state of shock.

PEOPLE THAT LIVE HERE IN CHESTER COUNTY PA CAN SAY: WHAT RECESSION?

Check out the Associated Press Economic Stress Index measuring economic stress by county in the United States Interactive Map.

You will see that Chester County, PA has one of the very lowest Economic Stress numbers and lowest unemployment numbers in the United States.

It helps you understand why Chetty Builders feels that they will have no problem selling their condos here in Coatesville, Chester County, PA.

It’s crime keeping people away from Coatesville; not a recession. If Coatesville was not drug trafficking central for Chester County, PA the real estate market here in Coatesville would be in HOT.

And, demographics show us that the hottest portion of the real estate market for decades to come is the condo-townhouse market for Baby Boomers and young people starting out. The McMansions may turn out to be “white elephants” in the real estate market.

Chetty is a very well respected experienced builder who is still making money is an over all depressed economy. Bart Blatstein is a very well respected experienced builder who is still making money in a depressed economy. They are both interested in Coatesville…Mmmm

Some Samples from the AP INTERACTIVE MAP:

THE NUMBERS FOR CHESTER COUNTY, PA are

"AP Economic Stress index 6.65
Unemployment 6.1%
Foreclosure 0.21%
Bankruptcy 0.38%"

Just a few samples from places you might know:

Sacramento County, CA
"AP Economic Stress index 16.58
Unemployment 11.3%
Foreclosure 4.44%
Bankruptcy 1.58"

Bucks County, PA
"AP Economic Stress index 8.73
Unemployment 7.5%
Foreclosure 0.69%
Bankruptcy 0.64"

Westchester County, NY
"AP Economic Stress index 8.30
Unemployment 7.2%
Foreclosure 0.79%
Bankruptcy 039%"

San Diego County, CA
"AP Economic Stress index 12.97
Unemployment 9.3%
Foreclosure 2.87%
Bankruptcy 1.21%"

Have some fun checking out the Associated Press Economic Stress Index Interactive map at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/specials/interactives/_national/stress_index/index.html?SITE=YAHOO&SECTION=HOME

MORE OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

When the plans to revitalize Coatesville were made; jobs for Coatesville residents were not forgotten:

Bart Blatstein and all other developers building in Coatesville RDA land were compelled by Coatesville Redevelopment Authority contract to hire qualified Coatesville residents first, then Coatesville School District residents, then Chester County residents and finally from any area. But the construction industry, especially the high rise building construction using Steelworkers Union workers, can be dangerous and demanding. It demands trained and skilled workers.

You can make demands for developers to hire Coatesville residents but if there are no residents that qualify for the jobs they will be filled by outside people.

Some Coatesville community activists, religious leaders and government representatives got together with a plan to train willing Coatesville residents for those jobs in a trade that they could carry with them all through their lives.

Coatesville activists Elwood Dixon and Bill Washington, Andrew Dinniman (then Chester County Commissioner), PA Career Link, The Laborer's District Council Education and Training School and former Coatesville City Manager Paul Janssen (sorry if I forgot anyone) formed and put in place an education and training program at the Laborer's District Council Education and Training facility in Exton, PA for Coatesville residents.

That education and training program has so far enrolled more than 200 Coatesville residents and residents from the Coatesville School District. Coatesville residents signed up and took preliminary testing at several sessions in the Hutchinson Church, on Chestnut St. in Coatesville.

Even drug users were not turned away. If you passed the written test and failed the drug test you could still enter the program by enrolling in a drug rehabilitation program. Upon completion those students will be and many are ready for employment as apprentice construction workers in various union trades.

Many Coatesville residents could have pointed out one of Bart Blatstein’s buildings and said I helped build that; could have.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

It was Bart Blatstein that first realized the potential of the large tract of new undeveloped land in the center of Coatesville created by the brownfeilds that were then becoming available.

The assets of Coatesville are:

• A large tract of undeveloped land on one of busiest intersections in Western Chester County

• Easy access to major North and South and East and West Interstate Highways.

• A mid size airport with international capability just outside the city limits

• Coast to Coast Amtrak service at the Coatesville train station

• Much lower costs for property and lower construction costs than Philadelphia

• A small city of nearly 11,000 with the infrastructure already in place to accommodate a city of 20,000 residents

• Rolling bucolic countryside partly occupied by a group of extremely affluent people just outside of the city limits.

• Last but not least a city with a “sense of place” where you wake up in the morning look out of a window at the hills and homes and know exactly where you are. Something that Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Dean of the Miami School of Architecture said was “to die for”. See the “Coatesville Charrette Report and Urban Design Plan":
http://www.box.net/shared/4g292ny6nn

Bart Blatstein was the person who got the other developers thinking about Coatesville. He was the man whose interest in Coatesville inspired Baker Properties to purchase land in Coatesville right out from under another developer during the three days that he was getting funding together. And Baker sealed the deal sight unseen from New York City.

Bart Blatstein brought other developers to see Coatesville as a gold mine for development. The youth of Coatesville also saw possibilities for a future Coatesville as a place to go to instead of a place to get away from. But the downtrodden older residents of Coatesville saw no possibility of change and were even uncomfortable thinking about change. And maybe most importantly some of the more bigoted residents in nearby townships could not see any possibilities in what they considered a “black” city. They even had their zip codes changed so that Coatesville would not be a part of their address.

Plans for the revitalization of Coatesville once lined the meeting room at City Hall. As recently as a month ago, I overheard City Council Members at Coatesville City Council meetings talking about those plans for Coatesville drawn up by Bart Blatstein’s company; "Tower Investments". They talked about the crazy absurdity of something like that being built in a poor run down town like Coatesville and what a sham artist Bart Blatstein was. To this day the mention of Bart Blatstein among some members of the Coatesville City Council will bring derogatory comments for his “off the wall unrealistic plans for Coatesville”.

I remember how Bart Blatstein was pilloried with shouted cat calls by "bloc of four" supporters when he talked about his plans at Coatesville City Council meetings. I remember how Bart Blatstein was vilified and treated as a liar and fake by the "bloc of four" supporters. The shouted out mantra of the “bloc of four” supporters was; "IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN HERE".

It looks like the "bloc of four" came through on that promise.

They drove Bart Blatstein away from Coatesville.

Check out what could have been. Check out what Bart Blatstein did in a section of North Philly that was once much tougher than what we have in Coatesville:

"Friday, May 8, 2009
Piazza opens in N. Liberties
$100 million project creates a destination
Philadelphia Business Journal - by Natalie Kostelni Staff Writer

For nearly a decade, developer Bart Blatstein has coddled, envisioned, worked on and tweaked his bold plans for Northern Liberties. Now, at a cost of $100 million, he is completing one of the most integral parts of his vision for the Philadelphia neighborhood.

Called the Piazza at Schmidt’s, it is the second of three phases of Blatstein’s overall redevelopment plan for the area surrounding the former Schmidt’s Brewery at 2nd Street and Girard Avenue. There his company, Tower Investments, has assembled more than 100 parcels totaling 28 acres and invested a total of $150 million since he embarked on refashioning the neighborhood beginning in 2000.”

More at:
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/05/11/story1.html

Tower Investments website:
http://www.towerdev.com/