CRA Awards and The Lucerne Condo

According to the CRA, The Lucerne was completed in 2007. That is when it was placed on the tax roll and that is when the CRA had to begin to pay the developer up to $1.2 million in tax increments. Joan Olivia said, “the tax increments were incentive for the project to come here rather than somewhere else.” The payments are spread over 10 years. So far, the CRA has only paid $361,000 over the last two years.

A purchase agreement between The Lucerne LLC and Sonora Capital was executed in May 2009. Gary Koolik, the developer of The Lucerne, was in the audience last night. According to our agreement with him, he has the right to sell, convey or assign the tax increments to another entity with the consent of the CRA. Gary Koolik was sitting in the back row where I was sitting and I asked him if he just forgot about the stipulation--why didn’t he get the CRA’s consent? He answered, “We don't feel it’s necessary to get their permission.” I then told him that the agreement says otherwise. Lucerne LLC is requesting the consent six months after selling its interest to Sonora Capital.

A few residents spoke on the matter with Barbara Aubel saying that the CRA should give The Lucerne a break. Suzanne Mulvehill suggested that the CRA get a legal opinion. A few members of the CRA said that they did not want to go to the expense of seeking legal advice. Commissioner Rockstein had spoken to David Tolces, Board attorney, at various times during the day regarding this and he said that “it was a breach.” It was also stated that not every Board member had the back-up material in order to make a decision. The CRA Director, Joan Olivia, wanted the CRA Board to approve the assignment. Michael Hyde wanted to approve it. Cary Sabol, an attorney himself, made a motion to reject the assignment request. His motion passed on a 4 to 3 vote with Michael Hyde, Donna Ross and Peter Meyerhoefer voting nay. The CRA will continue to make payments to Lucerne LLC.

Wayne Marcinkoski and Brendan Lynch