Monday, March 05, 2007

What's the hang-up in Koehler project?

It has been recently reported in the Times that the project was stopped dead by some "paperwork" disagreements between Cornerstone (the acute health care guys) and the developers. Could we be more specific about this? Originally, it was reported that there was a problem specifically involving an "Estoppel Certificate" that the banks wanted Cornerstone to sign before they would finalize their loan to the Koehler developers. So, what's an Estoppel Certificate? Through some Googling, the best I could find is that it's some sort of agreement stating that terms in the lease have been agreed upon. So, was there a discrepency between the lease the Koehler developers showed the banks and the one Cornerstone agreed on? One story I heard was that the lending banks wanted Cornerstone to guarentee 20 years worth of lease payments, because that's how long the loan is for, but because Cornerstone only has a 10-year lease, they wouldn't do it. I would just like some more detail on this matter before we close the book on the project.

Cheers.

Ralph

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ralph, I think that you have the concept of the Estoppel Certificate stated correctly. It seems that when it came time for the rubber to meet the road, Cornerstone was not willing to commit. Wonder if the ghost of Herb Fiss is wandering the streets somewhere in town.

Ralph said...

Pouring over the ruins of the demolished Koehler builidng... no doubt.