Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Developer Proffitt Kills Ballantyne Affordable Housing As More Corruption Is Exposed!

This evening the Charlotte Business Journal is reporting the death of Ballantyne Crossing aka BallanCroft.

In the end a poorly conceived project that put a spotlight on Ballantyne's most deep seeded fears couldn't endure financial scrutiny. But questions and fears as well as a good sized black eye remain. The damage thanks to Stuart Proffitt and a community that is quick to toss in the race card will be a lasting stain on the name of Ballantyne.

According to Susan Stabley of the CBJ: "Republic Development Group says it will withdraw a rezoning petition for an affordable housing project proposed at the intersection of Johnston Road and Providence Road West".

Late on Monday, the Charlotte Housing Authority withdrew from the development citing costs.

Less than two hours later in front of a capacity crowd Proffitt explained he was moving forward without the CHA. During the meeting Proffitt faced fierce opposition, failed to sway sentiment and was often unable to explain even the most basic fundamentals of the project. To many homeowners in attendence the project was a mistake even if it didn't included low income housing.

Republic principal Stuart Proffitt says his firm found out on Tuesday that the application cannot be transferred to his company.

“Without Housing Trust Fund money, also known as ‘local money,’ the project’s tax credit application would no longer be competitive,” Proffitt told the Charlotte Business Journal in an e-mail.

Legal troubles for the project started when the developer was forced to change the name Ballantyne Crossing to BallanCroft because of trademark infringement.

And now according to the Charlotte Observer there is more than just a bad idea going on here. Apparently as Republic moved forward with the controversial project, the housing authority was investigating how two CHA staff members helped put the deal together.

The members of Republic, John Schwaller and Proffitt, are vice presidents of SPQR Real Estate Company, according to the N.C. Department of the Secretary of State. The president of SPQR is Ben Collins, who was a senior development officer with the Charlotte Housing Aauthority.

Collins helped the authority and Republic create a partnership for the Ballantyne apartments, known as Ballancroft.

Collins and his boss, Kathleen Foster, vice president for real estate, left the authority on Feb. 11, said CHA spokeswoman Jennifer Gallman. Their departure came after the authority conducted an investigation about how the business relationship between Republic and Collins was handled, according to sources.

The Observer further reported that Proffitt was surprised by the fallout from SPQR and the authority. He went on to say that his relationship with Collins was known inside CHA and that there was nothing improper about Republic’s relationship with Collins.

“There was absolutely nothing wrong with our relationship,” Proffitt said. “Everything we did was 100 percent above board.”

So add CHA to the list along with CMPD, DDS, ABC, BOCC, CCC, and you have an alphabet soup of corruption within City County GovCo.

While the death of Ballantyne Crossing AKA BallanCroft will be good news for Ballantyne homeowners the damage done by the Charlotte Housing Authority and Stuart Proffit will take months if not years to undo. Clearly the failure of this project and City Council's commitment to force subsidised housing in Ballantyne will depress home values under a continued cloud of uncertainty.

And again Charlotte's has an issue of corruption another city/county operation with questionable ethics. What the heck is going on and why was Cooksey and Cannon so intent on approving the project, so much so that they came to each others aid on Monday?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not liking that you threw in the "race" card. But yes, Proffitt, Schwaller, and Collins got what was coming after grandstanding with the media for weeks making everyone look like fools. They are crooks and liars, don't forget that. Their legal troubles came when folks, including CHA prior to the meeting, received documents about collusion and fraudulent companies...the end.

Anonymous said...

Good statement about Cooksey and Cannon coming to each other's aid...they grandstanded like they were campaigning...crooks like every other politician in Charlotte these days.

And more about Proffitt's statement in the Observer:
Just one last thing. Mr. Proffitt states that everything he did was "100%" above board. Really...suppose he wants to start talking about that fraudulent phantom company that he took money from the the city for and SIGNED for in December called "11109 Providence West,LLC"? BUSTED! This guy is scum...don't let the door hit him when he leaves this town...

Anonymous said...

RoMo had something to do with this....you just wait....

Anonymous said...

anon 8:53,

11109 Providence West? I missed that. Can you explain?

Anonymous said...

anon 8:56,

I know that was supposed to be funny, but science says not so much.

mirror neurons cause us to imitate and mimic the behaviors of others. could explain the "alphabet soup" as cedar so nicely put it.

Anonymous said...

anon 8:56,

I know that was supposed to be funny, but science says not so much.

mirror neurons cause us to imitate and mimic the behaviors of others. could explain the "alphabet soup" as cedar so nicely put it.

Anonymous said...

on the 11109 Providence West...that's the "company" that Stuart Proffitt signed off on December 2009 as being the zoning "petitioner" as well as having signed the original Letter of Intent with that company name on December 13,2009...note: that company does not exist and he admitted to it last night...he took money from the city and put in a zoning petition to the city based on FRAUD...he needs to go to jail...that's our money he took and he stated last night he wasn't giving back!...he had touted that company for 8 weeks as the "holding" company for Republic Development. Crook. I bet Charlotte Latin isn't too proud of their graduate. Handcuffs please?

Anonymous said...

Let's cuff and stuff the SOB!

This deal smelled bad from the get go. Why was Cooksey so far up For Proffitt's butt?

How much did Cooksey get as pay off from Proffitt?

Is there a Charlotte Latin connection to Cooksy?

A bunch of crooks swimming in a murkey pond, time to drain it!

Anonymous said...

Cuff is right...someone leak this key little "fraudulent" company back out to the media that they seemed to have skipped over, after all, it was the deciding point for CHA to back out once that was revealed to them late last week...I wanna see this jerk with cuffs on tv after all the hoopla he did in trying to divide and conquer our neighborhoods...his family now owns a cattle farm in Kings Mountain, Proffitt Family Farms,how nice...looks like he stepped in a pile of cow dung...good riddance Stewie...and take Cooksey with you...may want to get on a horse and ride on to Mexico...YEEHAWW!

ThaQueenCity said...

February 23, 2010 8:56 PM

Probably did....LOL

Anonymous said...

The "I'm not a racist, but..." crowd will try to spin this as a corrupt developer. Anything to keep their hate and bigotry from being exposed. We need to face the cold, hard, TRUTH: this is nothing more than modern day segregation pure and simple. Ballentyle's luster is now marred by this shameful act of rich entitlement and racism.

JAT said...

Anon -- I missed the water cannons and attack dogs down on Johnston Rd. To compare this opposition to a SUBSIDIZED REZONING to actual segregation is odious and ignorant.

No wonder you do not want anyone to know who you are.

Anonymous said...

truth is the "i'm not a corrupt developer but..." crowd is trying to spin this as a racist community. Anything to keep their corruption from being exposed. We need to face the cold, hard, TRUTH: this is nothing more than fraudulent companies trying to take the attention off what they are really doing. pure and simple. Stewie Proffitt and the CHA is now marred by this shameful act of rich entitlement and false projection of racism.

Anonymous said...

For Low Income Apartments, the United States, a key element in determining affordable housing is acceptable commuting time/distance. In Southern California, for example, a household's inhabitants must decide whether to pay more for housing to keep commuting time and expense low, or to accept a long and/or expensive commute in order to obtain "better" housing.

Anonymous said...

There's a lot of hate...in hell just don't let it be you.