Important

w_howey said:
An old building catches on fire... the first thing out of everyone's mouth... "its a set-up"

Re-doing old buildings is a sucky, dirty and dangerous business. Alot of things have to be cut/heated/torched or burnt out to be removed.

A major fire like that is huge, huge, huge problem for the developer. The costs associated with the fire alone usually put a developer into bigger problems than he was in before hand.
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i would believe it in this case...i don't think they will rebuild in that location. there was a time when big stores like that (younkers, herbergers, bergners bon ton are all the same store) even milwaukee and chicago have downtown bon ton stores that were built at a time when everyone shopped downtown and malls didn't exist. malls outside of the city centers killed these stores and most of them werent able to survive. this store was struggling like a lot of them...it was a massive store too. burn the store down...collect the insurance, move the store to a mall...seems like it should at least be investigated. it sure made a mess of downtown des moines from the pics though...

the other reality is that really old stores like that are giant tinderboxes and even a small fire could spread rapidly.
 
so i feel like i'm starting to become a mix of ryan and walt in a weird way...buy jeeps/parts...change mind...sell parts for more money...buy more parts/jeeps....rinse and repeat.

i've been through a good number of jeep trucks and will now hopefully be making a deal on one that i can actually use. emptypockets is going to go look at it for me this weekend while he picks up a different mj from the guy...then if its good i'm hoping to have jason go pick it up for me next saturday. should know here soon...

the other side of that is that, at one point when i was trying to pick up a full set of locked axles a while back, i listed the d44 parts i have for sale on clist and never took the ad down...someone 2 days ago responded saying he wanted them for the price i listed. There is also a set of 4.56 geared axles for sale out here right now...so selling my d44 parts and my non running mj would give me enough money to buy a set of geared/locked axles and a running mj...and in 2 weeks from today we move to a house with a garage...wf 2015 prep starts in 2 weeks :)
 
Had lunch with Johnny lobster (my Naxja president predecessor) in wapakoneta, OH today...

mac 'hadn't seen him since oct of 08' gyvr
 
altrocker1 said:
i would believe it in this case...i don't think they will rebuild in that location. there was a time when big stores like that (younkers, herbergers, bergners bon ton are all the same store) even milwaukee and chicago have downtown bon ton stores that were built at a time when everyone shopped downtown and malls didn't exist. malls outside of the city centers killed these stores and most of them werent able to survive. this store was struggling like a lot of them...it was a massive store too. burn the store down...collect the insurance, move the store to a mall...seems like it should at least be investigated. it sure made a mess of downtown des moines from the pics though...

the other reality is that really old stores like that are giant tinderboxes and even a small fire could spread rapidly.
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After reading the articles on the project... its even less likely the developer did anything on purpose. First.. the building has been empty for 10 years so any talk of the retail environment is really moot. The idea of downtown shopping died 40 years ago. The first malls effectively killed what was left of that. The suburban-ing of the world started that. Hell.. you are turning into a commuter for work. Are you going to shop where you live.. or when you go into the city for work?

Second, a fire like this effectively ends a developer's business in type of work. This follows them around every time they try to pitch a project to a city or regional economic development group.

Third, this project was turning an abandoned downtown office building into 120 rent controlled apartments. We can discuss how this is absolutely the opposite direction of almost every other downtown development groups goals, but that isn't the point. The developer gains a bunch of tax credits for these types of apartment projects. The developer then sells those credits for cash, or other considerations later. That is where the developer actually make money off the project.

So now... the developer has a trashed reputation, no building, no tax credits. There is no way that the project was insured to cover the amount of accumulated loss they will experience.

The only positive is that no one was injured in the mess.
 
there are other investigations going on with the developer that started even before this fire broke out...they don't have a clean reputation to start with

also there are a lot of developers looking to get out of downtown or to remove old infrastructure to put up condo's and apt's, but they cant do it because some old buildings are protected. this store will be rebuilt, but not as retail space...that i know for a fact.

who knows, des moines is the "insurance capital of the world"...maybe the developer had a deal with an insurance company lol. clearly im making up conspiracy theories, but i wouldn't be surprised if the building comes back as an insurance building for ing, principal, prudential or one of the other giants of downtown. it wouldn't be the first time something shady happened that resulted in the building of a new insurance building in downtown des moines.

not saying i actually believe that thats what happened, but i'm sure there will be a pretty big investigation. hopefully they can figure out what actually happened...my actual guess is that it was probably electrical or gas related considering how fast it spread.
 
Well the F250 had its first trial run/trip this weekend. Went down home for a funeral and then towed a Chrysler Pacifica back to r&r the motor. Driving down I got ~14mpg interstate/hwy driving. Tooled around the town and then towed the Pacifica back. I averaged 12.5 mpg on the way back. Those numbers are with a 7.3 with 300k on it and 1 bad injector (unverified) so I'm pretty happy with it. The transmission works flawlessly and really woke up that truck.

99SJ 'Next project... ' Ex
 
I'm sure I'll hear more details in the next few days. Was a neat old building I remember going to with my grandma 30 years ago and many other good memories. It's a sad shame no matter what.
 
Working tonight for a long weekend in two weeks!

mac 'downtown district' gyvr
 
By the end of the next month, my new bumpers will be painted for free. I didn't ask for it either. Friend owns a metal shop and has a flat black military type coating. Taking bumpers and everything I have (waiting on rear tie ins from ares) next Sunday. Trying for the last Saturday of the month to get to his shop to help with the painting.
 
Smash Hole said:
What's the hot setup for a mirror on door less XJ's? Bonus points if they can be clamped on 1.75" tube.
Click to expand...


There's a hot setup...liquid iron industries comes to mind...

mac 'I think' gyvr
 
Airport = spandex viewing time, not getting any work done on the laptop, haha
 
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