Cincinnati City Council has approved of grants and loans that will help close a $1.7 million funding gap in the Parker Flats project.

Last month, Council authorized a $450,000 loan to Middle Earth Developers from capital improvement funds.

The loan, which would be subordinate to the agreement the developers have with LaSalle Bank, would be repaid from the sale of units.

In a seperate ordinance, Council authorized a $500,000 grant. Councilmembers Ghiz and Monzel voted against the grant.

The developers are working with LaSalle Bank to close the remaining gap.


Background

Parker Flats partner Jay Voss has stated that the higher cost of the project is due to a prevailing-wage lawsuit filed last June by Joseph Zimmer, the executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Building Trades Council, on behalf of the taxpayers.

The lawsuit alleged that the Parker Flats project was subject to prevailing-wage provisions because the parking garage had been awarded a $839,000 subsidy.

Voss had argued that the condos above the garage were a private development and therefore not subject to the provisions.

Judge Richard Niehaus, in a September 5, 2006 hearing, called the garage and the condos "intricately related".

In early January 2007, Voss, sensing where the lawsuit was heading, asked Niehaus to dismiss the case in exchange for a promise to pay the prevailing wage.