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Cle Elum sells couch
PurpleThrobber
Member Posts: 47,540 
Any bets in the death pool for when the State of Washington files for bankruptcy?
Parlay for dates of Oregon and California bankruptcy too.
Over/under on the amount of the total default by the entire West Coast.
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Real estate developers are tough cookies
I'd like to know the whole story. Why is a small town on the hook for a real estate deal? Usually there is RFP (Request for Proposal) about some redevelopment on City property. Not dissimilar from getting construction bids from general contractors to build your house on property you own. You would get sued if they built the home and you didn't pay for it. Maybe they used Dazzler MBA, LLC (a noted management consultant firm) for a cash flow analysis.
Good question
Why does Cle Elum owe $22 million?
In 2011, Cle Elum entered into a housing development contract with CHH to build 950 homesites across 358 acres north of downtown. At the time, both parties understood that the local housing market may not be ready for such a large development project because it was still recovering from the 2008 financial crisis.
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.704.0_en.html#fid=goog_19410436830 of 17 minutes, 47 seconds
Instead, the contract provided CHH a 25-year construction window and sole discretion to determine when market conditions were ready. Cle Elum pledged to support the project in various ways, like fast-tracking permits, when ready.
However, in 2019, when CHH determined they were ready to begin building the community, it appeared Cle Elum was not. The city expressed it was no longer satisfied with the agreement, adding the deal was outdated and claimed it benefited CHH more than the city.
By 2024, growing frustration on both sides had come to a head, and the two sides entered into arbitration. Retired Judge Paris Kallas ruled in favor of CHH and awarded the $22.2 million judgment.
“The city sought to add new conditions to the contract,” Kallas wrote in his ruling. “And the city failed to follow the contract’s bargained-for expedited permitting process.”
The multi-million-dollar judgment is a gigantic sum for Cle Elum. The sleepy town of 2,300 residents, tucked along Interstate 90, near the Eastern face of the Cascade mountains, manages a general fund budget of just $5 million. They’ve said publicly they simply cannot afford to pay the money they owe CHH, or the 12% interest, which amounts to $7,300 a day, also ordered to be paid by Judge Kallas.
CHH said it made several attempts to have a conversation, or what they call “direct collaboration” with Cle Elum’s mayor and city council to work out a payment plan or enter some other sort of deal to get their money and help Cle Elum from entering the bankruptcy process. If Cle Elum does file for Chapter 9, the chances of CHH recovering the full judgment become slim.
Contributing: Luke Duecy, KIRO Newsradio; Julia Dallas, MyNorthwest
Follow Jason Sutich on X. Send news tips here.
It will just be more of their usual speed trap tickets to pay it off.
There was a deal between the city and a developer for a huge 100+ home housing community pre Covid. The LLC put the housing deal on hold during the Covid lockdowns and subsequent restrictions. The city agreed to the stoppage. When work was set to begin again the city slow played permits in an effort to renegotiate the deal. It was in the original contract that the city would expedite the permits allowing for a quick build. The LLC sued for breach of contract and the judge presiding over the case found in their favor. 22 million was owed, with interest during payment negotiations that amount has now ballooned to 26 million. The LLC wants a lump sum as they denied Cle Elum the option of making payments. The city has a yearly working budget of 5 million, hence bankruptcy.
Sort of a very mini-WPPS situation. There a bag of New York investment banks talked the dairy farmers sitting on the board of the Washington Public Power Supply System to build five nuclear facilities. That worked out about as well as it sounds.
Based upon personal experience and ownership of real estate in that area, I can confidently say three things:
1. Cle-Elum is run by idiots.
2. The Arbitration Judge is also an idiot.
3. Many of the realtors and developers involved are well-known and disliked shysters.
This is a case of rich neighbors fucking over the lesser-thans in their own backyard and a greedy city council that made a deal with the devil to upscale their dirty, shitty little town with Westside money - for the common good - then tried to back out or shrink it after they sobered up and heard from their constituents.
Is Glondo's still open in Cle Elum?
That was some orgasmic pepperoni sticks.
Yup. And Pioneer Coffee still has Super-Models working behind its counter. Can't explain it, but I like it.
The council and city staffers who tried to back out were not the same ones who signed the original deal.
You realize that makes no difference, legally, correct?
I'm not talking about legality. Throwing that out in the context of who actually put the deal together when talking about who is compromised, didn't listen to constituents, etc.
Rafting buddy of mine used to live there. Would go out and kayak with him on days we weren't working.
Went over for his birthday one time with a tub of everclear jello. We ended up burning the old couch, the patio furniture, and a bunch of used motoroil at like 4am in a giant bonfire.
His girlfriend banned me from coming over again.
Not sure what your point is. Not sure what dog you have in the fight, but you must have one, so sorry if I insulted it.
I don't have any dog in the fight at all, but am pointing out that there were two different regimes in power at the city and they made two different decisions at different points in time. Were they both corrupt? Or did they each make the wrong decision at their respective points in time? It seems like you have something of a pulse on the town.
Lots of hot milfs running around at Suncadia.
Had to do it. YKW
???
pics brother, even new fish have this read down
Like anywhere else in the West (well, mostly) it's the same old, same old Californication (ode to RHCP). The Eagles (The Last Resort) sang "somebody laid the mountains low, while the town got high." Denver sang "more people, more scars upon the land" in Rocky Mountain High. It's all about pushing too much development and change, too fast, which ruins the area that everyone loved coming to in the first place. And when someone says, wait a second, this place is no longer X or Y, well, there you have it. The original draw of open space, dark skies, quiet nights and freedom to move are all gone and replaced by imports from elsewhere, along with their impacts, cultures & problems. Let's turn Cle Elum into Aspen (they'd like to think)! More like Lynnwood. Sorry Cle Elum Council, ya done got greedy and thought you were "all that" because of Suncadia. It all reminds me of the Simpson's Monorail Episode. Build it just to build it, and if it doesn't work, well blame Troy McClure - who's long gone by the time people realize what they've destroyed. As for the retired Judge, she may as well have filed the Bankruptcy Petition herself or just burned the town to the ground, because Cle Elum could never pay that judgement in a million years. As for the plaintiffs in the case, they're about to learn what "you can't get blood from a stone" and "doesn't have a pot to piss in" mean.
Stupid to make the original agreement - BUT WE HAVE A HOUSELESSNESS CRISIS (don't say homeless, because a sleeping bag and cardboard box is a home) - so let's act like we're addressing it by building a bunch of expensive mountain homes above Cle Elum.
Stupid to fight and ignore the original agreement by subsequent councils bound by their predecessors' agreement.