Monday, June 4, 2012

Stockton - bank takes back city hall and 3 city parking garages


Stockton, CA will consider filing Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection after June 30th. Two (2) year city owned city hall offices had not been occupied. Three (3) city owned parking garages were repossessed in April.

Top Photo
New city hall was the old Washington Mutual building
"The Stockton City Council announced Wednesday that they will look at bankruptcy contingency plans after Wells Fargo seized the new city hall building. The city paid $35 million to buy the 8-story building, but was not able to move in because of its money problems, and recently stopped making debt payments all together. This is the fourth building that was repossessed by Wells Fargo; the bank seized three city parking garages for the same reason."  ABC News, channel 10/Maneeza Lqbal, 5/31/12.  "New Stockton City Hall building seized by Wells Fargo; city preps bankruptcy contingency plan."  Read Article, includes embedded video, 43 seconds. Note the links on the article are all ads.

"The City of Stockton's decision to default on the bond that led to their new City Hall building to be repossessed is actually part of the city's plan to regain their financial footing.  City spokesperson Connie Cochran says the city defaulted in order to still have money for public safety.  "Unfortunately, this (City Hall) is just one of the underperforming assets the city has and we had to take this step to maintain basic public safety services in our community," said Cochran.Three Stockton parking garages were also repossessed in April."  Fox News 40, Ian McDonald and Sonseeahay Tonsall, 5/30/12. "Bank repossesses Stockton's new city hall.  Read Article, linked to two related articles.
  
ReferenceCity of Stockton.Area Vibes statistics (2009, population 287,578.. . City Data (2010 data).Movoto detailed demographics, also view as a graph.

Related - "Investopedia explains Chapter 9". "The purpose Chapter 9 is to negotiate a repayment plan between the municipality and creditors, which can include reducing the outstanding debt or interest rate, extending the term of the loan and refinancing debts."

Submitted by Jim Alex

Posted by Kathy Meeh

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please, somebody, take our City Hall!

Hutch said...

At least our city hall is paid for.

Anonymous said...

That rat trap and those funky buildings on Francisco are very valuable real estate. Needs to be sold and other digs found for city staffers. How about that barn of a police station?

Hutch said...

"rat trap" is a perfect habitat for bureaucrats and politicians.

I agree we shouldn't waste any valuable real estate for city buildings. But we can't afford to build anything new. Maybe put all city services in the police station when (if) we outsource to the county.

Anonymous said...

Makes sense Hutch and long overdue. Just one more very good reason to contract with the sheriffs. Wonder what that consultant will advise our befuddled council to do about
bringing on the sheriffs department. Their fog should clear right after the election. What's the hurry? We're just a city of 40,000 with no reserve to speak of and no new revenue in sight. Guess it snuck up on 'em with Pacifica always being so prosperous and all.