A four page document titled, “Minimum Requirements for Bidders” sent as a supplement to the Agilent redevelopment project RFP last February summarizes the extent to which Loveland’s City Council is attempting to capture the ACE project proposed by the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT). Loveland is requiring bidders subsidized by the city to redevelop the Agilent campus and than send 10% of gross sales over to CAMT if Loveland is selected to host their project. read story
Old Vine/Zing! of Ft. Collins tried to weasel out of this nasty obligation by proposing“If the Agilent Campus is chosen for ACE, we would be happy to negotiate an agreement with CAMT that includes profit sharing with them, commensurate with the economic value that they bring to the project and risk they are willing to take.”
An out of town developer who took a similar position was shown the door. Clearly CAMT has been promised by Loveland 10% of the gross sales right off the top of the Loveland City Taxpayer subsidized redevelopment of the old Agilent Campus off Taft Ave if they choose Loveland.
We agree with Old Vine/Zing! and believe their approach is the more prudent one for the city to take.
Loveland thought they were selling our city as a viable location to locate a new NASA center but instead were being sold on subsidizing CAMT’s unfunded vision to create their own NASA business incubator with no federal money. Instead of headlines saying “NASA looking to locate new center in Colorado” they should have more accurately reported, “Colorado Industry Association looking for money to create business incubator.”
Loveland should be evaluating CAMT’s business proposal instead of CAMT evaluating Loveland’s.
“I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”
Charles De Gaulle
This is amazing! Who gave anyone in the city the authority to do this stuff? That’s sure not what I voted for! Keeping the public in the dark while spending our money on a shady real estate deal? Shameful!!!!!!!!
I am very happy to see that some businessmen thought it was unethical to bid on a project that required kickbacks. I understand that is still the way business is done in some third world countries. It saddens me to know that Loveland city officials were the ones pushing for it here.
If I’m following this right, Marostica goes to work for the state of Colorado, concocts the ACE project as a “job creating project”, and schemes with his buddies at city hall to “win” it by buying it with taxpayer dough. Then he resigns his state job, emerges as the primary “biddder” for the project he created, and now stands to get paid MILLIONS OF LOVELAND TAXPAYERS’ DOLLARS?? What’s the correct term for this? Is there a jail term that goes with it?
This is a real scandal, the sort of thing you hear about on “60 Minutes”! Where are the investigative reporters at the Reporter-Herald, or for that matter, the Denver Post and Fort Collins Coloradoan?
Aren’t there public interest lawyers that fight these kinds of cases?
These guys are all jerks. I just can’t believe I live where people in the city government operate like this. Disgusting!
Don’t expect to find the answer in The Reporter-Herald, as they are much too busy not reporting news and engaging in school-age nonsense to be bothered with such serious and mature matters.
I know Marostica’s grandchildren. Thank God they didn’t take after him. I hope they continue to be influenced by those that take the high road, unlike their grandfather.
Yeah, this sounds a lot like a Marostica scheme John, you may be too young to remember Windsor Downs but it was another Marostica deal n the 80’s where he wanted to build a horse race track and pulled-in lots of suckers who lost everything. Of course, he walked away with lots of excuses but since we don’t have debtor’s prison there was no sentence for him. I remember Marostica screwing people for that apartment complex in south Loveland on 402 that he developed and got city fee waivers when he was a councilor in Loveland but don’t remember the name. Anyway the final phase went bankrupt but not before he took his money and ran. So yeah he was the governor’s big wig helping this deal than I heard he was working for CAMT and now he is a bidder? Wow, we must have a council born yesterday. I bet you 10 to 1 odds he’s got some backdoor deal with that Thorndike gal nobody outside this thing knows and thats how he is keeping serious folks out.
Wait just a minute. You have completely lost your way and the relevant facts here are buried in political ninny nonesense
Why is CAMT deciding who will be selected if they are not paying for the redevelopment of the Agilent campus?
Why didn’t the City of Loveland preclude any bidders who have other relationships/negotiations or deals with CAMT directly?
If CAMT is on the source selection committee for the city shouldn’t Thorndike recuse herself given her ongoing personal and professional relationships with Don Marostica?
Thorndike gives him credit for making the deal with NASA happen through the Governor’s office so how can Loveland allow her to decide who will get Loveland’s money?
In addition, she is GETTING the money not investing it. How does that give her a seat at the source selection table anyway?
I am sorry we ever wasted time evaluating this “opportunity”
I am nowhere near Loveland but took an interest in this story from a concern for an agency for which I hold great esteem that appears to be in at least the potential of being dragged through the mud here.
Please clarify that Lori Garver, Deputy Administrator of NASA, nor anyone else appointed to NASA by the Obama Administration is apparently aware of this alleged “10% kickback scheme” CAMT is somehow using to profit from its agreement with NASA.
Can you please verify if the 10% is somehow a creation of Mr. Marostica’s early brokerage of this project between Loveland and CAMT or is this a broader requirement imposed on all cities by Elaine Thorndike of CAMT.
I believe the latter would be of great interest to NASA’s ethics office as selling their relationship in exchange for any consideration would likely be a violation of the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulations). Also, is CAMT somehow a commercial brokerage under Colorado law because where I come from you cannot receive any “kickback” or percentage of any real estate transaction (whether a lease or sale of fee simple estate) without first obtaining a broker’s license.
Lastly, let me please inform you NASA has only 10 centers and is barely able to fund these today with the 2008 budget level they are forced to work with given budget constraints in the 2011/2012 fiscal year. There are most assuredly NO PLANS to locate a new NASA center anywhere in the country let alone in little Loveland, Colorado.
Thank you
Can you please confirm if my comments are published?
Thanks for all the great comments but we just cannot answer everyone’s additional questions right now – especially not tonight.
Remember what we wrote when Marostica resigned from the legislature before announcing he had already accepted the position with Governor Ritter -
“Theories over Marostica’s erratic behavior in recent months abound. In fact, his behavior appears to be characteristic of once Loveland City Councilman Don Marostica. He abandoned his post on Loveland’s City Council upon learning that federal law would prohibit him from presiding over disbursement of redevelopment funds for a proposed project where he would be the developer.”
Poor ethical decisions and self-serving insider dealing have been the very hallmark of his life in public office. He resigned his Loveland City Council seat when the city attorney informed him he could not both preside over the disbursement of federal funds (a failed redevelopment effort) as a city official while also receiving the same funds as the developer.
Ironically, Marostica recently decided to officially change his Larimer County voter registration by no longer identifying himself as a Republican as news was breaking that the Larimer County Republican Party Chairman, Larry Carillo, failed to file various campaign finance reports to the Colorado Secretary of State.
Compared to Don Marostica who didn’t pay his income taxes in five different years before the IRS had to put liens on all his properties, Larry Carillo looks like a boy scout!
Thank you for reporting this story and helping to bring light onto a problem shared by developers supporting bids in Erie and Firestone Colorado as well.
One point of clarification is that nobody we know has said they don’t want the project in Loveland without CAMT. What bidders have tried desperately to communicate to Loveland officials is that there must be some economic justification for paying so much money to CAMT by way of contribution or capital at risk in the project.
Giving CAMT 10% of gross sales just for choosing your community to locate their NASA affiliated project there appears like a type of extortion one might expect from a Mafia boss.
What’s the next step for our city council? Have they already appropriated the money for this? I’d like to watch that vote. They just got finished with their listening tour, supposedly empathizing with residents who are having basic city services cut to save a few thousand here and there in hopes of closing a budget deficit. Now they’re spending millions on this boondoggle?
My opinion is the Loveland City Council really owes us an honest explanation of what the hell is really going on.
Someone told me about this and i said it sounds like a mob contract not a NASA deal. He had a great comeback…..the mob actually gets you protection from competition and other benefits for their 10% off the top!
Sounds like CAMT doesn’t even want to promise that!!!!!!!
What the hell are they thinking? At least I know why the Mayor didn’t want to give the facts during his little public meeting about the city’s business incentive programs. Telling taxpayers some of this stuff would could have turned the attendees into an angry mob for crying out loud!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL, Ok not so funny but what were they thinking?????
Thanks for reporting this. Clearly there are major irregularities, including at least the appearance of not only conflicts of interest but ethical violations. The “kickback” requirement certainly sounds shady if not illegal (as Jerry R implies). In any case, it would represent a further direct loss to City taxpayers, because according to the article, the City’s limited slice of ROI would come AFTER such expenses (and developer profits) are deducted.
I’ve read the RFP and all the documentation regarding this proposed agreement between the city of Loveland ACE. I also read the article about and it has been totaly twisted. The outline above was taken from the RFP and differnet bids developers. The guy who wrote this blog has twisted and lied about this whole story. You what’s worse is you people don’t possess enough common sense to search out the facts for your self. You can’t even think for youselves.
I don’t mind the city investing in projects to create future economic growth, but I’m retired and frankly just can’t be paying for something that will never pay me back, and might not even work out the way they say.
Congratulations to the author. As of 2PM NASA has pulled out of this project (which they were going to announce Loveland had won) and shut down approximately 7000 jobs that would have come into our city. This is what happens when people publish “half-truths” taken out of context and without verification.
All of that work – down the drain.
Shame on you.
I just re-read the link to the Reporter-Herald story, explaining how local heavy weights in real estate are “all in”, whether ACE comes to Loveland or not. 7000 potential jobs are dangled like a carrot to readers, and “jobs” is the buzzword throughout. With the new information this site has unearthed, R-H’s reporting looks lazy and uncritical at best. The Reporter-Herald should be embarrassed for not looking any deeper or questioning what they were clearly spoonfed. They continue to earn their drop in readership.
To Steve B. and Karen:
Don’t blame the messenger. This story is about Loveland’s communication to developers and not NASA’s relationship with CAMT.
Where are you getting your information? We have no knowledge about NASA backing out of its deal with CAMT though NASA WATCH (A news blog for NASA) did post a link to this story this morning so it is getting lots of buzz.
The City of Loveland chose to mislead residents about the deal it was offering and refuses to release any information. Nothing reported here is created from whole cloth but instead pieces of a larger puzzle we put together from various sources.
If we are in error, please explain where and report the correct information. As long as the city’s position is that taxpayer’s are too stupid to know the truth this blog will continue to shine light on back room deals and secret requirements to win the bid. Oh by the way, maybe checking with NASA first before using their name to shake people down would have been a prudent move.
If the process of selecting the city and developer was really fair and clean how can you possibly know the outcome before the decision was made? In addition, NASA was funding only 1 job not the false 7,000 you claim. That is one fact you can verify by reading the agreement that so far only LovelandPolitics has published.
Carol I can only imagine what it would be like if the generation before you that paid the way for you was as selfish as you are. Jerry R. you should inform yourself before you speak. NASA had NO intentions of every coming here. It was NEVER about that. I’m continuely amazed at the people in our society that are to lazy to study for themselves and trust a man like this who wrote these lies. None of you have taken the time to research this out. The Blind leading the blind. Why are you removing your name from my posts. If you’re afraid that people will find out it’s you. That’s about to happen in a couple days.
Jason,
A comma goes after “like” in your first sentence, because “if” is connecting another complete sentence. You also end the sentence with a dangling modifier. In your third sentence, you misspelled “ever”. In your fourth sentence, you misspelled “continually”. Your fifth sentence ends in a dangling preposition. Your sixth sentence is not a complete sentence. Your seventh sentence is a question, but doesn’t end with a question mark. Your eighth sentence is not a complete sentence.
My generation believed in education, Jason, and valued those who applied it. I hope you will understand if I consider your criticism high praise.
Well, “Jason”’s remarks only prove the saying, “opinions are like …__…everybody has one.” He challenges others to learn before they speak, but evinces little learning himself. He calls this report “lies” (as does “Karen”… but can’t show one instance of one. In fact, neither offers any facts rebutting any aspect of this article.
That’s not just uninformed opinion. Worse, it’s evidence of the very dishonesty that was the subject of this report. Thanks again to the publisher of this story.
And I wonder when “SteveB” will back up his claims that NASA pulled out of the project, and explain how he knows this before any word of it is published anywhere, and how he knew Loveland was to be announced the “winner”. Are his even the “half-truths” he complains about?
Finally, if Loveland really is prepared to give away as much as this article outlines, maybe being the “winner” is more like “winning” the honor of being the next kamikaze pilot or suicide bomber.
While the point of LovelandPolitics is only to focus on the specific Loveland subsidy issues I don’t understand how ACE differs from eSpace in Boulder.
Here is the link http://espacecenter.org/index.php
Lots of government money invested but maybe not the results everyone was promised.
“We are the Center for Space Entrepreneurship – a unique collaboration of industry, government, and academia accelerating the formation of entrepreneurial space companies and a diverse workforce to support them. eSpace is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports the creation and development of entrepreneurial space companies, the commercialization of the technologies they create, and the workforce to fuel their growth.”
The suggestion that CAMT provide a proposal to Loveland city and all her residents is probably a good one if they are being asked to fund a competitor to eSpace that may or may not be successful.
Thank you for the comment. The point you make is a good one that our community would be better served by a more open process where maybe a matrix comparing not just eSpace to ACE but all the other business incubators funded by government money up and down the Front Range.
What ACE intends to offer as incentives to draw companies into their incubator and how those incentives differ from eSpace would be helpful in helping everyone in Loveland understanding what competitive advantages we believe ACE can offer potential tenants thus better understand the potential success of the project.
If CAMT or NASA were going to buy the property and/or fund the project that due diligence would not be necessary. Since Loveland taxpayers will be paying both the developer and now CAMT to develop the project if selected than maybe a more informed and public process will be needed.
Unfortunately, it appears we have become Chicago.
I think it’s interesting the Reporter Herald article today pretends the deal is complicated and the detail still not known. I wonder if I link your site in a comment if they will erase it. Kinda funny isn’t it? A newspaper trying to suppress news.
Why not allow a realtor to list the property and forget about it.
If it does not move, lower the price.
Have any of the readers here tried contacting a council member directly to find out what is going on? If so, what have you found out?
They have been advised in closed session not to discuss the details of the ACE project bids. We understand Councils understands NASA is not contributing money and haven’t approved anything yet as that vote would require a public meeting. The city staff is emphasizing all the winning bidder (developer) will receive is the right to exclusively negotiate with the City of Loveland for six months. If they reach an agreement between Loveland, the bidder and CAMT than the details resulting from the negotiation will be made public just before the City Council votes as required by law.
I agree with most of what you’re saying. I just posted something similar to what you’re talking about on my blog.
Here’s part of what I think is wrong with ACE. CAMT ceo thorndike wants to profit personally from the deal without investing any of her own money or taking any personal risk what so ever.
It a big scam the band leader mayor walked right nto it like a fool.