The Chicago Transit Authority has appreciated the Tribune’s prompt and fair responses when factual errors have been brought to its attention. Unfortunately an exception seems to be made when columnist John Kass writes about the CTA’s sale of the former Limits Garage in Lincoln Park. For more than four years now, his columns have misrepresented the legal and competitively bid sale of that site, most recently in “State of City finds taxpayer pockets picked yet again” (News, Feb. 11), when he suggested a developer received a $6 million discount. The fact that he keeps repeating this misinformation is disappointing given that the CTA has repeatedly provided him, and the Tribune, with the correct information.
Let’s be clear on the facts. When selling the former Limits Garage site at 2684 N. Clark St., the CTA selected the highest qualified bidder and it did so in a process that was fair, legal and very public. The CTA solicitation for bids explicitly required that all proposals must meet development standards that were written in close cooperation with the local alderman and community groups. The standards included the environmental cleanup of the property. This was an important element because more than a dozen fuel storage tanks were buried on the site and environmental studies indicated contamination of the soil and groundwater.
Of the seven bids received by the CTA, only three complied with all the published development standards. Ultimately all four bids that did not comply with the requirements were rejected.
One of the rejected bids was from a team called Limits Park L.L.C. Its bid offer of $20 million appeared to be the highest submitted, but its proposal did not meet all the required standards even after two letters of clarification. A meeting between CTA and this team confirmed that the Limits Park L.L.C. bid did not meet the requirements.
The CTA bid documents clearly stated that bidders should include the cost of environmental cleanup in their bids. Limits Park L.L.C. did not comply. Its bid price required that the CTA, not the developer, pay for the environmental cleanup. This meant that its $20 million bid was not a final price and would be reduced by the cost of the cleanup–potentially many millions of dollars. The other bidders included the cost of cleanup in their bids, as required.
There were other problems with the proposal as well. Buildings that were supposed to be a minimum of 15 feet from the property line were shown as being much closer. “Visitor” parking turned out to be inside private garages–obviously inaccessible to visitors of other units.
Former Ald. William Singer, a representative for Limits Park L.L.C., insisted that the CTA should have permitted his team to change its proposal and its price to make up for these deficiencies. That would have been illegal–a violation of competitive bidding laws and CTA purchasing regulations–and grossly unfair to the other bidders who played by the rules. If that had happened, then Kass really would have had something to write about.
The Limits Garage property was sold to the developer that met all the requirements and offered the highest price. It was done fairly and honestly, and continued attempts to portray it otherwise will not change the facts.
