Cincinnati Streetcar Plan Pits Desire For Growth Against Fiscal Restraint

Downtown Cincinnati (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

CINCINNATI, OH — It has been a long time since a streetcar was just a streetcar here.

Instead, a $133 million project to build a 3.6-mile streetcar line through downtown has come to represent, depending on whom you talk to, a debt trap that will sink the city or an ambitious development effort that is central to Cincinnati’s revival.

And when the debate ended last week in an unexpected last-minute victory for the streetcar proponents, it was seen as both a vote of confidence in the city’s future and a reminder of how tenuous support for the project had become.

On the brink of being shut down, the project was saved by a successful petition drive and a written commitment, provided by the Haile U.S. Bank Foundation, from about 15 private backers to pay up to $9 million in operating costs, if needed, over the line’s first decade.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/23/us/cincinnati-streetcar-plan-pits-desire-for-growth-against-fiscal-restraint.html?_r=0

Coventry Mall Sold At Auction, Will Remain Open

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Chester County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

NORTH COVENTRY TOWNSHIP, PA — The Coventry Mall was sold Thursday at auction for $49.5 million to U.S. Bank National Association, as Trustee, pending judicial approval of the proceeding.

An attorney for the bank was the lone bidder in the auction of the property.

The mall has remained open throughout the process and will continue normal operations, according to William Ritterling, general manager of Coventry Mall.

The auction, which lasted less than 15 minutes, attracted about 10 onlookers and was conducted outside the mall in front of the empty Sears store.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/business/20130919/coventry-mall-sold-at-auction-will-remain-open