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LAKE GENEVA’S ‘FRENCH’ RIVIERA
Three and a half million dollars is what is being bandied about for fixing up the Riviera Pier complex. They’re back.
The parking lot bandits are back. The last time this kind of money was discussed it was five million and it was about how to build a two-million-dollar parking lot and ‘pocket’ the other three million. Those good old boys have not forgotten that five million that the Geneva Shore Report and a few others railed against and then beat back. The GSR opposition to the parking lot was not about the building of a much needed parking lot, it was about the differential monetary amounts that nobody was going to even attempt to explain on the other side. How is a community to gauge what it is worth to rebuild the Riviera Pier building and complex without understanding where the money is going, and to whom? The ‘sales’ of construction projects across the spectrum in and around Geneva Lake are always based upon supposed value.
What is the value to be gained, and what is it worth to attain such a value. The parking lot was sold to the public, or the attempt was made, based upon a value that was real and fairly easy to establish and then prove. Very quickly and quietly following the ‘sale’ of the parking lot to Lake Geneva’s representatives, a plan was slid across the council table that entailed spending five million dollars to get the value. Nowhere in the documentation did the presenters of that plan mention who was going to get what out of the five million to be divvied up. After seeking professional construction and contractor assistance the Geneva Shore Report X-Files investigators were able to determine that the structure could easily have been built to specification of the plans for less than three million dollars. That left over two million ‘on the table,’ and the GSR went to work to oppose the project. The rationale applied in going against the parking lot had nothing to do with its value. That was accepted as a given by everyone living around the lake and having to deal with the parking situation in summertime. It was the two point some odd million overages, or ‘profit’ if you will, that was opposed. That amount was considered outrageous and downright gouging of the unknowing public.
There was no defense to the GSR attack. The project was withdrawn. Following the withdrawal (the profit was indefensible), the GSR was accused of not seeing the value of the parking structure, which was a deliberate and self-serving lie on the part of the builders. Now here they come again. The Riviera Pier is in questionable shape. Its basement is a mess of cracked concrete, old sodden wood and mold. The upper structure, as good looking as it remains, does not serve the purpose of modern use. It was designed and built in another era (when big bands and night clubs abounded). The Riviera project is a project that has value. It lacks the immediate traffic improving value of the parking structure, and it too needs financial investment and help. Now comes the question of value and what the city is willing to pay to receive that value. Prior to decision time it is also vitally necessary to analyze and become comfortable with a profit amount that is reasonable, if not downright stingy and cautionary. The city needs to climb right inside the numbers it is going to be given by the builders, and then it is incumbent upon the city councilors and planners to do what the GSR did with the parking structure. It must get outside objective opinions. The Geneva Shore Report is going to get those opinions on behalf of the citizenry paying the tab. Should anything less be expected of the city’s elected representatives?
