21 November 2013 (01:34 UTC-07 Tango)/17 Muharram 1435/30 Aban 1392/19 Gui-Hai (10th month) 4711
A couple of days ago the Idaho State Journal reported that the Pine Ridge Mall, in Chubbuck, was bought by a company called Farmer Holding Company. The local newspaper quoted Rob Kingsbury as saying the company is a “family business”.
Farmer Holding started as Farmer Concrete back in 1948. There are members of the board with the family name of Farmer (and employees related but not with the name Farmer), but today’s Farmer Holding Company Incorporated is a full fledged corporation created in Missouri in December 2000. The incorporation has a “Permanent” (no expiration date) registration according to the Missouri Secretary of State.
According to the Missouri Ethics Commission, Farmer Holding employs at least three political lobbyists at the state level.
Farmer Holding Company branched out to mall properties in December 2012 when they paid a measly $11-million USD for the Capital Mall in Jefferson City, Missouri. Farmer holding just paid a paltry $9-million for the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho. And there is a connection; both malls were owned by GGP (General Growth Properties)!
Here’s another twist, according to Missouri’s News Tribune, ‘family owned’ Farmer Holding is a subsidiary of F&F Development.
At last report Farmer Holding was proposing a plan to improve the Capital Mall by combining it with an events center. Farmer Holding told the Jefferson City council they would expand the property, and the city promised to give Farmer Holding $9-million collected from hotel taxes to help pay for $36-million expansion!
Interestingly Farmer Holding admitted that event/conference centers are money losing propositions. Their own independently conducted economic survey said they would lose $250-thousand per year on the deal! Yet, on 12 November 2013, the Jefferson City conference center facilitator told the city council to go with Farmer Holding’s plan.
On 18 November 2013, this is what city council member Carrie Carroll had to say about two competing convention center proposals: “At this point, neither one is right. Neither one is outstanding. Until they’re outstanding, they’re not going to be capable of getting our $9-million until we are enthused that this is right.”
On top of this Farmer Holding told city officials they had only $12-million of their own “investment” money to pay for the project, so even with the city’s $9-million they have to come up with $15-million from somewhere! (thin air?)
A Jefferson City resident, Charles Gaskin, conducted his own research and warned city officials that Farmer Holding’s plan was a bad deal for the city. He said city officials have become so desperate for developers that they now have the audacious hope that ‘if we build it customers will come’. Gaskin says his research shows the economy is so bad that nobody will show up. Remember, even Farmer Holding said they would lose money on the plan. (the Idaho cities of Chubbuck and Pocatello have adopted that same ‘built it they will come’ attitude)
In November 2013, Jefferson City council member Ken Hussey even warned “There’s a potential for super TIFs.” TIF means Tax Increment Financing.
Farmer Holding was created out of a successful, truly family owned construction business. The heirs decided to take their construction business to the next level and become fully incorporated. In other words what they are doing is really all about making profits for their original construction ops.
And who is F&F Development? At this point I don’t know! Internet searches come up with many different companies that specialize in things like property development to things like direct selling. Every listing for an F&F Development, whether it was a company in Florida or Connecticut, showed it to be a privately held company, which makes it hard to find info on them (they are not a publicly traded company). There are several of these ‘development’ companies who list their forte as hotel and event/conference center developers. If the News Tribune is correct about F&F being the parent company of Farmer Holding, it could explain why Farmer Holding is pushing Jefferson City to help pay for a new hotel and event/conference center in the Capital Mall.
Here’s another connection: GGP is an Illinois based corporation, Farmer Holding supposedly bought the Capital Mall but isn’t involved in operating it, another Illinois based company called Covington Realty Partners is actually running the mall (gee, it’s like an onion, so many layers). Coldwell Banker Commercial Intermountain is managing the leasing of spaces at the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck, Idaho.
I’m beginning to suspect that Farmer Holding always approaches city officials with the claim that they want to “rejuvenate” the local economy. It could be that their true plan of action is to buy up distressed commercial properties for dirt cheap, build them up with the help of local taxes, then sell them off to the first sucker that comes along. It’s like house flipping, but with commercial properties.
2017 Update: In 2015 Caldwell Banker revealed that Farmer Holding-F&F Development took-over the once independently owned Carmike 7 theater in Chubbuck, Idaho. The property was demolished and replaced with spaces for restaurants, currently occupied by Panera and Red Robin. The demolition of the Carmike 7 actually began in December 2014, as documented by Blind Bat News.
Also in 2015 Farmer Holding Company-F&F Development began buying vacant healthcare facilities when it took over Jefferson City, Missouri, Saint Mary’s Hospital. Officially the plan is to redevelop the property (as part of the nationwide REIT conspiracy), and at the beginning of 2017 Farmer Holding-F&F Development asked for taxpayer ‘incentives’ to finance the hospital redevelopment, which would allow Farmer Holding-F&F Development to cash-in on 50% of local sales tax revenues, and the imposition of an additional 1% sales tax on locals! The city also granted easements for two parcels associated with the hospital property, blocking ‘right-of-way’ so that Farmer Holding-F&F Development could start redevelopment.
At the end of 2016, Farmer Holding asked Jefferson City to not only continue the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the Capital Mall project, but to increase it, as well as create a new TIF for their convention center project!
2018 Capital Mall Update: New signs and paint is all taxpayers got?
Investment companies dump GGP & J.C. Penney!
Grand Teton Mall, in Idaho Falls, for sale! GGP dumping malls en masse!
East Idaho’s Pine Ridge Mall, in Chubbuck, sells for paltry $9 million!
East Idaho shopping malls….quietly put up to be auctioned off….Merry Xmas!
A History Lesson in Economic Decline
All part of REIT plan to change the way you shop, and they blame you the shopper!
Mitt Romney….Destroyed jobs in Chubbuck