David Waugh (a leader in the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood) put together an excellent fact sheet replete with some big, fat, ugly factoids that leave more big, fat questions than answers regarding the developers of the Edgewater Hotel project. It just gets more & more apparent that the partners involved in the Edgewater redevelopment are rather unsavory.

Here is a little prognostication, from an always-in-the-know friend, regarding the Edgewater project and its implications for the future of State Street & environs……

Hey Mike,

Scary moment of the day…

What is up with the weird way the Fontana store is closing, and no info on the plan for the building?

The old White Horse Inn and assorted stores behind the Overture that are all defunct are not seeking new renters. [Though I did just talk to the owner of Fontana today–the store is apparently moving a couple of doors down, on Henry St. — MB]

One half of the first hundred block of State St. in front of the Overture has been bought and sold to Marty Rifkin and his rumored partner, Jerome Frautschi.

Maybe other big buck people are waiting to get a precedent setting overturn of Landmarks to get busy and tear down a significant portion of the downtown to make the setting of the Overture less conspicuous by removing the “ugly old buildings” surrounding it.

Don’t believe me? Google Pleasant Rowland [Frautschi’s wife] / Aurora New York, and see what you get.

The Overture..The gift that keeps on taking.

Meanwhile, Alderman Brian Solomon (one of the good guys on the project), had a lot to say in his defense of the law, our civic processes and the future of the look and feel of our downtown.

And for a little levity, my in-the-know friend also sent along a fun video which uses the It’s a Wonderful Life trope to make the point about the importance of planning for a quality place.

Tuesday evening (Jan 5) at the council, folks, council “reconsiders” the Edgewater, with a rumored “compromise.”