Stan Geiger

Tulsa's City Hall: I Smell Grease

Let's have a little more fun with Tulsa's City Hall dealings, shall we?

I think a good place to start would be the history of the Borg cube.

The building was constructed by a former company known as Williams Communications, a subsidiary of Williams Companies. Williams Communications was one of those sham companies born in the '90s. Though it was touted by Williams executives as a company with a great future, it was short-lived. It imploded.

Williams Communications was a fiber-optics company. Fiber-optics was all the rage back in the day. Williams Companies poured billions into the development of a fiber-optics network. Unfortunately, every other swingin' dick was doing the same. It wasn't long before everybody in the business knew a glut was developing. That meant Williams Communications had no future at all.

Nonetheless, Williams executives kept up with the tout. Williams Communications was spun off. That, no doubt, was done to get Williams Communications' debt off the books of Williams Companies. Williams Communications, shortly after becoming an independent company, went bankrupt.

Keith E. Bailey was chairman of the board and CEO of Williams Companies at the time. He "retired" on May 31, 2002. He pulled the ripcord on his golden parachute and hit the road. The local media glorified the man.

A lot of people got hurt by the Williams Communications scam, but Bailey walked away a millionaire.

Williams Companies almost went down the toilet. I can recall the stock selling for less than $2 a share. The company had to sell assets to avoid going tits up.

In my opinion, Bailey should have been jailed. He is a dick. He is a crook. He is no better than a guy that takes a gun into a grocery store.

Moving on, a company called Leucadia bought Williams Communications in bankruptcy. The Borg cube came with the deal. It was a money loser. Leucadia wanted to sell it. But even with the price set at a grand discount, nobody wanted it.

So what does a corporation that wants to sell a grand piece of property but can find no buyers do? Well, it turns to its buddies in politics and starts greasing palms.

The next thing you know, there's a new City Hall.

The old City Hall, they said, would be sold to a developer.

From the Journal Record report I cited in my previous piece on the matter: "Himelfarb [city economic development director of the day] said a hotel developer would...be selected and negotiated with."

I guess the negotiation process was pretty easy since nobody came a knockin'. No hotel developers were interested in the property.

That is an interesting point, in and of itself. I mean I keep seeing all these gleeful media reports about how wonderfully our downtown arena and renovated convention center are doing. Yet no corporation, like Marriot, for example, was interested in the potential of a hotel property sitting in their midst.

Then along comes the buyer. I'm no real estate guru, but a million bucks for a building with over 146,000 square feet, plus plaza space, plus parking space, sounds like a good deal to me.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn some grease has been applied here as well.

It could be there is more to the story. Changing the name on the ownership papers guarantees nothing. I mean people bought the Camelot Inn and made promises. Ultimately, the city paid to tear it down so Quik Trip could have the land.

I could make a prediction here. I could predict that the new owners of the old City Hall will let it sit, and sit, and sit, until the gubment offers up a subsidy. I could make that prediction. I won't, but I could.

We'll see what time yields.

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