West Dundee Ice Rink Non-Profit had “No Skin in the Game,” Will MCC Health Club Operator?
The Illinois Finance Authority sold tax exempt bonds for the Leaf’s Hockey Club in West Dundee in 2007.
Almost $20 million worth “with no equity at risk,” reports Crane’s Chicago Business.
In this case, the bondholders are left holding the bag and not the taxpayers.
But what if McHenry County College had sold $25 million in bonds to build a minor league baseball stadium?
You and I would have had to pay them off, the same way that Lakewood residents ended up paying off 53 percent of the cost of the golf course that village trustees assured me would not “cost me a dime.”
It is my understanding that the $45 million health club, etc., addition to McHenry County College will have no monetary investment from the health club.
No one needs to guess who will end up paying back the borrowed money, if the projections–made by a health club operator–don’t pan out.
The complex in Lake Barrington.
There’s a mention in the article of the sports complex in Lake Barrington, too:
“‘The one non-ice facility, the Lake Barrington Field House—”the largest multi-sport and fitness complex in the Midwest,’ according to its website—also is in foreclosure and has been taken over by a receiver after defaulting on $28.5 million in bonds sold in 2007, according to Wells Fargo Bank N.A., a trustee for bondholders.”
