What if a private developer comes in and bought Gilroy Gardens,
pays out the debt and also brings in a water park and hotel resort
around it while preserving the land for green belt.
Don’t mess up a good thing
Dear Red Phone:
What if a private developer comes in and bought Gilroy Gardens, pays out the debt and also brings in a water park and hotel resort around it while preserving the land for green belt. They could keep the park the way the Bonfonte family wanted it in the first place. If the city gets a hold of the park, it will go down the drain. Guaranteed.
The people of Gilroy are not going to want the city to shell out $12 million for the park. I would like to get feedback.
I have a local developer who is very interested in coming in and bellying out the $12 million, giving them enough money to restore the park as it is and eventually developing around it. We could make Gilroy well known for the garlic festival and for the park.
Red Phone:
Dear Mr. Fantasy:
It probably would not surprise city leaders that you have a friend willing to buy the park for $12 million. At that price, the park is selling off its 536 acres at a rate of less than $25,000 per acre.
Compare that to the $470,000 per acre the school district recently paid to obtain land for a new high school, and it’s no surprise developers would salivate over the chance. But under the terms of a land deal the nonprofit theme park struck five years ago – recall the city bailed them out of near bankruptcy by allowing the sale of 33 acres for development – the city is named as the sole beneficiary of the park’s proceeds. Likewise, the city is the only party that could buy the land, according to Joel Goldsmith, vice president of the board of directors for Gilroy Gardens. Anyone else who paid the $12.4 million would simply be buying the park’s debt, not the land backing that debt, he explained.
City council members have said the purchase is the best way to ensure that a big box store does not rise on the land that is now zoned for highway commercial use, but they also say residents will have a chance to voice their opinions on the ultimate fate of the park if the deal becomes reality.
So if enough residents want development out there, caller, you may yet see a water park and hotel resort off Hecker Pass. Check out today’s Dispatch for the latest developments on the proposed sale of the park.
more strawberry fields
In response to “Strawberry Fields Forever,” June 2, the city official responsible for vendor inspections, Gary Muraoka, contacted Red Phone with an explanation for the caller who said, among other things, he was “fed up with Gilroy’s city streets and corners feeling like a third world county with impromptu markets set up all over the place. It’s absolutely wrong and somebody needs to do something about it.”
Red Phone:
Dear Food Sickness:
Community Service Officer Gary Muraoka, who conducts most of the street vendor inspections, told Red Phone he’d check out the problem.
He cautions that you may see him issuing warning at first, because he “feels some sympathy for these poor people.”
One person Muraoka issued a citation to was from Richmond, Va. When he asked why she came all the way from Richmond to Gilroy to sell strawberries, she told him she couldn’t find any other work.
If you have any problems with street vendors please leave Muraoka a message at 846-0320, and he’ll check on your complaint.
