Results tagged “thewholefreakingcityisforsale”

The Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization will file suit against the City of Chicago today, alleging that the deal inked with Morgan Stanley to lease the city's parking meters for the next 75 years is illegal. According to a press release the organization will make copies of the suit public at a 10:30 a.m. press conference. The organization is working with Clint Krislov, of Krislov & Associates, Ltd.

In spite of a possible $300 million budget shortfall, Mayor Daley took a break from practicing Act Two, Scene Two of Julius Caesar to assure Chicagoans that he really, really, really doesn't want to lay off 1,600 city workers. After all, his love of our great city's fine civil servants is well documented.

Mayor Daley's dream of leasing Midway Airport finally came crashing down for good Monday, as news that the consortium of private investors led by Citibank notified the city over the weekend that they had failed to line up the financing necessary to close the deal. As a result of MidCo's failure to obtain the $2.5 billion in credit necessary to lease the airport, the City of Chicago will retain the $126 million in earnest money the consortium put up.

Mayor Daley's dream of privatizing Midway Airport has run into trouble as the nation's credit crisis has pushed the deal back at least six months, if not indefinitely. The April 6 closing date for the deal has been canceled, while the privately owned Midway Investment and Development Company, LLC, or MidCo for short, tries to line up more financing for the deal. The city is negotiating with the consortium backing MidCo is made up of Citigroup (yes, that Citigroup) unit Citi Infrastructure Investors, YVR Airport Services Ltd and John Hancock Life Insurance Co. to line up financing for the $2.52 billion 99 year lease deal.