February 13, 2005
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It’s not that I (necessarily) grudge anyone else their good fortune
. . . I’m married to Don and have the most delightful children and
adorable grandkids in the whole world, after all, so I’ve already made
out like a bandit in the “good fortune” stakes . . . but still, this
really hacks me off, me being a taxpayer and all:Remember last fall I wrote about the Osteopathic hospital closing?
Well, it did, and was auctioned off on the courthouse steps week before last.
A local attorney snagged it for $6.5 million.
Then immediately (within a few days) sold it to the University of North Texas Health Science Center for $17 million.
That’s a nice profit for no work at all.
Okay, to be fair, he did do some work. He was on the
negotiating team with the NBIA, the organization which held the lien on
the facility. The plan, apparently, was for the MBIA to send a
representative to bid on the property, then resell it to the UNT Health
Science Center. For some reason, the night prior to the auction
the MBIA changed its mind, and refused to send the promised rep.So a member of the team saw and opportunity an grabbed it, making a cool $10 million in profit.
I can’t imagine why UNT didn’t bid on the property directly. That was a stupid waste of taxpayer money, ISTM.
The whole thing just makes me mad.
