Developer Gary Gorman was through with Madison

Gorman had invested two years in "Avenue 800," initially proposing an $85 million mixed-use project with 309 condominium units in nine buildings, later downsizing it after the city balked at his request for $7.8 million in tax incremental financing (TIF). The two sides eventually parted ways over a $1 million difference in TIF, leaving the high-profile parcel next to Breese Stevens Field vacant to this day.

Gorman previously was stymied by neighborhood activists from razing the aging Quisling Clinic at 2 W. Gorham St. to make way for a seven story, 101-unit apartment. While the art moderne structure was eventually redeveloped into 60 apartments, Gorman maintains he lost money on the deal."I won't say I wouldn't do another downtown Madison project, but you have to weigh the rewards with the risks,'' he told The Capital Times in a 2001 interview. “And working your way through that approval process is certainly part of the risk.''

But all that history appears forgotten amid a resurgent real estate market, the unquenchable thirst among medical providers for more space and a city administration willing to open its pocketbook for the private sector.Last week, Gorman & Company inked a deal with the city to rescue the long-stalled Union Corners site at the corner of East Washington Avenue and Milwaukee Street. Anchoring the proposed $84 million project is a 60,000-square-foot UW Health clinic.

Back in 2003, before the housing bust sent the national and local economies into a tailspin, developer Todd McGrath had plans to turn the 11-acre Union Corners site into a mix of high-density housing, shopping and open space. The $70 million project was widely hailed as a game-changer, something that would finally spur development up and down the blighted East Washington Avenue corridor.

When the recession hit, however, all those dreams were drowned in a river of debt, and McGrath ended up losing the property in a voluntary foreclosure. The city of Madison eventually stepped in, buying the land from M&I Bank for $3.57 million, with the expectation it could eventually find a private developer to take over the site once the economy improved.Enter Gary Gorman, who is back working with the city on the Union Corners site. His proposal was selected by an ad-hoc special committee in November after competing developers dropped out.Gorman says there was nothing special about his decision to jump back into the local development game. He was approached by UW Health officials about building a new clinic at Union Corners and decided to take a look.

The nondescript wedge of land on the corner of Houston Street and Broadway is populated by parked trucks, chain link fencing, a produce stand and a subway staircase: an unglamorous pocket on the northern lip of luxurious Soho.But for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parcel at 19 East Houston Street suddenly looks like a payday.The MTA announced plans on Monday to sell off the 6,190-square foot lot to an arm of Madison Capital, a real estate investment firm, for nearly $26 million.“We had not predicted anything like this kind of money for this … somewhat oddly shaped triangular parcel down in Soho,” Jeffrey Rosen, the MTA’s director of real estate, told members of the agency’s finance committee on Monday. “This is a splendid result.”

That’s because New York City pledged $250 million toward the MTA’s $24 billion capital spending plan for 2010 to 2014, the account of largely borrowed funds that pays for everything from maintenance of the subway’s rails and cars to expansions like the Second Avenue subway.Under the terms of the city’s contribution, it could recoup some of those funds if the MTA sells off some of the old, formerly city-owned properties absorbed into the MTA when the agency was created in the 1960s.

The sale would still need land-use approvals from the city, and a new development would need to comport with landmarking restrictions in Soho. The MTA’s terms also require the new owners to maintain the existing access to the B, D, F and M train station at Broadway-Lafayette, as well as ventilation for the station below.Meanwhile, the MTA expects to end 2013 with a roughly $141 million surplus, Chief Financial Officer Robert Foran told the board of directors on Wednesday.

There will also be cumulative deficits of about $140 million through 2016, he said, but in February, the MTA expected deficits of $325 million over the same period.Revenues have risen thanks in part to the rebound in the city real estate market, which has boosted one of the tax subsidies that supports the agency. Internal cost cutting has yielded more than $800 million in recurring annual savings, and is on pace to hit $1.3 billion by 2017, Foran said during the mid-year budget update.But there are still risks ahead. The agency faces sharply increasing “uncontrollable” expenses, including for retiree health care, pensions, and paratransit. Those expenses can’t be easily altered without outside assistance, including from the state legislature.

“Recording driving habits could implicate First Amendment concerns. Specifically, LPR systems have the ability to record vehicles’ attendance at locations or events that, although lawful and public, may be considered private. For example, mobile LPR units could read and collect the license plate numbers of vehicles parked at addiction counseling meetings, doctors’ offices, health clinics, or even staging areas for political protests,” noted the report.

The IACP report noted several methods to protect against unauthorized use of data collected from the readers. The methods include system audits, establishing policies that prohibit unauthorized data sharing and establishing punishments for those who violate rules associated with data management.

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