Prairie Porkway: Denny Hastert's Retirement Plan
TPMmuckraker reveals Rep. Denny Hastert's sure-fire investment strategy: Buy Low, Earmark Funds to Build Nearby Highway, Sell High
Over at the Sunlight Foundation, they've found Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) taking a page from Rep. Ken Calvert's (R-CA) investment playbook.
For years, Hastert has been pushing the construction of a highway called the Prairie Parkway in Illinois. He secured $207 million in earmarks to support the project. But what he didn't tell constituents was that he owned a huge plot of farmland just a few miles from where the road would run. And now that the project's gone through, the land has been tranferred to a real estate development firm with plans to build a 1,600 home community. The land has already improved in value by millions of dollars.
I wonder how much Hastert will ultimately make on the deal?
More at the Sunlight Foundation.
Hat-tip to "Backup Pundit" at Archpundit
18 comments:
Hate to tell you this, but ANY FARMLAND lying East of IL Route 47 anywhere in Kendall County is worth big time bucks.
And I mean BIG DOLLARS - We're seeing sales of 80+ acre tracks of farmland (a 1 mile square = 1 Section = 640 acres) which are now selling at over a $1.00 per square foot (there's 43,560 sq. ft. in 1 acre), and that's all residential development land. I just heard that a couple of months ago there was a $1 million dollar subdivision lot sell (vacant). Waiting to see that new house....
Anybody who owns vacant farmland in Kendall County is getting rich big time. And Denny and Jean have lived there all their lives.
As for the Prairie Parkway, thank you lord! Having to travel up & down IL Route 47 & take 47 through Yorkville to get to IL Route 71, the Prairie Parkway can't possibly arrive soon enough for me and all the others like me who are getting tied up into knots on the existing roads, which certainly weren't built for the type of traffic they're facing.
You may have all the "Conspiracy Theory" stuff on your side, but I'm dealing with this RE market daily out here, and anybody who thinks that Denny & Jean Hastert are the only property owners here in Kendall County making wealth off real estate are just flat out nuts.
Btw, the Prairie parkway expressway is actually far more popular with all the newcomers into Kendall County than it is with the long-time residents. Most of those folks see this as their salvation in commuting to work in the West and Farm West suburbs. It's actually many of the existing landowners (who will get most of the money) who aren't necessarily in favor of the Parkway.
I'm a young fellow myself, and I'm curious: if there was such a large demand for a "Prarie Parkway", what prevented a private company from buidling it and charging tolls? It seems there's a demand, so why can't the market supply it? I have nothing against sprawl, but the government shouldn't be subsidizing it.
Tend to doubt one could acquire the land in any kind of reasonable timeframe, based upon the cost of money.
I think if the marketplace was given the same rules to operate under as far as land acquisition, it might fly. But I don't think any of the enabling legislation is in place to give private developers the ability to really create such a privately owned toll road. Too bad, but that seems to be standard operating procedure for the State of Ilinois.
Private acquisition of an established toll road, probably. But privately building one from scratch, particularly the land acquisition issues, very difficult.
I protested the Daley's cross town expressway because it was rascist.
The left thought African Americans would be blocked by an expressway...like they couldn't walk/drive over a bridge.
I always wonder why now everytime I drive from Oak Park to Evanston.
I just read the Trib story on it. There has been talk of the Parkway ever since I moved out to Kane County in 92. Here's a site for it.
Farmland was a good investment regardless of what will happen with this expressway. It's just a question of how much congestion the parkway will relieve or not. The growth is coming and the property values were going to increase.
I'm waiting for Hastert to get us some more bridges accross the Fox.
"Young Lincolnl" knew full well by experience that the private market couldn't deliver things like highways. "Young Lincoln" himself knew that it took collective action by the state to produce roads, canals, and other transportation methods. "Young Lincoln" saw first hand that without state charters and land acquisition, transportation improvements didn't get off the ground.
Sheesh.
Today's front page Rezko-Blagojevich story makes this look piddely.
I wonder how much of Route 47 could have been made 4-lanes and how many by-passes could have been built for $207 million.
For a slightly different take on the sale, you might want to visit McHenryCountyBlog.com.
Cal,
The answer is, a lot. Trouble is, if you don't build it as a freeway, it will become another congested artery like Randall Road (another "bypass" road) or US 30 between IL 47 and US 34 (which was one time considered a bypass around Aurora) as the strip malls, subdivisions and stoplights move over there as well as along ole IL 47. And the only logical place to build a "bypass" now is just about where the Prairie Parkway sits.
What would be of more interest is what he made farming this land. If he did farm it and if he took subsidies on any of it, or was paid setting it aside.
I moved out west of Randall road in 92... all of the farm land was tied up into trusts by then.. everyone knew what was going to happen out here regardless of where the parkway was going to go
Isn't it nice to know that Speaker Hastert has something to fall back on once he gets sick or bored of being Minority Leader of the U.S. House (say, this time next year (assuming that Jonathan Laesch doesn't pull off a huge upset in November)? Just another case for the U.S. Attorney's office and the local FBI office to look into.
RANDALL SHERMAN
Secretary/Treasurer, Illinois Committee for Honest Government
Chicago
Who broke the 'story,' the Sunlight Foundation or the Courier News? Just curious. Reading the Hollinger paper leads one to believe that it's their story ...
P.
Let's see...
Around $11,000 an acre in mid 2005 for LANDLOCKED farmland acres (no access), with no utilities at the site. That's a little more than $.25 cents per square foot for the sale.
Sounds fair to me. In some corners, they'd tell you that's a crazy buy, because with no road access (and no land options out there to get it), you just threw away good money.
So, what they pull together is a deal where they aggregate 3 adjoining farmland properties in different ownership which now makes for a worthwile development tract.
Now, it takes them around a year to pull it off, and I bet those legal negotiations for the partnership were a royal pain, and there's certainly an element of risk in all of this, but this is exactly the way one makes money in real estate (and it's NOT illegal) - it's called "Seeing and creating opportunity where others cannot".
Good deal for them - you bet. But ask yourself a question - what happens if they don't pull it off. Then you wake up to the realization that you've just sunk a substantial amount of cash into landlocked farmland, and it's going to be a long, hard road to cash out (if ever). There's a sleepless night...
When you've got an easy million+++ on the table in real estate (potential development land), there's always a risk factor, and there's no such thing as a "sure thing", unless you are into losing.
Great, another expressway is going to be built in the region. Yes, the new road will help with traffic flow for a few years, but ultimately it will lead to more urban sprawl and poorly planned development. People will continue to be encouraged to live far away from jobs and amenities, driving their gas-guzzling SUVs that depend on oil from corrupt Middle Eastern countries that indirectly support terrorism.
But, the good thing for Rep. Hastert is that he will be able to retire comfortably, probably in nice place far away from the coming congestion.
The Sunlight Foundation story said that it had asked Hastert for a comment in May, I believe.
It is interesting that two reporters found the same story. There are links to stories from the Sunlight Foundation, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Courier News and the Chicago Tribune in my two stories on McHenryCountyBlog.com.
The relevant question is, was the farmer who sold his land to Hastert just a few years ago given the same information about the economic future of the area as Hastert had from his official role as Speaker?
If not, then this is a very, very serious problem.
Someone should go ask Bob Hickman about this subject, or even Martha Stewart.
The general route of the road has been public knowledge since late 2001. When did the original transaction between the farmer and Hastert take place?
Also, the economic future of an area, even with inside info of some sort, is not a sure thing. Even so, with full knowledge by both parties of the potential risks and rewards of the transaction, the appearance of the deal does not instill public confidence.
Living out in the area, a few thoughts.
We moved here a little over a year ago from Naperville. I grew up when Rt59 was an easy north south commute -- before 355. Whaen all we had was Rt53.
Kane county has been very agreesive in fighting urban growth. the people who moved there wanted it to stay the way it was and did not want a lot of new pople to change it. hense, there are a lot of devolpers jumping over Kane for Dekalb. once a plce on the edge, it is picking up steam. Same for Kendall. With Kane being a pain, they are looking for other options.
47 is a mess these days. The parkway is needed because 47 will turn into Rt53, Rt59 or Randall Road. All the malls, shopping centers and stop lights will grid lock the road.
just off of 47 is a shooting club. They have been planing a move for 10 years becuase of the growth, so none of this is really new.
We moved here becuase we needed a larger home with the two boys and all their stuff. Our house in Naperville did well after 8 years. We sold it , 1800 sq ft, and got a 3000 plus size house. i got a very large garage. We looked at the trend and figured this would be the next Naperville. A good investment, both for our kids with their education and surroundings, and for us. our mortgage did not go up, and our taxes are lower than Naperville on a much smaller house.
The point, as a family looking to move, we saw the value out here as for the house we could get for the money. The Speaker has lived hear all his life. Everyone knows that God only made so much land. If he used his money in a legit deal and made some money off of it -- good for him. With our without the parkway it was going to happen, the parkway just becomes more important with all the building going on.
What would you have him do --- trade cattle futures?
Todd
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