The Municipality of Anchorage has officially taken the Golden Lion Hotel off the tax rolls, by purchasing it for $9.3 million.
The hotel, located at 36th Avenue and New Seward Highway, will become the Alaska Center for Treatment, focusing on services for alcoholics, according to the acting mayor.
The Acting Mayor’s Office said the repairs on the buildings will be funded using $15 million from the sale of ML&P to Church Electric, making the overall capital investment as much as $24 million. A request for proposal will be issued for someone to run the center.
The hotel is part of three properties the city is purchasing to provide a suite of services to homeless, vagrants, and substance addicted persons in Anchorage, a plan that started under Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and that is continuing under Acting Mayor Austin Quinn-Davidson. Other buildings to be purchased are America’s Best Value Inn & Suites in Spenard, which has 100 rooms that are to be used to house homeless, and also has office space for an expanding workforce of social service employees.
The municipality doesn’t seem to have a plan for how to pay for the operations and maintenance of the new Alaska center for Treatment, which has been the subject of extensive protests by citizens throughout the summer and fall.
The buy is short term, all the other stuff is very much long term. There is no long term plan in place prior to purchase??
Should not a ‘plan’ be published for general consideration or it this a ‘wheel of fortune’ game show?
What would be behind door four folks?
The city attorney cannot represent the city ( municipality). The city is a corporation and by law a corporation cannot represent itself, it requires outside representation, by state and federal law. This has not been challenged or raised in filings.
The lawyers have an oath to the BAR association, a private club, not answerable to anyone but themselves. Judges are the same, and their only requirement is to do the best to their abilities, someone with a 40 IQ meets the same standards.
This country was founded on moral principles, 2 professions that were banned were lawyers and bankers, both are corrupt.
It’s time for people, us to re-take our rights.
Not sure if you are factually correct yet. Researching but you do make a good point. At least in the 9th circuit government lawyers have been held to an even higher ethical standard than private lawyers. But our Municipal Attorney’s Office appears to be hopeless corrupt. Time and time again it seems that our elected officials go to the Municipal Attorney’s Office and tell them “This is what we want to do the only problem is its clearly illegal. Come up with some kind of plausible legal argument we can use to justify our illegal acts.” Rather than tell the elected officials that the action is illegal and advise them not to take illegal acts the Municipal Attorney’s Office invents a laughable legal argument that seldom if ever stands up in court.
on the factual basis for “banned bankers” as commenter M states above, that was absolutely true with regard to centralized banking. There was no central bank and Americans were so suspicious of central banking that an Act of Congress, constructed in secret and passed through Congress with minimal outside knowledge, was created in 1922. It was called the “Federal Reserve Act” and it gave private entities, specifically the Rockafellar Family, sole control (no accountability to Congress, no oversight from Administrative Branch) full control over our monetary system. Prior to that, banks around the country printed their own currency, traded in commodities, and popped up and collapsed under their own speculation all the time. The “Banking” system was predictably chaotic, but it was not possible for an unelected board to engineer recessions and skim wealth out of the US as it is today with our banks deemed “too big to fail” placing the burden of failed speculation on taxpayers (primarily), and account holders (secondarily: see Dodd Frank Act).
So 24 million dollars out of 22 million dollars? Interesting arithmetic…
My bet: The manager/CEO will be paid mid six figures and have a last name that rhymes with: Fritz or blitz.
That good news in a way. As a disabled veteran from Fairbanks. I won’t be getting lodge at the Golden Lion any longer.
Bet the city could have gotten the Days Inn across from the Brewhouse restaurant cheaper.
Isn’t that a lovely addition to the neighborhood. What alcoholics will they be treating? The ones that work for the State with great Aetna insurance that covers the cost of treatment? Or, will they be sponsoring, free of charge, those that are polluting our street corners. If the latter is the case, I suspect we won’t see anymore drunk panhandlers on the streets (insert laugh here). This whole thing is bogus. Follow the money on this one, Suzanne, and see who lands the RFP. Inquiring minds will want to know.
The ‘key’ word came near the end of this piece…”The Municipality doesn’t seem to have a plan”….but all the rest of us workers need to make plans to find ways to pay for all these fool moves….
And we were told selling ML&P would benefit us rate payers. Instead, we “own” a building in great need of repair(which means everything must be brought up to current code) and said building will no longer pay property taxes………. It will be an expensive albatrosss around the taxpayers’ necks………..
And politicians wonder why their constituents hold a high degree of distrust in them.
Tone deaf doesn’t begin to cover this…
Unbelievable. The feds gave us that money to help businesses and employees who were harmed by the government-imposed lockdowns, and the Assembly and Mayor spend it on the homeless who contribute nothing, only impose costs on all of us. And all this will do is attract more homeless looking for public support from a city suffering from its incompetent leadership’s policies.
Suzanne……..not “proud” owner of the Golden Lion Hotel. “Embarassed” owner. How can the City be proud of it’s drunks, druggies and societal dregs…..all show-cased and living on welfare provided by the socialist government that stole the money from Alaska to give the city this ownership. This should be viewed as a full embarrassment.
Yeah, but those drunks, druggies, and dregs get the last laugh. Free laundry every morning, room service, wake-up calls at noon, free cable, and meals. Hotel Berkowitz catching up to the Captain Cook and Sheraton. Will there be a lounge for dancing too? How do I sign up?
When do we get the Alaska Center for Treatment of Leftist Insanity?
?
What a way to ruin a great neighborhood.
What would those commenting recommend for treatment and housing for folks with drug and alcohol problems? MRAK what suggestions have you investigated for this problem?
There exists the Woronzof Clitheroe Center and it isn’t operating at capacity, nor are any of the money grubbing “non profits” funding it, so where is the need for this idiocy?
Amen
Look back through the archives. Great suggestion was made back when this all started. Much cheaper, much safer.
Hey Cam, how about donating your domicile? And then you can donate your attendance on those poor drug and alcohol (whoops! you left out mental health challenged) ‘folks’ 24/7.
Or is it better to be an armchair quarterback guiding the public on how to spend money on people who decide to indulge in destructive behavior. Can you spell: Enabler.
I was not making any suggestions just asking a question-sorry if the question upset you-that wasn’t the intent. Just wonder what a solution was.
I invite you to do a quick duckduckgo search. Mine came up with over SIXTY TWO susbstance abuse treatment facilities in Anchorage Alaska.
Seems like that should be plenty.
Who says that Anchorage should be responsible for the recovery of street drunks and the recreationally addicted?
Society’s bottom tier shouldn’t be housed in nice hotels. They should be allowed to pursue their addictions of choice until such time that they’ve decided they’re done and at that point they can begin to re-accept responsibility for themselves.
None of these programs have worked. Just ask any of three-peater from the Ernie Turner Center or similar.
…and the next problem will be what is the long term success rate for a derelict that’s been sufficiently dried out? Do you toss them back into the environment they’re from? Do you give them long term hotel accommodations? Maybe rock them to sleep at night as they enjoy a life of EBT simplicity?
The language of Prop 10 makes this misappropriation of funds.
Retire ML&P and Municipality of Anchorage debt;
Replace ML&P’s current payments in-lieu-of-tax to ensure that property and other taxes subject to the tax cap cannot rise as the result of the sale; and
Fund the MOA Trust Fund. The MOA Trust Fund is a permanent, protected fund with dividends payable only in accordance with a controlled spending policy adopted by law.
You could knock it down and rebuild way cheaper.
Anchorage is being run by fools. These fools are behaving lawlessly. How much more will The Drug Addict Hotel cost us in ongoing maintenance costs over the next 20 years? Did any of the fools on the Anchorage Assembly pencil this out before they decided to misuse funds?
So will the occupants have housekeeping and turn down service? Mints on the pillows? Continental breakfast and laundry services? Sounds lovely.
This is how Democrats pay their goons who steal elections. Large government boondogles pay for democrats political activity, by funneling money to their supporters. They have already corrupted our election process and their goons mail in ballots. We have a government industrial complex. Defeating this will be difficult but take heart our cause is righteous and just.
Kind of brings to mind the great housing projects of days gone by. Pruitt Igoe, Cabrini Green, the Robert Taylor Homes… hundreds of millions spent supposedly to improve the lives of the homeless and destitute- until they had to be blown up because they did the exact opposite.
Who sold the property to MOA?
LB- BRIAN GROSECLOSE Member 31.25%, DAWN LINTON Member 18.75%, Kelly D. Kneaper’s Separate Property Portion of the Marvin & Kelly Kneaper Joint Revocable Trust Member 31.25%, RICHARD LINTON Member 18.75%. – sd
INSANITY. The acting mayor of Anchorage needs to be impeached…removed…or something!
How forward thinking of our city “leaders” to purchase property to house all the unemployed, homeless restaurant and bar workers they’ve created. Simply brilliant!
You sir have won the comment of the day award!
Almost weekly we hear about another drunk being struck and killed on Tudor near Piper, where a large homeless population has apparently found welcoming arms. Traffic there runs maybe 30-40 mph.
I can’t begin to imagine the carnage when the repurposed Golden Lion (Lyin?) opens its doors. If drunks can’t navigate traffic on a 30mph street, they’ll have no chance as they stumble across the 65mph Seward Highway.
What are the city’s treatment plans for the mental anguish suffered by non-substance abusers that mow down drunks crossing against the light? It is no trivial thing to live with the knowledge you’ve killed someone. This is a recipe for disaster, for all involved.
Ray Charles can see the plan and so should you. The plan is a new N/S overpass with the possibility of exits to 36th. I don’t think there’s enough room for that so we’ll see. All it takes is for a few pedestrian fatalities to finally justify the road “improvements”. Big picture type of stuff here.
BTW, how much $$ will the Native corporations be contributing to this endevour? Hmmm?
These elected geniuses sold an asset to buy a big liability. We will look back and remember what kind of people ran Anchorage at a time when it needed leadership. The Mat-Su Valley is calling.
The Kommisar is jealous of San Francisco’s vibrant downtown. She may not get there this term, but she can get to Portland levels if she spends enough of your money.
Why didn’t Anchorage just pass a CHOP zone like its sister city Seattle?
That would have been cheaper, maybe.
It’s not going to decrease the addiction and vagrant problems, This generation is going to have to make their mistakes and learn to live with them later. Go ahead make your mistakes.
Great! Another property of the local tax rolls ($151,333 per MOA Property Tax info online). We needed another place or two or three for Anchorage homeless, vagrants, and substance addicted persons funded by MOA? I bet the NEW LION LLC former building owners are laughing all the way to the bank with this 9.3 million dollar windfall.
SOA Corp. database: Entity #: 64787D – BRIAN GROSECLOSE Member 31.25% DAWN LINTON Member 18.75% Kelly D. Kneaper’s Separate Property Portion of the Marvin & Kelly Kneaper Joint Revocable Trust Member 31.25% RICHARD LINTON Member 18.75%. FYI: 2019 MOA assessment for 2019 was $9,107,200 and it DECLINED in assessed value to $8,849,900. what a deal!
I’m happy to see the city taking care of people that have been costing millions in public service for years. This seems like a good move, ethically, and fiscally.
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