Experian purchase heating up

More and more questions are arising concerning the city’s possible purchase of a huge building owned by Experian in northwest Lincoln.

Questions like: Why didn’t city staffers tell the City Council they were thinking about moving the planned Breslow Ice Center from its current planned home just north of the Harris Overpass to the current location of a public works center, closer to Haymarket Park?

According to a missive from LIBA calling on the mayor to be transparent, the City Council was told the moving the public works center would allow the property to go back on the tax rolls. (Although if the ice center is owned by the city and/or university foundation, it won’t be taxed, right?)

As it turns out, city officials were privately talking about moving the Breslow there.

“Why wasn’t the City Council told about this?” LIBA asked via press release.
The city’s arena coordinator, Dan Marvin, told the paper it was just a coincidence that the public works might be among the city departments moving into the Experian building. To which LIBA retorted: “While it is simply a coincidence, it is not an excuse for a lack of transparency.”

Another legitimate question: The city will soon have an empty Pershing Center on its hands — and even though it seems pretty clear the city intends to convert it into a new downtown library, it will then have an empty downtown library on its hands. Couldn’t any of that space be utilized?

It is getting hot in here?