by Mark Smiley | Jun 24, 2016 | Main Articles
by Charles C. Bonniwell
The CitySet hotel/dining development in Glendale at the southeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and Cherry Creek Drive South has been an extraordinary success. An open plaza anchored by two major hotels (Residence Inn Cherry Creek and the Hilton Garden Inn Cherry Creek) and features eight different dining options ranging from Jax Fish House and Silvi’s Kitchen to Platform T and Big Smoke Burger.
The development has but one major drawback — lack of sufficient parking. According to documents obtained though the Colorado Open Records Act, Stonebridge Companies headed by Navin Dimond, convinced the City of Glendale and its head of planning, Deputy City Manager Chuck Line, into reducing the parking requirements by 20 percent from 663 spaces to 553. The project was heavily promoted by then mayor Larry Harte according to Line. But the city and CitySet were fortunate that Line refused to lower the number of spaces down even more to 482 as originally demanded by Dimond and his experts in his filings with the city.
Why Damage Your Own Project?
Why would a developer want to hurt his own project with insufficient parking? First of all because the type of needed underground parking costs approximately
$40,000 per space. In CitySet’s case the reduction saved the developer Dimond over $4,000,000. Secondly, and most importantly, savvy developers like Dimond know after bamboozling a city they can later come back and force the public to pay for all the parking they need and that is exactly what happened in Glendale.
Once the project was started, Dimond, through his affiliated companies, howled that CitySet did not, in fact, have adequate parking for all of its customers. How much additional parking was needed? It was almost exactly the 112 spaces Dimond convinced Glendale not to require in the first place.
Once a city like Glendale has approved a project with an under supply of parking it has little choice but to later provide a solution at the expense of the taxpayer. CitySet is a major producer of municipal revenue for Glendale, not only providing sales and property taxes but also the considerable hotel room tax. Moreover, if a major development like CitySet should fail due to lack of sufficient parking it would cast a pall on development throughout the city and threaten the viability of future developments, like the proposed Glendale 180 development across Cherry Creek on East Virginia Avenue.
Glendale also does not wish to hurt valuable tenants who had no idea Dimond purposely demanded that the city parking requirements be reduced for his own financial benefit. Cameron Tune, owner of Big Smoke Burger at CitySet, makes it clear that for his business “making sure parking is convenient is a top priority,” and he strongly urged Glendale to find additional parking for customers. He notes customers to CitySet can also take advantage of the existing free valet parking, between the two hotels, offered Tuesdays through Saturdays.
New City Ordinance
So rather than limit the viability of the CitySet project, the City of Glendale passed an ordinance taking the adjoining streets of South Exposition Avenue and South Ash Street and converting them from broad boulevards without on-street parking into much narrower driving lanes and parallel parking on both sides of the street.
The ordinance did not establish just ordinary street parking but the spaces that are restricted to only customers of CitySet. This was accomplished by util
izing a purported competitive bidding process with the successful bidder being a charged a small monthly maintenance fee of $20 to $30. While anyone could have theoretically bid on the special parking, the only realistic likely bidder was, of course, Navin Dimond through his affiliated companies. Line did refuse to give CitySet a long term commitment as wanted by Dimond and limited the reserved on street parking to a yearly term.
The special parking ordinance does not solve all of CitySet’s parking problems as it provides about half of the 112 parking space shortfall, but everyone expects Dimond to return in the not too distant future and expect the city’s taxpayers to pay for rest of his parking needs.
Mistake Conceded
Deputy City Manager Chuck Line concedes, “Yes, I made a major error. I never should have recommended to the Planning Commission and the City Council a major reduction in parking for CitySet. Every time you let a developer and their experts convince you that they do not need the required parking I have regretted it, and I do regret it in the case of CitySet. But now we do need to make it work for everyone’s sake.”
One would have thought Glendale had learned the hard way, that not providing adequate parking always creates 
major problems in the future.
North Glendale adjoining Leetsdale Drive and anchored by Mir Park is going through a residential renaissance. The apartment buildings built there in the 1960s are becoming highly sought after when renovated to modern standards. But when the buildings were constructed the city had little or no required on-site parking believing that on-street parking would be sufficient. But with development in the area the applicable on-street parking is now woefully inadequate. The city is now desperately trying to find a solution to allow the area to prosper.
Similarly Glendale did not require sufficient parking at the Skyline retail development on Colorado Boulevard featuring Chili’s, AFC Urgent Care, Noodles Fresh,World Market, Mile High Comics, and other successful stores and eating establishments. Parking wars consistently break out with those controlling the parking, hiring towing companies to take away cars of individuals shopping at stores without adequate parking for their customers.
Developers Need And Want Municipal Concessions
The key to the success of any developer is obtaining monetary and other concessions from the applicable jurisdiction. For example, Dimond for his CitySet project got Glendale to pay almost $16 million of his development costs through tax rebates, covering everything from his cost of acquiring land to paying for landscaping and even public art. The modification to the Glendale Zoning Code regarding parking made him an additional $4,000,000 that comes out of the pocket of every man, woman, and child in Glendale.
This is why real estate experts shake their heads when watching Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi and Authentic Persian and Oriental Rugs demand Glendale never even consider acquiring their land and forcing Glendale to exclude their property from the Glendale 180 project and the applicable special districts. But forcing the city to do so, through threats and lawsuits, they made monetary concessions legally impossible to grant for their property, thereby greatly devaluing any project on their land. As one expert noted (who did not want to be quoted by name for fear of possible retaliation from Kheirkhahi): “It is a truism in real estate development that ‘pigs get fat while hogs get slaughtered.’ By being the most brutal, vicious hogs possible they have monetarily slaughtered themselves. Not exactly terribly bright.”
by Mark Smiley | Jun 24, 2016 | Feature Story Bottom Left
First let me start out by saying I NEVER write my column about a specific person or situation. Until now, well kind of. I am going to tell you a story about a date but I’m not going to use any names. I feel a lot of people will relate to this story, so I feel it’s important to talk about.
Background about my dating preferences is important here before I get to this particular date story. Just like the title says, “I Keep Getting Older and the Girls Keep Getting Younger,” seems to be a theme in my life. Let me explain….
I want to keep it real here and trust me I understand this is a touchy subject, for whatever reason. As a dating adult I prefer women from the ages of 28 to 34. I find the women in that age range have a lot of the qualities I am looking for. I am speaking from my experience and in generalities here so allow me to speak from my point of view. Coming from a guy who has no children and who has never been married I take both of those things very seriously and I believe they should be shared with someone I am in love with. With that said, I have always wanted to share getting married and having children with a lady who could experience those first-time events with me. I find my chance of finding that situation is more likely with a woman in that age group.
Now, when I was 30, dating a 28-34 year old woman was no big deal, but now that I am 43 some eyebrows get raised. People Women love to judge. I have no problem dating women my age but finding a lady who is 43 who doesn’t have an ex-husband or children is like finding a needle in a haystack. Luckily for me most women like dating guys older than themselves, and here’s a newsflash, guys don’t mind. Now let me get to my date story…
So the opportunity presented itself for me to go on date with a woman my age, well she’s one year older than I. She is a lady I found very attractive and she has no children, she does have an ex-husband but I figured hey, go for it, it’s just a date.
Now when I decide to ask a woman out I take it seriously and I try to find out her likes and dislikes as far as what she is comfortable doing on a first date and her preferences on food and beverages. I think it’s a polite thing for a man to do. So I did. We both decided since we had been talking and texting for a while that it might be nice to spend some time talking and getting to know each other while I cooked us dinner at my condo in Cherry Creek.
Most of you who have read my column for any length of time would know I am adamantly against doing such a thing on a first date in case the chemistry isn’t there and you need to graciously call it good and escape exit. I felt I was safe with this situation, but man was I wrong.
Let me set the mood. I have a large bar/ counter connecting my kitchen to my living room. I am in the kitchen cooking and making drinks while she is on the other side of the counter sitting on a bar stool in the living room. So far so good right?
Here’s where it gets good. Of course, the conversation of dating and relationships comes up and I am put on the spot. She asks, “Have you ever been married?” I quickly reply “no, but I was in an eight-year relationship in my 20s that kinda felt like I was.” That then leads into her failed marriage and how it took (still is taking) her time to fully get over it. I was thinking to myself, oh lord, here we go, I am on a date with a woman who is emotionally unavailable.
Regardless, the conversation progressed. Now I feel like I am being interrogated interviewed by this woman who is trying to figure out why I am still single and why I’ve never been married. Keep in mind this would not be my first choice in conversation but she wanted to get “to know each other” and I guess this is her idea of how to do so.
The next question was along the lines of, “what type of women do you generally date?” Me being who I am and liking to keep it real and be transparent, I told her that I tend to date women younger than myself for the reasons aforementioned. Then I said, “I feel like I raised three or four women in their late 20s and early 30s when I was in relationships with them.”
You would think I just kicked her in the stomach by the look on her face. Rather than asking me, why is that? Or, please explain… She busts out this beauty of a response. “You sound like a pedophile!” You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was shocked; those are some pretty serious words to throw around. If I would have been in a public place I would have asked for the check and gotten up and excused myself.
Unfortunately, I can only use so many words in each column, so I am going to have to continue this beauty next month in Part 2. There I will explain why I said, “I feel like raised three or four women in their late 20s and early 30s when I was in relationships with them.” I will also tell you how this date ended. It might not be how you expect. Until next time, happy dating and be safe out there.
Your pal, Sheik
by Peter Boyles | Jun 24, 2016 | Blasting with Boyles
Several times in the past in my column space I’ve written about the 28 pages, that have been suppressed by the Bush administration pertaining to the 9/11 attacks on this country. A decade ago, 46 senators led by Chuck Schumer, demanded that George Bush declassify the 28 pages. Many people have speculated what is locked inside. Since the last time we got together to talk about this, the 47 pages of footnotes pertaining to the 28 suppressed pages have now dropped. Featured throughout those 47 pages of footnotes was Colorado-based Homaiden al Turki a fascinating fact pretty much unmentioned in Denver’s hard hitting media.
As a result of those footnotes it is believed Al Turki’s name appears at least six times in those 28 suppressed pages. Six times!
He is a wealthy Saudi with ties to the royal family that had a radical Islamic book Arabic language translation and publishing house based in Aurora, Colorado, and a person of interest regarding the 9/11 attacks. While never charged in the 9/11 attacks he was eventually convicted of, inter alia, sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper.
There was a concerted effort beginning in November 2006 to get him out of Colorado’s prisons and take him back to Saudi Arabia. The current mayor of Colorado Springs, then Attorney General John Suthers (unaffectionately known in some circles as “King Rat”), made a trip on the behest of some unknown power to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to meet with King Abdullah, Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz and al Turki’s family. Suthers has turned into a clam on the subject. The only time he ever mentioned the topic of his trip was to declare, “The State Department paid for the flight, but the King (of Saudi Arabia) has now offered to pay for my air fare.”
So John boy, what did you, the crown prince and the king talk about? Fracking, the euro, legalized marijuana, or how to get this 9/11 terrorist home free? My money’s on the last one. Al Turki was convicted of felony counts of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion, false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment. The young woman they kept in their place was a slave.
Memo to Hal Haddon (al Turki’s lawyer), fast Jack Finlaw, (Governor John Hickenlooper’s general counsel), and Roxanne White (Hickenlooper’s chief of staff), dudes and dudette … he had a slave! Because of the great work done by Fox 31’s Julie Hayden, we read their email exchanges of how they were brokering Hickenlooper to get a fast pass release. In one of those emails in December 2012, Finlaw actually tells Horrible Hal, that he had “good news!” — Al Turki may be able to go home!
Good news? A slaver? Involved up to his eyebrows in 9/11? Good news that he was going back to Saudi Arabia? You people really have no shame. And now we have the entire report from the Texas Department of Corrections; again thank you to Julie and Fox News. If you remember how the father of Evan “Evil” Ebel, (murderer of Department of Corrections Chief Tom Clements and pizza delivery guy Nathan Leon) was portrayed in all the front range media outlets as the grieving father so unaware of his son’s behavior.
Now we know he and his son stalked a delightful woman and dancer named Crystal. According to the Denver police department, she had sex with both father and son. Back in the day, that was known as the “Sportsman’s Double.”
And that same grieving father, also sent money to the family members of the infamous white supremacist prison gang known as the 211 Crew. Now you think that would be a front page in The Denver Post or at least a mention on Channel 9. It was instead the silence of the lambs.
Because column space is limited let’s review: Someone very powerful in the Bush administration, sent attorney general John Suthers (aka King Rat) to apologize to the Saudis, that was the first step in getting that known terrorist back home. It has since been followed up by some of the most powerful influence peddlers around the state capitol, like so many buzzards, jumping on-board for undisclosed petro-dollars. The questions are still unanswered.
The Denver Post slipped up and asked John Hickenlooper to appoint a special prosecutor, to do what? To investigate John Hickenlooper? John Suthers? The powered influencers of the Saudi Arabians in Colorado? Not gonna happen.
I understand that Homaidan is now in a federal institution in Beaumont, Texas, for a state of Colorado sex crime. Why move to a federal jail? The Saudis threatened to dump 750 billion of U.S. debt if anyone was permitted to sue them for 9/11 and the beat goes on. But they did “nothing wrong” so why threaten a dump?
As we were writing this The Denver Post employees held a demonstration outside their building, some were wearing t-shirts that said “Journalism Matters,” as if it ever really did at The Denver Post who cannot even mention the name Homaiden al Turki.
— Peter
by Valley Gadfly | May 27, 2016 | Valley Gadfly
Aaah, summer: It’s prime time to let family time shine. Neighborhoods begin taking on a festive buzz. At weekend gatherings, weeknight feasts, and on cafe patios we gather to eat, drink, socialize and bask in summer’s warmth. Outdoor time is the tonic that allows us to step outside our boundaries, meet new friends and discover a new you.
With yet another wet May, we’re eager for a June fling holding spirit-filled glasses garnished with clover. It’s deemed solstice for the soul while rolling in clover.
Here are our “play it cool” choices for shopping, dining and entertainment to blaze into June enjoying sizzling days and serene sunsets as we drink in the sunshine:
3 If you’ve emerged from Winter’s blahs feeling a little lackluster and disheveled get Dolled Up For A Cause while sipping mimosas at the Glamour Bar June 4, 1:30-4 p.m. Information: dolledupforacause.com.
3 Simmer down and begin shopping for supper June 4 at Cherry Creek Fresh Market Sat. and Wed. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Information: 303-442-1837.
3 Settle back and unwind as St. Martin’s Chamber Choir singers entertain at private home summer garden party Fun Raiser June 11. Information: 303-298-1970.
3 See cool cars on the Havana Corridor at the Cruzin’ Havana Car Show & Poker Run sites June 11, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Information: 303-360-7505.
3 Roar into summer during the Grand Opening of Cherry Creek’s new Thirsty Lion Gastropub & Grill June 14. Information: 503-222-4174.
3 See the coolest summer movies free during Monday Movie Madness outdoors at Infinity Park June 13-Aug. 8 Information: 303-639-4609.
3 For a blooming good time attend the Cherry Blossom Festival in Sakura Square with entertainment, June 18-19. Information: 303-295-1844.
3 Create a big splash with the family during the South Platte RiverFest, June 25-26 at Confluence Park, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Information: 303-455-7109.
3 Hang out all summer at Four Mile Historic Park watching the sunset to the soundtrack of great tunes each Wednesday night during the Shady Groove Picnic Series June 8-Aug. 17. Enjoy great music, affordable tickets and beautiful surroundings at a Valley tradition. Doors open to the outdoor concerts at 6 p.m., shows begin at 6:30 p.m. Information: 303-777-1003.
Summer solstice occurs when the tilt of earth’s semi-axis is most inclined toward the sun that it orbits. The sun and solstice will come to pass here this year on June 20 at 4:34 p.m. local or Mountain Daylight Time. Welcome summer with open arms. Kenny Chesney’s lyrics say it best: It’s a smile, a kiss, it’s a sip of wine…it’s summertime!
Basking in the sun bedecked and bedazzled we relax and laze around in flip flops gazing up at the heavens during long daylight hours then stargazing at night.
It’s the time of year to utilize all of our senses to savor a season filled with fields of green, a riot of flowers and splashy sunsets. There’s still enough light for a late night bike ride and warm enough to eat as many flavors of Bonnie Brae Ice Cream as you want. Double-dipper scoops of the sweet treat are assurance the heat won’t lick you.
— Glen Richardson
The Valley Gadfly can be reached at newspaper@glendalecherrycreek.com.
