The Skeen Group's Puzzling Development Approach

Joe Killian, in today's News & Record, tackles the unfolding story of the Skeen Group's role in a proposed development of student housing in the Glenwood neighborhood. Mark Lindsay, with the Skeen Group, says that one way or another, the deal will be done by the end of October because the developer has a timeline of opening the housing in 2011.

They will be presenting their proposals to the GGNA Board of Directors on Thursday, October 15th. In addition, an unidentified group of people has been distributing fliers around the Glenwood neighborhood for a meeting to be held on October 20th at The HIVE to protest the Skeen Group's/Dinerstein's efforts.

The whole process is likely a waste of time. Either Dinerstein, based out of TX, doesn't have a firm grasp of how the local development process works or they are getting bad advice from the Skeen Group. With a Neighborhood Plan in place, attempts to rezone property from its designated future land use, becomes more difficult.

What is especially puzzling is the strategy Skeen Group is employing here. Mark Lindsay indicated he has followed the implementation of the Glenwood Neighborhood Plan - even attending the City Council meeting where it was adopted. Yet, he decided to float the idea among 49 different property owners before floating it in front of the the one group it would need to get buy in from - the Greater Glenwood Neighborhood Association. It seems that a smarter decision would have been to come before the GGNA prior to wasting their own time trying to broker deals among 49 different property owners, but that was their choice.