Financial News

Government employment in Hawaii has fallen about 5.6 percent in the past year, with state government taking the biggest hit with the loss of about 8,000 jobs.

Government still directly employs more people in Hawaii than any other industry, including tourism.

Even with the latest cuts, government employment has risen by 7.3 percent or by about 10,000 jobs since 2000, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

By comparison, employment in leisure and hospitality stood at 101,000 in December 2009, the same as in December 2000.

Total government employment in Hawaii fell from 130,500 in November 2008 to 123,200 in November 2009, according to the latest data available. The state began the bulk of more than 2,000 layoffs in November and says more than 2,000 positions haven’t been filled.

As of November 2009, the state employed 71,200 people, down from 79,400 a year earlier.

Even at the lower number, it’s still higher than the number who worked for the state in 2005.

Local government employs 18,600 people, down only about 100 from the previous year.

The federal government has added about 1,000 civilian jobs in Hawaii in the past year and now employs 33,400 people, the highest number ever.

The Hawaii Legislature begins its 2010 session this week and faces a projected shortfall of $1.5 billion.

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Jackie Krovblit’s heart is bigger than the 120-pound inspiration behind her company’s namesake, Big Dog Bakery.

Having instantly fallen in love with Trixie, her Great Dane and silent business partner, Krovblit opened Big Dog Bakery when she realized her "child" was too important for mass-produced pet food.

And now Big Dog Bakery is the big dog on Queen Street in the Beach – the only boutique pet store in the area that bakes products on the premises.

The bakery, located in the building that once housed the Three Dog Bakery, is decorated in a rainbow of colours. Cupcakes covered in blue, pink, white and cocoa icing sit in display windows. The shelves are stacked with cookies and empanadas for cats and dogs. Dog cakes are baking in an oven behind the counter.

Trixie greets customers with a wag of her tail. The gentle Great Dane is the hallmark of Big Dog Bakery. Her face is on every package of treats the stores sells.

Trixie "is my big dog in a little package," says Krovblit, who confesses, "I never thought I would have a dog. But when I got Trixie, my whole world opened up, like a lightning bolt."

Krovblit started Big Dog Bakery from her home in 2004. Making biscuits and treats in her toaster oven, she used Trixie and dogs in the park to figure what worked.

Big Dog then moved to Toronto’s Woofstock – a festival for dogs in the Distillery District – in its first year.

"They (cakes and cookies) are healthy – it’s like giving your dog something really special," Krovblit says. "Yes, the look is entirely marketing, it is for the person, the dogs can’t really see the colour but they can smell. So the dog will think, `What’s that?’

"It goes back to what makes something really palatable for the dog payday loans for bad credit. The market is there, so give people what they want. And the dog is going to feed off it and the person will get a kick out of it."

After her inaugural year at Woofstock, she started selling gourmet cakes, made with natural, human-grade ingredients and an assortment of dog treats through select stores around the GTA. It was in 2006 when she lost her job in the restaurant industry and put all her efforts into the bakery, which she opened in July.

Big Dog Bakery has since expanded to Home Sense locations throughout Ontario and Quebec at Christmas.

"I had to carry over from an existing store (Three Dog Bakery) with an American branding so it took a bit of work to convince people our product is better and healthier. All our bakery stuff is almost 100 per cent made in store. It’s a new concept so people need to realize that," says Krovblit.

Iced with either carob or cream cheese, the store sells about 40 customized cakes each month in flavours like Peanut Butter Bliss, Chop Lick ‘n Liver and Banana Rama.

Krovblit has also discovered the purrfect companion products for dogs – cat food. So Big Dog Bakery now includes freshly made gourmet cat treats in its menu.

"People these days really care (about their pets), and they want to know where things are coming from and everybody in our market and demographic consider the dog to be part of the family," Krovblit said.

"They want to give that dog a lot and they want them to live as long as possible. And why shouldn’t that dog be on the same level of health and nutrition (as its masters)?"

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The Bank of Nova Scotia said Tuesday it has been approved to set up independent operations in Dubai's financial district, making it the first Canadian bank to do so.

The licensing clearance from the Dubai International Financial Center allows the bank's ScotiaMocatta division to open an independent branch in one of the Middle East's hubs for international finance.

ScotiaMocatta has operated in Dubai since 1998 through an alliance with the National Bank of Dubai to provide financial services to gold traders, jewellers and others.

"This is a strategic initiative that reflects our confidence not only in the precious metals market, but also in the region," said Barry Wainstein, vice-chairman and deputy head, of Scotiabank Global Capital Markets.

The move comes as debt-burdened Dubai struggles to retain its prominence as a centre for Middle East investors and traders.

"We are very happy to welcome Scotiabank, the first Canadian bank to join the DIFC," said DIFC governor Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer in a statement Tuesday morning.

"As the DIFC begins to play a more prominent role in the global economy, we are keen to expand the industry cluster within the financial district with new companies from across the global financial industry," he said.

Pramod Mohan, a senior executive at Scotiabank's Dubai branch, said the bank recognized the importance of establishing a stand-alone presence in the region as the previous metals market in the Middle East continues to grow.

"Dubai is ideally located in a large wholesale and consumer market and is uniquely positioned to channel gold from the international markets to the ultimate destination," he said.

ScotiaMocatta is the precious metals division of the Scotiabank Group. Scotiabank Group currently employs close to 68,000 people in about 50 countries.

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The jury deciding the fate of former state Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno is deadlocked, for the moment, on most of the criminal allegations against Bruno.

Jurors told U.S. District Court Judge Gary L. Sharpe on Tuesday afternoon that they have reached a unanimous verdict on two of the eight felony counts of mail and wire fraud facing Bruno. The announcement is the first confirmation of the jury’s progress on deciding whether to convict or acquit Bruno, 80.

However, the jury—made of seven women and five men—also said it has not yet been able to reach a unanimous agreement on any of the remaining six counts against Bruno. Jurors did not say which two counts they’ve reached a decision on, or what their verdict is on those counts.

Sharpe instructed the jury to continue deliberating. Jurors will resume their talks by 8:30 a.m. Wednesday; it will be their fourth day of deliberations.

The jury has no deadline for reaching a verdict. However, Sharpe may have to declare a mistrial if jurors cannot reach unanimous agreement on all of the counts facing Bruno.

Bruno, of Brunswick, is accused of intentionally and illegally covering up his outside business consulting activities while serving as a state legislator. Bruno maintains he is innocent.

The trial wrapped up on Nov. 23. That day, federal prosecutors and Bruno’s defense attorneys spent five hours on their closing arguments, attempting to summarize evidence and testimony from 70 witnesses who appeared at trial.

Visit albany.bizjournals.com for breaking news about the jury’s deliberations and its verdict.

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A higher sticker price and fewer guaranteed deliveries may be the only way to rescue Europe’s new military transport plane after years of costly delays.

The Airbus A400M is being prepared for a December maiden flight in southern Spain even as its fate depends on the outcome of talks to save the 20-billion-euro project from collapse.

The planemaking subsidiary of aerospace group EADS is pressing for concessions in Europe’s biggest ever defense contract, saying it faces unaffordable losses in delivering the 180 troop and equipment carriers to seven European NATO nations.

Germany leads pressure for Airbus to stick to its terms.

Thousands of jobs are at stake and observers say the outcome could affect the industrial shape of Europe as well as the region’s stammering progress toward a common defense identity.

Investors in EADS and suppliers are bracing for billions of euros in charges and penalties if the rescue bid fails and Boeing and Lockheed Martin are ready to fill the gap with increased sales of their own troop and cargo carriers.

Now, with an end-2009 deadline weeks away, a formula for hiking prices without any immediate burden on taxpayers appears the most widely acceptable answer to a year-long deadlock.

If adopted, such a deal could stretch the targeted total of 180 aircraft over a longer period, but result in fewer planes being handed over during the previously agreed delivery period.

It is a device negotiators typically use to engineer a unit price increase when new cash is unavailable, according to current and former arms procurement officials, and many see it as the only pragmatic starting point during the economic crisis no checking account payday advance.

One scenario, which implies an approximately 25 percent unit price increase, would call for about 40 planes being pushed back into budget limbo pending a recovery.

New cash to build them would not be needed until the decade after next, well beyond the day-to-day political horizon.

“Presentation is a problem but the hard facts are that the only way to save the A400M program is through a price increase per plane,” said Teal Group aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia.

For investors, such a deal could lift the threat of severe penalties that EADS would otherwise face for the 3-4 year delay.

However it may also leave EADS dependent on exports to erase previous losses, and the manufacturer suffered a setback when South Africa, one of only two overseas buyers so far, canceled.

And it leaves little room for maneuver if there are further cost overruns, since they have to be amortized over a decreasing number of planes — a phenomenon nicknamed the ‘death spiral,’ which Aboulafia says can chip defense projects down to the bone. 

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The euro zone economy jumped out of recession in the third quarter, data showed on Friday, but with slightly less spring than expected after growth in the area’s top three economies fell short of market forecasts.

Gross domestic product in the 16 countries using the euro rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter after five consecutive quarters of shrinking output, but was 4.1 percent lower year-on-year, the European Union’s statistics office said.

Economists polled by Reuters had on average forecast quarterly growth of 0.5 percent and a 3.9 percent annual decline.

“The euro zone exited recession at a trot rather than a canter in the third quarter,” said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.

For graphics on growth see:

here

Germany, France and Italy all reported a third-quarter increase in economic output, but the German 0.7 percent quarterly growth was below expectations of 0.8 percent, the French 0.3 percent increase only half of what was expected and the Italian 0.6 percent fell short of the 0.7 percent consensus.

Italy and the Netherlands returned to growth, but Spain continued to contract albeit at a significantly reduced pace.

A more detailed breakdown of the data will only be available on December 3 but economists said net exports and inventory build-up added to growth, while household consumption was weak and investment remained in recession payday loan companies.

“In other words, domestic demand remains the big weak spot,” said Aurelio Maccario, economist at UniCredit Group.

END OF EUROZONE RECESSION

The growth ends the deepest economic downturn in Europe since World War Two, brought on by a global financial crisis, but economists say recovery is likely to remain fragile.

The European Commission expects that fourth-quarter growth would slow to 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter and then to 0.1 percent in the first two quarters of 2010.

“This loss of momentum is expected to be the consequence of the withdrawal of some stimulus measures, including car scrappage schemes and employment support measures,” said Archer.

Economists said restocking at companies, which could be helping growth now, would also be less of a factor toward the middle of 2010. A strong euro, rising unemployment and still tight credit conditions will also dampen growth prospects. 

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Top officials from Magna and Opel expressed confidence on Wednesday that General Motors will go through with selling its European arm to Canada’s Magna despite a second chance to review the deal.

GM’s board of directors is due to meet on Tuesday to reconsider its decision in light of assurances from Germany that 4.5 billion euros ($6.68 billion) in state aid was available to any Opel buyer — not just Magna, Berlin’s favored bidder.

Asked what the chances were that GM would seize on European Union competition authorities’ misgivings about the state aid and reverse its decision, Opel Chairman Carl-Peter Forster told Reuters: “I would see them at clearly below 50 percent.”

Magna Co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf also took an upbeat line at the Automobil Forum Graz industry conference.

“I am convinced that we will sign the contract soon if the EU…agrees. We are very, very hopeful,” he said.

Forster told the conference that sale contracts were practically ready to be signed and he hoped they could be inked quickly once GM gives the green light.

A source had told Reuters last week that there was still a possibility that GM’s board could opt out of a sale of Opel in favor of keeping the European carmaker.

GM and Germany’s Opel Trust — set up in May to keep Opel from being dragged into GM’s brief U.S. bankruptcy — have to inform Berlin that they would still have picked Magna as Opel’s buyer even knowing that any buyer would get state aid payday advance lender.

The German government then needs to tell Brussels.

Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank are set to get a 55 percent stake in Opel under the deal. GM would keep 35 percent and Opel staff would get 10 percent in return for labor cost concessions.

Magna’s group won Berlin’s backing by proposing to keep all four Opel plants in Germany open. Half of Opel’s 50,000 workers are based in Germany.

This triggered suspicions in other countries with Opel plants — including Britain, Belgium and Spain — that Berlin was using pledges of state aid to get favorable treatment for its domestic car industry.

Financial investor RHJ International and carmakers Fiat and BAIC had also been in the running for Opel, although RHJ has since said it is no longer interested.

It remains unclear how Germany’s new center-right government will view the deal, which returning Chancellor Angela Merkel helped broker.

The liberal Free Democrats (FDP), new partners of Merkel’s conservatives, are broadly skeptical of the planned sale of Opel to Magna, but FDP member Rainer Bruederle, who is set to be sworn in as economy minister on Wednesday, has said there is no way the new government can stop it. 

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It has been 31 years since the last trains left Union Station. And 24 years since its $140 million renovation as a hotel, shopping and entertainment spot on Market Street. But today the station is a shell of what it once was.

Banana Republic? Gone. Talbot’s? Gone. Body Shop, Brookstone, Nature Co.? Gone, gone, gone.

The space formerly occupied by Nature Co. is a gift shop called Fat Sassy’s. Nearby, a shop that calls itself a newsstand has one magazine rack near the front door and several shelves of liquor behind the counter.

But don’t write of this downtown landmark just yet.

A large expansion by Marriott, which in December took over the station’s hotel from Hyatt, is about to get under way. Marriott will move the front desk to the atrium near the station’s western end, allowing greater use of the barrel-vaulted Great Hall for

private events. Marriott also will extend its meeting and restaurant space into much of the retail area along the midway.

As a result, Union Station’s shops will be concentrated along the eastern concourse, where the food court is situated beneath the arched train shed, which dates to 1894. Whether this transformation — the station’s most extensive since the 1980s — will revive the place is yet to be seen.

Barbara Geisman, deputy mayor for development, said city officials hope better times are ahead.

"We would certainly like to see as much retail as possible in Union Station," she said. "As the downtown residential and business population grow, we think there’s a market for more mainstream retail there."

Resuscitating shopping at Union Station will require "some big-time marketing," Geisman said.

"A lot of this is that you get a name draw and then that kind of sets the tone for the rest of it," she said. "We think the station presents opportunities for larger retail."

Bass Pro Shops, based in Springfield, Mo., took a look a few years ago but passed on Union Station, Geisman said. She added that shopping habits have changed since the 1980s, when "festival markets" such as Quincy Market in Boston, South Street Seaport in New York and Union Station drew big crowds. All have faded.

"Things have changed a lot since then," Geisman said. "Instead of people going there on a whim because they want to see a neat old building, you now have a lot of people with disposable income who like to shop."

Frances Percich, Union Station’s marketing manager, said "serious" discussions are under way with two retailers, including one that would be new to St. Louis. She declined to name them. Percich said the station will continue to market itself as a tourist attraction with numerous spring and summer events.

"When people walk in here expecting a mall, they will be disappointed," she said. "We’re not a mall. We have no anchor store."

Among the few Union Station visitors one afternoon last week were Russ and Donna Clark of Yuba City, Calif. They were staying at the Marriott for a meeting. The Clarks said they had been unsure whether Union Station’s emptiness resulted from a renovation still under way or from a lack of business.

Told that the renovation was completed in 1985 and that the station had been in decline for years, Donna Clark said: "Wow, that’s a shame. This looks like a great idea. It’s disappointing not to see a lot of people."

Union Station’s current retail occupancy is 79 percent, Percich said. Ownership has changed in recent years. In 2003, the inability of St. Louis Station Associates, the investment group behind the 1980s renovation, to pay the mortgage led to foreclosure by Regency Savings Bank of Oak Park, Ill. Park National Bank of Chicago bought the property from Regency and owns it through Union Station Holdings LLC.

Doug Dean, the Marriott’s general manager, said the hotel renovation will restore some of the inn’s original 1890s configuration. He noted that the original front desk was off the atrium, remarkable for its glass-block floor. All 539 rooms, including the 67 in the station’s original "headhouse," will be redone. Dean declined to specify the overall cost, saying it remained "a moving target."

Four meeting rooms and a restaurant will be built near the new lobby. One floor above, the existing restaurant will be used mainly for private events. Beginning with a ballroom freshening done by November, the renovation project will be completed in late 2011, he said.

Hotel and shopping areas will remain open during the renovation.

Across Market from Union Station is the western end of the Gateway Mall, the milelong park that extends east to the Old Courthouse. Tricia Roland-Hamilton, head of the project to redo the mall, said that to thrive, the Union Station area must have more offices, residents and stores.

"The key to livening up that space, not just Union Station but that part of the mall, is density," she said. "And we don’t have that right now."

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WINNIPEG–CanWest Global Communications Corp. is selling its majority stake in Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd. in a deal worth $634 million.

Proceeds will be used in large part to repay debt as the company works to recapitalize its business.

"The sale of the shares of Ten Holdings is expected to facilitate continuing discussions with the ad hoc committee (of lenders) regarding a recapitalization transaction," the company said in a statement last night. CanWest is grappling with a $4 billion debt load and negotiating with creditors to recapitalize the company.

The company said it has agreed with a group of its lenders to use $102 million to repay its 12 per cent senior secured notes issued by CanWest Media and CanWest Television Ltd. Partnership.

Another $85 million will be used for general corporate and working-capital purposes, including the repayment to a senior secured revolving asset-based loan facility with CIT Business Credit Canada Inc.

CanWest also agreed to deposit $426 million with a trustee for the holders of its 8 per cent senior subordinated notes.

CanWest said members of the ad hoc committee have also extended a forbearance agreement to Oct. 6, while CIT Business Credit Canada has agreed to extend to Oct. 15 a deadline for certain milestones that were to have been achieved by tomorrow.

The company said it has signed a deal with Sydney-based Macquarie Capital Advisers Ltd. for the sale of 50.1 per cent stake in Ten Holdings in a block trade. The sale is expected to be completed by Oct. 1.

"No new Ten Holdings shares will be issued as part of this sale process," the Australian company said in a statement last night.

Ten Holdings stock was halted on the Australian stock exchange to help with the sale.

CanWest, owner of the Global television network in Canada, the National Post and an array of big-city Canadian daily newspapers, has been struggling to repay debts and loans in recent months.

Ten Holdings completed an equity offering earlier this year that cut CanWest’s ownership stake in the broadcaster from 57 per cent to just over half. Ten Holdings used the cash raised to pay down debt and strengthen its balance sheet.

CanWest has previously tried to sell its stake in the Ten to help it cope with its own debt.

The company first put the commercial television channel up for sale in October 2006, when Australian foreign ownership rules were relaxed.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. considered buying the assets, but decided the asking price was too high.

After a failed search for an offer that it deemed attractive, CanWest yanked the broadcaster off the market and completed a share exchange plan that gave it majority ownership of the network.

Since then, CanWest has sold numerous other assets including some of its local E! channel branded stations in Canada, indirect interests in four Turkish radio stations, and American political magazine the New Republic.

The Canadian Press

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Since unveiling his NorthSide plan in May, Paul McKee has done a lot of pitching.

He’s pitched to the neighborhoods he wants to rebuild. He’s pitched to city officials who must approve the plan. He’s pitched to the media, to business groups, to anyone who will listen.

But the people he really needs to pitch to are the guys with the money: Bankers. Investors. The people with the cash to get his vision off the ground. That may be his toughest pitch of all.

The plan to rebuild 1,500 acres of north St. Louis is projected to cost $8.1 billion. In filings with the city, McKee’s McEagle Properties has said it hopes to borrow $6 billion of that and raise most of the rest in the form of equity from investors and partners. And he’ll need to do it in the toughest credit market in decades.
It is worth noting that McEagle won’t need to borrow $6 billion all at once. It plans to "recycle" capital over the course of the 20-year project, and use profits from the early stages to help fund the later ones. But the first four years alone call for nearly $1 billion in expenses, and that money will have to come from somewhere.

Meanwhile, the market for financing big commercial real estate projects keeps getting worse.

The $3.5 trillion industry of office buildings and shopping centers in this country has lost 39 percent of its value in the past two years, according to the MIT Center for Real Estate. Couple that with a wave of commercial mortgages coming due — nearly half will expire in the next five years — and experts worry about a flood of foreclosures and costly refinance deals. That could suck up a lot of cash which might otherwise fuel projects such as NorthSide.

When you figure in the long time frame and complexity of McKee’s project, local finance experts say, raising the money to get it off the ground becomes a very tough sell indeed.

"It’s almost unimaginable," said Edward Lawrence, a finance professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. "There are some really knotty issues."

For one, NorthSide will take two decades, starting with a few office buildings and rolling out to include 10,000 homes. That means the project can build on early successes, which is good, Lawrence notes, but it also leaves a lot of time for things to go wrong. "This thing can fall apart at any point," he said.

Then there’s uncertainty about all the different pieces that must come together, from thorny political approvals to an unfunded highway interchange at 22nd Street, to a new $640 million bridge across the Mississippi. And questions about who will fill 4.5 million square feet of new office space in a city where downtown vacancy remains stubbornly high.

The project carries a lot of risk in an environment where many banks don’t want any, said Joe Monteleone, executive vice president of Q10 Triad Capital Advisors, a commercial real estate firm in Creve Coeur.

The way to ease that risk, Monteleone said, is for McEagle to attract a lot of equity — to bring cash to the table and keep its borrowing to a minimum. But that’s no easy task.

"Right now, attracting equity is just very difficult on all projects," he said. "In a very large deal like this, it just becomes that much more difficult."

In documents filed with the city, McEagle says that it and its partners expect to kick in 20 percent, or about $1.7 billion. Then there’s the 75 percent funded through borrowing. The rest would come from tax credits and other government incentives, especially in the first few years as NorthSide gets off the ground.

Most large urban redevelopment projects — such as Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn — have dialed back in this recession, said Stephen Blank, a senior fellow who studies real estate capital markets for the Urban Land Institute. The money just isn’t there right now.

Debt markets are basically frozen. There’s no appetite for commercial mortgage-backed securities. And no one really knows where prices are going, so it’s hard to find buyers for buildings. Simply having a great vision isn’t enough to make a deal happen instant payday loan.

"I don’t know how you could possibly do this," Blank said. "This could be a game changer (for St. Louis), but I don’t see it in today’s environment."

Still, some local banking experts were more optimistic.

Generally speaking, St. Louis banks haven’t been burned like some of their counterparts elsewhere, said Joe Stieven, a longtime bank analyst who heads Stieven Capital Advisors. Some banks have capital, and are willing to lend it, but on their own terms for a change.

"The boring old banking industry — not ’shadow’ banking or investment banking — is willing and able to finance projects," Stieven said. "If you have a good project, you can get it financed."

But so far, just two banks have committed publicly to McEagle’s NorthSide project. And one is defunct.

That’s Corn Belt Bank, which was based in Pittsfield, Ill., and had a branch in Clayton. In 2007, it gave McEagle $3 million in financing, according to deeds filed with the city. But in February, it was shut down by federal banking regulators, and now that note is held by the FDIC, which plans to sell it. McKee said he hoped to extend or refinance that loan with whoever buys it.

The other lender is Bank of Washington, in Washington, Mo., which lent McEagle $27.6 million in December and submitted a letter to city officials pledging to help finance the first two phases of NorthSide if they approve $398 million in tax increment financing.

The bank’s chairman, L.B. Eckelkamp, acknowledged that tough credit markets meant the project might not start as fast as it would have two or three years ago, but he was confident it would succeed. "It’s a wonderful plan," he said. "It does a lot for the city."

McKee says that his capital efforts have been "much more extensive" than just those loans, that he’s talking with banks, private capital groups and institutional investors. He was bullish on his chances.

"We think this project will attract attention from all over the U.S. and foreign investors as well," he wrote in an e-mail interview.

But that money won’t come off the sidelines, he said, until "public commitment to this is evident." In other words, until the city signs that TIF, and grants McEagle the redevelopment rights that will let it start tapping tax credits.

It would certainly help, he said, if the city agrees to back half the cost of that TIF — just under $200 million. In this climate, McKee said, his company can’t afford to carry the full cost of the massive road and sewer upgrades it’s planning for NorthSide. And because the city will benefit from the improvements, he said, it ought to share in the risk.

But city officials are skeptical.

They’ve only backed three other TIFs in recent years, and wound up on the hook each time. And with a tight budget and pension obligations looming, there isn’t much room to pay down bonds if new tax revenue from NorthSide can’t.

Even if Mayor Francis Slay’s office agrees, it’s not clear that there are enough votes on the Board of Aldermen.

"I’m not more of a financial expert than the banks that are looking at this," said Alderman Antonio French. "If they’re still passing on it, who are we to say it’s a good deal?"

Still, in this economic climate, the way to sell the money people on NorthSide may be through the political process, Monteleone said. Lining up public support, and putting down a lot of equity, is the only way to instill enough confidence in a project this big.

"It’s just a difficult project to conventionally finance," Monteleone said. "It’s going to take a lot of public finance. It’s going to take a lot of political clout. I think if anybody is going to be able to pull it off, it’s Paul."

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