"LANSING (WXYZ) - The Michigan Senate drastically overpaid for new office space purchased from a poltically-connected developer, according to Lansing's assessor of record.
William Fowler told Channel 7's Ross Jones that the $41 million purchase price isn't supported by the current real estate market in downtown Lansing.
"Not in today’s market," Fowler said, calling the sales price "three times greater than anything that has sold downtown of comparable use."
Fowler says that his office currently has Capitol View assessed at about $12 million, a figure he says is closer to what it’s actually worth.
Were it to be built brand new today, his office estimates it would cost just under $22 million.
Fowler says his office won’t use Capitol View’s sale price as a benchmark for assessing other properties downtown.
The building has been dubbed the "Capitol View boondoggle" by Democratic lawmakers, and even though the project was pushed through by Republicans leadership, even many Republicans have a hard time defending the purchase.
But like it or not, barring some last-minute maneuver, Michigan taxpayers will be on the hook to pay for all of it: $41 million for the building, as much $10 million to fix it up and, when you add on 30-years of interest, a total cost of about $134 million.
It’s a much steeper price than just fixing-up the current senate offices, pegged at only $25 million.
But the top man in the Senate last year, Sen. Randy Richardville (R-Monroe), said that the previous building wasn’t secure enough.
Instead, he committed your tax dollars to a building owned by an influential republican donor Ron Boji.
His bid beat out three others..."
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