If the bidding starts that low, it starts that low for a reason.

In the immortal words of one of Mayor Richard J. Daley’s henchmen, talking about a goo-goo liberal on the city council: His whole problem is he thinks this place is on the level.

It aint.

You have pegged yourself as a loser investor. I’d love to be the guy selling to/buying from you!

Actually … .

Immediately East of the Post Office, somebody did just that, though at that point the (same) freeway has “become” Congress Parkway.

“Obviously there’s a lot of unique logistics, not to mention a freeway running through it.”

Needless to say, you probably would have never seen a private builder build a building with a freeway through it. That kind of weirdness takes a politics.

If a private investment manager had done something like this and cost his private investors (say a bunch of retirees) $299,700,000 while walking away with a fat paycheck, leftists would declare this a sign of the inherent corruption and irrationality of the free-market and a clear indicator of the need for more regulation.

1. Nobody knows whether any given price, whether $300M or $300K is a “high” or a “low.”

2. An investment strategy of “Buy high, sell low” (buy if the price is higher than it was last month [or year, etc] and sell if lower) shows equivalent returns! Strange to you, maybe, but true.

“14 million dollars to a developer?

Don’t even THINK about any new proposed taxes. If you have money to give developers, you don’t need any more from me.”

I’m trying here, but I think I am banging my head against a wall.

It will be interesting to see who ends up with it, and what pittance they pay for it, and how much the city and county taxpayers subsidize whatever private, for-profit development occurs there.

As for the conspiracy theories, I don’t know. This is Federally owned stuff, not necessarily locally corrupt. I’d say this is more ineptitude than potential corruption.

But really, this is just semantics, because ineptitude and corruption are both government hallmarks here, and in fact the net effect is the same.

Dude. West.

Also, in most places I would say this incompetence. But this is Cook County. It is at least somewhat likely that there is someone out there who wants this building and is going to get it for peanuts in this market, and that is why this sale was delayed. Conspiracy theories are not usually true. But in Chicago, they all too often are.