If you and your daddy have successfully cashed in on the infirm, the elderly and the institutionalized coupled with the income-preserving double-whammy of denying treatment to all of the above, you probably have no compunction with cashing in on children and public education in some pretty creative ways.
Of course, I’m talking about district 2 school board candidate David Jones, Jr., unloading a much un-needed product called HealthTeacher on our local school district as well as eleven of the largest school districts in the nation. And there’s StraighterLine, a shortcut to get college credit hours, which somehow wormed its way into the local community college after Jones’ “civic involvement” with 55,000 Degrees. “What’s next,” one reader asked, “sock puppets?
Nothing will surprise me.
For now, let’s drop the talk about Jones pimping tech products and cashing in on our failing schools through his company, Chrysalis Ventures. All of that crap is chump change compared to what I’m about to tell you.
Let’s talk about real estate. Lots of it. Hundreds and hundreds of acres of it in Oldham County. Land of high-performing, neighborhood schools – which is the key selling point in every Oldham County real estate listing. Oldham County is no different from any other school district in the nation – buy a house and send your kids to school down the road. Unlike JCPS, this school district won’t pull any surprises and put your kid on the bus for two or three hours a day.
Summary: Oldham County’s sole competitive advantage over Jefferson County is neighborhood schools.
What happens if neighborhood schools return to Louisville? Well, thousands of lots in Oldham County will just sit there collecting dust and tax payments for the developers that are stuck with them. When forced busing ends in Louisville, you’ll buy a house in Lake Forest - 41 homes available right now! – , Owl Creek, Prospect, Hunting Creek or Norton Commons and know exactly where your child will attend school. It’s a concept that’s so simple to the rest of the nation but has vexed our school board for decades. Why?
Oldham County is nice but you have to admit that filling up the Suburban for $130 is hard on the wallet and that commute really, really stinks. Well-heeled parents will gladly pass up Oldham County when Louisville ends forced busing. I know it, you know it, David Jones, Jr., his daddy and all of his realtor/developer friends know it.
Remember The Perfect Business Plan I told you about in a previous post? Buy a few hundred acres in Oldham County, unload a chunk of land on the school district for a new school, sell the surrounding developed land and watch your return on investment soar.
Ouch! The Perfect Business Plan completely collapsed when Oldham County’s school board said, “No, thanks” to the offer of free land. My super-awesome, venture capital friend in Oldham County told me how the developers of Brentwood, a 345-lot development, supposedly tried to unload a parcel of land on Oldham County’s school district for an elementary school. The school district didn’t want the land since growth was slowing down. (This info is in a previous post, by the way.)
According to Oldham Ahead, here’s what happened with housing starts in Oldham County…
And here’s what enrollment numbers look like in Oldham County:
Oh, dear. No school/anchor for Brentwood’s 345-lot subdivision. Things got worse when residents near the development lawyered up and sued the developer, Oldham Farms Development… remember that name! These people are tied to Jones, Sr., (see below). Anyway, they plowed ahead and put in sewers and gas lines, kind of like Jones, Jr., stays in the school board race even though he’s cashing in on Chrysalis and Humana cashing in on JCPS. Yes, I said it.
This is an ancient story from Julie Tam on wdrb.com and the bold is mine:
A developer has broken ground on a new subdivision in Oldham County, despite a court battle involving residents of two neighboring subdivisions.
Residents of Spring Hill and Briar Hill subdivisions say they like the peace and quiet of little traffic going through their neighborhoods. An undeveloped field between them provides a buffer. But the open land is slowly turning into a new subdivision — Brentwood. Oldham Farms Development has begun clearing land to make way for more than 300 homes and an elementary school.
“For four times, we were successful in convincing the planning & zoning committee that this kind of density is not good for planning in Oldham County,” Jennifer Milton-Houlton, a resident of Briar Hill, said.
This is where I need to inform you that you can’t swing a dead cat in Oldham County without hitting a member of the Clore family. With that said, take a look at this information about Oldham Farms Development from the Kentucky Secretary of State website which you may have seen in a previous post:
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Take a look at Oldham Farms Development’s address. And take a look at the address for Main Street Realty, the folks that are trying to unload Brentwood property sans elementary school anchor:
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There’s district 2 school board candidate David Jones, Jr.’s daddy on the board of directors for Main Street Realty. You may have seen this screenshot in an earlier post, too, but I’m always happy to remind you of nifty details.
There are about 345 lots in Brentwood going for about $77,000 each. Fire up your calculators – that’s about $25,565,000 in potential sales.
Just visit the Oldham County PVA to take a look at the epic list of lots that Oldham Farms Development is hoping to unload with Main Street Realty’s help.
Oldham Farms Development has plenty of land sitting around.
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Oldham Farms Develelopment and Main Street Realty aren’t the only groups tied to The Perfect Business Plan. There’s that whole story of Brownsboro School Campus, a little real estate deal that earned the scrutiny of Crit Luallen. Long story, we’ll discuss later. Another Clore is tied to the Brownsboro School deal. The school district purchased about 95 acres for a steal, about $27,500/acre, and planned to build an elementary, middle and high school on the property. Let’s just lowball the land available for development near the Brownsboro School Campus at 250 acres, though it’s probably much more. Let’s use the recipe for Brentwood: $77,000 per 0.4 acre lot with 250 acres available = $48,125,000 in potential revenue.
This is from a fun letter from the Oldham County superintendent:
After learning that the Oldham County Nursery property in Brownsboro was again available, I consulted with a local realtor/developer who offered to negotiate the best price he could for the property with no risk or obligation on the part of the district. As a result of his efforts, the Board of Education was able to save about $500,000 on the purchase of the property. The realtor/developer received no commission from the Board of Education for his assistance in negotiating a favorable purchase price of $27,500 per acre.
Word is that The Jones Group was in on that deal. And the realtor/developer was cozy with a member on the Oldham County school board and got in some trouble with Crit Luallen.
Here’s some info about The Jones Group (there’s another Clore in the mix!) and you can click on the pic to visit their website:
These folks would love to sell you some land in Summerfield! There are, after all, about 500 acres up for sale at $99,000 for 0.6 acres. Final calculation for potential revenue: $82,500,000.
I know. The zeroes are piling up on your screen so quickly that you need a Cray supercomputer to keep up with all of them.
The grand total for the three developments that are tied to Jones, Sr., and various Clores has already topped $156,190,000. I haven’t even bothered to dig very hard – I can’t imagine what I will find if I put a good hour into this. I have a cold and my sinuses are about to explode so let’s wrap up this post.
Will David Jones, Jr., fight neighborhood schools in Louisville to preserve the financial interests of realtors and developers who have connections to his daddy and his daddy’s friends?
Oh, I’m pretty sure you know the answers to those questions.
If this guy wins a seat on the school board, I’m going to have so much to blog about for four years!
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There’s really no doubt that a lot of local business families want to continue busing to preserve their control over the real estate. Only in Louisville do they want to throw in this busing mix so that it doesn’t matter where you live, your child stands the chance of being bused. Once busing is gone, real estate will truly become the free market. They will lose control over prices and where they can “develop”. Because if there’s money to be made, these rich local families want to be the ones to control and make the money.
Most people here seem OK with that though.
How to contact you?
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