Monthly Archives: June 2016

Pete Plamondon Jr, principal of the Plamondon companies, makes no secret of how long he’s been working with the City’s economic development director Richard Griffin on a ‘partnership’ (read: boondoggle on taxpayers) to build a conference center hotel downtown. At … Continue reading →

Mr Frosh: I am part of a loosely organized group of Frederick people probing the City’s long efforts to get a Downtown Hotel and Conference Center (DH&CC) developed with ever growing public funding. We have written and spoken, and organized … Continue reading →

Letter to the Editor, Frederick News-Post 2016.06.26: On the downtown hotel you reported: ‘Griffin also dismissed Samuel’s accusations about lack of transparency. He said Samuel’s misunderstanding of the document was one reason why the full report was not made public. “These … Continue reading →

Richard Griffin has gone to great lengths — lengths that have stretched the truth to breaking point — to claim (1) that the planned 24,000 square foot conference center was supported by expert ‘studies’ (2) that the size has not … Continue reading →

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a real estate consultancy from Chicago was contracted in 2013 to help the City of Frederick run a competitive procurement for a developer for the downtown hotel. The procurement saw Plamondon selected over Wormald to ‘partner’ … Continue reading →

Good evening I would like to talk about the hotel. We’ve got our own Little Big Dig. Like the infamous Boston Tunnel project the price keeps growing. As recently as 2013 it was $45m total cost $10m to $12m public … Continue reading →

Maryland Stadium Authority’s cost consultant told the City of Frederick back in January that its $82 million estimate for the cost of the Downtown Hotel and Conference Center was $39 million or 32 percent too low. The state agency to … Continue reading →

The City’s $335,000 hotel development consultant Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) hiked their hourly rates nearly 50% midway through their contract with the City while working on the downtown hotel boondoggle. JLL consultants who had been working for $155/hour were bumped … Continue reading →

Recently obtained consultant invoices throw a horrifying light on the City’s selection of a developer for its downtown hotel and conference center (DH&CC.) They show Chicago based real estate consultants from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) repeatedly violated the City’s purchasing … Continue reading →

This is scandalous at several different levels: 1. The procurement of JLL and their engagement was approved on the basis they would help the City. Here we see from invoices that JLL was also working for Plamondon helping that company … Continue reading →