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Sweetheart Deals
County Executive Jack B. Johnson, left, and then-housing chief Thomas M. Thompson confer at the McGuire House razing in February.
( Photos By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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Youngblood, for example, said in an interview that his experience is limited to converting a house in Mitchellville into an assisted-living facility and subdividing building lots in Bowie.
"They're not developers," said a longtime county businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing future contracts. "They haven't developed anything."
In addition to the 2004 invitation to bid, Johnson has made land available for sale by placing it on a surplus list when he determined it was no longer needed by the county. Since 2003, the county has signed contracts to sell more than a dozen surplus properties, including three awarded to buyers with ties to Johnson, according to available records.
Two buyers were awarded contracts after submitting unsolicited proposals to the county.
"If someone sends me an unsolicited bid, I feel compelled to grant it serious consideration," Thompson said. "But I'm not doing it in a certain way to enhance anyone."
Thompson said the contracts that were not put out to bid were given "due process." The county did not release its policies about bidding despite repeated requests.
Raymond A. Skinner, state secretary of housing and community development and a former Prince George's housing director, criticized the no-bid contracts.
"You have to allow other folks to have a competitive process," Skinner said. "That's just good public policy. . . . You want to go through a process that allows you to get the best deal for taxpayers." In 2004, Skinner consulted for a group that bid unsuccessfully on a Prince George's development project.
Whether they develop or sell the land, those who were awarded contracts have a distinct advantage.
"You control the deal," said John A. Lally, a lawyer who has worked on real estate in the county. "Whatever it took for you to get that land tied up, it now has a floor value on which you can build."
In several cases, more-established development companies joined in partnerships once a deal was set. Johnson said such partnerships were an accepted practice to "build the capacity" of developers.
On three projects, for example, Youngblood brought in Alan C. "Skip" Gault Jr., a vice president at the Virginia-based Peterson Cos., developer of National Harbor. Gault, a nephew of company founder Milton V. Peterson's, has built townhouses in Fairfax County and an office building in Loudoun County.
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