BIKE: WSJ Article

[Bob Sessa]

An interesting article from today'sWall Street Journal.
 
Regards,
 
Bob Sessa
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Delicate Donation

General Growth Properties Inc. recently donated $1 million to an effort to develop a 1.2-mile bicycle and walking path in downtown Des Moines, Iowa.  The $28 million path runs around a portion of the Des Moines River and is designed to link the east and west sides of the river and to a host of other cycling and walking trails. It's also located some 10 miles away from the Jordan Creek Town Center, the two-million-square-foot shopping mall that General Growth is building in the city of West Des Moines. 
 
Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group Inc. is developing the path project, called Principal Riverwalk, with a $10 million contribution from its foundation, about $6.5 million in state and local grants, $5 million in private donations and the rest from federal funding. Construction of the path is slated to begin next month. Cyclists and pedestrians eventually will be able to use Riverwalk and connecting trails to ride or walk from downtown Des Moines to General Growth's new $200 million mall, which is scheduled to open in August.  But the donation is something that General Growth Chief Executive John Bucksbaum is reluctant to talk about. "There may be potential criticism that this is not a justifiable expense," says the avid cyclist, who sits on the board of USA Cycling, an organization that trains and selects cyclists to represent the U.S. in international competitions. "We rarely do things like this at a corporate level."

General Growth, which was based in Des Moines for nearly 30 years before moving its headquarters to Chicago about a decade ago, didn't help pay for the nearly six miles of bike and walking trails the West Des Moines Parks and Recreation Department built to extend existing trails to General Growth's new mall.


		
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