https://www.inlander.com/spokane/the-visionary-trying-to-reinvent-the-old-ridpath-hotel-faces-a-criminal-indictment-what-that-means-for-the-project-and-the-people-already-liv/Content?oid=159982211

A good Inlander Story by Josh Kelety but if anyone really took the time to look into “The Ridpath Mess” they would find that the background is very similar to a lot of property transactions that take place in Spokane with the same players and power structure associations…it is the way it works here in the nations scam capital.

Since Josh Kelety is new to Spokane he may not have known that “The Ridpath Mess” had its beginnings when local convicted scam artist Greg Jeffreys along with Dave Black and Grant Person of NAI Black purchased most of the Ridpath property.

One of the things I learned from years of experience is the place to watch scam artists work their trade is to spend time at the Spokane Club watching the artist’s work their magic, Jeffreys was fun to watch despite the perm job and what would happen to him was inevitable…long story. 😊

Just so you folks know when a local Federal Investigation or Grand Jury is going on in Spokane, one heck of a lot of people know, including the “Target” of the Investigation and Grand Jury so Jeffreys and the others involved knew exactly what was going on as did other members of the Spokane Community.

What a lot of people aren’t aware of is that for a period of time Don Barbieri’s Red Lion Hotels owned some of the property but later sold…now here is where we start with the typical Hilarious Spokane Stuff (HSS) which provides a picture of how Spokane Works.

Just prior to the Jeffreys indictment coming down Jeffreys smartly liquidated his assets as much as possible including his interests in the Ridpath which he sold to none other than Arthur M. Coffey who was a director of Don Barbieri’s West Coast Hotels/Red Lion Hotels Companies beginning in 1990 and was a Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of the Company beginning in June 1997. He was also President of the company’s West Coast Hotels division. Coffey served as Chief Operating Officer of the Company from 1990 to June 1997. Coffey had been in the hotel business since 1971 and joined the Barbieri group in 1981. Coffey was also a director of the Association of Washington Business, served as a trustee of the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce, served as a director of the Washington State Hotel Association from 1996 to 1997, served as director of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau from 1982 to 1985 and served as president of the Spokane Hotel Association from 1989 to 1990 so he had a pretty good Resume built up after leaving the Barbieri group.

Knowing all the background regarding “The Ridpath Mess” I got a real chuckle out of this “Frequent Conservative Critic” Shawn Vestal story.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/feb/15/restoration-of-ridpaths-glory-days-adds-to-mix-of/

Especially when Shawn neglected to mention that Art Coffey was a business partner of Shawn’s boss W Stacey Cowles in the IPStreet Business and it was Art Coffey’s ownership of some of some of the Ridpath property that forced the Wells group to sue Coffey in order to gain ownership of the assets Coffey purchased from Greg Jeffreys.

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Ab061f36a-90e1-421a-9c63-dafc97552f57

I have to keep reminding myself that Shawn is a Columnist and not an Investigative Reporter so doing serious background on columns isn’t a requisite.

One thing folks might ask is whether or not the City Council was informed about the Ridpath Mess prior to throwing our money into the project, the answer is yes but according to one City Council member I’m only right 90% of the time so maybe they figured the information was part of the 10%? 😊

I REPORT HSS YOU DECIDE!!!