But under this construction, Anderson's organization still winds up basically owning the property with no equity of its own in the deal. When I first talked to DuBois, before I told him his broker, Anderson, was chairman of the Oak Cliff Foundation, he was telling me how bad he felt that Anderson wasn't going to collect his commission. DuBois thought there was some obscure city regulation that was screwing Anderson out of his due. After I gave him the news, he felt less sorry for Anderson. But later I asked Anderson whether he had communicated to DuBois somehow that he was unhappy with the no-commission deal.
Nobody likes working on something for a year for free.
There is an important subtext for all of this ethical-shmethical business. The organization favored by the business community on West Jefferson to run the Texas Theater project was one put together by a man named Will Boroski. He was director of the restored Savoy Theater in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Boroski told me he had brought both investors and developers to the deal, unlike the Oak Cliff Foundation, which has no money and has yet even to file a proposal. Swanson confirmed Boroski's claims to me and showed me his financial declarations to the city.