Looking far more sullen wearing a black trench coat tonight than he was as the beaming president of the Rushmark development company during the ribbon cutting for the new Harris Teeter in the 300 block of W. Broad this morning, Patrick Kearney came before the City Council tonight to accept blame for the need to modify the contract for sale of the City-owned piece of land, which the Council approved 7-0 with little discussion except for a scolding from Councilman Nader Baroukh.

Kearney said that when he went to the bank funding the project today, they looked over the contract and there was no way they would accept the term that called for the reversion of the City-owned project to the City in the event the project did not get built.

So, he came to the Council tonight with $100,000 in hand, and a promise to close on the land on the same day that he closed with the bank on their loan. Vice Mayor David Snyder told the Council, tersely, that if they didn’t vote yes on this 11th hour revision, the whole project would be off.