FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Following an hours-long discussion, Fort Lauderdale city commissioners voted late Tuesday evening to defer a motion to approve a comprehensive agreement with One Stop FTL, LLC, an unsolicited proposal to develop a concert venue, restaurant and park space on city-owned public land.
Following the deferment decision, Larry Forman, a retired CPA and Flagler Village City Association Parks Committee Chairperson told Local 10 News “I am satisfied.”
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He said, “I am glad we have a deferral” so the commissioners have more time to “really uncover what is going on with the applicant’s financial capabilities and the financial model that is needed to determine whether this project will be successful in the location.”
Stephanie Toothaker, One Stop FTL, LLC attorney and registered lobbyist for operations partner Damn Good Hospitality Group, told Local 10 News, “We put a lot of effort into appearing before the city commission this evening and we felt like we’ve gone through a very hefty financial analysis and we felt like all the information was there, but I have due respect for the commissioners if they feel like they have to have another analysis than we have to support that request.”
During the meeting, Commissioner Steven Glassman said another analysis is underway by Colliers.
Toothaker also responded to concerns from some residents of the private development project on public land.
“Yes, it is public land,” she said. “But it is also not slated to be a park. I think what the residents want ultimately is a park, and an open space, and that is what they are getting out of this project.”
She also countered resident claims that because the open space will be privately managed and operated it won’t be as accessible to the public as a traditional city-run and managed park space. She says the green space will not be fenced.
“It will be privately managed but it must operate and function like an open air park,” she said.
She added that they will work with local residents on the park’s design and said it will open during regular park hours.
The matter came before commissioners after a One Stop Shop-related workshop meeting on Feb. 15, which proceeded with a sudden decision to abruptly fire the city’s longtime independent auditor John Herbst.
Mayor Dean Trantalis said he believes the city’s auditor stepped “out of his lane” when deciding to investigate what Herbst described during the meeting as a “credible” complaint his office received about the city’s police chief misusing taxpayer funds by working a second job on city time.
But in an interview with Local 10 News after the termination vote, the mayor described the ongoing chief investigation as the “tipping point,” adding that it was an “accumulation of things” that include One Stop Shop and the related Ernst & Young financial report.
One Stop Shop FTL, LLC is the name of an unsolicited mixed-use development proposal to turn just over three acres of city-owned land at 301 Andrews Avenue into a concert venue with restaurants and a community park.
On Feb. 15, a study produced by renowned accounting firm Ernst & Young was discussed at a city commission workshop. Key findings of the business plan included that construction costs are lower than would be expected for a project of this type; and that while the city could fetch $3 million to $6 million a year in rent, this project has the applicant working up to a million dollars a year and that’s only after year five of operations
The report also states: “Some of the key input assumptions are unclear or optimistic ... the project does not appear to be profitable until Year 5 of operations, even before payment of rent.”
Glassman, whose district the project is in, took issue with the study from the cover photo Ernst & Young used, to much of the information contained in their study, labeling it “inadequate.” He was critical of Ernst & Young’s decision not to present the findings of their “unbranded” report to commissioners during the February workshop meeting. He then took aim at the city’s auditor who explained, he is not Ernst & Young.
“It is not my report,” Herbst said during the Feb. 15 workshop. “Let me be clear for everybody in the room, I am not here to defend Ernst & Young. I am being asked questions that I don’t have answers to.”
Hours later, shortly before 11 p.m., Glassman, Trantalis and Commissioner Ben Sorenson voted to fire the long-time auditor.
During the course of that discussion, Glassman said he lost confidence in the city auditor, adding that he didn’t believe the commission’s priorities were being met, adding “Agenda items that we have been working on for years that can’t seem to get the attention that they need to bring across the finish line and yet then I hear now that we are spending time investigating chief of police.”
Last week, Local 10 News asked Glassman to clarify if his comment was in reference to One Stop Shop and what, in the context of his remarks, did he mean by bringing it “across the finish line.” He never responded to that request.
Residents opposed to the proposal staged a demonstration outside City Hall Tuesday night.
“We want them to reject this proposal. We want them to create a park,” said Leann Barber, who lives near the project site and is the President of Flagler Village City Association. “It is total deception, it’s not a community park.”
While the site plan contains what is called a community park, she said with the city granting the developer control and management it doesn’t meet the kind of public access residents enjoy with a traditional city-run and managed park.
“To us it is an illegitimate public-private partnership,” Barber said.
The initial term in the comprehensive agreement being discussed at City Hall Tuesday is for 50 years with a renewal term of another 25 years.
The agreement does state that the city will be permitted to “promote and hold a minimum of 12 events per year” either in the proposed concert venue or community arts park.
The agreement also states that the applicant would adhere to the city’s entertainment district operating hours for both the live venue building and community park, which Barber said was also of concern.
Toothaker told commissioners the cultural center would not have seats like a traditional performing arts center but rather be general admission, not seated.
Larry Forman, a retired CPA and Flagler Village City Association Parks Committee Chairperson, was at the February 15, 2022 workshop meeting when the Mayor and Commissioner Steven Glassman denounced the Ernst & Young study findings which happened hours before they voted to fire him.
“I don’t know the politically correct way to say this, but it is corruption,” Forman said. “He was disparaged during the meeting, and I think it is a total cover-up, and where are we today? Who is overseeing the due diligence?”
Said Barber: “John Herbst is a fine public servant, the primary reason for firing him is to get him out of the way, he was an obstacle to what they wanted to do, he is the one guy who has really tried to do the right thing for the city and for that, he’s lost his job.”