The Community Maritime Park Association has an active week ahead. CMPA Chairman Collier Merrill will meet with city officials and Quint Studer on Tuesday regarding a proposed park development project, and the full Board of Trustees will meet Wednesday to explore the Equal Business Opportunity program.
Tuesday’s special session was scheduled after Studer—owner of the Blue Wahoos—and Mayor Ashton Hayward’s office were unable to agree on terms concerning a $12 million project at the park. The negotiation meeting will involve representatives from the CMPA, the mayor’s office and the Pensacola City Council.
Studer wants to construct a 60,000-square foot office building at the corner of Spring and Cedar streets. The building would be home to up to 240 employees, some of which would hail from Studer’s health care consulting firm, which he plans to relocate to the site.
Thus far, the Wahoos owner and the city have been unable to reach an agreement on lease terms. Studer is pushing for a 60-year lease with lower annual lease fees, while the city has pushed for a 40-year lease and higher annual fees.
After Studer, Hayward and Merrill met privately in mid-July, the CMPA Chairman said he was now acting as an “agent of the city†and would negotiate the terms of the lease. When the Pensacola City Council tossed Councilman Larry Johnson into the equation, Sunshine laws were triggered. As a result, the negotiations will now be conducted in a public meeting.
The CMPA’s Equal Business Opportunity program will be taken up by the entire Board of Trustees during a special meeting. The program has officially wrapped up, but members of the EBO subcommittee were not satisfied with the results—during a recent EBO meeting, the committee decided to form a task force to look into aspects of the program.
The CMPA will explore the EBO program Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. The negotiation with Studer will be done in a special session Tuesday at 9 a.m. Both meetings will be held at Pensacola City Hall.