The fallout of the CBRE Bait & Switch appears to be Ed Spears, the executive director of the Community Maritime Park, leaving the city of Pensacola. The PNJ reports that City COO Tamara Fountain saying the Spears “did separate from the city” yesterday.
What’s next? Will the RFP be invalidated? What will happen to the CBRE contract with the city?
CMPA board member Fred Gunther would like to see the excess “success commission” go to the CMPA or issue a new RFP should be issued.
He told Inweekly, “I like the agents and I think they are doing a great job, I think they just made a mistake inserting this other fee. I agree they should only receive the City’s full fee ($446,326) and the project should be re-bid if they are unwilling to do so.”
“My issue is that CBRE inserted a provision in their RFP which requires the selected respondent to pay CBRE a success fee of four percent of the overall project value,” said Gunther. “This requires users or developers to pay CBRE a fee based upon not only the value of the land sublease, but also the infrastructure, construction, architectural and design fees attributable to the project.”
Inweekly obtained a copy of the proposal Studer Community Investments, dated Nov. 14, 2014, for two of the parcels at the park. The letter, signed by Andrew Rothfeder, questions the wisdom of the CMPA and City allowing CBRE to change its commission structure. The Studers offered to pay a commission calculated per the original agreement and refused to pay the “success commission.”
No one on the CMPA brought up the “bait and switch” when the board discussed the Studers’ offer in December.