The chairman of the Community Maritime Park Associates Board of Trustees told Inweekly that the board did not have any knowledge of the new fee structure for its real estate broker until the presentation on Wednesday.
“We were handed three documents, one of which had the new fee arrangement,” said attorney Jim Reeves, who chairs the board. “(Ed) Spears may have known what was in the MOU, but we did not.”
The original Exclusive Sublease Listing Agreement CMP Listing Agreement had the city paying CBRE a sublease commission of 4 percent of the total value of any new sublease including escalations for the term of the lease. The term is capped at 30 years. According to board member Fred Gunther, the commission for proposal being discussed with the Miami developer would have been $446,326 under that agreement.
The MOU has CBRE being paid a 4 percent success fee based on the overall total project value. The success fee is paid by the developer, not the City. That fee would be over $2.5 million.
Reeves said, “Nowhere was there any disclosure by the real estate agent (CBRE) that he was switching from representing the seller (City/CMPA) to a transactional broker–in effect going over to the seller.”
He said the CMPA board did not approve the MOU, but instead pushed it forward to the Pensacola City Council because his board does not have the power to agree to a 99-year lease.
“The mayor is the one who hired CBRE for the port and airport,” he told Inweekly. “He pressured and pressured the CMPA to agree to use them as the listing agent for the park.”
Reeves said he never know of or approved of the success fee. He wasn’t sure if the new fee structure had anyone’s approval, other than Spears.
He said, “But it damn sure didn’t have mine.”