By IN reporter Sean Boone
To be, or not to be.
That is the question for the current plan for the Community Maritime Park, which City Council members, alongside the Community Maritime Park Associates, reviewed at a workshop on Wednesday afternoon.
Council questioned whether or not striking a deal with the current frontrunner for the development, Maritime Park Development Partners, to develop the park is the best idea for the city.
During the approximately five hour meeting, Council reviewed last week’s memo from City Manager Al Coby and city staff that bulleted problems in the potential contract with MPDP, added some concerns of their own, and of course made sure to inform the public that the park will be built in some way or another.
One of the major issues the city has expressed with Land Capital Development–the key developer of the MPDP—is its placement of property management in the development contract.
Councilwoman Diane Mack told members she would like to see it removed initially, but potentially added later, depending on the company’s performance.
“I personally would not like to see the property management in the contract,”she said. “Let’s see how they perform for a year then bring it back to the table.”
Other issues discussed in the contract were the timeline, the upfront payment request from MPDP, the 99-year lease, and the covenant–which promises minority contractors a percentage of work on the project.
The questions were presented before the City’s project consultant, Barry Abramson.
Abramson recommended the City be careful on giving the developer too much power, but stopped short of saying MPDP was the wrong way to go or that a public works project would better fit the estimated $38 million the city has left in its budget for development.
“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “For this type of structure, can we make a good deal? Is this the right array of services for this type of deal?
You might want a hybrid (deal) and keep the developer, but say they can and cannot do this.”
Although decisions on the park are not clear at the present time, the timeline for acquiring money through the federal government is.
Land Capital President Scott Davidson told the Council that the city is almost at the finish line with the contract and reiterated the use of his company’s national lobbyist group, Normandy, to try to acquire the estimated $13 million needed to build the proposed conference center in the park out of the Obama stimulus package.
“We’ve got about a six week window to talk to them,” he said.
But Coby stopped short of agreeing to use Normandy as a lobbyist for the city, but did say the City has submitted a request for $18.7 million to use for the park.
The money to hire a lobbyist has not yet been budgeted by the CMPA.
CMPA has its next regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 13.