The amendment to the Pate Cold Storage—which is really a new contract with a new entity—is not dead. Enterprise Operations Committee chairman Jack Nobles can bring it forward to the regular council meeting on Thursday night without a committee recommendation since the vote was 2-2.
Northwest Florida Cold Storage Inc. will be the new lessee. It is currently described by Port director Clyde Mathis as a partnership between the original lessee, Pate Cold Storage, and Gulf States Cold Storage Co. The Florida Secretary of State has no listing for Northwest Florida Cold Storage on its website – so we don’t know who its directors are.
Mayor-elect Mike Wiggins asked at the committee yesterday if the lease could be assigned and was told not without council approval. There is nothing in the agreement that says the Northwest Florida Cold Storage stock can’t be sold to another party. As I read it, Pate Cold Storage could sell its interest and be gone.
I think it would be prudent for the city council to get copies of any agreements between Pate and Gulf States in regards to their “partnership.”
Why is this important? Because the city should know with whom it is doing business. Ports fall under Homeland Security – we really should know more about our tenants and have some control over what happens if the ownership changes.
Also one of the arguments for the lease is that it should be done because Pate is a local business. What if Pate isn’t really part of this deal…only being paid a fee to broker it for Gulf States Cold Storage. Where is the real money being made?
We saw a similar thing happen with the Reynolds Ready Mix lease that was sold/assigned to CEMEX. Is the City being out negotiated yet again?