On Thursday, “Real News with Rick Outzen” on WCOA covered Escambia County’s OLF 8, Pensacola’s improved 3-1-1 service, and Pickleball at the Port of Pensacola.
As I wrote yesterday, Escambia County received a $40 million bid for all of OLF 8. County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh says the Eisenhower Property Group’s proposal has many of the same issues as D.R. Horton’s proposal. He wants the county to move ahead with infrastructure on the 250 acres set aside for economic development and job creation. Listen to the entire interview here.
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3-1-1 Service
Mayor D.C. Reeves touted the results of Pensacola’s effort to improve its 3-1-1 service. Lissa Dees shares the details in this podcast.
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Port Pickleball Facility
Mayor D.C. Reeves also announced that he had executed the contract with Warehouse 4 Sports to convert the Port of Pensacola’s Warehouse 4 into an indoor sports facility for pickleball, basketball, volleyball and other sports. The operator has 18 months to complete construction.
Rob Fabbro of Warehouse 4 Sports said, “The focus for day play will be pickleball, but then the facility can change. We can take down the nets and fences and turn it into something else. We really see a big demand for youth sports, table tennis and all kinds of pro sports.”
Listen to the full interview here.
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And the full show here.
Pickleball City: Now, nothing related to this project will ever go back before the city council. All of the lease authority is now vested in the port director. At the time that Reeves brought the lease before the council he said that no one was interested in leasing Warehouse 4. This lease was pitched to the public as a sweetheart deal for taxpayers. In truth, the reverse is true. It’s a sweetheart deal for the tenant that only has to make a minimal investment. Paying $26,000 a year rent works out to $1.73 a square foot per year. The real value of Warehouse 4 is far more. Earlier this same year, the city was advertising Warehouse 4 (45,000 square feet) for lease at a rate of $6 square feet per year. At that rate, the advertised lease works out to $270,000 a year. The lease just signed also allows the tenant to reassign it without city council approval and sublease portions of the facility to other tenants again without city council approval. The lease is for 55 years. This means that the Port of Pensacola cannot be redeveloped in a comprehensive way until 2079. Rob Fabbro and his wife Jeanette “each” donated $1,000 to Reeves’ campaign. Mr. Fabbro and Mayor Reeves’ father Jim are business partners. The smarter option that that the city council did not want to consider was spending public money to turn Warehouse 4 into a “public” facility with free access to city residents. Next month, the city council will again vote to increase the property tax levy this time by $2.4 million. That money alone could have paid to refurbish Warehouse 4.