The town hall regarding Skate Spot has been delayed while the City of Pensacola waits to see the renderings from Upward Intuition and has staff review them. Upward Intuition received a $150,000 grant from the “Dottie” Frist Foundation, and Mayor D.C. Reeves wants to see what can be built within that budget.
“We’ve entered into these skate spot partnership conversations based around the idea that we could help find some park property and that we could help project manage,” Mayor Reeves said. “We have not entered into this with the idea that the city would be after a $2.2 million skate park. We’re probably not going to be spending any significant funds on our side or proposing that.”
- The mayor wasn’t enthused about adding a skate park to Bayview Park. “We’ve got 94 parks, many of which are entire city blocks that are very Unactivated. As a matter of fact, I know we’ve been doing some research. I believe there’s some kind of skate activation at Gull Point right now that’s fallen into some disrepair. Can it be a repurposed project as opposed to building something new if we can’t make it work in the budget?”
Red Light Cameras: The estimated completion date for the red light cameras is July 1.
QR Codes on Garage Cans: “You’ll start to see some QR codes going on garbage cans, especially the ones that are coming out new. If someone’s cans need to be replaced, you’ll see QR codes on them.”
The codes will give customers better access to signing up for text messages, the sanitation schedule, and other information – “just to have that one-stop shop.”
American Magic Contract: Mayor Reeves would like to have a lease agreement before the Pensacola City Council so there could be a signing ceremony when the skipper visits the following week.
“We’re very confident on the terms,” he said, noting that attorneys were still ironing out general logistics like parking. “It’s not a question of rent or a question of length (of time) or any of that.”
If the agreement is still being prepared when the council agenda is released later today, the mayor may let the council and the public know its general terms so that he could still possibly bring it up as a late agenda item. He will wait for the March council meeting if that can’t be done.
Maritime Park: Mayor Reeves is recommending to the council to extend to June 30 the options that Inspired Communities and Valencia have for parcels at the Maritime Park.
Inspire Communities has options on Parcels Four and Five to build apartments and retail. Valencia wants to build a luxury hotel on Parcel Seven, which is next to Nick’s Boathouse. The mayor hopes to have term sheets on both projects in June. He said that a formula was in play that would avoid the necessity of building a parking garage initially.
