Rodney Romano
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It's a public park and should remain public. It isn't supposed to
make a profit. Ironically, a better, less expensive, financially stable
project financed by a GO bond was killed in favor of what's there now.
But what's done is done and we have a beautiful property now, which
should be strictly reserved to the public, like Central Park. Perhaps
the project should be refinanced by a GO bond. That vote would filter
the Big Mouths from those truly committed to preserving the beach.Editor's note: Rodney Romano is our former mayor in Lake Worth. We all knew (the city and the residents) that it would take several years for the casino complex and beach project to start paying for itself. We need to get the upstairs space utilized in order to allow this building to generate more revenue. The present commission has deferred paying principal payments @ $500,000 a year (other than one $250,000 payment) that we borrowed from ourselves.
11 comments:
Does anyone remember when Scott ran against Rodney for Mayor and got creamed? It seems that they both still have a difference of opinion on our beach.
It is a public park, just like Central Park is a public park. Both are open to the public. What is confusion about what you’re saying Rodney said about our Casino beach park is his statement, “it should be strictly reserved to the public, like Central Park.” If Rodney did say this, and the reason I am asking is there was no “quotations” on the statement you’re attributing to our former mayor? Rodney is a well traveled man. He has no doubt been to NYC. I’ll bet he’s also visited Central Park in NY. He also likes to eat at good restaurants, I know that because I enjoy his restaurant reviews on Tripadvisor. In the middle of Central Park is a well know restaurant, Tavern on the Green. It’s one of the highest grossing independent restaurants in the US. Don’t you think everybody eating and drinking in that building are going to have to pay for the added enjoyment of that park amenity? That independent restaurant certainly doesn’t take anything away from the residents and visitors to NY City. I’d bet the money generated from them that goes to the city probably enables the city to maintain the rest of the park even more than what it might have without that additional revenue. If designed and built to accommodate the kind of businesses we were wanting to attract to our Casino complex we shouldn’t not be losing taxpayers money at an ocean front development with no land cost added to the development. Yes, all city parks and recreational assets don’t need to make money, but that one should.
Looking forward to hearing your reply.
Find a tenant for the 2nd floor that is willing to build out the space. Advertise in the Wall Street Journal. get an agressive broker that is willing to spend a few bucks reaching out to top restaurants. Find someone who will market our pool and attract users like the Navy Seals who used to rent it out. There are many things that could be done to have this entire operation self-sustainable.
Give it some time. Stop trying to outsource our assets for some developer to make the money.
That comment from Romano was from the PBPost.
There is a big difference between one restaurant in the middle of Central Park and a proposal to develop a large chunk of our beach park by a private developer. The example is not at all similar. There is no need or want for more development at our beach. Rent our the top floor, in a few years entertain upgrades on pool locker rooms and rest rooms. Increase parking fees and ball room rental fees.
The Central Park Conservancy oversees the park and is financed through millionaire donations and public private partnerships with large corporations. They are a separate entity from the city that handles ALL operations including museums, restaurants, a carousel, a zoo, a catering facility etc. So... did NYC privatize the park when they allowed the Conservancy to take over all operations or did they just let someone enhance their treasured land and create more amenities and features for its citizens to enjoy? Wonder if that's what Rodney means??
Lynn, it’s been said you use to sell real estate. Even if you didn’t, you know what they say the three most important things about real estate is, location, location, location. Well the building certainly has that. We’re surrounded to our north and to our south by Palm Beach. So you’ve got a new building, good surrounding demographics for a high-end restaurant but no serious suitor for what, 3 years now? It’s not the advertising or the lack there of that has kept that space from renting, it’s the items brought out to the public at the cities ITN workshop that has kept that space from being grabbed-up.
Building design problems, traffic flow issues. Parking, lighting, no valet parking accommodations and so many other things brought to light by the members of the ITN group. You were there, you heard them all. And even if a national restaurant location finder came to town and was just enamored with that beautiful Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Blue water view, (that you couldn’t see from a seated position because of the block wall surrounding the entire 2nd floor upper deck, when they went back to their hotel and Google Lake Worth Casino they would find pages and pages of news articles, FB comments, anonymous post on blogs and such that would have them running for places like Delray and South Beach and pay a lot more than $30 a square foot rent. If we do find a tenant for even more money than what we’re asking now, where are we going to store all the tables and chairs from the ballroom when there not needed or wanted? More design problems. When a city awards a design/build maximum price contract with inexperienced supervision you get what we’ve got up there now. Cities should not be in the real estate development business!
Yes Greg, I heard what Hudson had to say. And that's just another reason why I don't trust them. I believe they would say anything to get hold of our casino complex for who knows how many decades.
Why does anyone care what Hudson has to say?
Our city was not in the development business. It relied on a highly reputable architect and builder. Hindsight is 20-20.
Awe, come on Lynn...The architect and builder had NO skin in the game, their only obligation was to live up to the contract that they probably had drawn up! We were acting like developers when we hired the architect and builder. To bad the city didn't choose to get conventional finance on the building, the loan would have probably been denied because the rentable space wouldn't support the mortgage. That would have been one of the studies that was also mentioned at the ITN workshop that the city didn't have done before they OK'd the development.
Greg,don't you love what Hudson Holdings has done for the Gulstream Hotel? Are you having a bit of heartburn knowing that Rodney would actually say that our beach should remain PUBLIC??? Greg,Maxwell,Bornstein and the rest of the motley crew are the people cheering for the destruction of the new Casino. After all, if you stop standing on it's neck and let real real estate people come in to get us tenants, then our Beach would be a success ! And how in the world could you give away a success under the table? Scott, Andy and Pam are done, and you all know it.I guess you all are just trying to make the most money in the short time that you have before the pissed off people of Lake Worth come calling on election day.
We went out on an RFP like we always do...there were 5 companies that bid as I remember. Are you saying that we shouldn't be in control of companies who bid? Since when? Why is this different than anything else we do in the RFP process? How come you guys know so much and never complained back then?
What a motley crew! Scott(Hamburger Boy), Rodney(Sunshine? We don't need no stinkin sunshine),Bo(Chester the molester) and Mac(I can sleep sitting up ). Whew, how did Joe stand the stench ?
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