Saturday, October 18, 2008

Greater Bay and the lousy deal

Typical building by Greater Bay Construction

I don’t remember the exact date that we signed over our 20 acres of beachfront to Greater Bay but it was in July 2006 that the Agreed Upon Business Terms was signed by the parties. Our City turned over our valuable land to a contractor who had NEVER had any experience on developing anything of this magnitude and still has not to this day. The City NEVER really checked them out. The City never visited one project that Greater Bay had developed. And the City did not even know that Peter Willard had submitted a bio that said he was with the Willard Group, Inc. when in fact his corporation had been dissolved. They also stated that Rampart Properties would be the property manager on the new building. This was checked out at the time and Rampart told me that they did not service this area. (They are located in St. Petersburg)

Greater Bay has been involved in building a Starbucks, a day care center, some schools and a Holiday Inn. They have not performed under the terms of the Contract for over two years with the City of Lake Worth. This contract was for a lease of 20 years minus one day. It has already been over two years. How long will this go on? Our City Attorney Karns let them off the hook on their financing because of the “law suit,” forgetting that there are TWO law suits, one filed by the City AND HIM against the citizens who want to vote on the zoning change. Two private citizens filed suit to save our beach and there are some in our community who have forgotten that. Why? Because it has been going on for so long and $55,000 later on the legal suit.

They were supposed to have a Site Plan submitted by October 17 after coddling them for 2 years. Did they? And if they did, why was the public not there? According to the City of Lake Worth web site, there was a Site Plan Committee meeting on Tuesday at 9am. Was this for the beach? How come this was not announced to the public, the very people who are affected?

What sneaky stuff is going on?