Our Banyans have been here longer thanThe Gulfstream Hotel
You don't have to travel to Sri Lanka, Paraquay or India to see interesting Banyan trees. Here are three right on the north side of our City Annex, probably growing for 100 years or more or at least as long as our Gulfstream Hotel has been in existence since 1925.
Now if we could just get the Gulfstream Hotel to open and have a place for tourists to stay, we could use our trees as a tourist attraction along with our fabulous waterfront golfcourse, our beach, Bryant Park and our vibrant downtown. We need a downtown hotel and we need THIS hotel to open.
Charles Celi's appeal is to be heard on Monday at 5:30 on The Gulfstream Hotel. Mr. Celi's lawsuit is not the holdup on why this hotel has not opened since 2005 when it was bought. Look to favorable decisions made by our own Planning and Zoning Board, allowing the owner delay after delay, extension after extension. It is wrong to want to add to an historical property and this is what Schlesinger wanted. This property will sit here until the market turns and then, who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.
In the meantime, we now look at containers on his property, an eyesore to our downtown. It is just one travesty after another--with the owner of the hotel telling the City to "stick it in your ear" and he has been allowed to get away with this, not only with his delay tactics on opening his hotel but using this property for something that is absolutely NOT allowed. The Code fine on this egregious violation is just a little slap on the wrist for Adam Schlesinger.
Which will live on longer? Our Banyan trees or the Schlesinger stall?
You didn't really think this was about trees, did you?
Now if we could just get the Gulfstream Hotel to open and have a place for tourists to stay, we could use our trees as a tourist attraction along with our fabulous waterfront golfcourse, our beach, Bryant Park and our vibrant downtown. We need a downtown hotel and we need THIS hotel to open.
Charles Celi's appeal is to be heard on Monday at 5:30 on The Gulfstream Hotel. Mr. Celi's lawsuit is not the holdup on why this hotel has not opened since 2005 when it was bought. Look to favorable decisions made by our own Planning and Zoning Board, allowing the owner delay after delay, extension after extension. It is wrong to want to add to an historical property and this is what Schlesinger wanted. This property will sit here until the market turns and then, who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.
In the meantime, we now look at containers on his property, an eyesore to our downtown. It is just one travesty after another--with the owner of the hotel telling the City to "stick it in your ear" and he has been allowed to get away with this, not only with his delay tactics on opening his hotel but using this property for something that is absolutely NOT allowed. The Code fine on this egregious violation is just a little slap on the wrist for Adam Schlesinger.
Which will live on longer? Our Banyan trees or the Schlesinger stall?
You didn't really think this was about trees, did you?
I want this hotel to open. Why is there a big stall? I don't really understand this.
ReplyDeleteAsk Wes Blackman and his former pals on the P&Z. They have allowed this to happen.
ReplyDeleteI would bet that there is no one on the P&Z Board who can give the history of this investor’s non-performance on the hotel. No one can explain the spider web that was created by Schlesinger and how he got away with all that he did for now four years. With his extensions in place as well as SB-360 just now passed by Crist, we are looking at 3 ½ years more just to see him come back once again. Our entire system allowed this to occur. The P&Z bent over backwards for this guy as did the City Commission. The City Commission can not make a just decision here. The owner never should have been granted this last extension of 18 months on the western parcel. Celi has legitimate grievances but unfortunately, we are working within a system that has allowed The Lucerne to be built as well as empty townhouses to be built in our City. Without an attorney, it is impossible to fight a corrupt system. Without a commission that can comprehend the entire history and disallowing the modification of an historical building, and a Planning and Zoning Board looking out for our interests, we will always be jerked around by these sorts.
ReplyDelete