Last Night's Lake Worth Casino Lease Fiasco

Comment Up
Read the Post article of last night's meeting on the Lake Worth Beach Leases.

I stayed until 12:15. The Commission was still going round and round. There were two different options presented: Option One had an anchor space leasing the first and 2nd floors for 10,500 square feet. Option number Two, which the Commission voted on, consists of 5,002 s.f. for the anchor on the first floor and 6,591 for another anchor restaurant on the 2nd floor.

The commission also decided that it wanted two different restaurants but one owner could own both of the restaurants. The reason for wanting two separate restaurants was to help ensure that if the restaurant failed, our liability would be reduced. This Commission didn't see that nor did it understand that. These are MOM & Pop restaurants; if they were owned and operated by the same owner and one failed, that owner would be in serious financial problems and the City of Lake Worth would be left vulnerable.

It then voted in the Kilwin's lease that comprises 1,332 s.f. at $25 per foot.

It was all down hill after that. I have never seen such a ridiculous bunch in my entire life.

Fox Surf and Sport's lease got approved for space number 5 on a 4/1 vote with Maxwell dissenting. In fact, he complained about everything last night pertaining to the Casino leases as he was highly perturbed that, in his opinion, the CAM was not sufficient, as well as the fact he was only interested in the top dollar regardless of any pros and cons to the store wanting the space. CAM is an additional, annual charge often assessed to tenants for maintenance of the property’s “common area,” such as its entryways, hallways, bathrooms, etc. One real estate broker from the community spoke to the CAM issue which on many of the leases is determined by the CPI, saying that in his opinion it would be in the double digits, not the $7.00 per s.f. that Staff factored. This was just enough for Maxwell to salivate. Not trusting staff is typical for Maxwell even though it is the Finance Director he appointed as Acting City manager who had approved the CAM figure.

New York Pizza was voted in on a 3/2 vote with Maxwell and Amoroso dissenting. Even though NY Pizza has the right of first refusal, these commissioners voted against them coming back to our casino after having been there for nearly 20 years. Simply, a Right of First Refusal allows a buyer or lessee to purchase or lease property by matching another offer. It is the right of a party to match the terms of a proposed contract with another party. NY Pizza's competition for space numbers 1 & 2 was Mama Mia's and NY Pizza had matched their offer.

We then moved on to Fox Surf and Beach Shop. City staff did not have any competing operation vying for that spot. This, in my opinion, was done intentionally. They were voted in on a 4/1 with Maxwell withholding an affirmative vote. They are taking 667 s.f at $25 per s.f.

Staff did, however, have two stores wanting space #6, Lake Worth Beach and Tee Shirt Shop that has been on our beach for 26 years with the right of first refusal and a new store, Lake Worth Fashion and Swim Wear that will be closed on Saturdays, the biggest day at our beach. Staff brought up Lake Worth Tee's credit rating for the hundredth time, insinuating they were not the type of tenant we wanted at our beach even though the owner, Barry Freedman, owes Lake Worth nothing and who has the right to lease legally. A motion was made to allow LW Tee to have two, 5 year extensions on its lease. That was voted down on a 2/3 with the "visionaries" dissenting even though just about all of the rest of the Lessees had the same terms.

Mulligans was well represented last night. Just when everyone thought their lease would be approved, a curve ball was thrown. It seems that at the last 98 seconds, Bokampers, a sports bar and grill, presented a Letter of Intent to lease both the ground and second floor at $30 a s.f. We did have a drop dead date to submit bids but as it turned out we didn't have a drop dead cut off date. This did all of these potential lessees a disservice as well as every resident in this city.

I left the Chamber at 12:15 as this entire exercise was ridiculous. As it turned out, the entire discussion on the beach leases was a total WASTE OF TIME and a total EMBARRASSMENT. Did I say that before? I had an e-mail waiting for me this morning (I need to have it interpreted) that described the rest of the meeting as following:

At around 12:30, the mayor made a motion to rescind - void the previous vote on the tee shirt shop, fox and other shop (NY Pizza??? unsure--it was late) Mulvehill and McVoy protested but because there were bids from the audience (a few shops were getting into a bidding war) and discussion of the two arguing beach shops - the mayor threw the whole thing out so it would be fair to all and reset for a date certain... I think the 24th - when Scott is going to Tallahassee - not a disability or sick or family death - so he has to double back to be upstate on Thursday. ABC moved to 1-31 def moved to 2-7 and chamber settled verbally - can handle themselves item previously discussed over 15K. OH MY!.