Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Passing the Gavel

Comment Up

The Vice Mayor asked the Mayor last night if she wanted to pass him the gavel. She said "yes" and proceeded to make a motion to wipe out the entire night and leases previously approved except for Kilwins. Scott Maxwell kept saying, "Let's call the vote."

WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON?

23 comments:

Richard said...

Sounds like the Mayor imploded. She doesnt seem able to handle the many problems and the stress that comes with it.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Maxwell can run for mayor next if he wants all that power, then maybe Lynn will have a chance to run for comm in that district.

Anonymous said...

Who brought Bokampers into last night's meeting? How did they have a ready made cheering section in place? This stinks of corruption.Bokampers is NOT appropriate for our beach!! Hooters waitresses dressed in striped referee shirts(the more silicone the better ,baby)Don't forget their HAPPY HOUR 11:30 A.M. to 7 P.M. Some happy "HOUR". How many kids and their parents trying to cross the street to the beach can the drunks run over?!? REALLY GREAT JOB PAM,ANDY AND SCOTT!!You three have embarrassed the entire city!Which one of you brought Bokampers in, anyway?

BFT said...

The Beach Business Plan (BBP) was an amateurish product of some conscientious people who had no experience, knowledge or training of what they were doing. Stanton compounded that error by putting a Parks and Recreation Director in charge of the beach projects.
REG was told to recost the Casino Budgets that didn’t meet the BBP numbers and Staff buried all remaining mistakes and cost overruns in the Enterprise Funds, “approved” CIP & General Fund Budgets and by leaving out line items from the Casino Budget.
Kimley Horn had no such problems with the Budget for the PBC Grant money----until they had finished their work product and were introduced to Cara’s Michael Singer.
Fortunately, the Iron Lady CM’s juggling act included smoke and mirrors so form and content of requested information, Budgets and costs never were responsive, much less accurate.
With Leasing Brokers boycotting both RFP’s for a south Fl. oceanfront restaurant/retail building with plenty of parking---the leasing offers stumble toward market rates via a route that to date had stops at $22--$25--$27—and currently at $30 per sq ft. The offers and rates since Anderson & Carr said Johnny longboats was the only respondent are legend.
Entertainment for the masses during these leasing by increments phases include shouting of offers of increased rentals by prospective tenants in commission meetings and lawyers interrupting commissioners to posture for the pending lawsuits.
This would be funny, if it wasn’t so tragic—and expensive.

Anonymous said...

Richard, Maybe I am wrong but I did not see it quite that way. It seemed the mayor was trying to control Maxwell, who had a complaint every other sentence and is only worried about the ‘bottom line’, and still try to be EQUALLY fair to all of the potential tenants; choosing to include those last minute offers. However, I cannot understand why the vote on NY Pizza was thrown out. Nevertheless, it was messy – very messy. I hope money is not the only issue being considered. I personally do not wish to have anything to do with 'bad a$$ biker night'. This sort of thing is not appropriate on our beautiful beach.

Anonymous said...

FABULOUS GRAPHIC!!!

Lynn Anderson said...

The person always in charge of the beach redevelopment has been the assistant city manager: Rachel Snitkin and now Kathleen Margoles, both who reported to the CM. It was not someone from the Recreation department.

The only Iron Lady here is the mayor.

As far as the finance plan, you call it "amateurish?" Please explain why you think so. This is a big charge against staff as well as the FAB.

BFT said...

Kathleen Margolis' previous experience was primarily as a Parks & recreation Director for a municipality in Broward county.
The Beach Business Plan has proved to be worthless with respect to Costs, Rents and CAM charges. The Costs were were underestimated 30-50%, the Market Rent Survey consisted of 2 letters from Office and Industrial brokers and the CAM charges were underestimated by about 50%.
Stanton took an oceanfront location without land costs or having to pay for common area renovations and couldn't build a commercial building that would generate enough in rent to pay for itself, much less generate a cash flow above debt service.

Anonymous said...

Let's see-One Commission wanted to give away our beach to a private developer. Their only concern was cocktails in the pool.One Commission took five million dollars of Lake Worth taxpayer money to redo a parking lot,called it a gift from the county(can I have a HALLELUJAH),and took away our parking decals in the name of EQUALITY FOR THE MASSES!! Another Commission thought that a BOOBY BAR with cheap drinks from 11 am to 7pm was just what our beach needed!! Does anybody else out there think that Lake Worth City commissioners JUST SUCK??????

Anonymous said...

I don't like this image here, GUNS are never the answer, very sad.

Austin said...

We have to find some sort of middle ground between restoring our city to prominence, while at the same time keeping it from looking like another city place. People in the community love the small town feel but at the same time many think that their should be improvements. We can't build for the sake of building but at the same time we have to maintain at the very least what makes our city so special.

Bill said...

The Mayor probably saved Lake Worth from yet another unwinable lawsuit by her actions.
The preferential treatment being given NYPD Pizza was unwarranted as they have no right of first refusal. It seems the Lease was assigned to the current owner without the required approval by the City.
Doesn't Staff or Anderson & Carr or the City Attorney ever check any of these things?
While this train is finally coming into the station, it is too bad that it isn’t coming in on the tracks.

Anonymous said...

BULL CHIT, BILL

Lynn Anderson said...

Anonymous at 9:18am--LOL, LOL, LOL. Thanks for your humor.

Anonymous said...

You're right about 9:18 Lynn. Guns, images of guns and violence and images of a mayor holding a gun in a threatening manner is hilarious.
And I know many of your blog readers, like you are experts at everything from A to Z but when a commercial real estate broker spells out the facts for you clowns it might be a good idea to listen, no matter how much you all hate realtors.

Lynn Anderson said...

Well, this clown is a licensed real estate broker. I used to be a Realtor. I also want to say that I respect Chris Fleming in this profession. Having said that, I also will say that there are a lot of people who are embarrassments to this profession. Real Estate brokers are in this for the $$$$$.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Lynn. I may not have made the most money in this profession, but I have long term clients that would never use anyone else, and really you can't ask for more than that.

Because this is my profession the lack of attention to detail on the Beach/Casino project drives me crazy. I am use to a team that includes the developer/owner, experts like the architect, contractor, engineers, and the marketing person/broker, etc. all working closely together to check, double check and triple check all possible scenarios. Once that is set and long before a project is put to market we have a very good idea financially where the project needs to be and good grasp of the upper end of the market for pricing/rents. And if its a unique project like this we set the pricing high. Its not rocket science and its far better to offer a "deal" to land the tenant you want if you started high.

I am afraid that the lack of marketing on this project. By the way my firm has never received a single flyer, email or marketing brochure and we are not a small unknown firm. Checking with other major players in the market they have not either. Posting the info on Loopnet and then saying your making cold calls does not do this project justice. There should be an overwhelming enthusiasm in the marketing, and every single person/firm in the industry should be aware of our Beach Project. Sadly they are not. By default and their own personal inquiries, or our previous tenants, we have a handful of people interested in a Class A Retail Project in a Class A location. I am so tired of this City selling itself short.

Ok Rant over. Thank you for your respect.

Chris

Lynn Anderson said...

Chris-
I am with ya!
In fact, I have never liked the broker from day one. I have never liked the fact that the city allowed him to get a commission on our former tenants that had right of first refusal. I can understand the city's fear of short changing the guy thinking that he would not work as hard to get quality tenants at our casino unless he was paid for the "sure thing," that is not even a sure thing these days. This Snitkin did not want to cooperate with other brokers. Did you know that none of these prospects were solicited by him? He has always talked about how hard he worked. He was negative about the project from day one until the other night. Disgusting really. We do sell ourselves short and this broker sold the city that it was going to be a hard sell there. Supposedly the City went with a top commercial broker. It was better than the first one they picked...I think.

Anonymous said...

Lynn, I do not know Paul, I know he is an active broker and does deals. I do know the guys and gals at Compass and the two principals Jonathan Satter and Don DeWoody. I don't know what happened there but they have been tops in tenant representations for years, rolling out Starbucks in South Florida along with many other national tenants expanding in the South Florida market. As a Company they have a team approach and are much better known than our current broker Snitkin. I can't speak for what went wrong other than I heard they were told no National Tenants, which is silly because that's what they do!

While Paul may be a good broker he is a one man show at an appraisal firm who's side business happens to be general brokerage. An unusual situation. I can't think of any of my clients that would want their appraisal firm also handling the brokerage. Two very separate (and for good reason) aspects of commercial real estate.

All that said I can't for the life me understand the lack of enthusiasm and in my opinion a lack of deals. If I am an owner of a project like this, and all Lake Worth Citizens are I would want to know we had a look at ALL of the potential deals out there not just some. That doesn't mean time needs to be wasted on a bunch of deals that just wouldn't fit. I mean I would want to know that all of the BEST possible tenants, the best financially and the best fits are aware of the project whether they are represented by a broker or not. Get them the info, meet with them, encourage their broker. In other works be able to tell your client with a straight face that we have covered the market as complete as possible and these are the best choices.

Again I don't believe that is the case with the Casino.

Chris

Anonymous said...

Who is supposed to be the marketing expert on the dais? Why weren't they been working on a marketing plan

Lynn Anderson said...

It is NOT anyone's job on the dais to develop a marketing plan. Ask the real estate broker who will be making big bucks. We do not have a marketing director on staff do we?

Anonymous said...

ITS THE BROKERS JOB TO HANDLE THE MARKETING!!!!

Chris

Anonymous said...

To understand the lack of marketing, look at how Anderson Carr got the job. They did not respond to the two RFPs that the City issued. REG brought Anderson Carr to the City and they got the job. Who made that selection?