Actually Hudson Holdings plays the game better than Peter Willard of Greater Bay. We have always known that Hudson Holdings is heavily into acquisitions--that they saw an historic building right across from the Intracoastal Waterway with a view of the ocean from the top floors and got what they thought was a steal from the bank. John Szerdi is the one who directed them to the property.
Steven Michael [Hudson Holdings principal] said that the company is in negotiations with Curio, a collection of high-end hotels run by Hilton. Curio has the Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, FL. Who knows what Hudson is really up to. It could have been one "feeler" letter. Even a resident on Facebook said "don't screw this up." People tend to believe anything and that is why they all come to Lake Worth and it all ends up costing us millions.
They haven't started doing anything to the Gulfstream Hotel "because it takes time." A year ago they told us work would begin in 9 months. Now they are saying it will be a year to 18 months. They did finally cut down some shrubs and pruned some trees and picked up trash because of code violations.
Now they want a major zoning change to downtown mixed-use for the parcels as half of the site is now zoned multi-family residential. And as everyone knows, zoning changes are always political. Plus, they want to build to five stories, originally it was six, against the referendum that was won at the polls. It's no skin off their back if the city gets into a lawsuit. And they want control of our casino complex on a long-term lease with development rights. They want all of this to make their package more valuable to them as well as to a possible buyer.
This zoning change request for the Gulfstream Hotel will come before the Historic Resources Planning Board next month. As Wes Blackman recently resigned as chair of this board (now we know why), don't think for a second he has no influence on how this Board will vote for his employer.
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Hudson needs to run away like a bunny rabbit and hide in a hole. We don't want them.
ReplyDeleteTried and true developer tactics. Get folks excited about X, then tell them they can't have X unless they give Y. In this case X is upscale hotel brand and Y is likely many, many zoning and tax concessions by the City.
ReplyDeleteAndy ,Pam and Scott are going to get kicked out of office for screwing the people. They were elected to work for the people not the city manager
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