City Staff Not Cooperating with Park District

City staff are not cooperating with the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District in their effort to acquire the Ocean Breeze golf course property.  The city has provided an Inter-Local Agreement (ILA) which is the normal process for cooperative efforts between the City and the GBRBPD.  This ILA provides the repayment and other terms of the lending of funds to the GBRBPD for the acquisition of the property, BUT the terms are so onerous that the GBRBPD commissioners could never agree to what the city staff has proposed.

First, the city has a requirement that they will control the golf course property until the loan is paid off to the city.  This is akin to a bank demanding the use of your home until the mortgage is paid off.  Also, none of the past ILA agreements have such an intolerable requirement.

Secondly, the city is requiring that the GBRBPD pay the salaries and benefits of the current golf course employees during any period when the current golf course is closed and the Boca Natinoal golf course opens.  The GBRBPD has not even agreed to use the staff of the current golf course and in no way should the GBRBPD be liable for these employees.  Isn't the city getting $65 million from the sell of the current municipal golf course?  Obviously the city is not planning to use any of these funds to cooperate with the GBRBPD in providing an upgrade recreational facility to the residents.

Thirdly, the city is requiring a penalty for early repayment of the loan, whereas, this term is typically not in the borrowing via municipal bonds that normally have the ability to be repaid after 10 years.  The city is only acting as a pass-through entity on this loan, so why is the city trying to make a profit off of the GBRBPD when they are already getting a $65 million windfall?

The GBRBPD has fully cooperated with the city in current ILAs that has the city employees operating the parks, so that over $16 million in the current fiscal year is being paid to the city for these services.  Maybe the GBRBPD should cancel that ILA and hire an outside service to maintain and operate the parks which could result in a large savings to the GBRBPD.  

Or, the city can act as the cooperative agent that has allowed the city residents to enjoy well maintained beaches and parks and provide the loan without any restrictions and pass through the funds as has been historically done in these property acquisitions that result in expanded parks throughout our city.  This is NOT a good effort on the part of the city which has expanded the population dramatically without providing sufficient funding to recreational facilities or schools within the area.

Now is a good time to call & email your city council members to let them know your opinions on their uncooperative efforts.

Ocean Breeze Update

At this week's meeting of the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District it was announced that the city and Park District are coordinating for a Feb. 28th closing on the closed golf course property.  Thank you Keep Golf In Boca for continuing to advocate for almost 2 years for all resident golfers who will officially have a championship level golf course within the city.

The Park District received an excellent response to their RFP for golf course architects to be in charge of the rehabilitation of the 27 hole golf course.  The interested architects included such well known organizations as Nicklaus, Norman, Reese Jones, Nick Price, Robert Trent Jones, McCumber/Fazio and many other designers.  For a full list of the respondents please see the web site for the Park District.  This is great news for all golfers in the area as this illustrates the interest from the top golf course designers who want to make Boca National a world class golf course facility.

Happy Holidays to All Residents of Boca Raton.

City Council Not Briefed on Ocean Breeze

At the 12/11 workshop meeting of the city council it was obvious that the city's assistant manager, George Brown, did not brief anyone on the council, or the city manager on the timeline and process underway at the Park District to acquire the closed Ocean Breeze golf course.  It was a clear case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing as the council members and the city manager appeared to not have an accurate understanding of what was going on, UNTIL Mr. Brown informed them that he had met earlier in the day with Park District executive director Koski.  He informed the city council that the seller has a fiscal year end of 2/28/18 and they wanted to get the sell of the property closed prior to this date.

BUT, at the present time the deadline for the contract between Lennar/Wells Fargo & the Park District is 1/26/18 so it would appear that a 1-month extension is being negotiated by Mr. Koski in order to meet the losers deadline.  Thank you to the majority of the city council for inquiring about this issue (after the public comments by Harold Chaffe, Leader of Keep Golf In Boca) which should be on the next several agendas and not require pulling teeth/info from city staff who are informed on the issue.

Why hasn't the Park District provided an Intralocal Agreement to the city for their approval which takes 2 meetings of the council?

If the city council overwhelmingly approves the Intralocal Agreement by 1/23/18, then will the Park District commissioners consider using the plentiful funds in their bank account, over $45 million, in order to pay the $24 million and then obtain the required funding from the city to fund the purchase?
     *It would appear that the very well financed Park District could ease the timing of the closing by
       simply writing the check to buy the property at the end of January and then work with the city
       on completing the lending agreement.  After all, most of the Park District's expenses are checks
       to the city for the maintenance of the parks owned by the Park District, so this should be an easy
       transition of funds from the City to the Park District whenever they get around to getting a bank
       loan or proceeds from a bond issue.

Next meeting of the Park District is Monday December 18th at 5:15pm at Sugar Sand Park.  This is the last meeting of the year and it could be an interesting discussions not how they will pay for the purchase of the Ocean Breeze property and their cash flow planning.

Golf Course Update

At the 11/27 meeting of the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District (GBRBPD) executive director Art Koski provided an update on the acquisition of the closed Ocean Breeze golf course in which the District has a contract to buy with a final closing date of January 26, 2018.  Due to complications with the city financing the District is currently working on negotiating an extension for the closing to late Feb. or March 2018.

The city is planing to provide financing of the $24 million purchase price with the 2nd meeting for the Interlocal agreement scheduled for the 1/23/18 meeting of the city council.  Subsequently the council will need 2 meetings for approving the borrowing of funds which would put the final funding into late February 2018.  Mr. Koski is confident that Wells Fargo and Lennar (current owners and controlling parties of the golf course property) will be cooperative in the request for the extension of time to complete the closing of this transaction.

The GBRBPD has already started the planning for the property renovation by issuing an RFP to golf course architects which will be opened on 12/20/17 at the offices of the District at Sugar Sand Park.  It is expected to take 6-7  months for planning after the closing before construction on the property will begin.  With an estimated 12 months for construction on the renovation this will closely mirror the timeline for the closing of the current municipal golf course which is being sold to GL Homes for approximately $65 million.  This should result in a nice windfall to the taxpayers of Boca Raton, but the city has not revealed their plans for the use of these proceeds.

The next meeting of the GBRBPD on 12/4 at 5:15pm at Sugar Sand park may be interesting since they are discussing how to purchase the property that has historically been the social center and hotel at the SE corner of Jeffrey St. and NW 2nd Ave.  Do residents prefer a 150 room hotel or a community center that is available to all residents of the city?

Important Meetings 9/25 & 9/26

There are important meeting concerning the pending Ocean Breeze golf course acquisition by the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District on 9/25 & 9/26.  These meetings are critical as the Beach &  Park District requires the financing of the transaction by the city council which will be addressed at the 9/2 6 meeting at 3pm at 6500 Congress Ave.

The Beach & Park District will have extensive planning discussions on the plans for the property at their 9/25 meeting at 5:15pm at their Sugar Sand Park offices on S. Military Trail.  The big issues are:

1) Current Deed Restriction - the Park District has obtained a legal opinion that indicates that the District would not be subject to the current deed restriction which requires the property to only be used as a golf course.  At numerous meetings with city officials there have been suggestions by several elected officials that some of the property could be used for other purposes in the future.

2) Use of the approximate 4 acre parcel located on the SE corner of NW 2nd Ave. & Jeffrey St. which was formally the activities center and hotel for the community.  The executive director of the Park District has recommended this parcel could be a 140 room hotel which would support more tourist activity at the renovated golf course, BUT this use would not be as beneficial to the residential community in the area as compared to a community center.  Over 1,300 nearby condo units were built in the Boca Teeca area without any meeting or social facilities within their own property, so there is a need within the area to have a community center instead of a hotel that will not support the residential community.  There have been numerous hotels built in the NE section of the city over the past 20 years that could support the tourists who may want to use the renovated golf facilities.

3) Consulting study by the National Golf Foundation will be presented at the joint meeting on 9/26 and will be reviewed at the 9/25 meeting of the Park District.  This economic study will be expected to provide a positive forecast of the financial benefits of the proposed renovated golf course.  This same consulting company provided a similar study to PB county prior to the development of the highly successful Osprey Point golf course located at the western end of Glades Rd.

4) An independent written appraisal on the Ocean Breeze property will be provided to the District commissioners and the city council members.  Past criticism of the purchase of the property was the $24 million price which was higher than the estimated value of $5-8 million.  By comparison the city has numerous offers for their smaller golf course property for over $72 million which would be developed after the acquisition.  The net impact of these 2 transactions would be a benefit to the taxpayer of over $30 million and a new golf course located WITHIN the city.

Hope to see a lot of Boca Raton residents at these 2 meetings to voice your comments on these issues, but if you are not able to attend, then please send your comments via email to the Park District & City Council members at their email addresses located on their respective web sites.

Wells Fargo Bank is a Poor Neighbor

As the owner of the over 200 acre property formerly operated as the Ocean Breeze golf course, Wells Fargo bank has not been maintaining the property in compliance with city code and there have been numerous code violations over the past year.  Most recently they were cited for not mowing the weeds which had reached up to 2 feet in height before they had a local residential landscaper to use their small 32 inch mowers to slowly mow the weeds.  After over 2 weeks of mowing they resolved 90% of the problem, but with the rain and heat of our growing season they will need to start mowing again if they are going to be in compliance with city code.  Wells Fargo continues to be an IR responsible neighbor as clearly illustrated by driving along Jeffrey/Clint Moore Rd. East of I-95 &  seeing how they have allowed the property to become overgrown with vegetation.

It is recommended that residents call the city council (561-393-7708) to let them know how poorly Wells Fargo is maintaining the property.  Residents who want to complain about this problem to the leadreship of Wells Fargo should email their board of directors at: boardcommunications@wellsfargo.com

Considering the poor business practices of Wells Fargo bank that have been well documented in the media over the past year, maybe it should not be surprising that they are a poor neighbor.  But, residents should consider not doing business with this irresponsible financial institution since there are many banks that are available locally that are much more responsible than Wells Fargo.

High Weeds Violate City Code

It is time to call city council & complain about the high weeds on the Ocean Breeze golf course since there are many weeds over 12 inches high which violates the city code requirements.  Call 561-393-7708 to complain today.

If there is no cooperation by the city council on lending the required funds to the Beach & Park District for their acquisition of this property, then let's give these elected city officials a taste of the complaints they can expect to receive on an ongoing basis In Perperuity!