Looks like Hardin/Lamping are backing up some on more concessions and possibly the timeline for approval. Hazouri is deferring any action today.
If this passes, it will be quite a bit different than what Curry and team negotiated if still not a good deal for taxpayers. Shows that Curry's posture that this was best and a well negotiated deal that was fair to taxpayers and had to be rushed through was way off the mark just like his JEA pronouncements.
As a CPA, Curry is an embarrassment both to his profession and as our mayor.
Even if additional concessions are made, I still think what we're left with is ultimately a worse deal for taxpayers that what we started with.
As one member of the DIA best put it, the project denominator has decreased, but the public numerator hasn't. We're still putting up the same $208 million+ in cash as we were in the beginning, but we're getting a significantly smaller project than what first came to City Council in terms of hotel rooms, residential units, office space, surface parking, and structured parking.
And most of the "concessions" have played out like a children's shell game.
The $65 million grant turned into a $65 million broadbox loan where the Jags heroically agreed to put up the $13 million initial deposit. But the cash remained the same, as the hotel's $12.5 million rev grant was then quietly switched to a $12.5 cash completion bonus.
The Jags agree to parking concessions, but quietly, insfrastructure savings are shifted from being returned to the city to being put in a capital maintenance fund for the developer.
Adding a $1.50 surcharge to hotel rooms doesn't cost the Jags a dime.
Meeting was largely a disgrace AGAIN today, and was almost a mirror image of the meeting two weeks ago that went so badly off the rails. Hazouri and Bowman screaming at each other. Hazouri going wildly off agenda. No one quite sure how procedure was supposed to work.
Whole thing was punctuated by Tommy Hazouri (with the help of Carlucci) blatantly stalling out the clock and making a unilateral decision to defer a vote.
As a resident of this city, the Mayberry act is just embarrassing.
We know where the major pieces of the deal are going to fall.
And we know the consequences of voting either way.
Put on your bigboy pants as a City Council, and vote yes or no, rather than potentially stalling this misery into 2021. If the breadbox loan is a deal-breaker, vote the entire bill down and let the cards fall where they may.
I tell you what though, Tuesday should be one of the most fascinating meetings in City history.
