STEVE REID

Editor & Publisher

sreid@lbknews.com

The Sarasota City Commission opted to put on hold consideration of a lease proposal that would allow a 200-seat restaurant and tiki bar at the 2.5-acre site of the Lido Beach Pool and Pavilion.

With Commissioner Willie Shaw absent, commissioners decided to table discussion of the controversial plan but did allow public comment.

For Lido resident Ken Ayotte who lives directly across the street from the pavilion site, the commission would be acting irresponsibly if it allows the restaurant proposal to move forward.

“I cannot believe you are even considering this. It is a total abdication of city government responsibility. We bought here because of the nature and character Sarasota presents – a beautiful public beach. You are talking about a project that would totally change the character of Sarasota and Lido. It is a quiet residential area and I would be looking across the street at a bar. You would change the character of everything,” said Ayotte.

The plan includes a 10-year lease to allow a group named Lido Beach Redevelopment Partners, LLC to have a 200-seat restaurant, ice cream parlor, event lawn, tiki bar and beach store along with other operations.

The proposed tenants would pay an annual rent of about $80,000 per year with annual escalations.

The tenant is also offered two 10-year options for renewal completely at their discretion.

Sarasota resident Martin Hyde spoke of the poor financial terms that the city is considering in the lease proposal. He suggested that at a minimum the Lido Beach Redevelopment Partners should pay no less than 5 percent of gross sales in addition to the base rent.

Sarasota attorney John Patterson said he had analyzed the lease and said that he had both “big picture concerns” as well as “issues with the overall financial deal” as well as details of the lease.

Patterson provided the city commission with his observations of the lease.

“It is not wise to tie up to 2.5 acres that is at the heart of the city’s only beach for 30 years over a capital shortfall of slightly more than $2 million,” wrote Patterson.

Patterson was referring to the Master Plan that was developed between the Lido Key Residents Association and the City that shows it would take about $3.2 million to renovate the facility. The city has $1.2 million earmarked to redevelop and renovate the site, thus the $2 million shortfall.

The city in light of this shortfall, opted to undertake the idea of a public-private partnership and in 2014 developed what is called an Intent To Negotiate (ITN) process.

In 2015, the Daiquiri Deck owners, who are principles in the Lido Beach Redevelopment Partners, LLC, responded to the ITN and have since gone back and forth with the city in developing their plan.

Last January, the commission voted to move forward with the plan and develop a contract reflecting the terms that will now be voted on at the city commission’s Nov. 20 meeting.

For Patterson one of the greatest flaws in the entire presentation of the lease and in the negotiation process is “the apparent absence of any economic analysis on behalf of the city and by anyone with expertise as to whether the proposed rent is fair market rental.”

There were about three-dozen speakers who were on hand at the commission meeting last week, but when the decision to delay was made, most of them left. The commission will discuss the lease and the details of the plan at the Nov. 20 meeting. City Attorney Robert Fournier said that he will present some amendments to the lease prior to the next meeting, but did not offer details.

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