2011-0721 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting July 21,2011 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Commissioner Aelion asked how many condos would be in the building, and Mr. Weintraub said in their previous condo they did not allow small spaces. They broke them up into smaller modules so people could get 1,500 or 2,500 but not less than 1,000 square feet. In the current building they have several 5,000 to 6,000 square foot users, but on average 2,000 to 2,500 square feet. And so out of 117,000 square feet we have about 50 different businesses. Their idea is to fast-track this project, they are doing it without financing, and they have designed a way that they can start pre-selling the units and have the owners pay as they go. They plan on coming back at the September 15,2011 City Commission meeting for contract approval, and they will have some sketches and ideas at that time, and the site plan would be a couple of months after that. Mayor Edelcup asked if we had anything in the Letter of Intent that basically requires that action take place, what he doesn't want to do is to tie up the property for a long period of time and for whatever reason it doesn't go forward we are locking ourselves into something, and so he would like to have a drop dead date for construction or the whole thing is canceled out. City Attorney Ottinot said if the Commission approves it and executes it, we have to negotiate exclusively with The Weintraub Companies until a deal is done. Mayor Ede1cup asked if there was a mechanism within the Letter ofIntent that would void it if it didn't get started by a certain date, and City Attorney Ottinot said we haven't worked out those timeframes yet. Commissioner Scholl said when they come back in September with a contract that someone negotiated, that is the first milestone, and then how long before Site Plan approval, and Mr. Weintraub said according to the LOI they have 90 days to come forward with a site plan approval. City Manager Cohen noted two points, the Letter of Intent says that the intent is to come back within 90 days but no later than 120 days for Site Plan Review. For the contract, and they hope to come back in September, there is no reason why we can't include a specific timeline as part of that contract. Commissioner Scholl said that September is the milestone, if they are not back in September then we can look at it as being problematic. Mayor Ede1cup said right because we are tying ourselves up, we will not be able to negotiate with any other third parties concerning this property. Warrren Stamm, Esq. General Counsel for Trump Dezer Development, owners of a number of properties in Sunny Isles Beach, are here tonight to ask the Commission to defer consideration and approval of the non-binding Letter of Intent by The Weintraub Companies to allow other interested parties and developers to have the opportunity to bid and purchase this development. The City should explore other options with other interested parties. They are asking that this item be deferred for at least 30 days or in the alternative to modify the language regarding exclusivity to allow some healthy competition. Vice Mayor Thaler asked ifhis client had an option that has lapsed, and Mr. Stamm said yes but some of the reasons were out of their control but they have a vested interest in this area and this property, and already have site plans and architectural that they can come to the Commission with. Mr. Weintraub said that the Dezers had a contract for that land for three years and nothing was done. Secondly, they were building 300,000 square feet with insufficient parking where they were asking the City to come up with half of the parking in another off-site location. Thirdly, part of the reason they were doing this was for ballroom space and a museum which the Dezers now went and put a museum in North Miami Beach. In addition, their language 14