financial - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T09:15:42Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/financialBoynton Beach: Town Square partner can't make timeline for garages, asks city for helphttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-development-partner-can-t-make-timeline-for-town-sq2020-07-24T16:30:00.000Z2020-07-24T16:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>On the same day that Boynton Beach celebrated its centennial with a balloon-filled soft opening of its new City Hall, city commissioners heard troubling news about desperately needed parking garages for the Town Square project.</p>
<p>The six-story south garage will not be finished in June 2021 as promised. In fact, the city will be lucky to get it financed early next year, according to John Markey, managing principal of JKM Developers.</p>
<p>“The timelines are completely gone,” Markey said.</p>
<p>At the July 21 meeting, he asked for help from the city:</p>
<p>* instruct staff to return to the negotiating table that would result in the city co-signing the garage loans,</p>
<p>* use some Community Redevelopment Agency tax dollars generated by future development to help with building the garage and</p>
<p>* help his firm get clean easements to access his property.</p>
<p>Commissioners wondered why he waited four months to tell them of his dire situation with the garages.</p>
<p>Town Square is an ambitious private-public partnership between the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency and private developers. The 16.5-acre area, sitting between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Southeast Second Avenue, is supposed to give the city a definable downtown. When complete, the $250 million project will have a mix of municipal buildings and privately developed apartment buildings, a hotel, restaurants and shops. The city’s share is slightly more than $118 million.</p>
<p>The south garage received a building permit on Sept. 5, 2019, and was supposed to be finished by June 5, 2021, said Colin Groff, assistant city manager, at the start of the Town Square update. The north garage completion is estimated to be finished by Dec. 5, 2021.</p>
<p>Last fall, Markey said, city staff was working toward becoming a co-guarantor of the garage loans, which would be totally financed by Iberia Bank. Then the city decided that was too risky, he said.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the city talked about borrowing $34 million to build the two garages by agreeing to “pre-buy” them.</p>
<p>“We were days away from that happening when COVID shut down the finance world,” Markey said. COVID-19 is a highly contagious respiratory illness that can be fatal. To help stop its spread, the state shut down all businesses, schools and events in mid-March.</p>
<p>In its contract with the city, Markey’s firm has agreed to provide surface parking for the city to use while it builds the garages. The city had given JKM the land for free, $1.9 million and new water and sewer lines and underground utilities at no cost.</p>
<p>“It’s sounds like the P3 (public-private partnership) is not showing to be a real partnership,” Commissioner Justin Katz said, “if we fund everything and bear the risk for everything.”</p>
<p>Katz continued, “I don’t know if shoveling more money into it from the city solidifies this P3 or converts it into a city project. We should be in the position to take the reins back if we are doing everything other than building it.”</p>
<p>Katz, the three other commissioners and Mayor Steven Grant said they were uncomfortable with deadlines not being met, how the project would be paid for, and moving the parcels around.</p>
<p>“The COVID shutdowns started four months ago and we are just hearing about the delay in July,” said Grant. He said Katz had asked for monthly updates. Grant had asked for a Town Square update in mid-July.</p>
<p>Markey apologized by saying he has not been “out of my house for the few months. I have not been invited to a meeting until Thursday.”</p>
<p>City Manager Lori LaVerriere said she would meet with commissioners individually to tell them what has been happening with JKM and the city.</p>
<p>Next month, city commissioners will sit as CRA board members. The CRA, which controls redevelopment dollars, is in the process of doing its budget for the financial year that starts Oct. 1.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Septic-to-sewer study funds take backseat to budget woeshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-septic-to-sewer-study-funds-take-backseat-to-budget-w2020-07-01T15:26:14.000Z2020-07-01T15:26:14.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>With the town’s budget still in flux, Ocean Ridge’s septic-to-sewer citizens advisory committee has agreed to hold off on requesting funds for a cost analysis from an outside firm. <br /> Voting unanimously, the five-member committee, charged with studying the feasibility of replacing septic systems with a sewer system, agreed that it would be premature to request funding for a study to be conducted by Raftelis Financial Consultants.<br /> The committee did, however, agree to seek $6,000 in the town’s upcoming budget for assistance on uncovering possible grant opportunities that could help cover some of the initial costs as well as $3,000 for engineering costs and $1,000 for legal fees. <br /> In addition, the committee asked the Town Commission to allow funds coming to the community from the countywide 1-cent infrastructure sales tax to stay earmarked for the septic-to-sewer conversion, should the town decide to go forward with such a project. <br /> That fund has close to $400,000, according to Town Manager Tracey Stevens, and it initially was expected to grow to about $1 million during its 10-year lifespan. <br /> But that is likely to change.<br /> “We have seen a sharp decrease in sales tax revenue due to COVID-19, so that number is expected now to be lower,” Stevens said. <br /> An expected shortfall in the town’s overall revenue for the coming year was one of the factors behind the committee’s decision to delay going forward with a financial analysis, which would include a rate study and identifying funding sources. <br /> In a memo to members of the committee, Stevens said that the town is likely facing an $800,000 budget shortfall in the coming fiscal year. She later told the committee that the cost for the financial study by Raftelis was estimated to be around $30,000. <br /> Committee members, citing the shortfall, agreed that there was no need to rush for the financial study.<br /> “I see little value in using money for Raftelis,” committee Chairman Neil Hennigan said. “I don’t think anything they’re going to give us would be urgent.” <br /> The committee, which has not yet made a recommendation on whether to proceed with a septic-to-sewer conversion, agreed to wait for additional direction from the commission before meeting again in August.</p></div>Delray Beach: Commission sets agenda for Arts Garage improvementshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-commission-sets-agenda-for-arts-garage-improvements2016-03-03T15:45:28.000Z2016-03-03T15:45:28.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /><br /> The popular Arts Garage venue received reprieves recently from two Delray Beach agencies, but the nonprofit organization can no longer rely just on its programming.<br /> The organization needs a strategic plan, city commissioners and their Community Redevelopment Agency board members said.<br /> In its short history, the Arts Garage has developed a loyal base of fans who love the intimate setting of a small performing and visual arts space. The organization remains dependent on city tax dollars for its below-market rent of $800 a month for 10,000 square feet where it serves as the gateway to the Pineapple Grove Arts District. <br /> In addition, the Community Redevelopment Agency supplies about 18 percent of the Arts Garage’s $1.5 million budget. <br /> The Arts Garage ran afoul of the CRA last fall when it failed to produce an audit of the previous financial year showing the Delray Beach money was segregated from the money used in its Pompano Beach operations. The CRA withheld the fourth-quarter payment for the last financial year.<br /> Eight days later at the CRA board meeting, longtime Arts Garage board member Robert Schmier described the financial situation as “a severe cash crunch.” Executive Director Alyona Ushe said the organization is operating day to day and needs the money to help pay for the audit.<br /> The following Friday, the CRA board held a special meeting to release the fourth- quarter payment of $68,750. Before the CRA makes an allocation in its current financial year, it wants to see an audit of the last financial year, a long-term lease with the city, separate accounts for the Arts Garage’s Delray Beach and Pompano Beach locations, and a strategic plan.<br /> The Arts Garage has relied on the generosity of its volunteers and board members, including Schmier. He loaned the organization $68,000 without interest in the summer of 2014 while it waited for payment from the city’s CRA, according to the organization’s tax return. The loan was repaid that October. <br /> He also donated $6,000 during that year. The tax return listed $80,000 as the salary for Ushe, the Arts Garage executive director.<br /> Recent renovations costing more than $50,000 were done for free by Chuck Halberg, a general contractor who volunteered his services, according to the Jan. 15 letter sent to the City Commission. Schmier and his wife also agreed to pay $25,000 for new lighting and sound equipment, the same letter said.<br /> The Arts Garage had a March 15 deadline from the city to buy its space for $2.5 million. The city didn’t hear from the Arts Garage staff until the city manager sent a letter in early January asking for a written reply. Its executive director said the organization wanted a 10-year lease at the same rental rate with an option to buy.<br /> That letter set up a Feb. 16 confrontation with the Arts Garage on the City Commission agenda.<br /> “The Arts Garage created a silo in Delray Beach,” Commissioner Jordana Jarjura said, “and became a competitor when it partnered with Pompano Beach.”<br /> She said the City Commission is accused of using “taxpayer dollars to support a private club.”<br /> Mayor Cary Glickstein added, “We are here because the Arts Garage failed to perform.”<br /> He said that he believes the arts can be an economic driver. “It was a terrible idea to sell the space to a law firm when we need public gathering places,” he said. “I support what the ideal represents to the town in the branding opportunity for the arts.” <br /> Glickstein pointed out that 35 people either quit the Arts Garage staff or were fired in the past few years, which he called an “exploitation of human capital.”<br /> Glickstein said he talked with the auditors who called the Arts Garage finances in 2013 and 2014 a “train wreck.”<br /> Commissioner Mitch Katz said his wife is a member of the Arts Garage guild and volunteers for it. Later he said they both pay to be guild members, but they don’t partake of any benefits listed on the Arts Garage website. <br /> Commissioner Al Jacquet wants to see a change in the board composition of the Arts Garage. “Then you could offer more programming that attracts people different than yourselves,” he said. <br /> In January, the Arts Garage had started a social media campaign urging its supporters to sign a petition to save it and email the city commissioners asking them to renew its lease.<br /> Commissioners said they received hundreds of emails.<br /> The emails said the city is attacking the arts. But the city gave the Creative Collaborative Community, which oversees the Arts Garage, ample opportunity to grow, Jarjura said.<br /> The collaborative was supposed to be an umbrella group for Delray Beach arts groups; instead, it morphed into the Arts Garage board and burned more bridges than created collaborations, the mayor said.<br /> Commissioners finally agreed to offer a month-to-month lease for six months while the Arts Garage board comes up with a plan to address specific issues:<br /> • Provide quarterly updates to the city about how it will solve financial problems raised by its auditor.<br /> • Seek city approval before subletting its space.<br /> • Add minority members to its all-white board. <br /> • Provide an out clause for the commission. <br /> • Expand its programming to attract a more diverse audience and youths citywide. <br /> • Consider other uses in its space, including a small independent bookstore.<br /> If all that were accomplished, then the commission would consider offering a shorter-term lease, between three and five years.</p></div>