[Music] Good evening everybody. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order. It is Monday, May 12th at 5:30 p.m. and this is the Sever Municipal Golf Course and Restaurant deposition workshop rolls. Mayor Sher here, Bishop
here, here Stewart here. So before we begin, um, want to go over again the purpose of this workshop is to discuss the future of the Sebring Municipal Golf Course. Uh we're having this workshop because at our March 18th council meeting, you
received an unsolicited proposal by the biking group to visit the golf course. At that council meeting, uh council operational policy for workshops that I want to go over. Uh presenters that are on the agenda are permitted up to 10 minutes at the beginning of the workshop to give presentation and 10 minutes at
the end conclusion of public comment to address any matters raised during the workshop. Members of the public are permitted up to 5 minutes each to provide comments and post questions. For the sake of time tonight, uh we request that groups of people select a spokesperson instead of multiple people
speaking to say the same thing. Uh we will be using a digital timer to track speaking time for this workshop and I'll cut off any speaker who exceeds their time limit. Uh we have to be strict for interest of time and treat everyone fairly. So 5 minutes for public comment, 10 minutes for
presenters. Uh lastly, I would like to make sure everyone is aware that tonight this is a workshop only. So there will be no votes taken tonight. Um purely discussion getting into details of direction the council might wish to proceed at a future meeting. Uh but nothing will be voted on. So if the end
result of what we've talked about is not what you hope, you will get an opportunity to speak about it again um at any time when it's voted on in the future. And lastly, uh like all um meetings that are just full, it's a contentious subject. Let's please keep
it civil, keep it professional, um and try and keep everything in line. Okay, we're going to go ahead and start then um with item number four on the agenda, which is the black family
resation and 10 minutes. Uh good evening, Mayor Sh, members of the council. My name is Brian Sykes with Marine Partners Law. Is that better? No. I bet that's better. May members of council, my name
is Brian Sykes. Uh I'm the attorney partner law, Florida. Um I'm here representing the Blackman family. Uh back in March, as you noted, uh we had come uh before council to request a unsolicited proposal which was for a
ground piece of the municipal golf course as an amenity to the historic Carter Hotel. What I'd like to do is go through quickly [Music] and what I'd like to do is go through kind of a quick summary of what the
ground lease terms would be. Um, the historic Carter Hotel ownership group would enter into a lease with the city to lease the golf course from the city. There would not be a transfer of ownership. It would strictly be a lease and to continue operating it as a golf course and an as an amenity to the
historic Carter Hotel. The Allessie would assume all operational and financial obligations of the golf course. That means wages, salaries, maintenance cost, material cost, everything. The city would have
zero responsibility, zero liability, zero obligation. In leasing vernacular, you'd call that a triple net lease. That basically taxes, insurance, everything is paid for net of the uh
operations. um the leie would uh pay personal property taxes and real property taxes on the property. So the golf course would end up being on the county tax roles which would be some benefit to the city as well. Um the leie will also provide a capital improvement
plan and a capital investment in the golf course. Um, Lei will continue to honor all memberships and Allessie will address storm water issues in the general area. The benefits of the city of Sebring uh will continue to own the golf
course land. They'll no longer be responsible for the golf course operations. They'll no longer be required to subsidize the golf course which it has been doing for the last 10 plus years. The golf course again will be added to the adorum tax roles and the
golf course will become an amenity to the harder uh historic harder hotel. Talk about golf course statistics for a minute. There's 1328 public golf or golf courses in Florida which include public, private, and municipal courses.
Only 134 out of 1328 golf courses are municipal built. What's a contributing factor to that? Number one, high operational cost. something that you guys have experienced for years here. Number two, declining participation. And number three, the investment required
for maintenance, upkeep, and renovation of the golf course. Current financial impact today of the golf course in the city is it generates about 1.3 million in revenues. I'm sorry, generates 798,000 in revenues
with 1.3 million in expenses. This results in over a $500,000 per year operating deficit. So the city is currently funding a half a million a year to keep the golf course going. 2024 fiscal year budget contemplated a
$249,000 transfer from the general fund just to support the golf court operate golf course operations itself. Looking at this year, between October 2024 and March 2025, 14,556 rounds were played. Green speeds
went from a high of $30.70 to a low of $22.65 with an average green B of $286. Revenues between October and March were $48,000. So if you extrapolate that
against prior years, it's pretty much on track to do what it did before. What we should note though is October to March is the high season. So more than likely those numbers will be a little bit less than previous years. What can the city do with the
$500,000 that it's currently spending? It can put it towards public utilities, law enforcement, fire protection, infrastructure maintenance and improvements, public facilities. Goes towards staff and departments. What differentiates the art of hotel
group? One is the ability to market the golf course as an amenity to the uh resort hotel picture. Come and stay historic uh historic hotel and play the resort's 18hole course versus come and stay at the historic Carter Hotel and play
municipal course across the street. It's got a little bit different ring to it. It will help in marketing. It will help in bringing people to this area. The historic part of Battel will have the ability to host conferences for companies, retreats for businesses, all of which will utilize the golf course as
part of its amenity. They have the ability to offset losses with other revenue sources and revenue centers. And they have the ability to privately fund improvements as opposed to going to the public. One thing that my client will note is they've never asked for any public monies. They haven't asked for
bond revenues. They haven't asked for anything in terms of the historic park hotel. The same applies for this Mr. um what changes and what stays the same? What changes? The city no longer has operational and financial obligations with respect to the golf course. The
city no longer has to subsidize the golf course. The city gets the benefit of the golf course being added to the tax roles and the golf course gets needed improvements which are privately funded. What stays the same? Golf Course remains open to the public. City retains
ownership of the underlying land. Existing members and membership agreements stay in place. Continuity with the golf course management and staff and caddy shop will remain. Who benefits from the proposal? The city, taxpayers, golfers, the
general public, and of course historic Carter Hotel. Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. In conclusion, it's a win-win deal for everyone. It promotes future success of the historic Carter Hotel, preserves the golf course for future generations, and helps to promote
tourism. Thank you very much, and thank you, Brian. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Robert Blackman. I'm a partner in the Harter Hall Resort. Also here tonight are Carol and Jim Blackman. So, we have all the partners of the resort.
The golf course landed original clubhouse entered the city's possession in the 1920s when the original developers gifted to the city. The developers told the city they would not continue construction of the hotel unless the city absorbed the cost of running and maintaining the course. Even
back then, the need for golf to attract destination tourism, which holds the greatest financial impact of the community, was understood. The city has essentially been saddled with this burden for 100 years by previous owners of the hotel. We are offering to lift the curse. We are offering to absorb all
costs, liability, and responsibility for maintenance of the golf course. And since it will be under private control, the course will be returned to tax roll. It is a double swing. The city will go from losing money every year to dering a profit. Commonly in historic renovations throughout the state, the municipality
makes concessions. For instance, in St. Petersburg, the Venoy Hotel was vacant for 19 years before renovations began. They acquired a golf course and were gifted a waterfront marina from the city as conditions to construct the hotel in Jacksonville, Melbourne, Ocala, and
Stewart. The city offered public private partnerships to construct parking garages or give other concessions. Most fitting is the example of the Buildmore Coral Gables, sister hotel to Harter Hall. Harter Hall was developed, built, and run by partners from the Builmore Coral Gables Group,
heralding Sebrand and the neighborhood surrounding Harter Hall as the quote Coral Gables of Central Florida. The Buildmore Coral Gables and its golf course is owned by the city of Coral Gables, but leased to a third party for-profit roof on a 99-year lease. However, oftent times the city has
agreed to pay for upgrades to the hotel at their expense. In 2022, the county and city agreed to provide $675,000 to repair the Koopa. The city more recently in 2018 redirected $10.5 million to historic renovations on the
Bill of Coral Gables. We are not asking for financial concessions, nor has anyone from the city ever offered us a dime towards this renovation. Even this proposal is not that a previous owner of the hotel was gifted it by the city, then offered millions of
dollars in publicly funded bond money. Today, we are making the city an offer to assume their financial burden at our expense, even though we've received nothing the other way around. We originally presented this offer to the city in writing in December of
2022. Public records will show that. We were told this would simply be a formality and to wait just a bit longer. Although unusual, we trusted the city in the process. We should have pushed harder. Instead, we are now met with push back and other offers. Much time, money, and attention has been expended
on the downtown circle as of late. As residents of the neighborhood surrounding Harter Hall, they'd like a world-class resort, improved drainage, decreased flight, and increased property values. They will undoubtedly say yes. We can and will provide it. But we cannot achieve this mission as a hotel.
only as a true resort as the property has and was always intended to be. Through our painstaking efforts thus far, the building has been preserved. From shoring up the foundation to restoring and rebuilding the entire roof, replacing floor joist and decking and ordering all new impact glass
handbuilt grand doors and all new hurricane impact windows. The hotel that was once front page news of the Highland's new sunk for demolition has been saved, but the usage is still to be determined. We feel calls every week from people wanting to buy or partner on
the property. Although a vast majority of these calls are from ALF or retirement home providers. We have turned everyone away so far, but there is a market for the structure one way or another. Today, after years of discussion, thought, and input, the city of Sever needs to make a value statement. We respectfully ask for
clarity on where your values stand. This is the biggest project in the city's history to restore its most iconic structure. the first real grasp of hope. Mr. I'm sorry. Can I finish with the microphone up? I cannot. No, sir. Even though you'll have time at the end to
wrap up. Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Next up, we have a presentation from the county shack, Mr. Mrs. Mendoza. [Music] Good evening. I'm Sonia Mendoza and my
husband Gab Mendoza. And um we would just like to say that we've been in business there for 19 years. We currently pay $3,598.89 a month in rent. Since 2006, we've paid
$750,000. Um, we pay on time. We prepay for the summer. We don't off ask where it costs the city for anything. We cover all expenses that it takes to run the caddy shop. Um, I think we've asked you to paint the outside one time and after
hurricanes, you had to replace the roof. Other than that, the caddy shack maintains itself. The city does not maintain us. We do have a sweet deal on rent. Um, we employed 33 employees. We've always been offered a 5-year lease
option of five more up until two years ago when we got a two-year lease because it was promised to the Blackman family upon 75% completion of the Harter Hall Hotel. We would like to you to consider
giving us a 5-year lease. Mr. Blackman can have his course to go with his beautiful resort. Um, we have separate addresses. I don't know why the two can't be separated. Um, the city can then spend money on other projects.
Um, I understand the city loses money on the course every year and making a dollar is better than making nothing at all. However, a dollar for the restaurant over the 4,300 we pay a year isn't really a good deal.
Um, I would also like to add that um, the city knew this deal was on the table and in agreements as Blackman said during the first meeting. Um, then why did you close the course and spend thousands of dollars redoing the grains
as well as buying new equipment that he will now get for a dollar and then have to turn around and build a shed and buy another set of new equipment on taxpayer dollar to maintain maximum fields. as right now they are both maintained together. I think that's about it. But
we would love to have an extended lease so that we know our future, our employees know their future if you were here tonight. And just thank you for your [Applause] time. All right. Next up, we'll have a
presentation from the Tourist Development Council. Good evening, Councilman Mayor. Um, thank you for inviting us to come here. Um, we have been this this was originally presented to the tourism development council on May 1st. Um, if you could advance to the next slide. Oh,
do you think? Um, so just real quick for everyone. Um the tourist development council, we are a county department. Um but we are not funded by general revenue. So our money is comes in from tourist development tax, which you may call a pens and beds or a bed tax. So
for us, the more money we get from hotels and people staying in hotels, the more money that's generated for the TDC. Um you can see we it's a 5% tax on hotel rooms, VRBOs, Airbnbs. Um we are here to present the state information. The county does not have an official
position on this issue. Um, we have been researching sports, tourism, and facility development since 2020. Um, this research helps us make educated decisions. Our money is governed by a Florida statute and a county ordinance. So, we do a lot of research and and data
dives to make sure that we are spending the money how it is um meant to be spent in the statute. So, just for some background, um, for this fiscal year, we added a facility improvement grant option for any facility that wanted to
come to us and look for funding with long-term planning. Um, the city of Sebring and the town of Lake Placid were the two that submitted proposals to us. Um, after some consideration, the consultant said if we added City Von Park and the fairgrounds, that would capture the entire county and be fair to
everyone. So, the study did include the entire county. We looked at all the facilities within the county. So what was involved in the study? First, um this is the statute on how the tourist development funds can be used for tourism. That's on the left in the
orange. Um TDC has what we call a third penny or an asset fund just for facility development enhancement. Um so that money that's where this money would be coming from. That's why we are interested in this. Um we also did the study to evaluate opportunities for
other tourism facilities to be enhanced. Um what could be done in Lake Placid, what could be done in Sebrank, Avon Park, the fairground, so on and so forth. The next steps, however, are up to the facility owners. So it with this case with Max Long and the MUN, it is up to the city of Sebring to determine the
next steps with this. So just real quick, um tourism helps local residents. I know a lot of people say, you know, we live here, we don't want tourists here. Um but they infuse a lot of money into our local economy. They create jobs. They support local business. Um infrastructure,
roads, schools, different things like that. Um if developing or enhancing a tourism drive facility, that municipality or that organization can come to the TDC and ask for funding. Um that is a separate board that votes on it. So it's not up to me, it's up to the
the tourism board. Um, also what we found is when you drive tourism events to the area, you can charge more for your facility rental. Um, a lot of times when people are coming for travel ball or different things like that, lacrosse, whatever it is, they are willing to pay more because they are generating revenue
from those events. And then it also improves the facility for locals. So when we when we do something that improves a facility for tourists, then it then becomes an asset that's better for the locals as well. Next slide. But I'm gonna turn it over to Alan
Blander. He was part of the study group. So we've been working down here for about four years. I've been in sports for 30 years. Um and part of this uh whole process was uh with Synergy Sports and Huddle Up Group. Synergy's out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Huddle ups
out of Phoenix, Arizona. We've looked at facilities, sports tourism facilities all over the country from indoor arenas to outdoor baseball fields everywhere in the the entire um country. And we put uh
Sebring in a in a grid, if you will, against a lot of where where those facilities are around the country. We looked at our strengths, our opportunities, the the typical SWAT analysis um out there and then um based
upon a a whole grid of information and scoring where is in this particular case max long in regards to other facilities around the country. And so currently um uh the flat fields um tournament friendly 8 to 15
fields. Uh the anchor facility would have a minimum of 16 fields. And you can see the different um the different facilities they are currently we have 10 diamonds. I will tell you and I will give serious props to the people that are taking care of Max Long right now.
It is in as good of shape as as I've seen it and I've been down here for five years, but it's still not in the shape where you can attract major national tournaments. We talked to all of the big it it attracts Dixie youth,
but we talked to all of the big uh tournament providers all across the country. I was just with a bunch of them uh a few weeks ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they looked at it and they said, "It's a nice facility, but we can't do our event there." Um, and so based on
that, we started looking at, and these are all of the different venues that we looked at throughout this process in in the lie of time. Um, I'm not going to go through all those, but you can see them. But we did an extensive search of all these different facilities in the community. I'm down here a lot. I'm down
here at least once a month, so I go to these facilities all the time because I'm talking to national events to bring their their events to Highlands County and then in particular, Sebrank. So we narrowed down to top five. One of those top fives was Max
Long. Keep in mind our job was to uh create ideas, not recommendations, but simply ideas. And so if you look at these different um venues in there against an index score. So the index that Huddle Up has put together is a
score based upon national facilities around the country and what event planners are using or to determine if they want to bring their event or not. And if you look there at the different um scores, we're below a we're average or below average on most of these. Um
but if you go in this particular case, if you go to max long, we are above average in the disc golf course. Um but we are average or below average in in the fields. And so again there's just more
and more data trying to um be be time specific but basically when we looked at that you have the footprint in Max Long of you could create eight the current Maxon facility eight amazing 200 foot
fields. You could you could majorly enhance them. You could create 12 and under events, which are the 200 fths from all over, but it's not just baseball or softball. You could bring in all different types of multi-purpose
events here um all year long. You can look at this data again um some of the best uh versus some of the the the worst. And we really did a deep dive on max long. We looked at the current max and then just dreaming or envisioning.
We again we were paid not to bring recommendations. Just look at it for what it is. And so um these are all that if you upgrade it you upgrade all eight fields um with with 200 permanent fences. Um you do have three fields that
would have 300 foot fences which is high school age. And then you would turf all the infields which would give you uh maintenancefree. You'd be able to play more games. there be lot a lot less rain outs. It does rain in Florida every now and then. Um you upgrade the sound systems, infrastructure, Wi-Fi, all
these different things. Netting, uh put netting above so that um you don't have to yell foul ball all the time, new scoreboards, all this kind of stuff. If you look at this, a lot of these potential events have never played at Max Long. But a lot of these when you
talk to them and you show them what we created, they all said, "We would love to come there. We're tired of going to Orlando. We're tired of going to these coastal cities where the hotels are $400 a night where there's traffic, you have to wait an hour to get into restaurants. We'd rather come to Sebring where it's
more affordable and more friendly. That was their words, not mine. I agree with them, but that was their words. And so if you look at where we are, this would be the current uh thing where the current layout we would go in and renovate and really produce um great
fields, but also um you would have multi-purpose to where you could do all types of events. And again, a lot of these the total economic impact um we're short on time, but um if you were able to do just current max long, you would increase your visitors by 25,000
estimated hotel nights, 24,000 hotel nights just by all the extra events that we could bring there. And then we just again we were just we were paying to vision stuff and and to create ideas. And so we would repurpose part of the municipal golf
course. Um, we didn't say which fields. I'm an avid golfer. I play golf once or twice a week. I tried to. So, I love the sport of golf. Um, so we didn't identify which holes or anything like that. But basically, if you go in and you create these super fields, which is a new thing
in sports tourism these days, these multi-purpose fields, you could create a lot of these different things. And if you go back, all of these different events would continue to look at at us. And then the impact again going through it fast but you can see the overview of
current max long and if you were dreaming on the municipal course and then all the different community benefits and then you would increase estimated visitors 140,000 or 45,000 rim nights and that's the all right that's
it. Um, thank you guys for coming to speak to us about that. Next up, we've got a financial history of the golf course. Penny Robinson is going to present on that. [Music] [Music]
[Music] Good evening. Before you is a statement of deposition. These reports are in the audited financial statements and I'd like to just explain um probably what
the report shows. It's this report the statement of net position has your assets liabilities as well as your net position. As a reminder, your net position is the difference between your assets and liabilities representing
what's left over um for other as your other resources. the this report I was asked to update. Um originally it did not have as many years but we were able to get a draft from the auditors. So it currently
reflects years audited 2012 through 2023. It also includes the draft for the auditors for 2024 and then the values as of today. So I did want to report for uh basically a
balance sheet and expenditure and revenue report as of today to give you additional information. The second report is the statement of revenues, expenses and changes in fund
net position. It contains your operating revenues, operating expenses, non-operating revenues, uh the income loss and as well as your transfers in to the fund from the general fund and your
uh your net position. One thing I want to comment here is depreciation is included in this report. This is an enterprise fund, so it acts as a business and so we do have to report depreciation. That's the value
of your purchases spread out over the useful life of the assets. The next thing I want to point out is transfers in. So your transfers in amount. I know we've talked about the
losses of the fund, but I want to point out that the transfer end is the value that is infused into the golf course each year. So this is used to balance the budget and the current year that
we're in a transfer of $116,731 was made to balance the budget. Meaning revenues plus this transfer in equal your expenditure budget. Last year you did approve a transfer
grant of 628,000 but there were capital improvements made to the golf course as well as equipment purchases to the amount of $44,000. Prior year was $128,461 and again capital improvements of
[Music] $217,000. So although it's operating at a loss, the amount that's actually being transferred into the fund from the general fund which is cost to the from the taxpayer
is 116,000 in the current year. Do you have any questions or do you want me to touch on anything else? Okay, I think we're good. We'll um I'm sure we'll have some. Okay, thank you. So, next step on
the agenda, um item number eight is going to be mayor and council discussion remarks. We'll go down the table first and if you have questions, comments, discussion, we can go from there. After this point is when we will open it up for public comment. Um and followed by
any answering of questions or clarification by the presenters. Um and then to end the meeting, we'll wrap up here with council. Any any questions or comments or or concerns we have? So I'll start down here with Mr. Car.
Thank I u after the presentation of the ball field, I see more revenue coming in from the ball field than I I received through the uh hotel. Um you know, we sent up here where
councilman were elected by the citizens to do uh the right thing and do the right business. And I I think it's a bad business deal to spend the money to spend to improve our golf course. And
when we hired Fred, we promised him we would give him the opportunity to turn our fortune around and he hasn't had that opportunity. We're just now getting into the growing season. I personally would like to keep my word to Fred and
and watching for grow. I was out here this past week and it looks 100% better than it did 6 months ago or even 3 months ago. So, I'm I think we should uh and and the young lady mentioned that uh
it was told to the blacks that when they got 75% done, we would consider this when they're nowhere near 75%. They're months behind and I would like to see the doors open and and we're
a long way from that happening. So, um I I don't think this is the time to make this decision. I think and I'm totally against uh giving anybody city property anymore for a dollar. Uh and we do it for a
dollar a year. So I I prefer I know we spend money on it but everything every recreation I'm going still um one of the councilman's thing they said last time anything is
recreational the the citizens pay we get no money out of it we just spent how many thousands of dollars on a pickle ball court? We don't get nothing from that pickle ball court. uh we get nothing from the playgrounds that we're
right now we're re red we doing to the children uh so why don't we turn our back on the golf players and and the older citizens you know so I I think we need to step take a step back and watch
what happens with with the hotel and we have a bank downtown that they also have nothing's really I know they're doing a little bit but nothing's really happening So let's give them an opportunity to prove themselves as well.
Thank you. [Music] Um so I I have a few. So I'm like everyone else when we get to budget time those are rough meetings. We're trying to make ends meet and not raise taxes. Um, and the golf course
does cost some money. You know, there's reasons for that outlined sensibly. Um, but it's a simple fact, it does cost some money. And I understand your your point about it being public recreation. The only difference in in my mind between the golf course and say playground is you don't have to pay to
golf. It's not free to to the public. Um, and there are private golf courses available. There's not very many private playgrounds or things like that. Um, but it's kind of more falls on on government to supply those. Um, I'm not firmly
against a lease or or sale of course, but there are a few things that would have to happen for me to be open to it. Um, first, it's kind of alluded to already is I would want to see a full uh certificate of occupancy for for the entire hotel.
Um, I know that, you know, and this is not the Blackman's problem, but we've seen other developers come in and start and fail. And I wouldn't want to go down that route, you know, by by leasing the course or or selling the course and then just to see if I'm completing. So, full
CO would be important to me. Um, I'd want to make sure there was a deed restriction on that property that that continues to lock it in to be a golf course or other public recreation so nothing else can be done with the land. And I would like to see if in any
agreement for the future at least a 5year piece for the cash. I don't think it's I I don't think it would be reasonable to say, you know, we have to keep this specific restaurant forever, but I think 5 years gives people enough time to see if it's a good fit. Um, and
if not, you know, plan for the future. Um I do have some other kind of questions and and things I would like to to get the the temperature of council on. Um the first is what becomes uh the increased cost for maintaining max lawn
if if we move to the golf course. I suggested equipment in a building. Is there more from from that end? Um staffing considerations. What sort of thing should be put in in any agreement for a lease or a sale for
um non-performance? For example, if if down the road they stopped running a golf course and let it, you know, go foul, you know, kind of like our hall did, what happens to it then? Should there be some sort of clause where it revert back to the city or what would that look like?
Um are you guys interested in in thinking of this as a sale or instead just a long-term lease? Could there possibly be a a city or secret resident rate to keep costs maybe affordable for for city residents um in in some
fashion? Um and then and then of course I don't expect us to figure all this out tonight, but what could be negotiated in regards to the staff there. It's important to take care of of staff where we can. Um and I just would like to know I guess a little more details of what that looks
like. Thank you all for being here and the presentations. Um this is a really big decision and it's something that uh I don't want to take lightly. I love the idea of having one workshop and one meeting just so we can isolate and determine everything and
having really really clear path moving forward and then uh Casey gives me a call and says, "Hey, got a presentation. We got an idea. We got new things coming down the pipeline." So I just want to say thank you to the TDC for giving that presentation. Uh thank you for everybody
giving giving their thoughts and suggestions of what we're going to do with the golf course works. Um, it is a major decision for the city and it doesn't need to be taken lightly without all the due diligence that we can with consideration for all the individuals, businesses, and residents of the city.
Um, I think it's premature to make any long-term decision uh without having all of our questions and concerns addressed and carefully discussed and agreed upon knowing that this might take us this is going to be more than one workshop or meeting or discussion. So, that's the
first thing. Um, a lot of the things I've been hearing too, and this is just one out of five, um, council members, government entities are not in the business of of generating a whole lot of money in profit. Uh, one of the good examples of that is the building department. We we can't make money from
from the building department. So, I think it's uh just something for the public to know. We can't necessarily just profit from what we're trying to to do in providing services. Uh another uh point I want to make too
is it's what's the responsibility of the municipality? What's the what's the responsibility for us up here to do? We want to provide recreation across the board. So we are putting a lot of money and resources into into pickle wall into
lake access into circle park. So we want to provide services and opportunities and green spaces for everybody. Even if you're not individually participating or involved in the golf course, somebody else is, just like no one, maybe a lot of us here aren't slamming down on
slides on Charlie Brown and London. Um, so I just want to provide in the future long term as we grow more opportunities for amenities and green spaces and opportunities for everybody to enjoy uh the city that we live in. you are paying taxes and you want to make sure that
you're getting value and good services. Uh I wish we had unlimited budget that we could just provide everything for for free and that's not where we're at unfortunately until Roland wins us the lottery but he
promised we'd do that either. Uh so we're tasked with really hard decisions make the best financial decisions with the best numbers and uh available. Um, so there there's just a lot of things to take into consideration and and thank you all for your time with that. Like
Josh, I I have some specific questions uh with to the black bins and what they're looking at and I think those may be best be just addressed at a different time or talking or discussing with Scott um because I don't I don't know what the council thinks of. I don't know if we
have specific questions that we want to address in this meeting. Um, but so could I could I ask some questions to to either you Robert or Mr. Sykes?
Yeah, if you want to come up. [Music] Thank you. So when you presented uh at the March 18th meeting and with what you just discussed, are you proposing the same contract that you presented to us at
that meeting or is there going to be a revised one? There would be minor revisions as the timing, but in general the contract with ground leaks would remain the same. Okay. [Music] So, what would be
the I I would like to see the the existing city employees extended the right of first refusal if there were job job opportunities. Um, that's something that could be written into the contract. Yes. Uh, what would be the the the plan and
timeline for for catty chat? Do you have an estimate what that would be? What what length of what length of notice would you potentially give? I mean to be to be completely clear with you, Catty Shack we perceive as having the option to be there infinitely. Um we
have no designs to get rid of them, throw them out, any of that. In fact, when we have been asked by members of city government, hey, they've got a lease coming up, we said absolutely give them the lease. We go there, we like Catty Shack. The only thing we would want to talk about in 2 years time is it would have to be some kind of
renegotiation on some terms because as they said, it is far far below market. So, we'd want some kind of negotiation down the road. We have no intentions to kick them out, give them notice, any of that. We want to keep them longer. Let me add one point also on the caddy shack
lease and this is first of all, we have not had any conversations um with the propriack restaurant and it would be improper number one to request it and I'm pretty sure that Bob would not have approved it even if I had asked that we could have conversations with him until
we had some kind of agreement with the city. But one thing that we would have to address and figure out how to work around was in the last lease that was executed, there was a provision that the Cat Shack restaurant has the right to offer beverage and food service uh to
the course. We would just like to figure out how that's going to work, what's going to work. The Harter Hotel will have a restaurant and we just don't want to be in conflict. So, we would love to have the opportunity to sit down with them. um just at this point in time it's
not a it's not the appropriate thing to do. Thank you. So in in in section 4 so it's basically an extended 99-year lease uh with the uh agreement to or option to purchase. Um,
so are you open to other renewal releases that is limited maybe just to starting a a 5year term to see how everything goes and then going to a 10-year term compared to just going for 50 year to 90 year total 99 year lease.
Yeah. The issue with that would be we plan on putting money into the course kind of frontloaded and you know you see this in government that's why people typically put in the longer term leases so that you can have you know you reap what you settle in other words so that the force needs you're just not going to
get people out there at the level you want with conditions and again we think that I agree with everything Council Carla said it looks way better than it did but it still has a long way to go and there's that delta between where you need to be as a resort course and where
you are now and the appetite. I mean, you're going to be button heads for all of eternity with how to get there and how to, you know, pay for that. And with that being said though, so part of what the contract says was a minimum of $250,000 investment. Do you have I
know I didn't know this, but you mentioned that you have a you do you have a CIP plan or you're working on a CIP plan and do you have an estimate of what the investment is going to have to be in order to get to where you want it to be? At this point, it's kind of premature to determine what the CIP plan
would be. Again, the way we originally looked at the ground lease is having a due diligence period, if you would, where we can get in, start to learn more about operations, get more financial numbers. We've got some of that information currently, but you know, my clients like to spend a bunch of money
on pro consultants to come in and do redesigns and say you need to do this, that, and the other without some kind of promise on the back end that they're going to be able to have a lease uh to make the capital investment associated with it. So, to answer your question directly, no, there's not a CIP plan
right now. The goal was get to the point where council would approve a ground lease. We would sit down, prepare that plan, have the consultants come in, tell us what needs to be done, and then come back to council with a presentation on [Music]
that. So, one of my my biggest concerns of this too is section 23, uh, it looks like it has the you guys have the ability to encumber and mortgage the property. Is is that going to be a stopping point, sticking point? because that to me is just almost a I couldn't
move forward with that in the contract that you're going to mortgage the property. No, it would be a typical So, in in most ground situations, the tenant has the right to have a mortgage for improvements that are made, but not on the underlying
land. So, the city is the owner of the land and they they'll continue to be the owner of the land in, you know, perpetuity unless for some reason they a sale occurs in the future. But it is not unusual. Uh to give you example, one of my clients developed a Top Golf down
Brandon. Um and Top Golf mortgage the cost of constructing their facilities. It doesn't affect the underlying property. It's not a mortgage against the property. It's merely a mortgage against the improvements etc. But after
the CO2, then there is an option to purchase the the land too. So, I guess another question too is with a lease, that's a different story. I'm I'm open to to things like that, but with the disposal and us selling the property for a dollar, is that a negotiable, too, or
is that a going to be a stopping point in discussions? You know, what we've been saying all along is it's not a dollar, it's the back stop on all the losses every year. Plus, we're putting back on the tax holes. And you know when you look at the dollar a year and being against it, I believe last week there
was a vote to give the theater which we are fine with a dollar a year lease. So you know you see the historic society has that. You see the other the museum right there. There's three buildings in the complex we're sitting at that have dollar a year leases. Um and they're
continuing to be done. So we felt a little bit singled out by that. But we are willing to pay to put this back on the tax role. So, it is a double swig where you can hire staff, you can do whatever you want to increase the city's services moving forward with what we'll
be paying while still providing an upgraded version of what's there today. I understand that. So, is it it's going to be a game changer or a deal breaker if the option is to just to lease is on the table or do you have to have ownership of the property? the way that
this works. I mean, I think you want some kind of backend protection of what you're trying to do, right? I mean, that's what we were saying is my biggest mistake in this entire process is I should have pushed harder up front because usually you have your term seat sheet set out before you do things.
Typically, that's done because you have to get bank financing and the banks want to know what you're getting into. We've done everything in cash so far, so we didn't have that problem. However, you know, now we're looking at things and kicking ourselves that, hey, why do you want to push harder in December 2022 when everyone said, "Don't worry about it. Just keep, you know, on trucking."
And here we are. And, you know, we've got a theater full of people. So, I I think we want some kind of protection. And we're we're talking about making a much bigger investment. We support, and I understand what we're saying about parks and the arts and everything. We're talking about making a much larger
investment in things than any other project and paying for the pleasure to do it with tax dollars. We've gotten no incentives. We've gotten no offers for bonds. We've never said, "Hey, you know, we'll give you some money or we'll kick in some of your purchase price from the hotel." This has been an entirely cash
enterprise. And we're trying to continue doing that. But the force, to be clear, has no value in the market because, to Councilman Stewart's point, it is in the contract saying you can't do anything but keep it. that's in the lease we presented. So if you have to keep it as
an enterprise that's lost money and can't be redeveloped, there is no market value or else somebody else in the market would have done something at this point as I approached you guys. And I can see that too. And um thank Penny for uh sharing all those numbers too. I'm
the numbers guy. I talked to Penny quite a bit about numbers today looking at everything too. I think it's just and I think good for the public to know too. There's a lot of different ways of looking at this. Mr. likes. She made a point that there's a $500,000 a year per loss. So, I mean, when we're looking at these numbers, depending on how you want
to look at them, and again, numbers, that's that's my job. There's a lot of different ways to to look at things, too. But really, I mean, if you wanted to look at the audited 22 financials, you could see that the the income or loss uh before the capital improvements
and transfers, we're at $100,000 loss. But you add back in depreciation, you could kind of make the argument, too. You made $50,000. So, I think it's just a way to present the numbers, too, that we're not we are having to put money in
to fund the golf course, but I think we need to find out as a council, too, is what are we willing to put in for general fund in order to provide an additional service for the community. This is the community's golf course. this is a piece of the property that was suited to the city and I just want to
make sure that we're taking good care of it too and before we make any major decisions we're taking everything into consideration just like we made the point too we're not making money off max or yeah max law we're not making money off veteran speech um it's not the
citizens of the council meeting in March I'm okay with putting investment in order to benefit the community there's a good use for it too Um, and I think that saying $500,000 per year, that's just that's just an overstatement. Um, in
general to to stop you on that, that was not going to collapse. But anyway, to to that came from you guys financial report that 515. I didn't make that up. You can go on your website and look it up. says $515,000 net loss in 2023. We
still ask No, I agree with that. Looking at other we just took it off, you know, Yeah. So, I don't I don't know how else to address that, but here's the point. The course needs
$400,000 a year in improvement. There will be Right now, it's unplayable. will probably be unplayable for days, maybe through the uh weekend. So, not only do we need improvements every year,
drainage capital [Music] improvements, but also it's not generating any tax for the county or the city. So, and there'll be hurricanes and bad weather every year. You can count on it.
So $500,000 a year is not an overstatement going forward. I don't believe at all. [Music] I mean, the other thing is when you're taking money from a general fund, that's money that can go into anything, right?
That's your discretionary budget. And when you're having to pull from that at all, you're in trouble on the enterprise fund. I mean, that was unheard of. We would never touch the general fund to subsidize anything. If we had that kind of loss, we would cut it. If if the market would have absorbed this course,
like I said, 100 years ago, this was a trade-off. It was gifted to the city by Hart Hall's ownership as a trade-off and finished the hotel. And the city was desperate enough for the hotel at that point. They took on this risk, which is 100 years later, still losing money. If you could privatize the beach and make
money, I think you guys would be in favor of that. You want to try and do what you can to be a steward of taxpayer dollars. This was a trade-off from 1927. That was because the council then valued the resort so much. It's the low businesses. There's a closet with a
tower that survived. Let's let him just ask some questions. You have time to wrap up. So, the way I look at this too is as more like a public partner partnership or a private um public partnership of this. So,
um not not for public record. I want to how we can do this, but it this is a very big undertaking and I just want to make sure that the city isn't going to put ourselves in a situation that we're we're taking risk and a lot of liability. You mentioned uh
too that we are taking a zero dollar zero liability zero financial responsibility in this if we're if we're kind would you agree that we're kind of partnering with this if we go into a lease agreement? Absolutely. I mean it is basically a
public private partnership in essence. So with that being said then I would I would feel really comfortable and confident uh or I would feel a lot better about moving forward into the future if just knowing like the financials are too um just to make sure that the city is covered and protected
too to um so and this is something I want to try to make as clear as I can to the public and to you all too. when I look at all the projects and things that you guys are doing, Harbor Hall is is separate from the Wakobia building, which is separate from what we want to
do here. So, I not I see what what you all are doing with the CRA, but I think as a council, too, if we're going to move forward with the golf course, I just want to see more milestones set up, see financials, and making sure that this is we're moving forward the best way possible.
We agreed completely in the lease and I'd have to look at enough copy in front of me. I think we said that there's a reverter if you guys deem that the quality is not maintained after x amount of months. If you guys can think of any more milestones, we're happy to throw them in there. I mean, it would be disastrous if we let the course get
any worse, right? It just would be not only bad for you guys for the hotel. So, if if you have any suggestions, we're happy to hear them. So, you're open you're open to the idea of just opening up financials, too, just to make sure that we're on the same page. What do you mean by that? I I just want to make sure
this is a multi-million dollar facility. There's a ton of payroll. There's expenses. I don't want to go into a deal with that. So, for whatever reason, I I don't like to take necessarily just people's rewards. Being a numbers guy, I'm seeing businesses all the time. I just want to see kind of where where
things are at before we get into a we 100 acre parcel of land. employees for those costs. And this is going to be a partnership. I just want to make sure I know who we're going into into business with. Again, kind of separating what you're doing in Carter Hall versus the other projects. This is now we're
involved. I I personally would like to see that. I don't know where everybody else is. I I hear you on that. Um that would be extremely non-standard in any construction project because Sorry, because you have a
guarantee in there, of course. So, you're talking about the condition of the horse being kept. I mean, I don't know opening up financials like what we're paying the roofers what we're paying for windows or No, no, I'm not saying about harder hall at all. No,
I'm just saying for the the Oh, you're talking about on the course. Just on the golf course. I don't what you're doing. I'm just saying about in order to maintain the the quality, how we're going to fund it, we're going to work together. That's that's a very standard thing and we'd be
happy to do whatever you set probably 6 months or a year is typically what you see on those we'd be happy to do either our reports and then you bring in financials rounds like what you guys provided. Yeah, that'll be fine. I know that's a lot. Thank you.
walking away, but you guys have [Music] seen what are you planning on charging per night per room? You made a comment you was going to be
in competition with hotels. So, what's your what's your rate going on? So the short answer would be it is premature for that. But I will tell you we've underwritten this with our own numbers and we figure if you can start at at
least 150 a night you can make it work there. The people right up front charge 259 a night. That's right. We're the only you're looking at if you think there you don't need
more hotels in town. And they don't know the golf course. Say they don't own the golf course. Got to say that's okay. Everyone out there trying to speak. I guess this is all said already, but um my opinion probably closely aligns
with Josh across the board. You know, I was never really in favor. I told you this just, you know, essentially just giving you the the golf course. Um, like the idea of the 99 groundings. You say
you're going to maintain Caddy Shack. That addresses my concerns. Um, the only outstanding thing is the future of the employees, making sure that we have them covered. You know, there's things like government benefits. Um, we just
got to be able to figure that out. Uh, you know, I'm not going to sit here and be a dead horse. Um, I like what you guys have changed your proposal to. Uh, the only other question that I have is really for legal and staff. We do proceed forward with a 99-year lease.
Does that need to enter any kind of a RFP type situation? I don't know. There is no legal requirement to have an RFP. All right. [Music] That's all I have. Thanks. So in in
light of what the TVC presented to, I think that something that what what they want to propose, what what they have proposed, I think we need to take a really good hard look at what that looks like for the uh courts, too. So I know you all would like us to sign something
tonight, but I want to again I want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence of what is the highest best use of that property. Um, is there a timeline that you're looking for? One and then the second thing would be uh I wouldn't personally I wouldn't feel
comfortable right now signing someone over until we see more deliverables and action items on existing projects that you have. Yeah. And um I guess our thing would be we really do need to be figuring out the usage as we're rolling the envelope up.
Um we need to determine if we're going to do this as a resort or not. Um that's why we blocked in the windows. version of Central AC. That's why we bought the irrigating back windows. That's why we're spending nearly a million dollars to have the doors handmade. This goes out the window if you do an ALF. I would have done it as a historic renovation
project. The restoration is a renovation. Um, and it's just not something we really want to be involved with. I I will say you do need to take a good look at the TDC's plan because you know it was said by Councilman Carl out that maybe that was a good idea after he
said he wanted to give Tucker a chance but that plan is talking about eliminating nine holes and turning into a nine-hole course. It's in the presentation. So you're talking about losing the golf course as you know it and we were talking about usage and preserving it. So that's what I was saying about kind of value decision is
do you want a golf course to be an 18-1 in the group or do you want to put in more sports fields? That is not for me to decide. That is for you guys to decide. Um but we really do need to kind of get a decision here. I mean like I said in the presentation we have preserved the building. The foundation's
done. The roof's wrapping up. The windows are ordered. The doors are ordered. But we're we're just not going to going to go to where we're going to go without the law enforce. That's just plain and simple because if somebody else in the market would have done it, it probably would have been done in the last 39 years. There's a reason this has
been vacant for 40 years and we know that it's a limited window for success here. So, we really like I mean we were hoping to get a 30-day workshop window from that March meeting. You know, I'm super thankful to everybody. I'm thankful to to to Scott, thankful to
Kathy. You guys have been great truly with getting this done. But, you know, I don't want to waste anybody else's time either because if this is not going to come to fruition. We'd rather take the the quick no than the long maybe because it's already been going on for 2 and 1/2 years and we really need to figure out what
we're doing ourselves here one way or the other. I just kind of like to wrap up this side a little bit and explain how this kind of came to a head. Um when Robert and Jim came back
and there was an interest in the um getting harder hall back online and we got kind of excited when when they had group come in and said, "Hey, we just paid 4 million cash for this." And the conversation did start to say it'd be great to turn this into a high
dollar, high class resort and tie in the golf course. So there was interest from council members that were here to move forward with it and at least take a look at it. That was prior to what had happened to the golf course now. So there there has been an improvement, but this is this is where the Blackman
family came along and kind of riding on this thing uh with prior council members that were here. It's an exciting adventure. You look at what is going to happen to that resort. That's a 30 to $40 million project for the golf course.
They got nearly $10 million in Is that what it was? Sorry, that was my wife telling me to shut. But um so that's this is where this concept has really come from. And it wasn't just, hey, we want to grow with this. This has kind of been mulling
over for the last four year almost four years. I think 2022 is when it started when you guys started looking at this thing. So that's where it is. Um I know there's a lot of concerns and comments that come from I've gotten all sides of it here over the last few
weeks about for and against doing this. I think that a couple of the biggest things were just from a staffing standpoint. What are you going to do with the staff? How you going to secure your jobs? And then the caddy shack was another big one. I got a ton of people um that had commented on that, but I
think there's a lot of stuff that still needs to go over and like uh everybody up here said, we just need to kind of cash out and come back to a u a yes or no basically and see if we can negotiate the terms uh as we kind of
outwind a little bit here. I'm sure we're going to hear some more comments from people, but but this is just not a drop in a bucket. These guys have come forward. If you remember the one before this, it was an AMF that was going to come in. They were going to get a big bond issue was a 45 million. That thing tankked. You look at the before when we
had Shanker come in from Miami that uh stuck the city with about 4 million. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that had happened in the past and all of a sudden you get somebody come in that are crazy enough to put 4 million into a project that was going to be bulldozed. actually was on the city council agenda to look
at when when the ALF kind of collapsed and they were bailing out of town. The city got that back. It was going to turn into a piece of dirt in the house of development. So why have come in and committed a ton of money to this and I think it takes fair consideration to go ahead and and continue to look and see
if there is a possibility if we can ally some of the concerns and secure some of their concerns. Uh I think you know the city council and and the resident side actually if you look operationally and where it can be and what it can bring to
our community not just a golf course and a resort. It's it's it'll be a destination. It's kind of like HGTV downtown. We we became a destination for a lot of things. So um it's something that we at least need to consider. Um it
can improve values. It can improve our community. improve a lot of things for us as we look forward. Even even if they don't even if they we don't turn the golf course over, you know, able to maintain that in a great position because it's still to get that beautiful
asset on the lake completed is going to be such an asset to our community. So that's about all I have to touch. Okay, thank you guys. So, we're going to move on to the public comment portion of the evening. I want to remind everyone
that there is a hard 5minute timer. Um, if you are here with a group of people and you can elect or select a spokesperson to so we're not here all night, that would be wonderful. Um, we have two people who kind of put their names in to start with and then I'm going to ask that you just come up as
you would like. Um, when you come up to the podium, please state your name for the record. Uh, and we'll have the timer going here. Um, so Mr. Bobby Lee U put his name in first and then after that, Mr. Drew Locker and and after that it is whoever would like to go
next. Back when Carile was in grade school, I learned how to draw the ball and play the ball on that golf course. The reason I had to do that is we head
down middle where all the water wasn't. It's shocking that almost 70 years later, it hasn't changed. And so far, all I've heard is the blacks will change that. I don't know that the city can
afford all of the engineering and all of the earth moving that's going to be required for us to hit fall down the fairway. And that's kind of a shame. So, did we lose half a million
dollars last year or the year four or not? The question is, we shouldn't even be asking that. Why would we even be considering the possibility we would have much money if someone else is willing to do that for us? Because taxpayers, I don't have
to pay. I don't mind them playing, but I don't see why the rest of us should have. So, we're just Are we going to continue to subsidize golf course is the question? Are we going to give this one a chance? You can order the thing so
that it's a chance. A long not long a chance for a long time or not, whichever. Um, as I understand it, the current players that are out there can still play, not going to be a problem for them, is not going to be a problem. We
just heard it earlier with the restaurant or the five full-time employees. And there's probably another reason why Mr. complain to them here can work up a deal where you can just lease the
the employees out from the city and they can still get their employee benefits. It happens all over the world. I know it can happen in a cranking as well. They wouldn't have even worry about whether they're going to have
their city benefits. Couple of things here have already been addressed. I don't need to do it. The real question to me individually and it's not the last obviously that's the last one. Um I will say this I'm in shock. I actually sat and listened to
the presentation of the tourist council the other day when they were talking about this. I was in shock that they were wanting to reduce our golf course down to nine holes. In essence that eliminates the golf course. So you might as well want to make it zero. Nobody's going to be
playing nine holes. And if they do, then they're like I was when I was 13 or 14 years old, and that's probably enough. But it's not enough for the average golfer. As far as the new equipment part, let's throw that out there. I don't know, Councilman, how in the world you
came with $400,000. I can go and get a 180 mph [Music] windresistant barn if you will, a garage, fourpart garage for
$20,000. I had to pour my own floors and I don't know why it cost $400,000 to put the equipment out there. And if that's the case, then why shouldn't the department of it instead of that? So the last thing I guess
is like my family, why in the world would they want to stay here at Crant if they can't really make a good going for what they're trying to do for our community? I just don't understand.
They wouldn't if they were greedy, they would not do that to me. They would pack up. They would sell off and go home. And all the other opportunities we have, all the support they can give this city that they're
willing to do and have been doing will dry up and just like the winds up north, they'll blow all those leaves away and be gone. That's all I got to say.
[Applause] Good evening. Um, Drew Locker. I am a consultant for the Blackman family. Uh, I'm a licensed general contractor. I've done 25 years of historical renovation experience and I spent 9 years of my
life building the stream Resort for the Mosaic Company. Um, three championship golf courses. Um, the Black Wings have brought me on to take a look at this. I've been talking with Robert for two months about, hey, it will rain down
there one day. Let me go look at the golf course when it's raining bad. Luckily, when I came down, today was that day. So, I spent about 2 hours walking a course. A lot of drainage problems, a lot of from historical pictures I've seen from the Blackman's.
Yes, it's been improved. It looks better. that what we're working on and what I'm working on with them with my contacts in the industry is to bring in worldass golf course architects invest in the course make the course there
because and I think Jim I told you this the first day I met you it is a resort amenity if you don't have the course you don't have a resort you have a hotel and that is a big thing you need to have the amenities you need to have the golf course you need to have tennis need to
have pickle Oh, you need to have a spa, a restaurant, all these items. When you go ahead and you restore something to this, you have to have those. And one of the, you know, Mr. Stewart, you made a wonderful point of, hey, once you get a CO, then we can talk about this. The
thing that scares me about that is amenities need to be delivered on day one. And the course, I don't think you I I I don't think Miss Body understands the investment that they want and need to make into the course. The drainage has to be fixed. You're
going to rebuild holes. You're going to change the layout of the course. You who knows how it would be. Like I said, I've talked to four different very high-end golf course architects. And you know, they love stuff like this. When we tell them, hey, it's a horrible drainage. It's got issues. It's municipal course
that, you know, they've done everything that they can do. And they like to do this. They like to change these things. It's a challenge. But that's where the black men's are trying to push this resort destination. You would come somewhere wherever you're going to
travel from Orlando, from Tampa, from Jacksonville. We can go stay at the Harvard Hotel. It's historic. It's wonderful. We can go down there. It's a resort. We have wonderful city of Sebring. We can do stuff there. We can It's a two, three-day destination to go.
And golf course players, any I'll tell you any of these hardcore golf course players, they go to stream, they play three courses. There's another dope course down in Jupiter. These guys will travel to play golf and it's is make it a good reason for them to want to come
to Sebrand because they will. But like I I said, Jim, the hard truth of it is I said if you don't have a golf course, you don't have a restaurant. And that's that's just the long and short of it. I think they're going to be a very good steward of the land. I think they're
gonna really push to make the golf great, to make the resort great, and it really benefits the town as a whole. So, um, again, I'm working with them to try to push this in the right direction, but
understand when you talk about the golf course, that is their vision. Their vision is to make it a great golf course. And yes, it's still here. When we did stream song, everybody was terrified that no one from the public will be able to come play. It's going to be private. And it was never did that.
Of course, it's a it's a public course. Anyone can come play. And I think they have the ability, you know, to put things in place for people who are here. When you talk about rates and all these things, you can work through that. They're very reasonable people. But in
order to make the hotel and the resort pencil, you need the golf course. Thank you. [Applause] Next up. Yes, ma'am. Make sure you state your name for the record. Sure. Jean Campbell remains LT
plus and I've been here since selling real estate here since 1980. It sounds like these gentlemen should have hired that gentleman before they made the decision to uh to Hard Hall and uh he's already mentioned Mr. Watan already mentioned something along the lines of
you know that they need a golf course or something like that to make it successful and I think this is this gentleman reinforced that. Um so just I'm just looking for a yes or no on this one. Has in the lake ever approached you guys on the golf course? Yes or no? Ever?
No, not to my Okay. Okay. So, like I already said, they obviously thought um they would need a golf course in order to really make uh the farm hall a success. It seems like they should have known that before. Now, as far as Cattyshack, Cattyshack was there um when
they made the decision to um you know to start Haraul and they've been there for gosh I had no idea it was 19 years. Um, but I I you know, I say that in my business, I've had some amazing mentors and they say listen to people carefully
and and they give you clues. And I think we've already gotten clues. Listen, let me, you know, there's a lot that's been said about the golf course, but I tend to agree to what Lenard said. I think Josh, I think you were saying that. I'm not really sure, but I know Lenard did. Let them get going. Let them, you know,
um um you know, do what they intended to do with Harter Hall. go for it. We're excited that they're here. Um, but this gentleman kind of put some doubt in my mind. Gee, are they gonna really make it finish if they don't if they g are they going to finish it if they don't do the golf course? I'm questioning that now.
Um, so let's see. Oh, and and then they somebody questioned about how are they going to compete? How are catty shack? What are they going to do as far as the golf course? How are they going to compete with food? You know, I don't think they need to worry about that.
Don't worry about that. Then again, that's clues. End of the legs, you know, they get packed with golfers, by the way. Oh, who said the golf course is unplayable? Is it? Okay. I didn't think so. I didn't think so. Well, yeah. I mean, yeah, but some
houses people in Sebring can't get into their driveways because of the rain, too. So, that's another subject. Um, you know, Catty Shack just gets to go with I mean, they're just you have from, you know, from doctors to real estate agents to, you know, um, retired people,
families, they have their birthday parties, anniversaries. We had I had 15 people, 14 people there yesterday celebrating Mother's Day. I mean, it's just kind of a local hangout. And they paid the price, guys. You know that they paid the price. They started, you know,
they weren't making any money and just, you know, one hamburger at a time. and uh French fries or amazing chicken wings if you haven't tried a char grill. But you know they paid the price during the hurricanes pandemics. Yes, there was a pandemic. You know they were there and
um I just think it would be very sad. They were already mentioned about oh you know we have to negotiate the lease. So they give you clues and that's not a that's not a cool thing. Perhaps the city should negotiate that lease. I I
get that. Um, and the city invested over $400,000 last year in the golf course. I I I just can't shake that. So, anyway, I I uh hope that you all will consider just let them do this amazing job that
they intend to do. Let them make harder hall what we all want it to be. And then if if you want to negotiate something with a golf course, then do it at that time. But let them prove themselves first. This last gentleman put a lot of
doubt in my mind that that they can. So thank So I'm going to I'm going to ask going forward. I think we've got a line kind of started along the sides here. Go ahead. You're already up there. But going forward if you could line up where
these two gentlemen are on the side. Thank you. Uh Blake Welder 36 West Moose Road. I've been a member over at the community for about the past 15 years. Yeah, the course has had it difficulties. But let me ask council one
question. Have you ever considered a management company? That would take your issue with cattoint. No, no investment involved there. The management company would take over the golf course force, would take
over maintenance, would take over all responsibilities. You would still receive a portion of whatever rates you would negotiate. You could also take the maintenance building and negotiate to keep your equipment there to service
maximum. So that's just one thought that you know you may want to consider. The gentleman that was up here before talking about stream Stream song is managed by Keer Sports. It's a management company. They're taking care of the responsibilities of
all the maintenance and whatever improvements have to be done at that particular course of just something to think about. My name is Terry Mendle and I just completed a three-year term on city council. It was a wonderful experience.
I learned a lot. And one of the things I learned is Sebring should be thanking the Lord God for bringing the Blackman family here. [Applause] I have worked very closely with them for
the last three years and I can attest to their quality of their character, the top tier event, the resort that they want to bring here. Um, something maybe it isn't clear if they don't if they're not able
to join the golf course up with Harter Hall, it will not be a resort. It will be just like they said, a hotel. And it's a whole different story for the amount of money they're going to
put into it if they don't join with the golf course. And the three years that I've been there, it was always kind of an assumed thing that the golf course would be able to be connected with the Harter Hall like it was in the past.
And I have spent hours and hours with the Blackman family, especially Robert, him volunteering his time and expertise to bring quality strategic development
to our city. And I will be crying very big real tears if Sebring Florida misses the opportunity to have the kind of resort that the Blackman family want to bring here and they Robert's a very
competitive guy and he would love to have a topflight golf course and bring in big events there with the tournaments. He wants Harter Hall to be a jewel here. And I came here years ago.
I worked in entertainment out in Southern California. I came here with my company that I was working for. City council took me on a tour of Harter Hall. I was looking to bring in a group to work on Harter Hall. City council
promised me everything in the world. And I never said this to Robert that they weren't going to give me harder hall. Robert and the black men group spent 4.4 million. I think I've got that right. It was 4 million at least. They put a total
of 10 million so far. And they have done the they have done the restoration correctly and it's taken a lot of time. And they have been top tier with the way they want to do everything. that's going to go away. If this golf
course isn't joined in with them, this is going to all go away. It'll be just a a hotel. And some of the business people that Robert has brought here, they're watching all of what's going on to see with our city council, the people of
Sebring are businessfriendly. And so far, it's been a hard road here lately. Um, one thing that I asked with all with the black ones, um, Robert came to me a year, a
year year and a half ago with the idea of again having a lease for the, um, golf course. And there's this thing called a clawback. If they don't um, perform like they say they're going to, it reverts back to the city. There's
going to be thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars into redoing the topography of the golf course. The golf course is not playable now. It's late and it will drain off. Yes. Our grand opening of the golf course, Brett
Tender's done a great job with the money he's had. The grand opening of the golf course was cancelled because it had rained. You can't progress to the next stage of having a top tier golf course without reworking the topography and to
have somebody of the quality of the black ones want to come in and invest in our community like this. I'm so proud of them and so happy to support them and we don't want this to go away and it is going to go away if the golf course
doesn't get joined in with them. It'll just be a hotel that they're not particularly excited about. So, please, Severing, don't miss the opportunity to have this this worldass five-star resort
here. We should be supporting the Blackman with everything that we have. They are helping now with a museum. Make sure you say your name first, please. My name is uh Pedro Janeo. I'm a
physician and I've been here for 33 34 years. I live in the country club, you know, I don't play golf. So, uh my main concern is in the caddy shop. I know that uh that's been part of the deal. My question first is
can the cash check be divided, separated from the golf course and treated as a different entity? Can that be leased to the caddy shack owners and separated from the golf course? Give the golf course to the
blackman family and the caddy shack to a different person. Is that possible? I think it is possible, as far as I know, we would have to work out if that's something that uh parties would be willing to do or if we'd be willing to vote on. I believe in my thoughts because
uh Gabrielle and uh his wife has been here for I mean he's been here since he was a teenager. He started from scratch from zero, worked his way up all the way to a business owner. He's been here for what was it 19 20 years at the F check and I
would hate that because a big corporation comes to town that they will be left out. I know that that uh according to the the deal here se October 1st according to the contract everything goes passes to the
new owners the lease the restaurant everything goes one way even though they mention a one-year extension but that one year extension is if the family wants to so they could be out in October 1st after being there for almost 20
years. And I don't think that's fair to them or to the 32 families that work there. I know that they mentioned extending the contract for another 5 years. That's a possibility, but that's not what the contract says right now. So
my concern is I think that they've been here part of this community for about 20 years and they should be given the first choice of the catty shack is taking care of the catac members and community members. is here tonight. Thank you for allowing me
to the opportunity to speak today. My name is Dr. Albert Ruiz. I'm a resident of Sebring. I have been blessed with the privilege of caring for Sebring Highlands County as a family dentist for 34 years. I want to begin by expressing
my support and excitement for the restoration of Bart Hall. The potential revival of this historic landmark along with the improvements of the municipal golf course could be a great step forward for sequence growth, tourism, and
employment. Obviously, there's a lot of details that need to be solved and I trust that they will be eventually figured out and resolved. However, I'm here today to speak on behalf of our beloved local business, the Catty Shack
Restaurant, which sits on the city-owned property next to the golf course operated by Gal and Sonia. This familyrun business has become a cornerstone of our community. It's not just a place to eat. It's a gathering spot for locals, golfers, and
friends. With 33 employees more or less, the cattish shack is also a source of livelihood for many secret families. We understand the developer, Mr. Blackman's group, is requesting that Cattyshack building be included in the
golf course sale or lease. While we welcome the development, we are deeply concerned that including the Catty Shack in this transfer could dismantle years of hard work, dedication, community building by a local
business. Gabriel and Sonia have poured their hearts into this business. It's their dream and it's successful and working. Everyone here tonight, including our
respected mayor, council members, Mr. Blackman, and group who have built something from the ground up, understands how hard it is to grow a business, a brand, and a
profession. That's why I asked council to consider alternatives. Some suggestions to consider allow Gabrielle and Sonia to renew, retain, or negotiate a lease with either the county
or with the Blackland group or if possible, similar to what Dr. Leno was saying segregate cattish property from the golf course and let grant them the first
right of refusal to purchase the building. The city would not have to maintain subsidized cash and the gain of the proceeds could go for the community for projects. This approach would preserve a thriving
local business, protect jobs, and still allow for the development of heart of all and the golf course. I want to thank you all council members and the community members for your thoughtful consideration. I trust you will make the
decision that reflects the values of fairness, local opportunity, and the economic progress for all of Sebring. Thank you for your attention. My name's Kieran Neil Tedar. Um, I got several questions as I've had
conversations with you, Mr. Latin, on Facebook Messenger. One was you told me that Catty Shack only paid $14,000 in rent last year. Uh, I think you're wrong. They paid $3,500 a month for a year and that's more than
14,000. Two, you tell me the golf course. Let me let me finish before I lose my train of thought cuz I'm like my mother now. My mother she just she started all this stuff. Okay. Um two, you said the golf course is unplayable.
Okay. Well, when you have seven 8 in y'all out there 8 in of rain, you can't play on a golf course. Okay, you cannot compete with string song and severing string song is $300 around. Okay, two, three, whatever. You have to kind of
cash. This is public. This is Sebring. I've been here since 1974. My mother worked her, you know what, off to get local business here. Keep local business here for the local people, for the people of this town. You
can't come in and try to make this a little naive. It's not going to work. If you really wanted the golf course, you still have to help me go in Harbor Hall that was not was split up. You could purchase the executive nine and make it
back nine. You should have done your research and not guaranteed on the word that oh, we're going to get the golf course and we're going to do this. That's all I have to say. if you want to answer my response on the rent. Ma'am, we're going to we're not going to do a
Q&A with address at the end. Wanted to point out and I think I think what you're related to and I wasn't I didn't see that screen but they did pay 30 I think a year ago 30 some thousand what but the city picked up the insurance and
the horn taxes that has to pay in so that probably was a net amount if I'm not mistaken. So, okay. Well, my question to you then, why cannot the caddy shack be separated from the golf course? Why can Gab and who work so
hard, can they not buy it? Can they not do more than a 2-year lease? The two years possibly three was what he told me in his comments. You recommended to the city council a 2year lease, possibly free. I haven't all the messages been
black and white from what he told me. Okay. Yes, that's that's a question that can't be answered tonight. Well, I'm just been said. Thank you. Good evening, Joey Lang. For the record, I keep hearing need. We need this golf
course. We need this to make it a resort. It has to be a resort for this development to work. I find it ironic that when someone attempts to negotiate with the city from a position of need that the city would usurp that position for a dollar a year.
It seems from the powerful position that the city has, we could dictate more favorable terms. Terms where the catty shack remains, but also where no effort is ever made to keep golfers out of their establishment. Terms where seafring residents don't take a backseat to
tourists. terms where resident access remains affordable and reliable because any deal with any group for the municipal is going to wipe out the losses. So, we keep focusing on
savings. Let's get a real win by entertaining real offers that don't amount to the cost of hitting a golf ball in the lake on number five at the m [Music] Good evening everyone. My name is Kim
Pyek and my father came to Sebring in 1995 because when he retired a good friend gave him a coupon book and the coupon with coupon card that went with a book that he could get
discounts at golf courses. So he looked in Florida to see which city had the most golf courses that he could get a discount on because he could pinch a penny till a poop. So dad keep his secret. He was a golfer. He golfed 5
days a week when he could. He was still golfing when he was 90. He played every course in the area. His one look he was sad sad sad when the Harter Hall course was dismantled. He hated to see any golf go away. But he
also said, "Wouldn't it be great if if someone would invest in one of the courses here and make it really fun to play?" And he played a variety of them all over the country. He kept waiting
for that really good course to come. And he also taught me never to look a gift horse in the mouth. When someone wants to bring something of benefit, of beauty to your community, you don't turn that away. You accept that. And also, he taught me that
the cream rises to the top. He loved the Catty Shack. One of the last places he met with his golfing friends was at the Catty Shack, and we enjoyed a meal there. He would say everyone benefits when one benefits.
If the if the Harter Hall resort is going to be a benefit to our community, then just by association that the Catty shack shack will benefit also and those of us who appreciate the catty shack
will benefit as well. So it's not a one or the other. We have seen the benefits from having HGTV here and have seen the increase in tourism. I'm a volunteer with the historical society. We've seen
increases even in our little our little endeavor at our museum. So, I think we can all benefit and the us versus them challenges all of us. I think we all lose when we are too close-minded to the
opportunities available to us. Thank you, Garrett Lee. And just would like to say that it is my opinion that the city council should go ahead and keep their word that they went ahead and gave back in 2022. If you want to negotiate terms to make it as fair as possible for
everyone, please do so. But keep your [Applause] word. Okay. Is there anyone else before we closing? Okay. You guys just needed last call. [Music] stand up the whole night.
Hi, my name is Debbie Turner and I live out at Sun Lake. Um, just for starters, I have absolutely no skin in this game whatsoever. Um, I think Catty Shack is a great restaurant. Um, I've been to lunch there several times. The food is
awesome. The people are great. Um, we will be playing Southern Link tomorrow after 11 in of rain because we have awesome drainage on our golf course. Uh we have spent last year half a million dollars just on greens on one of the 21
18 world courses. So it's very very expensive to maintain a golf course and the city of Sebring does not have that kind of money and I moved here four years ago from Fort Meyers where we have
all the shopping that you could possibly want. and and and every time a new business looks like it's going to open in town, somebody gets on next door and says, "What do you think it's going to be?" And everybody comments and says, "Uh, it's going to be another storage
facility. It's going to be another pop shop. It's going to be another gas station. It's going to be a car wash." And the reality is this town does not bring in enough tax dollars to bring Costco or Sam's Club or the the places
that I constantly hear that people want. And and the other flip side of that is you want those things, but you don't want your town to grow. And and you can't have it both ways. and and these folks and I don't know the
Blackman family from Adam, but but I will ask one question before I go to that. How many here have been on the Harbor Hall website, the historical website, and read all about that hotel in its
heyday? Very few. Very few hands up. and and what that resort did for this community was just unfathomable and and it could do it again. And nobody is trying to take away
the catty shack. Um, and and I think if the city would sit down with the Blackman family and with the the the folks from Catty Shack or the the doctor and the dentist, I apologize, I don't recall your names, um, had a great idea.
Slice that piece of property off, reszone it, get rid of it, and let the Blackman family build a beautiful restaurant right across from the golf course on that corner there, and let them do whatever they want to do with that property. And if Cattyshack is what
everybody in this room loves about it, they will still exist and they will do phenomenal and and everybody's a winner. I support the Blackman family because any any family, first of all, who cares
about history and and who wants to come into this town and completely renovate to the tune of millions and millions of dollars the most historic building in this town.
And for this town to turn on them and and I got to tell you on social media, this town was just horrendous to the HGTV folks. You They really were. If you've been down to the circle since HGTV was here, oh my god, what it has
done for the business owners, the people who live in this town. And that's what these folks want to do for the entire town. you know, you're not beating up on the racetrack that brings in a ton of people every year. You're not beating up
on uh the in on the lakes who brings in, you know, big groups of golfers cuz we see them out at Sun Lake all the time. So, you know, for this family to to come in and want to spend that kind of money,
um Oops, I dropped your thing. And and to get such a hard time and and again, I I agree. I think hopefully a lot of people that are making the decisions in this room have
realized that the catty shack's an issue and and that has got to be addressed one way or the other or I don't think you're going to get the support of the community and maybe not the support of the board. I don't know. But I I commend you and your family for coming in here
and wanting to do this project cuz I can't wait to see it. And and I like a whole lot of other people in this room hope that we're still alive to see it when it's done. Uh um and and please don't just think of yourselves when you're making comments
about this and don't think of just today or tomorrow. Think about what this is going to bring to the community as a whole 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road. So the council mayor, my name is Chip. For the record, I just had two or three
points bring up real quick. U Mr. Blackman made the comment. Nobody, it was unsolicited offered to the city to uh to lease the golf course eventually maybe buy it. Um and we talk about transparency and because it was
unsolicited, nobody ever knew cuz there are people out there, other individuals that would be interested in leasing the golf course or or buying it. I know that for a fact because I've talked to a couple of them. Uh having said
that, the comment about expenses that and I agree as a real estate commercial broker I agree that the lease that cash pays is under market. It it is cheap for that type of facility. And I'm not going to guarantee
this on behalf of the owners of the restaurant, but that that approximately $16,000 a year equates to about $1,300 a month. If you raise the rent, if you're not paying for the taxes insurance, you
know, that gets it more up value. And I'm not saying they would be willing to do that, but that's certain certainly something to keep in mind. The other thing is on the golf course number nine everybody when it rains you got to miss the ducks are going in the water. One of the reasons
so that that that there is range problems and and improvement to the golf course that I play golf too. I certainly encourage the consideration of that eliminate that and expense to the city. Thank you. How many of you are ready to go
home? Yeah, that's what I thought too. Listen, I just want to thank the uh the city city council mayor so you sir. We have we'll start it all up again. Here we have Tom, 339 Drive, former police
chief. Former police chief 19 years, city council, two terms, which is six years. Um, you know, I don't see this as an us and them. I see this as a tremendous partnership that is ready to come together. I really do. I'm proud of
everybody that came up here tonight to make their feelings known. Uh, the Blackman, I can see them being flexible. I I see that happening. I mean, they're ready. They're bending over backwards. They want to help out. They want to make this happen. And so do you guys. I
commend the city council for being cautious and for being forwardlooking and wanting to protect the interests of the city and its employees. They always have and always
will. one point that I picked out and if I'm not mistaken, Max Long could use a good shot in the arm so they can get up on that list to start drawing in some national
competition. Take that 250, 300,000, 400,000 that we run in the red every year with our golf course. throw at least a good 50% or better of that to max long. Make Max Wong look wonderful
and I think that will work. Couple of points that were made is about public recreation. We talked about the beach. We talked about parks. We talked about the tennis and the pickle ball courts. The only difference between them and the city golf course is you
don't have to pay to go to any of these other facilities, right? You do if you have if you want to play golf. You got to pay the greening fees. You got to pay the card fees. We're still losing money. That's not good. In the 19 budget years that I had
to present to city councils as the police chief, all I could think of, and by the way, it's so much fun to be able to save the stop cuz I couldn't do it then. How many police cars could I buy for the amount of money that we were
pumping into the golf course and not getting anything back? We losing $350, $400,000 a year. got six or seven or eight police cars in my room. Bottom line here
is the golf course is looking better. It does need some very serious improvements. We got to get the drainage situation under control and that affects the entire neighborhood by the way folks. And last but not least, as a cliche may
be, let's make Harvard Hall great again. [Applause] Okay, I think that's it for public comment. Thank you everyone. Um, we're going to next go to followup by
presenters. Um, Mr. and Mrs. Is there anything you wanted to add after this? No, we're good. Daniel. Okay. I believe our TEC presenters have left. They were only going to stay for their presentation. Oh, you're here. Anything
that you wanted to add to Casey and Alan? The only thing I will say is our we were not a it was not a recommendation to do that to the golf course. This was simply an idea. So that we weren't saying you need to do this. Our thing was you have opportunities.
Give people an idea to look at all different opportunities. It spurns conversive conversations. Right. I agree with the gentleman back here. If you take Max long and you really look at that, you're going to have to come up to the microphone.
Sorry. It's got to be public record. [Music] Alan Blander with Airstream Ventures. The only thing I was saying was um we weren't recommending anything. We were asked to do a study and we do a study all over. Um we do we do a study all over the country on these different
types of facilities. So that's the only thing. It was not a recommendation. It was not even a suggestion that you do this. was you have this asset here's here would be an opportunity currently max long you could take that and create eight fields and make it unbelievable
where you could attract national tournaments which is good for harder hall I can I can assure you that if you bring in tournaments that have 100 teams they're going to fill a lot of hotels including the new harder hall so I think uh and a lot of what people are saying
is it's both and you can do everything Um, but that was my point is this was not a recommendation from the TDC that you do this to the golf course. It was not a recommendation. It was simply we were asked to do a study and we did the
setup. [Music] Thank you, Mayor, Council, Attorney Swain, Administrator, City Clerk for all all of
you for your time. Put on my glasses. Tonight, you've heard three visions for the golf course. Our vision is to enhance the course with upgrades and the assumption of risk while beautifying the entire neighborhood,
creating jobs, bringing tourists with disposable income, and providing community gathering spaces for residents to enjoy. One vision was presented by the TDC. We were made of their proposal last Friday. All the black clothes. We were
made of their proposal last Friday. or TDC. It would uh encompass elimination of potentially half of the golf course, adding concrete, asphalt, and impervious surfaces to a neighborhood that experiences severe flood. It sounds like
a big unknown change is potentially on the horizon with the elimination of the golf course potentially as we know it, a distinct possibility. We are presenting an offer to keep, restore and enhance not only the golf course but the entire resort for the
better betterment of the community. We are not developers. We are professional preservative preservationists. Sorry. We have preserved many vacant and abandoned buildings and are being honored Wednesday night in St. Pete for the
second time with the top award from St. Petersburg Preservation Society and with a banquet in Ron. We made our proposal for the golf course on December 28th, 2022. Administration and city council have for 2 and 1/2 years given
assurances that they were on board with our proposal throughout this period and deferred to us multiple times on whether Catty Shack's lease should be renewed. We always obliged and said yes. I want to make one note. Candy Shack had the
option three three and 1/2 years ago to go for a 5-year lease. For some unknown reason, they did not exercise that option. That's just not offered that we were presented with a 2-year lease because it was
already promised to No, no. If you look at your if you look at your old lease, we made our proposal for the golf course. memory center. Um, the number of highp paying jobs created for the community will be in the hundreds for not only the hotel's construction and
operation, but for ancillary services as well. Additionally, all those from out of town coming to the resort will be utilizing disposable income for local businesses and will create the largest possible benefits toward heads in the
beds, which is what PDC's. This was to be our legacy, not just another failed attempt like so many people. What is to stop us from walking away? We have skin in the game. Where others were gifted the hotel and gifted
public monies, we have financed the hotel solely on our own accord using cash for the purchase and renovation of which we have committed over $10 million in county dust. We have invested in Sebring. We simply ask that part of that
favor be returned to us. I'd like to briefly uh tell why it's taken so long at Carter Hall. The former all the former renovators did quick and dirty jobs. We've had to undo all the terrible
things that have been done before. There was concrete tile on the roof. Historically, it was clay tile. We've gotten Spanish from Spain clay tile for the roof. The the window sills were pressed with
four micro overboard. When they got wet, they expanded up to be about 4 to 6 in wide. It has just been a horror show for the past 40 years that the place has been closed. We're trying to do it
correctly. That's why it's taking so long. I can enumerate many other things. I'm going to be brief, you know. We are offering to take this risk on again. We've been offered no financial benefits and frankly I'd rather the city
have offered us millions of dollars rather than this golf course which loses money. But that offer has never been made which we've made to others. We are giving guarantees and we said we're willing to extend county checks lease. We want to renegotiate with them. We're willing to be reasonable on this, but we need guarantees for ourselves because if
you look at the National Register U application from 1990, it said this hotel was completely out of scope of reality. You know, somebody said, "We're trying to turn this into Miami." We're not trying to turn this into Miami. We're trying to turn Harvard Hall into Harter Hall, what it was always supposed
to be and what it always was. You know, that hotel, we love Catty Shack. The hotel's been there for 100 years. It should have a little bit of difference to what it historically was. It was a golf and tennis resort. It was not a hotel and it could never be a hotel. You will not be able to compete with the
crews yet on the lakes because of the large common areas you have just the cost air conditioning. We could have gone faster with the hotel. Yes, if you're going to do a different usage or a budget hotel, we had to get old photos. We had to micro analyze them to match the window types and send those to the national the federal government and
get responses back. What we're saying though is we're willing to give guarantees here. But let's just say that this falls apart today and we end up walking. You know what happens to to stop sending TDC presentation to cut off nine holes. Would they keep Catty Shack? Would any
other future plan keep Catty Shack? We're willing to make this offer right now. As far as could we cut the building off? You have to work in tandem and we want to work with Catty Shack to have them be a part of the golf course. If they were competing with us, we' just build another restaurant. There'd be no
continuity. We want to paint the exterior, fix the roof up, fix the landscape, make that product better because we want it to look good as a resort. If we're not working in tandem with them, you know, it needs to die out. So, I also think that at least we thought long and hard about what the
cost of insurance and taxes are for a business, which have not been anticipated by current ownership. We want to finish what we're committed to. The Seven Wealth Association has leased this course in the past. We're not asking for something non-standard here. And again, we we've gone this completely alone financially
so far. We're owning this thing for over $10 million so far. We've gotten the top of line windows. We have the top of line consultants, the best architects. We've been doing everything right. But we can't hold on any longer without knowing what the future's going to be. That's why we're trying to make it what it was
always intended to be by boxing in the window units, putting in central AC, all these things. But, you know, again, we are so thankful to everybody from the city. You guys have all been great to us, but we do just respectfully request this come to a landing in the next month
or so because again, we rather take the quick note and the the long maybe because that long navy has been going on for 3 years. Oh, I'll be real. Just want to address one comment on turning it into Miami. Um, there's a
a golf course and a resort that I dearly love that is north of the Tampa Bay area. It's called the Mission In at Howie in the Hills. Very similar to the situation. Historic property restored. Top-notch golf course. I've
gone to two, three, four different conventions, conferences, meetings there. It's it's an absolutely wonderful place. And that is the same vision that my client has for the Harvard Hotel. Not to turn it into something from Miami or South Florida. It's not. Sebring is a
lot like Cow in the Hills. It's bigger, but you've got the lake amenity. You've got this beautiful hotel that once was and now can be. And that's the the vision that Robert and his family have for us. not to change things for the
worse, but to change things for the better, to bring back history. So, I just want to close on one thing, and that is the proposal that's before council really doesn't change anything. You've heard Robert say it's going to work with Catty Shack. They want Catty
Shack to remain. They want the existing staff and management to remain. What's going to change? the quality of the course, the investment in the course, the operation of the course going forward, the city will still own it. The ground lease, Mr. Swain and I build in
some protections on it. If they don't perform, the city gets to take it back. What's the big disadvantage to that? Well, the city gets to take back something that's had a significant capital investment from the black ones in it. And I just don't see that
happening. So, you know, in conclusion, as Robert said, you know, we'd like to get this to a meeting sooner rather than later. Um, part of the problem is the count the city's fiscal year begins again on October 1st this coming year.
That doesn't leave us a lot of time. We've got a lot of work to do. You heard from one of their consultants that he's recently been engaged in the last two months. There's a lot of work ahead of us on this. We need the time to do it. We'd appreciate council's consideration on
[Applause] this. Should we sit back down? I just didn't know if we had questions. Okay. So, we're going to finish up with final council discussion and remarks and we'll start with Councilman
Carl. First of all, the black No, I'm not against you guys. I just want to see some stuff happen and we haven't. And I know it's been difficult. I know that. As far as um golf course, I worked on
the golf course when I was 16 years old. I've been here a lot. My dad was a chef at Hart Hall, so I know some history about harder law. Yes, I would I would like to see everything happen, but there
are some people we need to protect like the catish act and um it I think everybody's aware of that. Um so we we do need to protect the citizens and and the employees of the cash and and the
city. We have city employees out there. Um so uh I think there's a way to work it out. Um provide uh words on a piece of paper. So, I'm willing to listen. I'm willing to work
with the council and the black ones and the citizens of SE and thank you all for coming out. So, I appreciate all the input from the presenters as well as citizens and um just taking all that into consideration
as we move forward. But um to see the um passion and enthusiasm each of you have for your individual projects and for your um loyalty to your businesses locally is is very good to see. And um as we move forward, we'll I'll take all
these things in consideration. So we do thank you for coming. So the purpose of this workshop again is to figure out what we might be willing to vote on in the future. Um so I would want to tell you about what I would be willing to vote on. Um, I would be
willing to vote on on transfer of a golf course. There's a couple benchmarks I think are important. And let's be be clear, the only reason that we would consider this is it's not just it's not in a vacuum that the blackness have approached us. It's in essentially trade
for putting 30 to $40 million into a beloved historic hotel in our community. Um, and that's it's when we're talking about a dollar a year lease, it's not just that. And that's why we're I'm so emphatic that it's got to be kind of based on a CEO. It's trading that. It's
putting that investment into our community. I think that's important. Um and so I, you know, I understand the timelines and I I've heard it before the CEO. I'd be willing to to work on some sort of agreement that factors that in.
I wouldn't be willing to to vote for a lease where you could you could retain it or or continue the lease without the hotel being co. Um so I'm sure that could be worked out. I want to make it clear for the city residents here tonight and we've talked about kind of
numbers before. What we average each year based on the the financials that we have from 2012 on is 225,000 bucks a year is what we transfer in from the general fund to the golf course. That's a lot of money.
Um, come budget time, we will not have a pack frame. Usually those budget meetings are are very boring, very empty, and very tough for us because we are squeezing pennies. Uh, trying to do it, you know, trying to make this a good place to live without increasing taxes.
Um, I have a 2-year-old son and another one who could be here any moment now. Um, and I want it to be a great place for my kids to grow up. you know, I want good playgrounds and um there's a lot of golf courses around and I don't
personally feel like the city has to be providing one of them. Um no one else is going to provide playgrounds, no one else is going to provide ball fields, that's just government. Um, and so personally, if we are if the end result of this is a golf course that is wellrun
and well-maintained and still playable by locals, you know, um, and we are able to have more money for the things that no private entity is going to provide, like playgrounds and ball fields, um, I'd be in favor of that. And I will echo
what's already been said tonight. Um, and I I think I believe the black ones when they say they want to work with Catty Shack, I think part of the agreement to me would be five years to at least figure out uh give them time to to work together and figure out a plan forward. Uh, but I I would be in favor
of it if those kind of benchmarks are set. I also appreciate everybody that came tonight and voice opinion. I think that's why we have a workshop uh so we can get a feel for what's going on. And it's a it's a positive venture if you
ask me. I think it's a huge investment in our community. You look at what CRA's done downtown with the millions of dollars that they've invested in buildings and now turning over to people. It's a similar situation. If we look at it from that standpoint, but there are some points that really need to be worked out. And I think we're a
long way away and and I think city council is probably and I'll let you finish up with that. But as far as putting more concerns and getting to Scott so he can kind of combine and talk to each one of us. But I really appreciate everybody
that came tonight here. A lot of good things going on in this community. And for the lady from Sun Lake that said we were horrendous TV, you don't know the hours that people spent on that. And we were not horrendous. We worked in hand.
So stay in Silent Lake and don't come to see me. [Music] again and then for everybody else. Thank you for allow me. Excuse me. Uh thank you all. Um I had a lot of questions, concerns going into this, so
I do appreciate the three of you addressing a lot of those. Um, uh, I feel better about potentially moving forward with this. I do want to work with you. Uh, looking at some of the everything in the contract and going to Scott and Bob and see what we can do to
come up with an agreement. Um, completely open to that. I think there needs to be time for doing our due diligence and to see if if the TDC is that a possibility, too. But I know we need to work within timelines, too. Again, I just don't want
to rush into a big decision um in a small amount of time, especially with the new information. Uh I agree with with Josh and uh um with the deliverables and milestones, making sure that we can make a plan and
a path forward. That that's very clear. Um and thank you for being open with financials, too. That's a possibility as we move forward just so we know what's going on. Um, and I think it's might be more in put into consideration RPQ too. Just I mean assuming that you guys would
have a best proposal, too. I just want to make sure to everybody else in the community who would want uh the opportunity as well. So, those are kind of like my five big takeaways. Um, looking forward to see what we can do to work together and partner with
everything else that was being said by far and Josh. All right. Um, again, it's been said, you know, really agree with what Josh had to say. Um, you know, you've addressed my two
concerns. The, you know, maintaining ownership by the city of the land and making sure that cash shack is well attended to. You've addressed both of those. Um, the only thing that I'll say is the u the CO situation. I know I can
only assume that you want to start work immediately on the golf course. So, we have a big grand opening and delaying the lease until SEO would just hinder that. It just couldn't work. So, we would have to set like Harrison said
milestones something an obtainable goal to where you reach a CEO by this date and the performance that's the only thing I would ask. All right, that's really all I want to do. Okay, thank you all very much for
attending. Um, I would encourage everyone on council to get any specific and final thoughts and concerns to uh, administrator Nik that way can start work on some sort of a concept um, that we could vote on and address in future meeting. If anyone in the public has
more issues or concerns, all of our contact information is on the city website. You can email or call us. Thank you all for coming to our journey.