Regular City Commission Meeting - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. Today is Wednesday, September 9th, 2026. The time is 6 p.m. Please call the roll.

Board Member Schwartz? Here. Board Member Serrio? Here. Board Member Simone? Here. Vice Chair Rosano?

Here.

Chair Caggiano?

Present. Let's stand for a moment of silence and do the pledge. Elsie, you want to start the pledge?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. He's not going to get a t-shirt?

I don't know if we have t-shirts for this event. The CRA doesn't. That's a city item. Getting me in trouble again. Oh, you don't have shirts for the CRA. All right. Minutes for approval.

Item 1A is approval of the minutes from the July 9th, 2026 regular Margate CRA meeting.

What's the wish of the commission? So moved to approve. Please call the roll.

Member Schwartz? Yes. For members area? Yes. Remember, Simone? Yes. Vice Chair Rezano?

Yes.

Chair Casciano?

Yes. I'd like to move item for a up to now. Is there any issue? Did anyone have a problem with us moving for a up to now?

No, I have no problem. Okay.

All right, go ahead.

So item 4A is approval of temporary use agreement between the Margate CRA and Hilda Brennan Museum Rides, Inc. to hold the fair at Margate on Margate CRA-owned properties from November 9th to December 20th, 2026.

All right, I've been asked to have that tabled for two to three weeks at least.

And does anyone have a problem making a motion to table? I'll second that. Or you can't make a motion. So I'll make a motion to table.

And I'll second it.

The next CRA meeting is on October 14th, so that would be the date.

Okay, but we can call an earlier one if need be.

May I ask a question? Isn't there a certain amount of days prior to that this has to be either approved or disapproved, and that would definitely be too soon?

And has to go to the city. And has to go then to the city?

Or do we just break every rule?

I guess the issue is whether or not there's a motion to table and second.

But doesn't that come into conflict, I'm asking?

I'd have to look at the calendar and the timing and the ordinances to see exactly how everything works.

So temporary use permits for the city are supposed to be in 90 days prior to the event date. And temporary use permits do need to go before the commission for approval.

So the answer is yes, there is a time certain by which this has to be done.

We have in the past reviewed these applications outside of that 90-day timeframe.

Could I ask why we're being asked to table this?

Because I was asked.

I know that. I have a question.

I didn't go into an inquiry of them of why. They asked for something. And I didn't think it was unreasonable.

I have a question. I'm kind of in line with Arlene, but then deviating a little bit. I'm not necessarily concerned about the 90-day. I know we've made exceptions in the past. I just want to make sure that if this moves forward later on down the road, would there be enough time for the city to approve it? I just want to make sure that if we table it, we don't table it too long, that then the CRA doesn't have time to discuss and approve it.

Well, if I have to call a special meeting for that reason, I'll call a special meeting.

And I know the mayor, so I'm sure.

He'll probably show up.

So just for our regular scheduled dates, the next CRA meeting is the 14th. Then the next commission meeting would be November 4th. Event setup dates in the application are November 9th.

I mean, you could have a special meeting, you know, before October 14th if you wanted to. But rather, from a procedural standpoint, rather than discussing the merits of the application, the question is if there's a motion to table or not.

I mean, I'll still keep the motion because it was the petitioner asked for it. And I'm going to still second it.

So. So then let's call the roll because there's no.

Is it a do we table to a date certain or is that something that is directed to me to coordinate?

I would say until until the appropriate time. Yeah, I'd say I don't want to put a date certain if whenever they're ready or you're ready and you advise us, we can move forward.

We should have an end by date, if nothing else.

I think rather than end by date, I think it's just you tabling until a date as coordinated with between the executive director and the chair.

I have no problem with that. No problem with that. Okay. So we have a first and a second for a table. Correct. So let's call the vote. Yeah, but isn't there no conversation when there's a table? A first and a second?

Unless he removes a second.

I'm not removing my second. Let's move this on. We can discuss this another day. Please call the roll.

You can speak.

I do, too.

Go ahead, Joanne. It's my opinion.

Go ahead.

I'd like to know the reason why it's being tabled. If it's a hardship, then that's one thing. But if it's not a hardship, then I'd like to know the reason for it being tabled since it is on the agenda and it has been posted. So the petitioner knew that it was coming up tonight.

Thank you. I don't have any reason. Please call the roll.

Board Member Schwartz?

No.

Board Member Serrio?

Yes.

Board Member Simone?

No.

Vice Chair Marzano?

Yes.

Chair Caggiano? Yes.

So item 4A has been continued to a time as coordinated between the Executive Director and the Chair.

Any public discussion? Public discussion, anyone who wants to speak on any item that is not on the agenda? You have, that is not on the agenda, you have up to three minutes.

No, it's still on the agenda. It's just been continued.

You can speak on it another day.

Tabled. Even Arlene is shaking her head yes. She can't speak on it anymore. I can speak on that.

You can speak on it now, but it won't be on.

Yes, I can speak on it. Why are we even talking about it? That's my question. I'm sorry, what are you saying there? Oh, now it's a legal opinion, but you said I couldn't speak on it.

I said it's still on the agenda. The board chose to allow you to speak. I don't want to take up your time.

I don't understand why we're even talking about it. You guys were about ready to take him to court. The last time they were here, there was a huge fight that even one of the commissioners on the commission said, we had nothing but hoodlums here. Why would you even think of putting this back in our city? I'm not understanding what are you guys thinking? You want one more time so somebody can get killed or something? Is that what you want? You want to really make the news? Is that what you want? Or did somebody get paid to put it on the agenda this time? Somebody else that's, you know, somebody else is getting paid now. Can't even look at the person that's speaking. I just don't understand what you guys are thinking, what you're doing. You are running this city in the ground. You know, I wrote through North Lauderdale the other day. They got city workers out with pickers picking up trash. Their city looks so much better than Margate now. Margate looks horrible. You guys are citing my neighbor on the corner of Southgate and 441 because they're not picking up the garbage that runs straight down their row on Southgate. Yet you have a little cubby there that all the trash is in there. How come the city's not picking that up? No reason, right? But we don't get a citation for that, right? The city don't. It's okay to leave all the trash there, but you cite them for the trash that's on the side of the road. But you can leave all the trash in the little cubby that the city owns.

The CRA doesn't cite anybody.

It doesn't matter. It's still the city. The CRA is the city. You guys disgust me.

...

Good evening. Elsa Sanchez, Margate resident. So since we are allowed to speak about this again, I really am questioning why, when you all say that you listen to the residents, that you do what the residents want, and that you are here for the residents, We are residents, and we have been for years saying that we do not want this. Every year is a new drama. Every year is a new problem. But it continues to be discussed and approved. I know that, yes, Some residents come here, not that many, and they speak about it. But from the residents in my community, all I hear, I can't believe this is happening again. I can't believe this is happening again. And there's nothing for us to say, but why? Why? There's issues that have been issues from the beginning, not only about the way the payments are made, but about the time they require. It used to be three days. Now it's two weeks. And two weeks later. This is something that is unreasonable. It's unfair to the residents. And yes, you might have people on Facebook saying, yes, we want it. Yes, we want it. But the majority of the residents really do not want it. So you are postponing this. I'm hoping that I don't have anything against the man. The man is a nice man. And he runs the business, but he is taking advantage of Margate and he's taking advantage of our residents and all the convenience that we are allowing him to have. So, yes, I am against it again for the sixth time, I think. And I am sorry that this is being postponed until a later time, which I don't know if it's going to be a good time. for it to be approved with the time. I mean, there's so many issues, but you are just agreeing to it. So thank you.

Lauren Baraka, Margate resident. I'm not going to repeat the same thing that the previous two speakers said. I'm just going to say ditto.

Public discussion is over. I don't see anyone else who's looking to get up. Resolutions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This item 3A, a resolution of the Marriott Community Redevelopment Agency approving the first amendment to the grant agreement between the Marriott Community Redevelopment Agency and Atlantic Center LLC to provide for the extension of the term of the original agreement up to and including December 30th, 2026, providing for an effective date. This resolution is before your consideration. Resolution of the board.

Motion to approve. Second.

Public. Call the roll. Mr. Chair, do you want to, the applicant is here. He's presented some pictures of the progress that's going on. Would you like an opportunity to show them off?

Sure. While you're here, just for a heads up, this is a gentleman who got a facade grant. And he has to do it within a certain amount of time, what he's asking for, because of issues going on, that he just has a little extra time to finish the project. That's all. So please show us where you are in the project right now.

Okay. Well, while they're locating the photos.

Just state your name and introduce yourselves for the record.

My name is Todd Napola. I'm the manager and owner of Atlantic Center and Margate at 6826 Atlantic Boulevard. Thanks to the CRA and participation with us, we've gone ahead and got the grant from you and we've extensively renovated the building. The biggest hurdle we came into was truthfully a mistake that was very costly, but not ours. The door manufacturer made the doors the wrong size and there's 70 doors. So it took a five additional months to get new impact glass doors. There was no cost to us, but there was a five-month delay. The second delay we hit, which was pretty recently, we were hoping we could just jet out the drain lines and kind of fix them in the parking lot. But when we started working on them, it's been an absolute mess. So we've taken a position that we're going to redo the six parking lot catch basin drains. I will add the city has been fantastic at working with us and expediting that permit. We are in Broward County and we're submitting the third set of comments tomorrow. So hopefully it's approved in a couple of days, but the city's been good. Once that permit's approved, it'll take about two weeks to do the drains to finish them. Take about 30 days to do the parking lot. As you recall, we're doing a full milling and paving. And then it's just TLC. And the only item after that, after the paving, will be, of course, the monument sign will go in. We don't want to put that in when they're doing the parking lot and damage them. So that's ready to go, but won't be installed till afterwards. So we're asking for a 90-day extension. I'm told just press what button? I don't know. Red? Oh, arrow, okay. You see how good I am at this.

Todd, if you just tell us, we'll go to the next one. It's not changing on the screen.

I wanted to show it off, but there you go. Oh. So as you can see, we did an extensive renovation. We've done tile work. We put in all new awnings, canopies, sidewalks are redone, ADA-compliant sidewalks, blind pads. Everything is basically done. Shot if this changes another picture. No. Yeah, there you go. The building wraps around onto 69th. So you can see this is going on Atlantic. Everything is new, all impact glass doors, all new awnings, all new sidewalks. This is going down to 69th. Same facade look there. Obviously it needs a little bit of pressure cleaning once they're done to clean up the sidewalks a little bit. But this is basically the look at the center. Complete redo. we're way over the original budget, but we think it's well worth it. We've had a tremendous amount of support from national tenants at ICSC a week ago. And we think we're going to bring some big names, small users, but big names into here. We're talking to Wingstop. We're talking to Little Caesars. We're talking to Blaze Pizza. We're talking to Metro PCS. So we have many, many users that are interested. So we think we'll have it full and occupied by first quarter of 2027. We're just asking for 90 days to complete it without pressure since our timeline is there. That's all I got to show off. Thank you very much.

Vice Chair?

How are you?

Great, thank you.

In case you guys don't know, this guy's awesome. If you watch him on TikTok, he's got some great motivational videos. My daughter, who just graduated from FAU, her best friend, Maya Padre, said, oh, you should meet this guy. He's great. So you helped her buy a condo down in Fort Lauderdale. She sure did.

She worked with us now.

I heard that. I heard that. And I think that's awesome, what you do with these young kids and the way you teach them. We have 50 acres over here. I wish I could give that to you. We could partner up and do something. I really do. Besides, we're going to vote on tonight. I'd love to give it to you.

Thank you.

Did you have a recent problem with mailboxes out there or no?

Well, we're trying to. This system, this was going back to the 80s, this build. So that was when everybody had a mailbox. So I know we are looking to put a uniform mailbox in a location. I believe my team's working with the post office on that. Maybe someone in the city. I don't really know. But we'll get that resolved. We'll definitely put a uniform mailbox.

You got it. Because somebody reached out to me and said, hey, can you help us out? And I think, Kel, I wrote to you about the mailbox situation. So I hope you get it resolved. I think this is going to be great. It's going to be a great addition to the city. And I love your videos, man. Keep doing them.

Thank you. I appreciate it a lot.

Thank you very much.

Just to make sure, you are redoing the entire parking lot?

Oh, yes. The whole parking lot, what happened is we're going to do the drains, so we have to rip it up there.

Because it's 50, 60 years old anyway.

It's going down to stone and rock being completely scraped, all new milling, all new paving. Not an asphalt, not a sprayer. Totally new parking lot with all new ADA-compliant facilities. Thank you.

Board Member Auseria. Yeah, good evening. Thank you for coming to Margate. Well, you've been an owner of those shopping centers for quite some time, but thank you for helping to beautify Margate. I know when I first got here, we had some grant programs that were just not taking off, and the board collectively suspended those, went back to the drawing boards, and came up with new grant programs, which owners have started to utilize now. Um, so I know that this property was, I believe that facade grant had ended. Todd came to us and asked us if we would do a grant with him. I'm glad he did.

The center looks amazing.

It looks better than I thought it was going to look. Thank you. Not only from the pictures, but it was like kind of like just a square building. And actually they added to the tops to make things like offset and

that nature with the facade.

So it looks really nice. Um, I may have seen some other plans for another center you own. I hope, I hope that you come to us again because, um, that other center you have is right near our downtown. So I'm, I, I hope you do it.

Your team has been out there to that one. That's the crossroads center on the, coconut Creek. And we do intend to do that one. And truthfully, just so you know, cause I hope you're going to prove it either way, but because I enjoy working with the city of Margate, we're in contract. We'll close in about three weeks on village Plaza, which is just past the Coco gate.

Awesome.

So we're buying that 70,000 feet. It has 25% vacancy. It's a great owner, but he's out of sight, out of mind. He's owned it since April, 1998. So we'll revitalize that center. Luckily it has a new roof. It's got great bones. It needs very little. It just needs some heavy lifting on leasing, and that's what we do best.

Excellent. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm trying to figure, visualize what's in here. Board Member Simone. Just north of Parkway, you have the Cocoa Gate Center that Ray Hall is going to knock down, and then it's right there. It's where the CSL Plasma is.

Okay.

Now I know where it is. Healthy mothers, healthy babies, and the rest of it is pretty much empty. Dunkin' Donuts left everyone.

I know where it is now.

Give it a year. You'll be happy with it.

Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing to help beautify Margate. I'm excited to see this project completed. I think it's going to look beautiful. It's certainly putting a new facelift on some dreary shopping centers. I know the residents will be anxious to see it come to completion as well. And also it sounds like you have some good tenants that are going to go in that shopping center. So we're excited to have them come to Margate and have our residents patronize them. So thank you very much for taking the interest and doing what you do so well to help our city and our residents.

It's a pleasure. Thank you.

You can go. There's no other questions up here. Public?

Tracy Van Winkle. My granddaughter goes to Jacaranda Smiles that's in that plaza where this gentleman's redoing it. I was speaking to them. They said they can't wait for it to be done. It's beautiful. The only problem they had when it was going on is... Nobody knew who they were. So that was when I reached out to Cale and asked him if they were allowed to do the flag signs. And I was at the meeting and you guys said they could. So he put his flag sign out and that helped his business. So I didn't know if, you know, you guys might want to let some of the businesses know when they're renovating, they can put their flag signs out so that people know where they are. They said they had a lot of people that were like, where are you? We don't know where you are because they couldn't see the sign because they're renovating. But the plaza is going to be beautiful. I can't wait to see it done as well. It looks really nice.

Steve Strauss, you should take his lead and do the same thing up on the corner here. You can have that plaza done before you have anything in the ground across the street.

Nina Culver, Margate resident. I just wanted to say that I drove by that new shopping center yesterday, and it was absolutely beautiful. I mean, you can obviously tell it's not done, but you can tell the direction that it's going, and it's wonderful. I'm actually glad Tracy brought up the flag banners. You guys put a moratorium on them until December to help the small businesses across the city. I'm sorry.

I was saying we lifted them with moratorium. So we do allow them.

Oh, I'm sorry. You lifted the moratorium. The issue is nobody reached out to the small businesses and told them every small business that I go to, they had no idea. So I told them to make sure that they got with their property owners to make sure that it was okay. And that they could contact any one of you or kale to, to make sure that it was okay. Thank you.

We have a motion and a second. And so please call the roll.

Board Member Schwartz? Yes. Board Member Serrio? Yes. Board Member Simone? Yes. Vice Chair Rezano? Yes. Chair Caggiano?

Yes. All right. Item 3B is a resolution of the Margate Community Redevelopment Agency approving fiscal year 2026-2027 annual budget and authorizing that any funds remaining from fiscal year 2025-2026 budget, which are unencumbered and unexpended as of the last day of the fiscal year, shall be reappropriated for the same purpose or project or reallocated pursuant to Exhibit A, providing for an effective date. This resolution is before you for your consideration this evening.

So moved. Second.

Okay. Okay. Public? Oh, I'm sorry, Joanne, I didn't see that you had a message. You wanted to say something. On the budget, the annual budget.

Yes, I have some comments and some questions on it. Okay. Okay, I'm bringing it up. A couple of things that I noticed. I have some questions on it. The permits for the covered field, the actual in 2024 was $1,834. It was amended in 2026. It went down to $1,000. And the proposed 2027 went down to $1,000. So are we not Are we giving so much away at that covered field that we're not taking in what we did in 2024?

No, ma'am. The majority of the permits for the covered field are rented through the city. So the city and the CRA entered into an interlocal agreement to manage those rentals. So the city side of the budget gets those permit rentals.

Okay. Another thing I have on my list is the Winter Festival. 2024, it was $67,000. Now it's $100,000 for the Winter Festival. What are we doing that's increasing that Winter Festival by $40,000? Seems to be excessive. I know it's always been popular. And 2024, it was a good festival. Why the need to go up $40,000?

We've been budgeting $100,000 for that each of the last few years. But the actual expenses come in. So what you're looking at is the actual cost in 24 and 25. And then you're looking at the budgeted costs for 26 and 27. That is something, you know, we can lower it to probably 80 if you want, but we've been staying under budget on those items.

Okay. The other one that I have is, again, July 4th. I know how popular it is. $85,000 seems to be an excessive amount of money to just blow up in the air. I would like to see that one definitely come down. I don't want to spend $85,000 on fireworks. I'm sorry. The sports complex field improvements, $3 million. I thought the only part, and correct me if I'm wrong, on that sports complex, the only part that's in the CRA is the covered part. But yet we're putting money towards the fields. Is that in the CRA?

Yes, ma'am. So the budget for that is to convert those fields from natural grass and clay to artificial turf.

So that whole complex, including the fields, is in the CRA, not just the covered portion?

Yes. I'll look at the map just to double check. Yes, ma'am. The entire area is in.

Okay. Thank you. Travel. $28,814 in 2024. And then it was $22,106 in 2025. Now it's going to $40,000. We already have a developer. The downtown is already being worked on. I understand, you know, the FRA conference, that's okay, but why the need for $40,000 on travel? Seems to be excessive there. And the last... And I guess that's it for something on C. So... I think we're spending a lot of money where we don't need to spend a lot of money or put it in the budget with times that are very tough. I think that we're being excessive on some of our expenditures for the CRA.

Just real quick, sir. I hear your comments. Again, in many of the cases, what you're comparing are actual expenses versus what the budget is. So the budget is higher than what we're spending. And I think that shows how we are doing in managing the projects and events that go on. With that said, this is a budget that's presented before you. I hear your comments. And if there are other board members that are interested in making changes, I'd take that direction and we can make those changes.

I know that these are placeholders. I just think the placeholders are a little bit on the high side that they can be lowered on some of these things. Seeing what the actual cost was in years past and going up this amount.

If we do make change, if we lower any of these budgets, the money that we take out of that, it would go down into the contingency account so that we still have a balanced budget. So it would still remain in here. It would just go under a contingency line item, which if I spend, I have to come back and report to you what it was transferred to.

Okay.

Thanks, Jeff.

Yeah, the turf fields, we were looking at that still.

We are. Yeah, so it's budgeted in here. We're looking at it. We're still negotiating the design-build contract with the contractor, trying to get the cost down because it's coming in higher than what we have budgeted. We think we can get it down.

I think that number is absolutely ridiculous, to be honest. I mean, I deal with the stuff, and I don't know what they're charging so much for.

Worst-case scenario, we stay grassed.

Which is why we haven't come back to you guys with a contract. We think it's too high.

That's it. Board Member Schwartz.

Apropos the comment about the turf fields, I went out to watch, as I understand some others may have a tournament going on for soccer at Southeast Field. And parents came over to tell me that they would have preferred that one of those fields stayed grass because of how hot which we've discussed before, the one field gets. So I have no great desire to see everything turn into turf. It may be a lot easier to keep and all of that, but if it's $3 million, it's probably not the most important thing we need to do since the fields have remained the way they are for this long and no one's really complained about the grass. Just my two cents worth. It's really not worth doing it. And again, the parents complained to me about how hot it gets for the kids. And this summer has been unlike any other, and I'm going to guess it's going to continue to get hotter every year. That's it.

Public. All the wrongs.

Board Member Schwartz? Yes. Board Member Serrio?

Yes.

Board Member Simone? No. Vice Chair Rosano?

Yes.

Chair Caggiano?

Yes.

Item 3C is a resolution of the Margate Community Redevelopment Agency authorizing the execution of the Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Margate, providing for the annual compensation rate for the services provided by the City on behalf of the Margate CRA. Presumed to the interlocal agreement between the Margate CRA and the City of Margate fiscal year 2026-27, providing for the appropriate Margate CRA officials to execute the agreement, providing for an effective date. This resolution is before you for your consideration this evening.

Richard Abord.

So moved.

Joanne, Board Member Simone.

Thank you. So if I understand this correctly, we're spending $1,713,000 and change for funding for city employees that perform work for the CRA.

Yes, ma'am. The CRA does not have any employees. They're all allocated under the city. And so that includes my position, the assistant executive director, the CRA coordinator. It also includes staff members in finance and procurement. It's a cost allocation that gets charged back to the CRA.

$1,700,000 for that compensation. Before I approve this, I certainly would like to see a breakdown. That just seems like a lot of money for city employees that perform work for CRA. $1,700,000.

In the backup, Joanne.

The breakdown is?

I'm sorry. I don't know if the budget, the number of employees is on the budget page.

Is that just salaried or does that include?

It's the fringe. It's a percentage of all of that, yeah.

That includes also the stage being out there, the people who have to sit there, put it up, take it down, and every time that we go and we donate to fundraising kinds of things that we pay everyone who shows up because the stage comes up, like the thing that happened on It happens often. We donate the time, we still have to pay the staff, and the CRA doesn't have those people, so I'm assuming it's for the city to get paid.

People in the garbage at the end of the evening, putting away the tables and chairs.

It's the generator that runs the stage and all of that stuff.

I understand, but $1,700,000 seems to be a lot of money for that.

I think we probably need to... And I don't have a breakdown in my backup. I don't see that either. No, there isn't. Right.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I don't have a breakdown of all the positions that it covers. But in many cases, it's a percentage of an accountant in finance.

Public.

Public.

Sit up front so you don't have to worry about that.

Sorry, Elsa Sanchez, Margate resident. I just have a question. These employees that are helping with the CRA Are they getting two salaries, one from the city and another one from the CRA? Or is this like overtime that they are using and the CRA is paying for it? I just wanted to clarify that.

It's a percentage of their salary. It's a percentage.

Okay. I do agree that $1.7 million seems like a lot, but. you said you will look it up, so thank you.

It's beyond just salaries. It is, there's a cost allocation for the office space that they use that gets charged back. So I can provide you a breakdown. It's not a problem.

It'll be too late after we vote. I understand, but you still want to understand what it is. Yes, yes.

Board Member Schwartz.

Does this also include whatever it costs every time we do a Sounds of Sundown to also bring in the entities?

No, that's something separate, yeah.

But it would be the people who do this?

It's separate. There are specific positions that we have allocated a portion of their salary to the CRA. Events gets billed separate. Yeah, so 60-40, they do work 60% on the city side, 40% for the CRA. At 1.7 is not all salaries. I can tell you that. I just don't know what the cost breakdown is now. Go ahead.

Tracy Van Winkle. So when the Margate Police Department works for the Carnival, are they paid out of the CRA? Because I'm pretty sure they don't make $1.7 million for working that. Who pays the Margate Police?

The vendor pays for the police.

When they pay?

All salaries are paid out of the city. The CRA does not have any employees. But the CRA has to cover it until... No, the CRA doesn't cover it, no.

So the city covers it until they pay. Yes.

With interest, if necessary.

We pay the workers with interest? Yes. Is that what you're saying?

No, the vendor pays us.

Oh, we don't care about his interest. He needs to pay on time. Okay, thank you.

Call the roll, please. Call the roll.

Board Member Schwartz? Yes. Board Member Asario? Yes. Board Member Simone? No. Vice Chair Rosano?

Yes.

Chair Caggiano?

Yes. Okay, D. Item 3D is a resolution of the Marriott Community Redevelopment Agency approving the final concept design for Brookfield D.A. Holdings LLC and affiliated BPG Acquisitions LLC for the Marriott City Center project provided for an effective date. This resolution is before you for your consideration this evening. Wish of the board.

There's the wish of the board on this item. So moved. Second. Second.

Mr. Chair, the representative, Mr. Matt Murphy, and legal counsel Matt Scott are here, and they've got a brief presentation. We could invite them up.

Sure. We don't have a mat for you to stand on, though. Okay. Hold on, speak up, so we, now it's on. On now.

Thanks. Matthew Scott from Greensboro Mater here with my client, Representative Matt Murphy. We were here a month ago and gave a presentation of the concept plans. We got a lot of feedback at that meeting. It was very detailed that we appreciated, we incorporated. And then we also met with some of you individually to run our revisions by you all based on your feedback. And so we're here tonight under the development agreement seeking the CRA board's approval of the concept plan, which we're required to do so we can move forward with the formal applications to the city. to process the entitlements for the project. And so the development agreement required that we come back. And so we're excited to be back here tonight. And I would just add that my birthday is tomorrow. So we only are looking for just positive feedback only. And just, it all looks great. I think that's fair for me to ask under the circumstances. I just want to start with that. I'll turn it over to Matt Murphy. He's got a presentation.

It's a great start. Matt Murphy, Brookfield Properties, thank you so much for allowing us to be here. Really excited to share some of our updates since the last meeting, and I hope everybody will be able to pick a piece of this whole project and understand we took your feedback and we've incorporated it the best we could throughout the entire project. With that, I will start kind of the agenda. We'll start at the financial impact just to kind of do the highlight of the overall lease term, the tax benefits to the city. We'll recap quickly the plan that we showed you July 9th, and then we will walk through kind of the overall plan and updates since then. Oops, I pressed the wrong button. Okay, so this is just kind of a high-level overview of the financial impact. This is just for phase one over the term of the lease, right? So the $1.7 billion is accumulation of the rent payments that we'll be making to the CRA in addition to city and county tax revenue. $562 million directly to the city of Margate through tax revenue generated through this project. And then $250 million just in ground rent to the CRA over the life of the project. So quite a big investment here and opportunity for additional revenue for the city, the county, and the CRA over the life of the lease.

Okay.

slide okay so this is just as a reminder the the images and the the presentation that we showed at the july 9th meeting as you can see we had a recreation facility in the bottom right corner to house future basketball tournaments rec facility for youth youth sports call it we had about six five or six pickleball courts in the southwest corner We also were kind of meeting our 40,000 square feet of retail. And then at the center promenade, as you pull into them from Margate Boulevard, we had a large water feature kind of setting the stage for the project. Okay. So this is kind of our updated site design. If you notice, we've pulled back quite a bit to take some feedback, some constructive feedback on the retail size. The overall retail felt like it was not meeting the expectations. So on the top page north of this plan, you'll see that we added a 10,000 square foot build to suit option. That's going to be located on the old hotel site that CRA owns. That was since demolished. So it's a vacant lot right now, but the idea is that in the event there is a tenant such as a, I don't know, Cooper's Hawk that was interested in this site, we could go in and build them a built-to-suit option. Moving down into the site, if you want to move to the next slide for me, please. So what we've done since last meeting, we've reduced the number of pickleball courts to only two rather than showing five. In its place, we've replaced more surface parking. We understand that surface parking can be a challenge in these mixed-use environments. I spent some time in Coconut Creek today, so I do understand that having parking accessible to the retail and the park is a necessity. So we've added some more surface parking. We're also... We've taken away the rec facility in the bottom right corner and decided to move that into the future phases so that we can utilize more park space and have that future rec facility located to more parking so it's can be grown and used over many different sports. We've removed the prominent water feature as you come in for various reasons. One of the main reasons is cost and maintenance. And instead, that will be an artistic sculpture. And that's going to be our first experience for an artistic touchpoint as they pull into the site. We've, let's see, I've gone over the added surface parking, this 10,000 square feet of build-to-suit option. We've removed the water feature. And then we're also going to have touch points throughout the park for experimental or experiential art features that can, you know, people can touch and feel and experience and kind of relate to the overall project. So that is kind of in a very fast way a lot of the things that we heard from commissioners, the public, and that we've tried to incorporate it in this latest plan. So with that, I'll open it up to questions.

Board Member Schwartz.

Remind me how much retail there's going to be.

So with that build to suit, we're close to 50,000 square feet.

That was my only question right now. Thank you.

Vice chair. I'm saying happy birthday, Matt, but you're not going to get what you wished for.

He's not coming home with you.

All right. A couple of things that were mentioned tonight that, that, um, I don't like were first the removal of the, uh, the entryway for the water feature. I thought that was a good, good little touch there, but now I'm hearing, hearing financially, it doesn't fit in. So I don't like to hear that. So back in 2016, when we were discussing this downtown project with the prior developer, there was an election and this contract or that contract was voted on a couple weeks prior to the election. And I asked that we hold it, we postpone it until we get possibly new people. We have an election away, that's probably six weeks. We have, I think one candidate here sitting here. I'm asking that after we're done with our comments that we just wait till, we're gonna have at least one new board member here. So at least wait until that point. So I'm gonna ask that of the board because it's something that Anthony and Arlene asked for in 2016. And I just think it's fair. It's within the same timeframe. So just on the site plan, I'm gonna ask that we wait on it after the comments are done. One thing I don't like, and I'm going to talk about it, is the entry and the exit. You know, you have that beautiful blue water back there on the right side, but we all know that's a drainage ditch. I think the problem with this project is the entry and the exit of it. And I would love to see that be a road going out to the north, come back through the hotel or the old hotel, even the property behind it. some sort of a bridge going to the property behind it where we just approved, I think, a 200-plus apartment complex just to get in and out of. So I think the in and out is a problem there. Obviously, everybody knows how I feel about the apartments. I don't think the apartments are a good sell on that side of the property. I don't think they're a good sell for the downtown property. I mean, if you look at TV today, the housing market, people are worried about it. We have a lot of apartments going up, and I don't know if we're going to be able to fill them all. You're supposed to be luxurious apartments, so they're going to rent almost close to $3,000 a month. Why would you rent there when you can go right across the street for $900 or $1,200 a month? The public amenities, this is golden property, guys. I don't think that we should put public amenities there where we're going to have to maintain and it's going to take away value of premium property. A good developer, if they're going to buy a beautiful piece of property down on the beach, I'm not going to put public amenities there. It's just going to cost money to run. It's going to cost money to maintain. So I'm not big on the public amenities. The parking, I'm glad that the layout was changed and it opened up some more surface parking. I think that's great. Another thing that I don't like, and I don't know where this came from, was giving you guys $35 million. I don't know how that was negotiated, but it was always in the beginning. And I never liked that from the beginning. And I don't know why we're giving you $35 million. Why not $50 million? Why not $10 million? Why not nothing? So I don't know where that number came from, so I would hope that that would be taken out of the developer's agreement. What else do I have here? Oh, plans for the tenants. You know, we talked about this, and it goes back to 2016. What are the plans for the tenants that are there now? I mean, are they going to get anything out of this? We've always been told or telling them that you guys are in incubators, and once we move and we create this downtown, you guys are going to have a place to go to. I don't see any reassurance for that. And last time, I hate to beat the wheel again, but when it was asked, the commission said, it's out of our hands now. And that's what I'm afraid of, getting this out of our hands. I would like to see something in there we can, the city, and it's funny because we own the property, but we have to ask to do something with it. So I would like to see something in there that would give us at least five acres of property reason being because there's going to be businesses that are like Flanagan's. You know, we're trying to get them here. And this basically takes our negotiating tool away when they say, well, why should we come to Margate? And then we could say, well, we can work with you on a piece of property where the developer now owns the property. Now we have to tell them, well, we have to go work with the developer and then you can sit down with them. So to me it's ridiculous to have this property that we own, but yet it's out of our control. We have no control over it. Everything has to go through the developer, which I think is crazy. So these are things that I don't like in the contract. Hopefully we can get a table or we can get these things looked at or addressed. But just to move ahead with this, I appreciate the pictures and I think the layout is better. It's getting better. But I don't think there's a lot of stuff in the contract that is good for the residents. I don't see any benefit of it. You know, you talk about financials. These are all presumed. I mean, there's nothing etched in stone. You know, if these things aren't rented, you know, we don't get the money. You know, if we want something in there that's going to be a public amenity, we're going to have to subsidize and probably take it out of our rent to pay for it. That's pretty much it. You know, I've heard from a lot of residents. I don't see anybody that's really supportive of this and thinks this is a great idea. Just last meeting, the commission up here Didn't agree that there was enough retail. The retail has changed, but still, guys, if you look at it, it's about four or five Cooper's Hawks. That's it. You know, if you want outdoor dining, you want a restaurant where you can go sit outside, you're looking at 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. This isn't a lot. We've tore down almost, I think, 50,000 square feet on the property right here, the vacant property. So we're going to be losing about 150,000 square feet when this is all said and done, and we're going to recoup it with, on this side alone, 40,000. So to me, I don't think it's a good deal. I don't support it for my reasons, and I hope you guys would think about it. That's it. Thank you. Board Member Schwartz.

I'm sorry.

Hold on. I'm sorry. Was that Antonio?

Yeah. I'm not a fan either i mean the pictures look nice i'm sure if it was built it would be a decent place but when i'm looking at it um it looks confused like is it a park or is it a downtown city center not a fan of the pickleball courts um i'm not a fan of losing a community center i'm out there talking to residents all the time and they're asking for a community center so to see that gone was a little disappointing. Not a fan of losing the fountain either. I do like art, public art. I'm not a public art hater, but it seems like you talked to one commissioner who's leaving in a few weeks and decided to put a bunch of little dinky little public arts all over. I don't think that's nice. It's not iconic. That's not something that people are going to remember. Oh, a little art station. I'm looking for something like West Palm that has a huge wishing tree and a fountain that is multi-use where it's artistic fountain, but kids can also play in it as well. So you listen to some commissioners, but not the ones that are going to be around here the longest. So I also... Well, I'm not going to sit here and say zero apartments in the downtown because I think that's a little bit misleading. I was not happy with the number of the units. I voted against it with Rosano, and we wanted it to go out to the residents simply because, at least in my view, it's city-owned property. It's a little bit different. We actually have control of what happens here. That ship sailed. The developer agreement's in place. It's not going to go on the ballot, so I'm not going to beat that up too much, but... I just think we're kind of moving backwards with the plan, taking out the fountain, all these extra pickleball courts, and I just don't like it.

It's lacking a sense of place.

That's my observation.

Board Member Schwartz. I would have liked, and I've said it a hundred times, but I've learned to live with compromise. a building on one side, a building on the other for apartments and people going into the middle. We all looked when board member Simone showed us some of the most amazing light art. We all agreed on it. that all of a sudden, now, we don't agree on. As far as I'm concerned, the community center can be on the west side of the street. That's where it belongs. It doesn't belong with people driving in where others are going to retail and others are living. That's not where that belongs. It belongs separate for those people doing exactly that and parking for that. I could have done without the extra surface parking, but I have no problem with the lights that I thought were absolutely amazing and I thought we all thought they were. So I appreciate the fact that that was incorporated. I'm happy that some of the pickleball courts were taken out because we have it now everywhere in every one of our parks in our communities. And quite frankly, if we're gonna draw people in to eat and shop, then perhaps playing pickleball is not what we're, that's not what they're gonna do afterwards. So I don't have a problem with that. Do I want to see, since I was on the original group in 2000 when we talked about the Charettes and about having retail, do I want to see more? If it only winds up, and I've never measured Cooper's Hawk, so I have no clue, but I would like to see different things. The other gentleman who was here for something else talked to us about two pizza places coming in. I wasn't all excited to know that my $675,000 is going to have two pizza places in there.

I think he probably wouldn't put two bits. Well, he mentioned it. Well, he's talking with two, but I doubt it.

But the point is, I'd like to see something different that brings people into Margate, whereas others think that for the next 30 years, they should just drive through us going somewhere else. So it needs to be... a piece of a place, but I'm gonna ask the city attorney a question. This is simply to give approval for them to start actually spending additional money to come up with a concept that is much more concrete, is that correct?

So you're in the process where you're considering to approve the final conceptual design. And then based upon that, they'll move forward with more detailed drawings. I'm sure Mr. Murphy can explain what, from his perspective, what the next step would be. But that's, you know, they would be investing more of their money and time for more detailed drawings and renderings and plans, and then also moving forward with potentially applications to the city for specific entitlements, as Mr. Scott said.

Yes, to expand on that a little bit. So per the development agreement, we are looking for a nod of approval from this board so that the CRA director, as the representative for the landlord, CRA, can sign our development applications. So we can submit those applications to the city and start the process of the city reviewing the applications, which would go through a detailed, lengthy process, months, full plans, engineering plans, landscaping plans. And as part of that, the city would be seeing along the way the artistic lighting because we took commissioner simone's feedback chairman chairwoman simone's feedback board member someone's feedback and incorporated that to say that's that's what we think would be great is artistic lighting and so you would see more of that later on um it's just at this conceptual stage we wouldn't have the exact artistic sculpture picked out just yet all right so my question is is this set in stone or at some point

If for example, board member Rosano said, gee, I've just seen a great idea. Could we change this for that? Is that possible?

It's well, I mean, it's, so this is a concept plan, right?

Right.

It's possible, but tonight to be clear, we are looking for a vote of approval for the pieces that you see of that puzzle, that that's the program. Are there small changes along the way? Yes. but we're not here to renegotiate the development agreement. No, I know. Or, you know, we're here based on the big pieces of this puzzle. Small things, yes, I'm sure they're going to change. That's why they call it a concept plan because it's conceptual in nature.

Thank you. I'm curious, who else was not a fan of the fountain? Because it would take three to take that off.

Nobody ever talked to me about a fountain.

I mean, it was in the original concept plan.

Never had any conversation.

Yeah, I mean, so we initially had the water feature based on feedback, and I think we heard from one of the board members that they didn't like the water feature because it's overdone.

I didn't like that style of water feature. I would agree, but not to remove a water feature completely.

Yes, I mean, Board Member Arcerio, I'm sure you understand the – the labyrinth that we're trying to navigate here, right? You voiced your opposition to the project. Board member Rosano has voiced his opposition to the project. We're trying to take everyone's feedback and incorporate as much as we can, but it's a bit of a ping pong effect, right? Some of the supporters on this board say they don't like a water feature. And so we're trying to add as much as we can and still make this a viable project along the way. And so, you know, we're providing lots of art and hearing from others that they don't like the water feature. It's a challenging thing to do. And so I think it's impossible for us to realistically give every single board member every single thing on the wish list.

No, I completely understand that. And I've opposed projects in the past, but I still try to work or come up with a good outcome, whether I vote for it or not. So just because I oppose a project doesn't mean I'll give input. But we're taking, and I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but Commissioner Simone, since her name's mentioned now, is termed out, right? I'm not picking on her. She's gone in November. No, no, I'll be here. So I think Commissioner Rosano has a point. Why not wait until a new commissioner comes in here? Or if you get your wish, two new commissioners come in here. But it'll be one new commissioner. And then let's see where they stand on some of these conceptual designs. And Chair, can you please ask the audience not to yell out? It's very distracting.

Also, I don't want to have to throw you out. Please.

Yeah, we're prepared to move forward. The way the democratic process works is that there are always elections looming. And we are dealing with the board that we have gotten to know over the two year process. I think we've been at this. And so. On the one hand, we want to go as fast as possible and bring a lively urban village to this community that's, I think, been looking for this for a long time. And so we don't want to delay it and wait on an election. Delaying it would mean three months of a delay before we could move forward with the applications. So we're not in a position to delay it that amount of time.

Vice Chair.

Correct me if I'm wrong. When we're talking about elements of art, we're not selecting those tonight. I mean, that's going to evolve. I don't think it's a hard no on a water feature, right? I mean, that's something that could come back as this goes through design, as this goes through further discussion. I think that stuff can still evolve and change.

Yeah, I mean, fine details of what the art looks like, I get. But when I see little pieces of art everywhere, I'm just, conceptually, I'm not seeing this big, grand... wow, this is what Mark, you know, this is Margate.

And, you know, began to, you know, the conversation that I had with Matt.

I go to promenade. Everyone talks about the promenade. After I finally find parking, there's nothing there. That's like, wow. You look at Coral Springs is buildings up against the road and you walk in and there's no, wow.

We had this conversation earlier today that, you know, the art pieces, we're not selecting those tonight. The point is, and what we hear from the board is, is they want an iconic piece. feature. They want an iconic piece of art.

We're committed to that. We understand that the open space component needs to be a highly visual, attractive, exciting type of thing. We just think that that's something that will be developed as we get into the process because those are part of the landscaping. That's part of the open space. Those don't get designed now at this stage. It's just more of a commitment to attractive, exciting, artistic features that are interactive and have lights and draw interest from people or a place people want to take a picture. We got that message loud and clear that that was a priority and something that we would look to provide during the full plan development.

And the general location of where that feature would go and how that plays off of point to point when we talked about roundabout to roundabout. And then the other side of that, how that feature plays into the community lawn and amphitheater and whatnot.

Is the amphitheater still in there?

Yes.

I'd still like to see some sort of commitment for a fountain. Not design... But some type of water feature. Just just so that later on, if we want a water feature we're told well wasn't in the concept plan. Well, I don't mean no. Well, but we're also the board, I mean if the board tells them we want a water feature i'm sure they're going to do it.

All right, Vice Chair.

You know, you guys are out there watching and we're arguing about a water feature when you have a half a billion dollar project going on. It's mind boggling. We own the property. You want a water feature? I'm all for the water feature. One other commissioner has to say it. But Arlene, you know, you said something before with the comments that I made. I had made about eight very good big comments where they're probably going to come back later and they're going to tell you we can't change them. I know they're gonna say that. I mean, right now we're talking about maybe a 50 to $100,000 water feature that we can get no commitment to. So when I talk about things like the $35 million, or I talk about what's gonna happen with the businesses that are here already, or I talk about the apartments, or I talk about the entryways, the exitways, the parking, the reserving five acres for the city, that'll never happen. So if you have one bit of concern about what Rosano said, Maybe I should take it to heart that maybe we should table this because I don't know if they spoke to Nina. I have no idea. Did you guys talk to her? Did you guys talk to the other candidates and what they want? Because I'm going to tell you what, six months, six weeks from now, you're going to have somebody new sitting up here. And that person could be the one who's going to design the whole downtown. Because you might have two on this side, two on this side. That could be the person. And you guys need to think that because it could happen. You guys did it. In 2016, you guys did it. You changed the whole thing. And this is nothing more than what was done in 2016. Honestly, this is a lot worse than what was done in 2016. So if you have any concerns about what I said, you'd probably say, you know what, when we're done, let's table this and let's see what the developer wants to do. That's it. Hopefully.

Board Member Schwartz.

So first I'm going to ask Cale, please explain what the $35 million is supposed to go to.

Thirty five million dollars is not tied to any specific thing yet, but it will go towards public amenities, public realm amenities. It could go towards the parking garage. It could go towards the performance pavilion, the playground, underground infrastructure. There's a variety of things. We have not gone down that that path yet.

We're not handing them $35 million.

Yes, we are. Yes, we are. It would be on a reimbursement type of basis. We identify an element. We agree to that element. We agree to the cost to it. We see what the invoiced and paid amounts are, and we reimburse that. Which we haven't even spoke about.

I was always under the impression it was in some way, shape, or form for infrastructure. That I get. Building a garage is not necessarily, I don't look, by infrastructure I think of plumbing, electrical, those kinds of things that people never see but that you have to have there before you can do anything else. That I get because we've done that for Culver's, we've done that for Wawa, we've done that for everybody. But us actually building something there, unless it's our property, how do you?

The garage is going to be shared with the public. So it is essentially a public amenity, a public element. So it would qualify for those funds.

then I'm going to remind you of something that we didn't vote for, which was the city of Margate on the original developer's agreement paying for the bottom level of a parking garage that no doubt will be rented out to people who live there. I'm not a great fan of us paying for the parking garage because that's what some of the renters are, no doubt in my mind, are going to rent space to park their cars.

Right. There will be portions of that garage that are reserved for the residential units, but there are portions of that garage that are reserved for the public. Anybody that is just going there to the restaurants or the parks or whatnot.

So if I could, just for reference, the development agreement provides for the following. Upon execution of each ground lease, owner and developer, owner being the CRA, will enter into an infrastructure reimbursement and property access agreement on a phase-by-phase basis in the forms attached as an exhibit with respect to the CR's contribution of $35 million to be used towards the development and construction of the public improvements as discussed herein.

All right, so what I was looking for was the definition of public improvements. because I'm looking at it as one way, but I'm hearing of something different. Then I will add, which I probably shouldn't, that in 2016, every one of us, the chair and I got up as residents and expressed how we felt about 968 three-story walk-ups and a strip mall. There are seven people running, one of whom is sitting here. I've heard his opinion. I have not heard what those people think. And quite frankly, it's not their job to go looking for people running for office to ask them what their opinion is. If it's important, you show up here like I did. You talk to New Urban as I did and say the things that I felt about the city I lived in. You don't go looking for people to say, gee, if you get elected, what do you think? Because in that case, this will go on for 50 years.

I mean, in fairness, she's the only one that's actually showing up, though. The others just talk on Facebook and don't have actual plans. I don't blame them for not speaking out to people that are irrational.

Fine, if that one person wants to get up and speak, that's fine. But you tell me that I should go hold up this that I have waited 25 years for. 25 years, because I was on the commission.

50-something days.

It's not, because then it's another three months and another this and another that and another... I didn't hear anybody get up at any point that we all looked at this at the same time and say, why don't we put in this or why don't we put in that? Because then we would have said, what a great idea. So I don't see that happening. Before, there were two of us who got up and made it really clear how we felt about the project that was being shoved down our throat. I don't see people feeling that that's what's happening here. And I don't think we're ever going to, what do they say? A good agreement is when nobody's happy. I'm not happy where you put in the apartments. I've said that from day one, but I got to live with it because the rest of them, that's where it is. I would have done it differently, but that's not how it is. But do I want to finally see something there? And I believe this is a good developer because they've done things in other places that are good. And quite frankly, I think they've worked with us as best as possible. I don't see a reason to table this. If somebody in the audience wants to get up and give us additional opinions, I'd love to hear it. But I'm not going to worry about the other five people who haven't taken the time to show up. If it's important, they'd be here. They live here. They're running for office for a reason.

And with respect to the public improvements, they're the improvements for the benefit of the public, as more specifically described in Exhibit C, which is the actual reimbursement agreement. And if you'd like me to further define that, I can. The other thing is that the agreement also provides that the owner should consider the approval of this final conceptual plan within 30 days of presentation. So there is a certain time frame. that we are dealing with with respect to this.

30 days from this or 30 days from the last one?

No, 30 days from when this was delivered to the CRA, which in my understanding is prior to it. a couple days ago. But the 30 days would be prior to your next meeting. So the definition of public improvements eligible for reimbursement by the city may include, but are not limited to, roadways, including hardscape signage striping, intersection upgrades, including signalization striping, any required utility upgrades, including lateral connections to individual buildings, site preparation work, including excavation, stabilization, dewatering, any canal or waterway improvements, boardwalks, docks, et cetera, sidewalks, promenades, bike lanes, bike storage facilities, surface parking, structured parking garages for residential retail and other uses, parks, landscaping, plantings, gardens, town green, amphitheater, bandshell, public artwork, public fitness, and recreational facilities, retail units throughout and kiosks within the park, water features, fountains, children's playgrounds, or activity courts, and any other public improvements or amenities as planned in consultation with the CRA commissioners through the process outlined in the development agreement. Eligible costs may include all hard and soft costs associated with the design, engineering, entitlement, permitting, development, and construction of such public improvements, including associated retail units, including consultant fees, insurance bonding, retail and tenant improvement costs, and related project costs. Final plans and corresponding budget for the proposed public improvements will be included with the reimbursement agreement. And then it has a conceptual design. So you can see the broad scope of what the $35 million is potentially going to pay for with respect to public improvements.

Just out of curiosity, how did we come up with the number?

I think that was just through negotiations.

Based on total amount?

Based on costs.

Kel, let me ask you a question. That $35 million, over the course of a 99-year contract, we break even, what, after 11 years and we have 88 years of profit?

Based on projections, yes, anywhere from 13 to 15 years.

After that, you've got 85 years of profit where we're making money. 85 years, hypothetically. Everything's hypothetical when you hate the project.

Their projections could be seriously off. I saw the projections on the current prices.

They're not going to get that right now.

I know that Other projects are having issues because the price of the units and the rent costs are going down across the region. People talk about whether there's a correction or a crash or some sort of market change with the housing market, which is on its way down. I'm not a doom and gloom. I'm not saying there's going to be a housing crash. But the market is clearly cooling down. So it could be quite some time before rents actually hit the projections that they're showing. So I don't want to bank on it paying itself back in 11 years.

I think that's a fair statement. This is not a project without risk. It's an investment of the CRA. The beauty and the concept of these P3 projects is it's a shared risk. The CRA's contribution to that is much smaller than what the developers' stake in it is. We're also partnering with a very experienced and, um, successful developer. So that, that gives us a level of confidence in, in moving forward. Um, but you're right there, there is certainly, um, risk there that the economy does not perform, that the returns are not exactly what they are. Um, you know, the CRA would not be able to do a project of this scale on its own, um, without issuing that, um, you know, The developer is putting in the largest stake in this. And $35 million is no small amount. But compared to what the overall development costs of a full-phase project like this, it is a percentage of it.

So since my number is still up. So, gentlemen. And the rest of you. So if we were to say up to 35 million with the reevaluating as time passed on, would that be a deal breaker as opposed to definitely 35 million? Because I'm listening to what he's saying. I'm guessing I won't live long enough to actually see us make the money back, but be that as it may, the legacy that we would all like to give someone. So since the number just kind of came out of wherever it came out of, why not up to?

Isn't it the same thing when you have a limit of $35 million? We're going to do $35 million?

No, you're saying you're giving $35 million. That's not the same thing as up to.

No, no, but it's payment. They're only going to get paid once they do certain things that we've okayed as being part of that.

A couple things. The development agreement is not on the agenda before you for kind of negotiation, so we're beyond that. With regards to the $35 million... No, but we don't have to approve the... You don't. You're right. You're not satisfied with this.

For a board member to... What do you say? Want us to stop handing out plaques or worrying about a rental car, these little small, odd-and-end expenses, but then to just roll the dice on $35 million, kind of... Close my mind to be honest with you.

Um, but what I was going to say was, is we still have to come back with that infrastructure reimbursement agreement. You know, it'll be items that we agree on that we're going to contribute that $35 million for. I'm not going to sit here and say that they are not going to come to us and give us a bill for the full 35 million. Um, but you will know what you are contributing those funds towards.

And we have to locate them.

So would not people have to prove that that bill, I mean, I'm not saying they wouldn't, certainly I'm not questioning that, but you would still have to itemize the bill and prove it. Yes. Considering we have someone sitting up here who certainly knows prices for concrete, steel, and all those kinds of things. But if it did not seem legitimate, we would have that conversation.

Well, Board Member Schwartz, if I could just address this. I mean, as Cale said, we're here seeking approval of the concept plan. That being said, if there are questions about the $35 million incentive. So when the CRA went out to bid on this, it was publicized in the proposals that the board said to send out to the development community to see who wants to be our partner here. that there was $35 million available for incentives to incentivize the project, meant to be reimbursements. And so that was done because this project doesn't get built without incentives. The things that we're providing don't happen in a normal market-driven deal because they're expensive things. And the parking garage is a great example. But the parking garage has this great benefit for the overall project because if you have live music events at the amphitheater or you have a farmer's market, there is structured parking available for people to make it so that it can be successful. And you can't have a downtown without some structured parking. And so we negotiated during the development agreement process for that $35 million incentive and what it could go towards. The intent is that we have to provide evidence of the things we're seeking, that we're going to build, that we're going to pay the money for, we're going to build it, and then the CRA would reimburse us. I don't believe, unless Mr. Tulsa tells me otherwise, that we're going to be coming back to this board with every line item. I believe that for the development agreement, that's something that we submit to the CRA director. And so... Those are things that help make this project happen and allow for that urban village concept that has a lot of things that are loss leaders. They're not profit generating components. So I want to be direct about that. I don't think that it's... it would be fruitful at all for us to skirt around that just because some of the board members feel like it's too rich or something like that. We need to be, we need to be direct about that. Yeah.

Well, since you just told me it's reimbursement, then obviously it would have been something you paid for in advance rather than just the bill being sent.

Right. Everything is bill, the parking garage, the parking garage costs. I don't know. I don't know. $20 million. here's the costs, here's the cost of the concrete and everything, and here's how we came up with that, and here's how we paid everybody. We send those bills, that gets documented and reviewed, and then we're reimbursed.

And I would take for granted that they would not look to overpay for anything because it's coming out of their pocket.

Right.

I'm going to say that I'm going to look at this the same way as the $675,000 we just gave somebody for a facade grant. We took for granted that It was going to be used for the right thing. And you have to, at some point, you got to trust somebody. We're going to look at 50 empty acres for a very long time.

You will know what... you're going to be paying for because that infrastructure reimbursement agreement will come along with the ground lease. So when there's a ground lease for phase one presented, that will include, pursuant to the development agreement, that infrastructure reimbursement agreement, which will document the public infrastructure improvements that will be made in association with that ground lease. And I'm assuming there'll be an estimated cost with that because they'll be allocating from that $35 million.

And eventually that's what the money was for, slum and blight. Right. So from one Virgo to another.

Yes.

You want to have a happy birthday? Thank you for the answer. I appreciate it.

Board Member Smoak.

Thank you. In my defense, I have sat up here for 14 years wanting to see a downtown. I have worked on trying to work with my colleagues to build a downtown for our residents and to ask for this to be tabled because my opinions don't count by some board members, I think is complete disrespect to me. I have sat up here. I have worked hard. I have done my best. Has everybody always agreed with me? No. Have I always agreed with everybody else? No. But I'm not disrespectful to anybody. At least I try not to be. and to hear that two board members want to table this because I'm for the project and I will be gone and they're opposed to the project and they're out campaigning very hard for their candidates who they feel will oppose the project. in my opinion, is wrong. And I think it is total disrespect to me that if you were in my shoes and you were termed out in six weeks or whatever it is, that you would not want your fellow board members to do that to you and say, let's table this because you will be gone. I think you would resent that as well. And to criticize me constantly. And I don't say anything back. I just eat it up. But my day will come. and to criticize me for things that I see expenditures that the city and the CRA have and to question them and say that they are piddly and that I'm going to go ahead and vote for $35 million. I just don't know what to say to those comments.

Antonio?

I don't know how every time there's a difference of opinion, it's someone's picking on me or someone's all right, whatever. But I'm going to make a motion because I've got to try. I'm going to make a motion to table this until we'll say December.

Their second

You can't. You second the table. You can't second it for discussion.

It's not voted on yet.

No, but you seconded it. He's going to tell you that once the table is done and you second it, there is no discussion. So take back your second.

So I'm trying to see when you have a meeting. Take back second, and I'm asked to speak. Technically, it's not voted on yet. So just for the record, your meeting in December is December 16th.

Okay.

Joanne, you know, I'm not picking on you. You want to say that every time I go against you, I'm picking on you. And you want to say I'm supporting my candidate. I can have a candidate. I know you have a candidate. I don't have a candidate. It's already verbally told that you have a candidate running. You know, you want to sit here and attack me and Antonio. And because we're the guys up here, we're the guilty ones. And I'm tired of it. I don't pick on people. I debate people. And if you don't like the way I debate you, then it is what it is. 2016, I will say it again, Commissioner, Board Member Schwartz and Board Member Casiano did not want the CRA to vote on it. They spoke adamantly about it. The election was a couple of weeks away. And that's all I'm saying. Give that person or whoever those people are, give them the right to sit up here and make that decision. That's all. You know, you talk about a $35 million concession. Arlene, I think the number came about because that's how much financially the city, the CRA had in its coffers at the time or whatever. So it wasn't a number that was just made up. It was $35 million. And the number can be used, that money can be used for anything. Let's not forget the $3 million that we proved this board was to run underground lighting along 441. No, nobody wants to talk about that. We approve that. Let's not forget about the maintenance of that property we've been paying for years. Let's not forget about everything on that property we're paying for years. Let me tell you guys, for $35 million, I'm a pretty good contractor. I've been doing it for 30 years. You could build a 50,000 square foot plaza over there with roads, with underground utilities, with your fountain, Antonio, as an entryway, as a start of this program. You can do that. The city doesn't have to get involved. The CRA doesn't have to get involved. Put it out to bid and let a contractor bid it. Don't need a developer. Let the city or CRA make the money with that $35 million. It's their money. It's going to be gone anyway because we're giving it to the developer. Why not do a bid where we have a contractor come in, get a site plan and get it built? That's it. Now we're $35 million ahead of the game and we're going to be making rent. And we have a place for our tenants to go to that are over there worrying where they're going to be next year. You know, but to sit here and say, well, we're going to give them this. We're going to give them that. This is absolutely crazy, guys. This is city-owned property. It's not like Coconut Creek. Coconut Creek didn't own the property. They own small portions of that property. They have a developer come in. You know what? They're happy. Blah, blah, blah. This and that. Great. We own the damn property. And it just blows me away. You're sitting there asking for a fountain. You want to put a damn fountain in. We're giving you $35 million. Put a fountain in. It's basically what this is. But to give them $35 million and to give them everything, and if we want to do something, we have to ask them, this is totally ridiculous. We own the property, guys. We own it. And, Joanna, I'm not picking on you, but if there's going to be new people coming in here, let them decide. Because you know what? If they come in here and they want to be a wrench, they're going to be a wrench in this project. They're going to be. If they don't like the project, they're going to be a wrench. Same way I was a wrench in 2000. I've been a wrench for all these years. But I don't like the project, guys. The residents don't like the project. If you read the comments, nobody wants this project. Nobody wants the apartments. Arlene, you even said you don't like the apartments.

I don't like where they are.

I don't like where they are either. I don't like a parking garage. I'll be dead honest. I don't go to the Promenade because there's a parking garage there. So every time I go there, there's nowhere to park. I don't park in parking garages. We have a beautiful space over there where we can have open space parking. You walk to your restaurants. You go to your barbershop. I love going to the barbershop here because I pull right up. I go to Ace. I pull right up. It's great. But to go to a parking garage, it ain't going to happen. It's not. We should line 441 with the shops, have in the back what we want, but at least get something going. And we can do it. We don't have to give them $35 million. So like I said, if you have any doubts of this, table it. Wait. I understand there's 30 days or whatever David said, but you know what? If that doesn't work, then it doesn't work. No reason to rush it. There's no reason.

Is there a second now?

Now you can second it.

All right. So call the roll on tabling, please.

Board Member Schwartz? No. Board Member Simone? Sorry, Board Member Serrio? Yes. Board Member Simone? No. Vice Chair Rosano?

Yes.

Chair Casciano? No.

All right, motion fails three to two.

Okay. Yeah, does anybody, we have a motion. All right, do we have a motion to move forward on this? What's the will of the board? I thought we did. Did we have it before? Oh, wait. We did. Sorry. We had it.

There was a motion made by board members, seconded by board members. Okay.

So now you're there. Right. Asked for a table.

Public comments. Okay. One second, the mic wasn't on. Just state your name again, please.

Steve Strauss, Margie. One of my questions is, who maintains the parking and the landscaping once it's built? I got my answer question to the $35 million. I'm going to start by saying I'm pro-building. I'm not against the project, just skeptical of what's being proposed. Do you have any guarantees that developers will not parcel off the west side once they develop the east side? Or is there a clause on how long they have to start the west side once they finish the east side? What happens if the project goes bust? Does the land revert back to the city? And how long does that take? till you get your land back? Are you going to be years going through a bankruptcy court fighting for your land back? If you prove tonight, there are no more big changes. What you see up there is what they're proposing. How much is actually 40,000 square feet of retail? You said it was what used to be across the street? Well, they said 50 with... the old hotel property. They said that the middle here is 40,000. And then they're adding 50 with a build on the hotel property. Am I correct? Yes. So you got 40,000 in the middle there with the apartments and the amenities. How much is 40,000 square feet? Is it two aces? Ace parking lot at plazas? Is it...

It's a little bit over an acre.

Ace Plaza is 43.

Okay, so you're basically getting an Ace Plaza.

Correct.

You know, most city centers, you have shops on different streets that you can wander around. And this is a strip plaza with apartments and some amenities. In all reality, it's only 40,000 square feet. I encourage you not to be so eager and approve tonight. Let's start by saying you as a board have not had any public conversations with the residents other than the one that the developer held a few months ago. I didn't see any board members there. It was all conceptual drawings showing pretty buildings and landscaping. What they showed is nothing like we're going to receive. Rents. Have you spoken with developers about what the rents are going to be? For example, most city centers around here in Broward County are getting $35 to $50 a square foot with an additional $15 a square foot for CAM charges. Mom and pop business, we'll wait for that. This project is being built for large retail and restaurant chains, not for small business, which is what built the country. Small mom and pop businesses cannot afford these projects.

Thank you, Steve. You didn't give me a 30-second warning.

Can I ask him a question? How many square feet is the barbershop?

About 500. Thank you.

In regards to the comment about He said parceling out, not necessarily parceling out, but after they build phase one, they do have the right to assign it to a different developer.

None of the property is being sold. It's all being ground leased. So what we're talking about tonight is potentially phase one.

As part of that agreement, they're able to assign a lease.

Subject to CRA approval as well.

Tracy Van Winkle. My question is the contract. Was the contract signed here in front of all the residents or you guys did that behind closed doors? Because maybe if it was done in front of the residents and the residents seen it when you were signing it, we would say, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? Like, maybe you ought to read it better. Maybe you ought to understand what you're signing.

We didn't sign anything. You didn't sign a contract with them? This is what this is about now.

No, they signed a developer's contract. You signed a developer's contract.

We signed it, okay.

Yeah, the agreement, right? Okay.

We didn't sign it is what I was saying.

Who signed it? I assume it's...

Development agreement was presented to the board back in March.

You were at the meeting, Ms. Van Winkle. You were there.

But you guys all signed it.

The agreement signed by the representative of the CRA. There's only one signature. Maybe the chair and the executive director. But you were at the meeting.

But they have to approve it. These guys. Okay.

We voted against it.

Okay, so if you agreed to sign it and this and that, I'm not understanding why... What are you going to lose if you say no tonight? Can you void the contract? Is the city going to lose money? So why not void it and try something different? And number one. Number two... Joanne should vote on this. Maybe what happened last time, you guys waited till after the election, you got somebody new in. Maybe that's what screwed you. Let her vote on it. She's been here. And if she wants a sculpture, what's the big deal about a sculpture? And the water fountains aren't just for him. Maybe the residents don't want the water fountains. This is not just for him, just for him. It's for the residents. It's for everybody. You all live in Margate. And even if she's leaving, she still has to live here and see that. So she can say, wow, that was my idea. I wanted a sculpture and they really went with it. It looks nice. Or if he's not going to be here, he can say, oh, they did the water park after all. Let her take some credit for it. You guys treat her like shit.

Nina Cole from our gate residents. I have a cold. Can you put the concept picture back up? Can you stop my time until Thanks. How many stories is the parking garage?

Is your time for comments?

I do, but I do have a couple of questions for things I can't properly comment if I don't have the answer to the question. Tommy, do you remember how many parking spots there are? okay and how many units there are so the reason why i'm asking is so you can also ask all of those residents that have more than one car they're also going to use the lower level of the parking garage so there will be no public parking that park shouldn't even be there it should be built on the west side with the apartments It shouldn't be there. So if somebody parks in the parking garage, we have to walk around an entire apartment building to get to retail that there's not enough of. That open space that's all back there, that is where the building should start. The open space can be in the middle. This is done completely backwards. It's going to end up being the eyesore. going down Sample Road just before you get to University Drive with a little bit more of an easement. Please don't vote for this. Thank you.

Dr. Sanchez, Margate resident. I don't know much about building or anything like that. But I like certain projects when they are presented. I like the project. I don't like, I didn't like all the apartments. They have worked on it. They have been coming to and discussing this with all board members on and on and on. And every time they make a plan, somebody doesn't like it. Like they said, you cannot please You're not going to be able to please all the board members. But one thing I do not agree for sure is I don't want the board, the commissioners, to decide on the developing plan because you're not developers. I don't want a pulmonologist to check on my heart. I want the heart doctor to check on my heart. The developer is the one that knows what they're talking about. The developers have the experience. You might have experience in building and you might have experience in building a house or making arrangements or making a park. But it's not developing a city. A developer knows that, has the experience, and you chose them because they were the best. They were great. They were wonderful. So yes, continue to negotiate, continue to talk about it, continue to make changes that you can. Don't just negate everything that they do, and then they come to you, you agree on something, they come, present it, then you go against it. It's a never-ending, something that is never going to end. And this has to, it has to go on. As far as board member Simone, I agree with you. And it was disrespectful. And it has nothing to do with having different opinions. It's the way that it is said. So thank you.

Oh, maybe my son wants to flip it. No. Joey Ruiz, way back when in the Ace Hardware Plaza. I'm going to finish off a statement that Steve was actually trying to say. In the two plazas you currently have, which are leased by small businesses, why are you not doing the same thing that you did at Atlantic Boulevard at the shopping center? Where the CRA gave $600,000 for improvements. Make the improvements to the buildings on 441 and Margate Boulevard. And sell those units to small businesses and co-ops. Give the small business a chance to be built as a small dreamer, just like the developers. Keep the $35 million. And start by building the Civic Center with the gym-covered tennis, pickleball, basketball courts so they can be used in the hot summer months. Meeting rooms, industrial kitchens, cities can also use that as an event. Something to consider, to promenade and to walk. For example, how many small business are there, mom and pops? Have you walked through there? Did you see some of Bob's business inside there? A lot of barbershops closed down in the promenade. Have you been in Coral Springs? The beautiful buildings that they built over there, they promised the same thing to the tenants over there across the street in that mall that's still vacant and empty for the last two years because the developers over there did the same thing. They built these beautiful businesses. They have these little nice restaurants on the bottom. How many restaurants have you been over there to see? Parking is disastrous in Coral Springs right now. I've been over there. I saw the taco place over there. I've seen a lot of businesses over there right now empty because there's no small pop stores over there. Paying $40, $50 a square foot is ridiculous. You gave us the opportunity in that plaza. You gave me an opportunity for the last 11 years. I've known all you guys. best thing about small business, we are your heart. We are your foundation. You could get any developer. You could get any contractor. You could get anybody to do a development. Why don't you take the money and start doing it on your own? I agree with Steve on some of the things that he said. I've got a minute left. Well, give us the opportunity to maybe buy our stores. Keep that plaza there. We are the heart of Ace Hardware. You guys know this. You guys walk through those plazas. You go to Ace Hardware. You guys come to my store. I've been a niche. Now I'm huge in the community. Very huge. And I'm number three in South Florida as destination points in Margate. Margate. Nobody gave me the opportunity, but you guys did. And you know what? I'm thinking I'm doing pretty good because... 30 seconds. That's fine. I did pretty good in that place where I'm at to have an opportunity to say, hey, I would like to buy it. Keep your money. I wouldn't vote on this. All you guys, look at it. Take the time. Hell, we've been doing this for the last 10 years. So what Steve is saying right now, I do agree what he's saying. It's just you guys have to take the opportunity to think about that. Small businesses. That's who we are at Margate.

Please call the roll. Oh, hold on. Arlene, I didn't see her.

I was just going to ask Mr. Scott, because I'm curious, too. How many stories is the garage, since it was asked?

Sorry, I was just trying to remember. It's the same height as the apartment buildings. It's six stories.

Do you have any idea how many units can be? I'm just curious, and I don't know that you do.

How many parking spaces? Yeah. I wanna say we had the number off the top of our head last time. Yeah, I believe it's like 900 spaces total.

That's a lot of space. Okay, thank you. I was just, because someone had asked, I wanted to know as well.

All right, please call the roll.

Board Member Schwartz. Yes. Board Member Serrio. No. Board Member Simone. Yes. Vice Chair Rosano.

No.

Chair Casciano.

Yes. Passes three to two.

Happy birthday.

And, yeah. Oh, my God, my eyes. By the way, Jim, we're up to tenant updates. Everyone's paid rent. You have no late people. Do you want to get up and take a victory lap around the podium, or are you just fine where you are? And let's go for board member comments then.

Just three quick updates. I've got to inform you guys of two budget transfers out of contingency. One is in the amount of $20,000 for property maintenance and roof repairs at Ace Plaza Property, painting of the sidewalk. The other is a budget transfer of $50,000 for... We've got sidewalk repairs in a number of places throughout the CRA. One of them I spoke to Board Member Schwartz about recently. That's on 5915 Park Drive. And then 1491 State Road 7, where we've demoed those properties. And then the sidewalks have come out, so we've got to replace those. And the final... Information for you all is the ACE hardware purchase of CRA property was advertised in the paper back in July for 30 days as required by law. We did not get any other proposals for that. So I will be executing the purchase and sale agreement. And that's all I have tonight. Thank you.

Okay. Board member comments. Board member Schwartz, why don't you start it off?

So I'm going to say to the owner way back when, we put over $2 million in there, but we have not said that small business will not flourish on the side of the street where you are. This side was promised for something else, for places to eat and the kinds of shopping that we maybe have small businesses or not, but nobody's not... Let me put it this way. 20 years ago, we promised, and I say it wrong, but they correct me all the time. I call it first right of refusal, but I think it's first right of acceptance. You weren't there 20 years ago, but ACE certainly was, and it was understood. And the last agreement that failed when ACE wanted to buy a quarter acre New Urban told them it would cost them $1 million, another reason why that was not a good proposal. So by the time it comes to look on your side of the street, guaranteed there will be small businesses, because that's really where they belong, where they still are right now, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'm inviting people on 9-11 for a 25th year solemn observation. of the World Trade Center and the things that went on at Firefighters Park at 9 a.m. So if you have the time, this is now the 25th year that we observed the horror and the attack on the United States. So join us if you have the time to do so. And thank you, that's all.

Board Member Osorio. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Executive director, the median's in 441. I believe in the budget we have for median improvements as well, similar with the city. When are we going to start some of that? And it's not necessarily putting new trees in and stuff, which I am a fan of, but it is pretty heavily landscaped along 441. But that's part of the issue. I think in some areas it's too bushy. There's a lot of shrubs that are dyed or hit by cars. They weren't replaced. A lot of the beautification along 441 that I'm looking at is actually thinning some of the shrub out, sod, those sorts of things. Replacing bushes that were hit by cars or just removing those sections.

Antonio, where are you specifically? I ride my bike up and down 441 every day almost. So where are you looking?

We'll stretch a 441. But most specifically from Atlantic to the hospital.

Yeah, I'm familiar with some of the areas, and I'm working with our property manager on getting those scheduled for areas where the cars have hit it and knocked stuff out, getting those replaced.

Or died, or just... Sometimes if plants, over time, they're not maintained properly, what have you, they get too lengthy, and there's... Like a bunch of sticks with little leaves. Right, yeah. So some of that stuff just needs to be removed. But I feel like we've been talking about this for a couple years now, and I haven't really seen any progress on that. Also, when we think about the CRA, we always think about 441 corridor. But for whatever reason... probably because it's slum and blight, but the plaza that is, everyone thinks it's Coral Springs. It's on Sample Road between Riverside Drive and Holiday Springs.

Where Coral is.

Correct. That entire plaza is part of the CRA.

They call it Carolina. They've changed the name. It used to be Holiday Spring Shopping Center. Right. I don't know the name of the shopping center. So it's Carolina.

But whatever the name, I mean, there must have been a reason why the board that created, or the commission that created the CRA back in the day, when they drew those boundaries, they included that plaza for a reason. And I don't know if the CRA has done anything in there. And make no mistake, I fully understand that's private property. but maybe we can have a revived effort to approach those plaza owners and let them know we have grant programs or we're willing to, I don't want to say create grant programs, but the gentleman that came up tonight and got the grant extension, that grant had finished and he came with a vision and the city believed in the vision and gave him the grant money. So I think that we should reach out to that plaza owner and see if there's anything we could do, if there's anything that matching grants or what have you. There's a reason why it's in the CRA. It is slum and blight. And I'd like to see that area revived a little bit.

And that's all I have. Thanks. Board Member Simone.

I know in the past we have reached out. I think, was it you, Larry, that reached out to the plaza owner? Or Paul, somebody I know did reach out to that plaza owner and they just were not interested at all in doing anything at that plaza. So I know in the past we have worked very, very hard to get him and told him about the grants and he just was not willing to do anything, whoever owns it. The manhole covers on Margate Boulevard, we're still working on those?

Yes, they are still on the punch list for the contractor.

Okay. And the bus benches that we have in this city, we don't maintain those, the covered ones that are painted with the concrete.

Have the barrel tile roofs on them? Yes. You maintain those?

Okay, can we look at those? The one that I'm speaking about is the one by the hospital. It really is looking bad as far as painting goes. The columns are completely black almost. So if we can go through the city and spruce up our sheltered bus benches or sheltered bus stops, that would do a lot for our appearance.

Would the board be opposed to modifying or doing some type of different bus shelter out there? Yes, I was going to.

They create sleeping areas?

Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. And it's just more maintenance. I see other cities, they have covered bus shelters, but they're not as inviting.

They're iron structures that it's not essentially a covered roof structure. type of thing. It provides some shade, but it is not as inviting as the shelters that we have for those issues that they bring.

I can look into that. I would love to see that.

The CRA did expend a number of years ago significant money building those. So we're kind of going back on something that we invested in. But I just, it creates, you know, a challenging issue for us. And a lot of times that's why they are always dirty.

And the laws have also changed where it's our responsibility now where we could be sued if we don't correct the problem. But we're, you know, having these inviting free motels along out in front of shopping centers and then they're hanging out at the shopping centers and

In the meantime, I'll find out what our schedule is. I think we pressure wash them once a year. I'll find out what our schedule is on that, and I'll also explore different alternatives for them.

Okay, because they are really looking nasty, and they really don't make the city look good in the condition that they're in. And the last thing I have is I do want to address the carnival. I don't know why it was tabled, but I know everything about the carnival goes against our event policy for the CRA. The use of the property is restricted to businesses, sponsors who have a business or nonprofit organizations or religious institution. I know they're asking for an extra eight days. Um, the carnival is supposed to only be 14 days, but they want 17 days according to our policy. And the city code says that they should close at 10 o'clock. Yet they want 11 o'clock. And there's a history that he had to be threatened with going to court before he paid us last time. So I just can't understand why we keep approving these carnivals or tabling it without knowing the reason for tabling it and then having to call a special meeting just on the carnival. It just doesn't make sense to me because this just goes against Our event policy, a lot of it goes against our event policy, but yet we keep just saying, okay, we'll table it, we'll have a special meeting, and basically I think we're going to give it to them again. And I just think it's wrong. So I just want to put in my two cents on that this evening. And... That's it. Stay well. Be safe. Take care of one another. You never know what tomorrow will bring. Saturday is Good Neighbor Day. So if there's something that you can do for your neighbor, reach out to them and try to help them for Good Neighbor Day. That's it. Thank you.

Vice Chair.

Yeah. Don't have much. Okay. I'm going to beat you to the punch and say happy birthday, Marjean. I don't know if I reminded you or if I beat you.

I got a reminder text.

Oh, so get out of here. Go to dinner. I'm done. Thank you.

I saw his Facebook post. He beat you to it. Don't worry.

I'm just going to be real quick. I just have one item. Today, both board member Schwartz and I were called visionaries. And the person wasn't thrilled with our vision, but that's okay. Because without vision, there is no advancement. Without vision, there is no future. And without vision, there is only decay. And we will not let the city decay. I want to thank everybody who went with me this evening on making sure that this city has a future. Where we believe that businesses are going to be able to... Listen, Joanne, Arlene, and I go to too many grand openings that become grand closings a couple of months later. We need people who can afford to go into some stores and spend money. We need to have more people so that there'll be more people shopping in these stores. We go to too many grand openings that are grand closings six months later. I'm tired of it. We need to do something different. What's working hasn't worked. It's time to do something different. We're going to take this vision and hopefully it will make the difference. We all hope and pray that it makes the difference in our city because we all love this city. There's not one of us up here with all of our different opinions that don't love this city. We just have different views on how it will prosper. And as I believe it was board member Schwartz said, We're not always going to agree on everything. We're not always going to agree on everything. There are times that these things go 3-2, 4-1, 5-0. And there are times in the 3-2s you're not on the winning side. There's times it's 3-2 on the winning side. And you just have to take it and move on. But the key is this. Not one person up here doesn't believe that Margate has a better future. We just have different ways of getting to it. So please, let's remember that when we talk about other people. as they do online, depending on where you look, they hate all of us. It just depends on where you look. It's two here, two there, two there, one there. But not one of us here don't care about this city. Not one of us. And just because you disagree with us on something, it doesn't mean that we're not looking forward. Thank you. Everyone be safe. With that, the meeting's over.