City Shows Potential Hacienda Developer the Door
New Port Richey is taking a new direction with plans for the historic downtown property
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New Port Richey City Council members voted Tuesday to end their relationship with a potential developer of the Hacienda Hotel.
Four council members were present to vote at Tuesday’s meeting on sending a letter to Community Development Partners saying the city is closing the doors on negotiations with the firm to redevelop the Hacienda. All four voted to send the letter to CDP.
The Hacienda Hotel, located right on Main Street, was built in the 1920s. It was used as a hotel for years, before it became an assisted living facility.
The city Community Redevelopment Agency voted to buy the Hacienda Hotel in the middle of last decade, and it has sat vacant since 2006, when the assisted living facility moved out.
The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The city has been negotiating with CDP for six years, and it does not have a written agreement for the firm to redevelop the historic property. It had a planned development agreement with the firm at one point, but it lapsed in 2010.
The city then picked up negotiations with CDP again and has been talking to them over the past year or so, but it still doesn’t have a new agreement. CDP had proposed redeveloping the property into a modern hotel.
The city had been negotiating with CDP over this past year about a draft agreement document called a term sheet, but the letter approved Tuesday says the city wants to "end term sheet negotiations with CDP, Inc., and seek other options."
Last week, Deputy Mayor Rob Marlowe said in a comment on Patch that the decision wouldn’t “preclude the city eventually working out a deal with CDP or another developer to add the pieces necessary for a modern hotel (eg. a room wing in the Swanson parking lot) once the economy improves.”
At the Tuesday meeting, Marlowe thanked Andrew Ham, vice president of CDP, for working with the city and acknowledged that he understood the economics CDP was faced with in this project "just weren't working for them."
Ham responded to the council's decision in an email to Patch:
"We wish the City well," he said. "It's been a long road for both of us. If someone else undertakes a historic restoration of the building we would be happy to provide the nearly $800,000 in cash equity we have available in exchange for the historic tax credits that potentially could be generated by a rehab."
Councilman Bill Phillips has suggested next steps the city could take with the property, including taking an inventory of the Hacienda’s contents and checking air quality, seeking grants or private funds to help sustain the building, determining goals for the city to reintroduce the Hacienda into the market and ideas for marketing the property and soliciting developers.
The city is planning a community cleanup of the property and is eyeing Jan. 12 for the effort. Parties interested in participating in the cleanup can contact interim city manager Susan Dillinger at dillingers@cityofnewportrichey.org. They can also call the city manager’s office at 727-853-1021 and give Marilyn Mercado their contact information.
Do you think the city council made the right move? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
Carla Gibson
5:37 pm on Wednesday, December 5, 2012
[quote] The city has been negotiating with CDP for six years, and it does not have a written agreement for the firm to redevelop the historic property. It had a planned development agreement with the firm at one point, but it lapsed in 2010. [end quote]
THIS is why I get so frustrated living in Florida .. it is just one "small" example of why this state has NEVER made any progress. LAZY leadership .. zero motivation .. and backward "redneck" thinking!
Michael Malterer
10:36 pm on Sunday, December 9, 2012
You're 100% right Carla, the leadership has very much been lacking on this project. There is no reason that for this property to have sat vacant for the better part of a decade. Also please remember that this property along with the other vacant and dilapidating properties that the city owns are the reason that we are facing very difficult budgets year in and year out.
As for now though we need to look forward to a day (hopefully soon) when we can sell this property to an investor who can restore the Hacienda to it's glory days.
Rob Marlowe
6:56 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Carla,
The agreement lapsed because the city had the common sense to insist on setting a time limit instead of allowing the agreement to go on forever with no deadlines.
The banks we taxpayers bailed out spent the billions we gave them on a lot of things (eg. executive bonuses), but not on financing multi-million dollar hotel projects in small towns like ours. Financing for a $20 million hotel project remains difficult / impossible to secure from any bank to this day. CDP recognizes the economic reality we live in, as does the city leadership.
The city's "LAZY leadership" will be out in force on January 12th with tools in hand to start with "sweat equity" what can't be done with bank financing... beginning the process of saving and rehabilitating the Hacienda. May I humbly suggest that you plan to join us on the 12th and be part of the solution.
barbara sullo
8:11 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Planning on it
Carla Gibson
10:47 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Rob, I don't have ANY "high hopes" that anything will -- or can be -- done to save the Hacienda. Mark my word, this subject is going to be "talked" about six more years (or longer) while the Hacienda continues to crumble. Setting a "time limit" that lasted SIX LONG YEARS just shows how SLOW progress is made here.
I have lived in SW Pasco more than 40 years and other than a few new stores and subdivisions the area looks exactly the same ... a dilapidated "backward" mess.
Believe me, I would join in the "clean up" if I wasn't elderly and disabled ..
[PS When I said "LAZY" I meant a lack of organization skills and zero willingness by residents to allow progress and changes to happen. I am not only talking about the Hacienda, but Florida in general. Over the past decades projects have been introduced to improve the "quality" of life here, but shot down because it might take away from the "small town" flair ... now it's too late to go back and see what a mistake that was.)
Sandra Dornick
7:40 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
Rob,
Can you clarify a little more about this property. Is it owned by the city? If so, is NPR rehabilitating of the property to sell, or to keep as revenue.
I'm glad there was a timeline on the property, but now it is 6 years older, without care. Did the developer put down any earnest money at the time of the negotiation to be able to use for any part of the project?
I guess I'm asking what are the future plans now.
Rob Marlowe
4:22 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
The city owns the property. By all accounts, CDP invested about a quarter of a million dollars of it's own money trying to make the project work. No earnest money that I'm aware of. It never got quite that far.
I can't speak for my associates, but I'd like to see the city hang onto the Hacienda for a while and let the rental revenue help pay for the rehabilitation that is needed.
Nothing we are doing would prevent a future council from contracting with CDP or someone else to add a room wing and other stuff if / when it makes financial sense.
barbara sullo
8:12 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
How about a community owned co op in one of the hotel rooms. Transforming our city into a local economy would be a model for other cities.
Spellbinding Sherry
8:21 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
I am elated that the city has the intention to revive the Hacienda
with a grassroots, local effort.
I'd prefer to KEEP the building as our own community center,
perhaps offer space to rent within it, to vendors and community groups
and private occassional parties. (I would love to host a component of the GHS class of '84 annual hootenanny there).
I think the city should keep it after we clean it up and renew it AS IS.
There is so much we can use it for if the city is willing.
THANK YOU CITY COUNCIL!
I think this is the best decision you have collectively made in a long time.
guillermo
11:37 am on Thursday, December 6, 2012
As long downtown NPR Main St. remains as two way cross super-hiway, businesses and vacant buildngs will remain the same.
I still think that, downtown NPR should be a walking district,
Let's open NPR to investors, foreign or local, there is not a single Bank on Main St.
US 19 is not Main St. it is a race track, not for wheel chairs or scooters neither for eldery people with walking canes.
Rob Marlowe
4:29 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
I keep harping on making the downtown more walkable. Shade trees come to mind. Dealing with the thru traffic on Main Street is going to take more than a little creativity. The key is to make the downtown a destination rather than something to race through on your way somewhere else.
Linda Goodman Hughes
12:46 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012
As a life time resident of NPR, I have seen it grow in numerous ways. Many businesses are still thriving and being enjoyed by the people living amongest them. One who goes down town and mingles with others daily or weekly, know and appreciate these businesses. If you do not like downtown it's because you have choosen not to be part of it. This town doesn't need frilly buildings, posh hotels, or exterior to be a welcomed family to anyone...I would love to see the Hacienda restored as it was back in the 20's with memoriabelia of NPR's past and present. Would love to see it host proms, conventions, and be a non-high price hotel. The realistic side is the cost, which some just can't seem to understand. It really cracks me up when I read the negative remarks of NPR, or Florida in general; if anyone looks back at what Florida started out as and what our ancestors have done to make it what it is now, they should be honored and proud to live here. If not, you obviously have no historic value and truly just like to complain....
Rob Marlowe
4:38 pm on Friday, December 7, 2012
Some of the ideas that have been floated: A seafood restaurant (you catch it, we cook it), an ice cream shop serving families who come to the playground, a home for boat tours out of Sims Park, a canoe/kayak rental business, a visitor center in conjunction with the offices for both the Chamber and Greater New Port Richey Main Street, meeting rooms, a new home for the Progress Energy Art Gallery, and more. Fixing up even a few of the hotel rooms to serve as VIP housing for musical acts that are performing during Chasco, etc. is also a possibility.
None of these things would be terribly difficult to do once the place is cleaned up and we start stabilizing the few areas that need major work.
Lost in most of the discussions is the fact that NOT building a room wing in the Gloria Swanson Parking Lot means that the old post office doesn't need to be demolished to make room for more parking. I can think of a BUNCH of cool things that could be housed in the old post office...