At a Nov. 7 Land Use meeting, Manatee County Commissioners voted 4-2 to give a sweetheart deal to a politically connected developer who wants to build “luxury, market-rate apartments” that are certain to exacerbate the existing traffic nightmares in the downtown corridor.
The vacant 3.70-acre property sits on the southwest corner of Manatee Ave and 15th Street West, abutting Ware’s Creek. It is diagonal from First Presbyterian Church and across from the big glass tower that houses Sage Biscuit, among other businesses. The former location of Bradenton’s City Hall, it is prime real estate, to say the least.
The county took possession of the property via eminent domain in 2009 for site operations of the Ware's Creek Storm Water Improvement Project. At the time, the owner was an LLC controlled by Ron Allen of NDC Construction, the de facto developer of record for anything involving the City of Bradenton. The property's purchaser this time is … wait for it ... Ron Allen.
One of Allen’s LLCs purchased the property in 2004 for $2 million. When the county took it by eminent domain, it paid his LLC $5.25 million—a tidy profit of over $3.2 million after sitting on the land for about six years. The county paid for the $50 million flood mitigation project with help from the Army Corps of Engineers and SWFMD. As part of that deal, the county must pay the water management district 50% of the sale price or $3.5 million—whichever is more.
The agreement approved by commissioners in the meeting allows Allen’s new LLC to purchase the property for $8 million, which means the county—after giving SWFMD its cut—will lose approximately $1.25 million over what it paid for the land. Moreover, Allen won’t have to pay for the property until 2029. He just gives the county a deposit of $8,000 and essentially gets to hold an option on it at today’s price.
If he walks away from the deal, it costs him eight grand. If the land appreciates in the meantime, he gets all of the upside, while taxpayers lose out on any appreciation it might see. The county says this is because it needs the area for parking until the new garage is complete, which is exactly why they should have waited until closer to that date to put it out for bid. Commissioner George Kruse pointed out all of this quite articulately during the meeting. But there was still a 4-2 majority of developer puppets on the board, so he might as well have been screaming into a black hole in space.
Unsurprisingly, the item was tucked into the consent agenda, but Commissioner Jason “I’ve seen the writing on the wall” Bearden pulled it for discussion. Kevin Van Ostenbridge and Ray Turner, two developer puppets given their walking papers from voters in August, eagerly carried the water. Turner is a real estate broker, so that’s no surprise. Van Ostenbridge seems relatively unemployable outside of political patronage, so he’s probably eager to do favors for his best buddy, Mayor Gene Brown. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he gets some sort of city-related paycheck in the near future.
However, Chair Mike Rahn and Commissioner Amanda Ballard went along for the ride, albeit more quietly. Both Rahn and Ballard still have two years left in their first term. They’ve apparently either decided to do as much as they can for their overlords before voters cast them off next cycle, trusting they (or their spouse in Ballard’s case) will be taken care of after, or believe that their benefactors have a plan to flip someone in what appears to be a 4-3 good government majority that will be sworn in Tuesday.
Voters did something downright momentous in August, pulling off an unlikely flip of the board. Despite historic spending by developers, the people saw through their scam and spoke … loudly. Unfortunately, the incumbents still had a chance to give their paymasters a few more gifts on the way out, but what happens when the new board is seated remains to be seen.
If there is a means through which this lousy deal can be scuttled, and some green space can be enhanced and preserved, that would be fantastic. There’s not enough of it in downtown Bradenton, and the last thing that intersection needs is a bunch more cars trying to move east or west through the gridlock of a road that cannot be expanded.
Perhaps more importantly, this issue highlights just how important the incoming board's naming of the next chair will be. The obvious choice would be Kruse, who will be the most experienced commissioner on a very inexperienced board. He’ll have four years in office, while Rahn, Bearden, and Ballard will have two, and three commissioners (Carol Felts, Robert McCann, and Tal Siddique) will be brand new.
The developer wing has kept the gavel from Kruse’s hand for four years. If the new members are smart, they’ll ensure the longest-serving non-developer puppet who has also demonstrated the best command of board issues—particularly when it comes to land use—helms the ship.
Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch is also the author of three novels and a short story collection, which are available here.
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Debann
COLOR ME SHOCKED...NDC WINS AGAIN THANKS TO THE CITY OF BRADENTON...And BROWN WILL create a job for his widdle buddy,then he will create problems for you ...WAHOO
Sunday, November 17 Report this
ruthlawler
Everything about this stinks! This is a prime, publicly owned downtown Bradenton site with amazing potential for a mix of uses. Public park amenities should certainly be included...such as a waterfront park with picnic area and kayak launch. Has any of this been brought before the public for input? NO! I find it ironic that City of Bradenton was able to conduct a thorough public information and outreach campaign when considering the future of the current City Hall/Bradenton Police Station site. All might not agree with the outcome, yet the public input and opinions were rigorously sought for publicly owned land. This 3.7 acre site is capable of providing sensible mixed usage, that could provide PUBLIC amenities as well as potential for income producing development. To hand over PUBLIC land to a for-profit development at todays value for an unknown, likely much higher, value when the sale is finalized in 4 to 5 years.... is simply ludicrous. Ruth Lawler
Sunday, November 17 Report this
WTF
What was the big rush. We talked about that to be the overflow parking while the new parking garage is being built of course with any construction projects there can be delays and cost overruns so we should have not been in any rush to sell it until after the parking garage is built I could see now NDC charging us rent on property that we owned because of delays in the parking lot project what an ill thought out proposal that should not even been on the agenda much less considered until the new board was in place. It was a terrible decision by the 4 commissioners that are still developer owned and always will be. They have got to go. There were no workshop meetings for the public no alternative solutions and again shift through because the new board has more sense and would have put that project on hold for the citizens and the best outcome for our financial state. George gave some very compelling arguments of why it was a bad agreement and you think the four that voted for it would say yes but here's why I voted for it, no that never happened it never will because there is no logical comeback from their terrible decisions other than financial gain in two years when they need money for reelection, trust me they're not going to last that long. And the current administrator should have never put it on the agenda to begin with he has got to go as well... And soon!
Sunday, November 17 Report this
Dianna
This is item 75 on Dec 10, Regular meeting- if citizens want to comment on this item, use the public comment link on the county’s website.
Tuesday, December 3 Report this