FORT PIERCE – Will the Fort Pierce City Commission pull the plug Monday on the downtown King’s Landing development after five years or will it agree to give the developer another six months to find other investors willing to fill a $15 million financing gap?
District 2 Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said in August that he was “not willing to go one step further” to keep the project alive after developer Live Oak Holdings Group LLC, of Jacksonville, has defaulted on promises to have the financing settled and construction underway.
Dzadovsky then called on the city to “cut bait and move on” to find a new developer for approximately 7.5 acres of the former H.D. King Power Plant on the downtown waterfront.
However, District 2 Commissioner Michael Broderick argued giving Live Oak Holdings an additional six months to plug its financing shortfall for the mixed-use project that includes a proposed hotel, condominiums, villas, office and retail space is “a responsible ask.”
Broderick predicted if the city ends the development agreement now, legal challenges of that decision could result in five to 10 years of costly litigation.
No commissioner said they would support the city kicking in $15 million to complete the financing.
Broderick recently told Hometown News that he believes an unnamed “puppet master” is pulling strings to favor certain waterfront development plans over others.
At least two other projects –proposing hotels, condos, office and retail space – are being touted along South Hutchinson Island beachfronts and more may be in the wings.
Causeway Cove, the brainchild of Palm Beach developer Ashton DePeyster, is able to bypass the city’s current zoning rules by promising that at least 40 percent of its units will be “affordable housing” for 30 years. That means the five-building complex can reach 11 to 17 stories, well beyond the four-story limit in the island’s “overlay” zoning.
A proposed Boardwalk on the Inlet development shows plans for several buildings that would reach 10 to 12 stories high.
That project does not meet Florida’s Live Local Act for affordable housing and will need variances from the current zoning overlay to accommodate the proposed highrises to include a hotel, and event, residential, commercial, dining and retail space.
Boardwalk is being developed by the Woods Family Limited Partnership, headed by Sanford Woods, a multi-state car dealership magnate who owns Treasure Coast Lexus of Fort Pierce.
Broderick has not publicly said who he believes is pulling development strings in Fort Pierce. But he says the commission’s recent 3-2 vote to fire former City Attorney Sara Hedges was the first step in exercising its influence, and now potentially squashing King’s Landing.
Broderick has said he also believes his stances have prompted “veiled threats” against him personally, politically and aimed at his commercial real estate business.
Monday will be a busy day for city leaders. The commission will meet for its regular day session beginning at 9 a.m. to approve police technology purchases and hear department reports. Then at 5:05 p.m., the commission comes back to order to set a course for King’s Landing.
The meetings are in the commission room at Fort Pierce City Hall.