FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 The Kings Landing development in Fort Pierce is facing another delay.<\/p>\n
WATCH BELOW: ‘It’s taking so long,’ Funky Cuda owner Jon Nolli tells WPTV’s St. Lucie County reporter Tyler Hatfield<\/p>\n
Kings Landing in Fort Pierce faces $15M funding shortfall<\/p>\n
Live Oak Development, the secondary developer on the project, told commissioners they\u2019re short said they are $15 million short of the $60 million needed to complete the Marriott hotel and restaurant portion of the project \u2014 and city commissioners are divided on what to do next.<\/p>\n
Live Oak Development, the secondary developer on the project, told commissioners the $15 million shortfall is due in part to rising construction costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen construction costs continue to balloon, \u201c said CEO Paul Bertozzi. \u201cWe’ve had those challenges across multiple industries but that is a portion of the cause of the delta that is being created.”<\/p>\n
City leaders said developers initially asked the city to cover the gap through a loan or grant.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Michael Broderick said that request was denied.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, the city does not have $15 million. Nor would I advocate the city investing $15 million into a private enterprise,\u201d said Broderick.<\/p>\n
Live Oak Development is now asking for 180 days to find the money through private sources. Bertozzi told commissioners the outreach has already begun.<\/p>\n
“We’re already in the process of reaching out to participating parties,\u201d said Bertozzi. “We’re looking at friends and families and investment and private equity verses institutional investors.”<\/p>\n
But commissioners are debating about the city reclaiming the property. Broderick said he believes trying to reclaim the property through legal action would be expensive and time-consuming.<\/p>\n
“Clawing the property back through reverter clauses is going to be litigation for years and a ton of money,\u201d said Broderick.<\/p>\n
He said he would rather give developers the time they are asking for.<\/p>\n
“What are we going to lose by 180 days? That’s the question I would ask,\u201d said Broderick. \u201cWhat are we going to lose? It’s just time. Doesn’t cost us anything. It’s just time.”<\/p>\n
Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said he does not want to wait.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s time to as they say, cut bait and move on,” he said.<\/p>\n
Jon Nolli, owner of Funky Cuda in Fort Pierce, said he has been waiting on the development and is ready for it to be finished.<\/p>\n
“It’s been taking some time,\u201d said Nolli.<\/p>\n
Nolli said the completed project would benefit the surrounding area. He said he even has plans to open businesses inside Kings Landing \u2014 but the delays are wearing on him.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got a couple deposits on the commercial side. I was looking to a beer garden, and a deli, and I mean it’s taking so long that I don’t even know the trends have changed,\u201d said Nolli<\/p>\n
WPTV reached out to Live Oak Development and still working on a response. The city commission has scheduled a special meeting on September 14 to discuss next steps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT PIERCE, Fla. \u2014 The Kings Landing development in Fort Pierce is facing another delay. WATCH BELOW: ‘It’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-365396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}