In the 1/26/16 Key West Citizen (keysnews.com), my interjected thoughts in bold italics, I provided the pics -
Sloan Bashinsky, Key West
westerly side of Peary Court
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
New PAC pushes Peary Court buy
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
A group of locals has launched a political action committee, Housing First, in advance of the March decision Key West voters will make over whether the city offers up to $55 million to buy Peary Court.
Housing First is the PAC behind the campaign called Worker Housing KW, which has started with a website, workerhousingkw.org, a Facebook page and a pledge that it isn’t solely about the 157-unit rental complex in Old Town, organizers said.
“The first building block is Peary Court,” said MaryBeth McCulloch, a New Jersey native who moved to Key West 19 years ago and ran the Bottle Inn before retiring.
City voters will settle the Peary Court purchase at the March 15 election, which is also the Florida presidential primary.
“We’re not going to dissolve the PAC after that,” McCulloch said. “There are other options available but none so immediate.”
A few other options which perhaps could be made immediate …
The PAC is promoting a housing forum set for 6 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Harvey Government Center, 1200 Truman Ave., which is hosted by the Monroe County Democrats, and members said there will be additional events.
City Commissioner Jimmy Weekley is a founding member of the PAC, along with Maureen Bramlage, Tony Falcone, Mike Mongo, Perry Johnston, Robert Gold, Richard Tallmadge, Ed Swift, Donna Windle and Damian Vantriglia, McCulloch said.
Jimmy Weekley
City commissioners resolved to let voters make the decision on Peary Court, but have taken pre-election steps such as ordering a $15,000 inspection of a sampling of Peary Court town homes and starting the application process to tap $10 million in Key West’s land authority funds for a down payment.
Resolved? What the mayor and six city commissioners did was not do their due diligence, not take any responsibility, and ask the voters, who had no way of doing their own due diligence, decide whether or not the city should by Peary Court. For an entirely different perspective, which you will never hear from City Hall or the Citizen, or this PAC of _______, you fill in the bank. Make no mistake, the unseen hand, which cleverly steered Jimmy Weekley and the rest of your elected officials to put Peary Court out to referendum, is Jim Hendrick, who has represented the Peary Court developers since before they first tried to get their development through the city’s Historical Architectural Review Commission. Google Jim Hendrick, Key West, to learn what all seven of your elected officials know about him, but are not telling the voters he represents the Peary Court developers. A high compliment to Hendrick: anyone who does business with someone he represents gets fleeced, which Jimmy Weekley knows all too well, since he was who introduced Hendrick to Pritam Singh, and the two of them fleeced the city with Truman Annex, and the two of them have been fleecing the city ever since.
The rest of the Peary Court buy would come from a bond issue city staff describes as a loan and, as the ballot question states, the city will pay the mortgage from rents received.
The developers and Jim Hendrick will laugh all the way to the bank, with a $32 million, or more, profit they made in two years. The developers paid $35 million for the land, intending to tear down all of 157 existing the units and replace them with very expensive housing. They received 48 free new “affordable housing” building rights for what actually was 48 new market rate units they would build at Peary Court. After being unable to get their development approved, they tried to sell the 48 building rights back to the city for $12 million, as well as charge the city $55 million for the 157 existing units. The city’s crack negotiating team, led by Jimmy Weekley, agreed to pay the developers exactly what they wanted for the 157 units, $55 million, with the developers keeping the free building rights which very well are worth more than $12 million.
Peary Court, built in the early 1990s as Navy housing, is a collection of two-bedroom apartments renting for about $2,400 a month. White Street Partners bought the 24-acre parcel in 2013 for $35 million with plans for demolition to make way for luxury homes. But after striking out before the Historic Architectural Review Commission, developers dropped their plans and decided to remain landlords.
Weekley and other proponents of a city purchase say Peary Court will eventually go the luxury home route if Key West doesn’t buy the complex.
What actually was said at Jimmy Weekley’s town hall meeting on Peary Court, and before that at a city commission meeting, is, if the referendum fails to pass, the developers will spend a lot of money upgrading the 157 Peary Court units externally and internally, including all new appliances, and then the units will be rented out at a higher price than they now are being rented out for, which currently averages $2,450 a 2-bedroom unit. What Jimmy Weekley never said at any public meeting I attended on Peary Court, is his grocery clerks at Faustos Food Palace cannot now afford on their salaries to live at Peary Court, nor will they be able to afford to live there if the city buys Peary Court. Key West Housing Authority Director Manny Castilo has said a family with combined income of $160,000 a year could qualify to live at Peary Court, if the city buys it. City Commissioner Sam Kaufman said at a city commission meeting that a minimum of $85,ooo annual income is required to cover Peary Court’s $2,450 a month rents. I never heard Jimmy Weekley say any of that at public meetings. I never heard Jimmy say the city should scrap the proposed $58 million Truman Waterfront Park right next door to beautiful Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, and spend that $58 million, and $10 million from the Land Authority, on new actually affordable rental housing on Truman Waterfront and elsewhere in Key West, where new housing can be built on city land.
McCulloch said she has been running into locals who aren’t well-versed in the Peary Court vote March 15.
Is is possible, McCulloch, that are you are NOT well-advised? We remember the PAC set up to promote approving “studying” widening the channel, so bigger and more cruise ships could get into Key West. Not at any channel-widening referendum forums that year did panelists ask that PAC’s spokesperson, John Dolan-Heitlinger, who he worked for? Dolan-Heitlinger worked for Ed Swift, at Historic Tours of America, which makes heap wampum off of cruise ship passengers.
It’s not low-income housing, McCulloch said, but rather workforce housing.
So, Jimmy Weekly’s grocery clerks at Faustos are not part of the Key West workforce. Nor are city street cleaners, sanitation workers, maids, yard workers, dock workers, diswashers, deck hands. Because they do not make enough money to pay existing Peary Court rents: $2,450 per month.
“Everybody wants to have teachers, nurses, bartenders and servers and firefighters,” she said. “We won’t have those if we don’t have any place for them to live.”
Well, that’s true, McCulloch, we need those people. But we don’t need them as much as we need street and sanitation workers. Without them, Key West would turn into a toxic waste dump in one week and President Obama would have to send in the Hazmat cavalry. Without the street and sanitation workers, and the other non-workforce people I identified above, Key West would shut down entirely in one week. Could your dishwashers at Bottle Lounge have afforded Peary Court’s $2,450 monthly rent? Looks to me, your new PAC, and local politicos and government bureaucrats, have invented a definition of workforce that excludes probably 90 percent of the city’s actual workforce. I give you a pat on the back, though, for not saying Peary Court is affordable housing, which I keep hearing said at city commission meetings, that it is affordable housing. I also keep hearing the 48 new units the developers will build there, using 48 building rights the they were given for free by the city, are affordable units, but, in fact, they are market rate units, which is what Peary Court units now are. I dare you, or anyone, to tell Jimmy Weekley’s grocery clerks, or a city street or sanitation worker, or a maid or a yard man, or a dishwasher or a deck hand, that $2,450 a month is affordable rental housing.
So far, the PAC has collected $5,500 in contributions: $5,000 from Historic Tours of America and $500 from Weekley, and spent $2,500 at National Campaign Supply, according to records at the Monroe County Supervisor of Elections.
Michael Miller, a local architect, who sits on the Historic Architectural Review Commission, lives in one of the Peary Court units. He told me face to face that the developers have not maintained the units, and the units have mold. The units are wood frame, so they have termites. The developers themselves planned to replace all appliances, as part of upgrading Peary Court. That’s all refrigerators, stoves, dishwashers, air-conditioning units, etc. Where’s the money for repairs and new appliances coming from? Are the members of this PAC going to pay for that? What if the rents do not cover the mortgage payment and the expenses of keeping Peary Court up? Are the members of this PAC going to pay the shortfall?
Below are links to the city’s video of my citizen comments on Peary Court during last Wednesday night’s city commission meeting. In the first two videos, another speaker is finishing up before I speak. In the third video, there is much discussion before getting to citizen comments, including mine. That video gives a sense of the players. In the fourth video, I start speaking right away.
Sloan Comment #1
Agenda Item 14 Approving a purchasing exception as allowed under Section 2-797 (4) (b) of the City’s Code of Ordinances, best interests of the City, for procurement of Consulting Services to provide a limited inspection of units within the Peary Court Property in an amount not to exceed $30,000.00; Authorizing necessary budget amendments. Sponsors: City Manager Scholl
Click on link just below to watch/hear my citizen comments:
http://keywestcity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=418&view_id=1&embed=1&player_width=720&player_height=480&entrytime=9097&stoptime=10998&auto_start=0
Sloan Comment #2
Agenda item 17 QUASI-JUDICIAL HEARING: MAJOR DEVELOPMENT PLAN and LANDSCAPE MODIFICATION/WAIVER 541 WHITE STREET Granting Major Development Plan and Landscape Modification/Waiver approvals pursuant to Sections 108-91.A.2. (a) and 108-517 of the Land Development regulations of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Key West, Florida for the construction of 48 new affordable residential units on property located at 541 White Street, (RE # 00006730-000200; AK # 9100458) within Historic Special Medium Density Residential (HSMDR) Zoning District. Sponsors: City Manager Scholl
Click on link just below to watch/hear my citizen comments:
http://keywestcity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=418&view_id=1&embed=1&player_width=720&player_height=480&entrytime=11680&stoptime=12141&auto_start=0”
Sloan Comment #3
Agenda item 18 QUASI-JUDICIAL HEARING: DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT 541 WHITE STREET Pursuant to Sections 90-676 through 90-692 of the Land Development regulations of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Key West, recommending approval of a Development Agreement for property located at 541 White Street in Historic Special Medium Density Residential Zoning District (HSMDR) (RE # 00006730-000200; AK # 9100458) between the City of Key West and Peary Court Holdings LP. Sponsors: City Manager Scholl
Click on link just below to watch/hear considerable discussion, which gives a flavor of the players, after which come citizen comments, including mine:
http://keywestcity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=418&view_id=1&embed=1&player_width=720&player_height=480&entrytime=12141&stoptime=14884&auto_start=0
Sloan Comment #4
Agenda item 19 Nominating that portion of the property located at 541 White Street, commonly referred to as Peary Court, and which currently contains 157 existing dwelling units, to the Monroe County Land Authority for partial funding for the purpose of providing Workforce Housing. Sponsors: Commissioner Weekley
Click on link just below to watch/hear my citizen comments:
http://keywestcity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=418&view_id=1&embed=1&player_width=720&player_height=480&entrytime=13228&stoptime=14077&auto_start=1