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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOMNI CRA 2013-11-20 MinutesCity of Miami City Hall 3500 Pan American Drive Miami, FL 33133 www.miamigov.com Meeting Minutes Wednesday, November 20, 2013 12:00 PM Miami City Hall OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Marc David Sarnoff, Chair Francis Suarez, Vice Chair Wifredo (Willy) Gort, Commissioner Frank Carollo, Commissioner Michelle Spence -Jones, Commissioner OMNI & MIDTOWN CRA OFFICE ADDRESS: 1401 N. Miami Avenue, 2nd Floor, Miami 33136 Phone: (305) 679-6868 www.miamicra.com OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 RESOLUTION 1. 13-01355 Present: Chair Sarnoff, Vice Chair Suarez and Commissioner Gort Absent: Commissioner Spence -Jones and Commissioner Carollo On the 20th day of November 2013, the Board of Commissioners of the OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Miami met in regular session at Miami City Hall, 3500 Pan American Drive, Miami, Florida. The meeting was called to order by Chair Sarnoff at 12:06 p.m. and was adjourned at 12: 34 p.m. ALSO PRESENT: Pieter A. Bockweg, Executive Director, CRA Barnaby Min, Assistant General Counsel, CRA Todd B. Hannon, Clerk of the Board CRA RESOLUTION OMNI Community A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF THE OMNI Redevelopment REDEVELOPMENT DISTRICT COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT AGENCY Agency ('BOARD"), WITH ATTACHMENT(S), ACCEPTING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS RECOMMENDATION APPROVING THE FINDINGS OF THE SELECTION COMMITTEE THAT EUE SCREEN GEMS STUDIO ("PROPOSER") IS THE TOP RANKED PROPOSER FOR REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NO. 13-001 FOR THE DESIGN, BUILD, MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION OF THE MIAMI ENTERTAINMENT CENTER; AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO NEGOTIATE AN AGREEMENT WITH THE PROPOSER WITH TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS SET FORTH IN THE RFP; FURTHER DIRECTING THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR TO PRESENT A NEGOTIATED AGREEMENT TO THE BOARD ON OR BEFORE JANUARY 2014. 13-01355 Cover Memo.pdf 13-01355 Legislation (Version 2).pdf 13-01355 Exhibit.pdf Motion by Vice -Chair Suarez, seconded by Board Member Gort, that this matter be ADOPTED WITH MODIFICATIONS PASSED by the following vote. Votes: Ayes: Commissioner Gort, Vice Chair Suarez and Chair Sarnoff Absent: Commissioner Spence -Jones and Commissioner Carollo CRA-R-13-0073 Chair Sarnoff. All right, I want to welcome everybody to the November 20, 2013 meeting of the Omni CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency). Mr. Director, I believe we have one issue on this agenda? Pieter A. Bockweg (Executive Director, Omni Community Redevelopment Agency): Yes, sir, Mr. Chair. Chair Sarnoff. And I just want to say to the Commissioners sitting to my left and my right, I think we finally made it. I think we finally have created something that will go down as a legacy of all of ours, because we took the -- hopefully, we have the courage to see this to the end and create the industry that we have flirted with in the City of Miami, but we have never dated her consistently. And once we create a place and that sense of being, I think we will always be in the City of Miami Page 2 Printed on 12,18, 2013 OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 movie industry in the City of Miami. You're recognized, Mr. Director. Pieter A. Bockweg (Executive Director, Omni Community Redevelopment Agency): Thank you, Mr. Chair. And Mr. Chair, I'd like to say finally, we're here. As you know, we had some delays because of the port terminal bond and the final negotiations in making sure we were fiscally found to move this project forward. I am happy to announce that the item before you is the recommendation of the selection committee for the RFP (Request for Proposals) proposal that went out on September 9. The RFP that went out on September 9 was -- yes, sir. Vice Chair Suarez: No, no, no, I'm trying to get his attention for when you finish. Mr. Bockweg: Okay. The RFP went out on September 9 for design, build, operate of the MEC (Miami Entertainment Center) facility. As you know, the direction of the Board was for us to move forward with a movie facility, and we feel, and it's my recommendation to the Board to support the selection committee's recommendation. Selection committee went out -- the selection committee met on October 28. They did the oral presentations, and as part of your backup, you can see the scoring sheets of that selection committee. I feel very comfortable in moving forward with these respondents. They are present here today, and I'm very excited about it. Before you, we'll take a look at their proposal as far as what the facility might look like, and I would like on the -- if it's okay with you, Mr. Chair, to introduce EUE (Elliot, Unger and Elliot)/ Gem Screens [sic], and allow them to introduce the team and show you a little video. Chair Sarnoff Please. Mr. Bockweg: Christian. Christian Lovschal: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Christian Lovschal. I am director of real estate development at EUE/Screen Gems. Just first of all, I want to say thank you to all of you for considering EUE/Screen Gems for this project. We're very, very excited to be here in Miami, and we very much welcome working with Pieter, and Bert at the CRA. Board Member Gort: You got to bring the mike up. Mr. Lovschal: Sorry. I can start off by telling you a little bit about EUE/Screen Gems. We're a company with over 40 years of production experience. We've worked in over 50 different countries, and we have a very diverse network of clients. We have the largest studio complexes outside of Hollywood We are located in Wilmington, North Carolina, and also in Atlanta, Georgia. We're headquartered in New York City and in Los Angeles. In Atlanta, we have a ten -stage, 33-acre studio complex that offers over 130,000 square feet of production space and flex space, and over 40,000 square feet of office space. In Bloomington, we have a 50-acre studio and film studio campus that has over 10 stages. We -- the largest one of that is 37,500 square feet, which has a water tank for special effects. This is one of the largest sound stages in North America. All in all, in Wilmington, we have over 150,000 square feet of column free production space. Both complexes are full service. Some of the services that included are: Multiple mills; we have storage; we have wardrobe space; we have production suites; and we have onsite lighting and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Some of the more recent productions that have taken place in our studios include two number one box office hits. We have "The Conjuring" and also "Iron Man III," both of which premiered this last summer. Other feature films that we've shot recently at our studios include: "Flight," with Denzel Washington; "We're the Millers" and also "Journey to Mysterious Island. " Some of the TV (television) series that are currently shooting at our studios include, in Bloomington: "Under the Dome," "Sleepy Hallow" and "Eastbound and Down." And in Atlanta, among others, we have: `Necessary Roughness" we have "Devious Maids" and we have "The Game." We've really assembled a great team of highly professional designers, contractors, and developers, and I'd like to introduce you to some of our local partners. We have Fashina Construction of Florida, represented by Joshua. City of Miami Page 3 Printed on 12/18/2013 OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 Fashina's been involved in some amazing projects, including the building of the New World Symphony and also the American Airlines Arena. We have Aecom, our design firm, represented by Abdel Martel (phonetic), Pete Hernandez, and Gus Barreiro. Aecom is recognized as an industry leader not just in the United States, but around the world. They have been involved in some great projects, including designing for theme parks like Warner Brothers, and also Universal Studios in several different countries around the world. Other local companies that we've partnered with include Kaco, SRSEngineering, and also Barnhill and Associates, all of which have many years of experience working for the City of Miami. All together between all our partners, we have completed more than 50 entertainment industry projects. So now, I'd like to introduce you to Chris Crowder, who will tell us a little bit more about our commitment to the local community. Thank you. Chris Crowder. Thank you, Chris. My name is Chris Crowder. I am the vice president of operations for EUE/Screen Gems, and we are very excited to be working with the Omni CRA on the Miami Entertainment Complex project. As he mentioned, we have facilities in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia, and we are committed to the communities in which we do business. In 2010, we leased the property in Atlanta, Georgia that would become the Atlanta -- EUE/Screen Gems Atlanta. The studio in Atlanta is located within the Metropolitan Parkway Revitalization Zone, which as a district is set aside by Invest Atlanta, a Community Redevelopment Agency very similar to Bert -- what Bert and Pieter have going here. We've also worked with Invest Atlanta to support the Livable Centers Initiative which -- or LCI -- which is a designation of emerging regional activity center, which -- and our studio is the catalyst for this transit -oriented development and mixed use -- mixed communities. To sum that up, it's to kind of help people live and work in the same neighborhood, and this is an initiative brought on by Invest Atlanta, and we've supported them in those efforts through planning, and studies, and so forth. Also, in that same vein, we've also worked with the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, which is an agency put together by the City of Atlanta to put people to work in their communities, and we've worked with them on job fairs, one-on-one meetings to hire staff at our facility, which include office staff, maintenance personnel, as well as security, and these are ongoing efforts as the needs arise. We've also participated with local universities and community colleges to sit on panels to educate people about -- the local people -- about our business and the business of film and television production. We also work with these local colleges and universities to offer internships throughout the company, and a lot of these interns become either full-time employees of our company, or employees of our clients. We also support film festivals, local charity events, and we even sponsor a couple of little league baseball teams. So all that being said, we look forward to what -- the growth, the potential growth here in Miami, and we look forward to working with the City of Miami, and with that, we've put together -- they said a little sizzle reel of some of our recent projects. Video presentation. Mr. Bockweg: Mr. Chair, if I may. As you can see, I think we made -- the selection committee made the right choice. I'd like to thank the selection committee for all their hard work and the great job that they did. The item before you, I will be coming back in January to get the Board approval. There are two agreements that we will be negotiating; the professional services agreement, as well as the lease agreement for the facility once construction is completed. Those will be coming back to you in January. The reason why I suggest January is cuz (because) I want to get this under construction and started as soon as possible so that we can capture what we need from the tax incentives, which we will be very active in this year in lobbying for in the State, cuz we will be needing more tax incentives to attract that industry back down to Miami. Vice Chair Suarez: Move it for discussion. Chair Sarnoff Is there a second? City of Miami Page 4 Printed on 12/18/2013 OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 Board Member Gort: Second. Chair Sarnoff Commissioner Suarez is recognized. Vice Chair Suarez: Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, we do have a practice, and I know that you introduced Mr. Barreiro as part of your team, but he's also a former School Board member for Miami -Dade County, and he represented the City of Miami, so, as always, it's an honor to have you here, and our former City Manager, who is here, sitting in the audience with us, as well; another team member, and one of the most decent, honorable people that I've worked with in public sector in my short time here. So thank you for being here, and you're definitely a credit to your team. And I want to commend also before actually talking about the substance of this issue, I want to commend the executive director. By all accounts, it seems to have been a very clean process; a unanimous recommendation. I looked at the scoring; good, good panel members; good committee members. And usually, when it's not, we hear about it. It's almost universal that if there's any sort of complaint, you hear about it. And it's so seldom that you have an RFP of a pretty significant size where you don't hear some sort of griping, some sort of complaining, some sort of protesting. So, you know, it's a credit to you and the way you designed the process that we're here today without, you know, without some sort of an outcry. I commend you for that. You know, this has been a long time coming, and, you know, I philosophically -- you know, we talk about this a lot -- philosophically, I don't think either of us would have ever thought that subsidizing an industry, or subsidies to get an industry going, or government being the leading cause really makes any sort of sense. We would never have thought that. And I think, you know, what you have to realize is that there's competition, and if you don't subsidize, then you will lose business. You will lose business to places like Louisiana. You will lose business to North Carolina. You'll lose business to North Dakota. People will film in North Dakota if the profit margins dictate that they should. And I think we all believe that if we have an equal playing field, people will choose Miami over just about anywhere in the world, and I think we're seeing evidence of that right now. And we're very fortunate, because we are in a golden age, in my opinion, in the City of Miami right now. So, you know, I think all that skepticism came with my extreme faith in the Chairman of the CRA and his very clear vision on this issue. And, you know, I think in life, whether it's business, whether it's politics, you have to take risks, and that's the only way you get rewarded. So, you know, to me, being a leader, subsidizing an industry, even though it wouldn't have been a natural thing to do, I think in this particular context with the entertainment industry, which I think is a natural fit as an industry that we need to promote and bring to the City of Miami, you know, for me, it's a risk that's worth the potential reward. And I remember -- I'll never forget this. I think it was my first meeting or my second meeting; one of my first meetings when you asked the candidates for District 5 where we were doing our due diligence on before nominating them, you know, what they felt were the core industries in the City, and which did they feel that the City could promote. And I think at that point, I remember thinking about the question, myself and I've continued to think about that question. And I think, you know, one of the ones that we've identified aside from technology that we agree on is the film and entertainment industry. And I think this is, if not a step, a toe, you know, half a step, a crawl in that direction, and hopefully, the catalyst for what can become a booming industry. We stood shoulder to shoulder on issues related to "Burn Notice, " you know, just out front, and we're seeing that property now finally be demolished. And I think it's going to be a 17-acre park for the residents of Coconut Grove and this community, and I think it's going to be a jewel; doing something that's almost impossible nowadays in an urban city, which is creating a tremendous amount of park space, and locating what would other -- what had become a makeshift studio -- you know, it was really a convention center -- and putting it in a much more appropriate place, in a place where, infrastructure -wise, you know, it can really capture and deal with the infrastructure requirements of a studio than, you know, than the middle of Coconut Grove. So, you know, for me, as this process evolved, not only did it become a risk worth taking, I started urging and, you know, kind of being part of the bandwagon, and saying, "Okay, executive director, when are we finally going to allocate the money? When are we going to finally get this process started?" because I became a believer. You made me a believer in this City of Miami Page 5 Printed on 12/18/2013 OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 process, and, you know, I'm glad that this -- we're taking this next step, and I'm hopeful that once this is completed, this really becomes the first, you know, in attracting this very powerful economically viable industry to the City of Miami. Mr. Crowder: Thanks. Chair Sarnoff Commissioner Gort. Board Member Gort: I have a couple of questions, me to you; somebody from the team. You have additional facilities you have created in other cities, like Atlanta and North Carolina. I'd like to see all the -- When you compare us and what we're building here, how does it compare to the other facilities you have built? Are they about the same standard, a little less, a little more? Mr. Crowder: Same standard, but the footprint is much smaller. Board Member Gort: Much smaller. Mr. Crowder: Yes. Board Member Gort: Okay. And let me tell you, I'm a great believer in -- for the third year in a row, we're going to have the market, film entertainment market taking place in the City of Miami through the CAMACOL (Latin Chamber of Commerce) Hemispheric Congress, and we have people from Asia that are ready to come here. We have people from India and we have people from Turkey, they're interested in coming and filming here. We just got back from Paraguay, which is a country that not many people have much of the history, because they've been an enclosed country for many years, and we were surprised. We gave an award to the producer that has received -- I don't know how many awards they have received from the film industry for the film they made over there in Paraguay. They're interested in coming to Miami. And I think this is a facility that can really be used, and let me tell you, this is an industry that's -- $60 billion industry; clean air, provide jobs, and provide a lot of resources for our local vendors, so I'm all in favor of it. I've been in favor of it from the beginning. I think Miami's going to be the next Hollywood; better than Hollywood. Chair Sarnoff Thank you. I just want to say first to Pete Hernandez who's out there -- I haven't seen Pete in a long time. I think the words, "honorable" and "great public servant" -- Board Member Gort: Yes. Chair Sarnoff -- are absolutely belonging to him. You are absolutely, indelibly, inextricably -- in no way could they take you out of being a part of this team, because one of the things that I take solace and I take some pride in is the fact that you're a member of this team. So I hope that if I have questions or concerns, I could go to Pete Hernandez, who has always answered every one of my questions whenever I've been a Commissioner, and when I come off, I hope I still always know Pete Hernandez, a great person. Agustin Barreiro, again, former school board member, it's great to see him a part of this team, and great to see that they want to see this equally a part of our community. Couple comments, cuz I think Commissioner Suarez says it all. I equally agree that subsidizing the film industry was a curious position to take at first, because I would think that you'd want to be in Miami. But he said it best. If the playing field is not even, people will find another place to find blue water even if they have to computer -generate it. Vice Chair Suarez: Yeah. Chair Sarnoff People will find a way to create a palm tree even if they have to computer -generate that palm tree. And we simply need to keep our playing field level, cuz when it is a level playing field, we will absolutely, you know, show Miami to be exactly what it is. And City of Miami Page 6 Printed on 12/18/2013 OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 to Commissioner Gort's thought, which is all of the industries that profit from this from the City of Miami, from the concessions, to the catering, to, hopefully, a charter school that maybe we could even develop where people will learn how to become movie personnel and such, that's something that we certainly need to keep on our radar screens and promote. I just want to thank both Commissioner Gort and Commissioner Suarez, and maybe say something to Commissioner Suarez. Risk is about faith, and thank you for having some faith in me, and thank you for having some faith in the director. I don't have the same faith as you, but I absolutely had faith in both of you, and I said to the director the whole time, `I want input from Suarez, I want input from Gort. I want them to be a part of this process. This is going to be as much their fingerprints on this project as anyone else in the City of Miami." And I think you're at the very beginning stages of something which in 30 years, somebody's going to say, "So who thought of this? Oh, there was a Commissioner Gort back then. By the way, his daughter became" -- or whatever; "there was a Commissioner Suarez, yeah, that's right, Mayor Suarez' previous" -- I mean, there'll be so many Suarezes. And then then they'll say, "This guy, Sarnoff, well, he went off and went someplace else later." But this is legacy stuff. This is creating industry, and, you know, this is exactly what we should be doing. And you saw that it is a heavy lift. It is a heavy lift to get people's mind around the concept of creating a new leg of a stool for the City of Miami. And what we did learn cuz I know both you and I are interested in technology, interested in incubators, interested in bringing IT (information technology) to Miami, and I know in our own ways, we're doing it. What I didn't realize in this process was that film and technology as so intertwined. Vice Chair Suarez: Good point, good point. Vice Chair Suarez: And that animation is going to be part and parcel of what we did at the Hyatt, what is being done in Wynwood, what is being done throughout Miami. And you would say from the time you sat on this dais four years ago, `I don't even know if we had an IT industry in Miami." Today, we're certainly in the top third of the cities in America, and that's from coming from nowhere. Vice Chair Suarez: And we're going to be going very far very fast. But you're right; I didn't really think about the synthesis or the merging of those two industries. Actually, I was always thinking about them as two independent industries. But you're absolutely right. I mean, as they both unfold and mature as industries, they're becoming more and more intertwined where you really can't have one without the other. But I was going to say just in my final comment that one of the major lessons that I've learned from you is your "stick-to-it-ness "; your follow-through, you know. You're dogged. When you have an idea, you don't let it go, you know, you're persistent. And both this and that project out there that's being torn down -- Anybody could have said, "You know what? I don't want to take these guys on, you know, 'Burn Notice.' They're popular, they bring in people. You know what I mean? They get everybody riled up." And you did it every single year, every single year, and every single year, and it was your persistence that created the ability to make it happen, because, you know, every year that they came back, they would say, "This is our last year," and they'd have to -- well, you know, when it was this Commission, you know, cuz first, you had to do it under a different Commission. Then they started saying it to us. Well, my third year that I was here, I started to learn that there was something to that, "Oh, this is our last year" thing, you know. And I think that was the year that I stood up and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, " and I think I had to kind of protect you and defend you there a little bit from the tomato throwers, because, you know, the fact of the matter is it was the third that they had told us it was their last year. And what we're going to see there is a beautiful project, but it's thanks to your persistence. And that's one of the characteristics that I've learned from you. It can't just be about having a good idea. It has to be about seeing it through all the way to completion. And I know there's still more to go before that ribbon gets cut, but, you know, I'm sure you're going to be persistently making it happen as quickly as possible. Chair Sarnoff Well, what I would say to Commissioner Gort and Commissioner Suarez is a lot City of Miami Pagel Printed on 12/18/2013 OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency Meeting Minutes November 20, 2013 ADJOURNMENT of people have plans, and I'm sure -- and I always think about D-Day and World War II I'm sure they had a plan on how to take that beach, but the "stick-to-it-ness" to take that beach, when you started taking your casualties -- and I'm not saying anything we're doing is nearly that dangerous; it's not. But sometimes, sticking to the plan is actually harder than making the plan, itself. Vice Chair Suarez: Right, right, always. Chair Sarnoff Because every blemish, every fault, everything that people can do to make sure that your plan doesn't look good will be brought out, and this is where you guys come in, which is faith. And also, you can't do anything up here. You're one vote, right? You're just one guy with one idea. You always have to have two other people share, feel invested and be a part of that process. And that's why we, as the legislators -- cuz I guess that's really what we are -- have to be able to bring others onboard with us and, you know, you'll never know this, but the moment you spend on the dais with me with regard to "Burn Notice" was my proudest moment as being a Commissioner. To see somebody else defend your position, it doesn't get any better than that as a Commissioner, it just doesn't. So thank you for doing that, and thanks for observing that. Commissioner Gort, you want to say anything? Board Member Gort: All good. Chair Sarnoff All right. So we have a motion; we have a second. You have something to say, Mr. Director? Mr. Bockweg: If may real quick, Commissioner; that, again, I apologize, but it's as amended. There were some grammatical errors in the resolution. It's the same resolution, missing some errors. Vice Chair Suarez: Do we need to send you guys back to school or --? Mr. Bockweg: I would need to take an English class; my apologies. So it would be as amended. Chair Sarnoff All right, and just to the folks standing up there with -- actually, who, hopefully, will become our partners in the professional service agreement, as well as the lease, you sound like you did great work with North Carolina. You sound like you've done great work with Atlanta. You'll find Miami to be a very adoptive town. This is a town of very few people having been born here from inception. We adopt a lot of people here; whether they're from the north, or they're from the south; whether they're from -- wherever they're from. Please reach out to us, be good partners, and we will be good partners with you. Unidentified Speaker: Right. We'll take that under advisement. Chair Sarnoff So we have a motion and we have a second; all in favor, please say "aye." The Board (Collectively): Aye. Chair Sarnoff We're in adjournment. Thank you. The meeting adjourned at 12:34 p.m. City of Miami Page 8 Printed on 12/18/2013