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CITY OF MIAM
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RALPH G. ONGIE
CITY CLERK
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRESENTATION: WORSHAM BROTHERS & CO./TURNER DEVELOP-
MENT CO., CO -DEVELOPERS - DEVELOPMENT OF JAMES L.
KNIGHT INTERNATIONAL CENTER.
MOT. 77-820
1 - 31
4
MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING OF THE
CITY COMMISSION OF MIAMI, FLORIDA
* * * * * * * *
ON THE 19TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 1977, THE CITY COMMISSION OF MIAMI,
FLORIDA, MET AT ITS REGULAR MEETING PLACE IN SAID CITY IN SPECIAL
SESSION TO DISCUSS MATTERS OF PUBLIC IMPORT,
THE MEETING WAS CALLED TO ORDER AT 9:10 O'CLOCK A,M, BY VICE -
MAYOR REV, THEODORE GIBSON WITH THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS OF THE COM-
MISSION FOUND TO BE PRESENT:
COMMISSIONER J. L. PLUMMER, JR,
COMMISSIONER ROSE GORDON
VICE -MAYOR (REV,) THEODORE GIBSON
ABSENT: COMMISSIONER MANOLO REBOSO
MAYOR MAURICE P., FERRE
ALSO PRESENT: JOSEPH R. GRASSIE, CITY MANAGER
R, L. FOSMOEN, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER
GEORGE F. KNOWX, JR,{, CITY ATTORNEY
RALPH G. ONGIE, LITY CLERK
MATTY HIRAI, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
AN INVOCATION WAS DELIVERED BY REVEREND THEODORE GIBSON WHO THEN
LED THOSE PRESENT IN A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG,
PRESENTATION MADE BY WORSHAM BROTHERS g CO,/TURNER DEVELOPMENT CO
CO -DEVELOPERS, OF A COMPREHENSIVE PROPOSAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
CITY OF M1AMI/UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI JAMES L. KNIGHT INTERNATIONAL CENTER,
Rev. -Gibson: Mr. Manager let's take care of the Agenda. A11 right, Sir. I take that
Mr. Reboso isn't here.
Mr. Grassie: Mr. Peboso is not in Mr. Vice -Mayor, I understand from his secretary
that he is not going to be able to make it. The Mayor is a little delayed and should
make it in a few minutes, so there will be four of you, as I understand it.
Mr. Plummer: I think,for the record,it should be stated by you that this was a
Special meeting of the Commission called by the Mayor I think you have to announce
the sole purpose of the call.
Rev. Gibson: All right, Sir. This is a Special Meetinc called by the Mayor and the
purpose of this meeting is to specifically deal with the proposed development of
the downtown Convention Center. All right gentlemen,it's yours.
Mr. Grassie: I would like Mr.Jim Connolly, Mr. Vice -Mayor, to introduce the develop-
ment team for just a moment.
Rev. Gibson: Proceed.
Mr. Connolly: As you're well aware,the City has been in a process of develop-
ing a Convention Center,downtown adjacent to the Brickell Bridge,for approximately
a year and a half.At the point that the drawings has reached completion of design
development, an ad was put in all the local papers and also in the five national
editions of the Wall Street Journal on February 17, 1977,with an invitation for
expressions of interest from prospective developers who develop the private portion
of the Convention Center. In response to that, eighteen developers sent in request
for further information . An additional ad was put on local papers on June 13, 1977.
which was a request for developmental proposals which was specific. At that time
a request for proposal which outlined, basically, the City's position and also as
the City expected to receive any prospective developers, were sent to all the parties.
Part of that documentation was,all parties were asked to identify their teams so
that we could evaluate on a pre -qualification basis if the capabilities were there
to carry the project forward. Based upon the response to that specific letter the
eighteen developers were short listed to five teams who had presented the adequate
01
OCT 19197 7
qualifications and material. Those five were sent complete sets of the con-
struction documents at approximately 80% of completion, a complete set of the
specifications at that point and all the other pertinent data including feasibility
studies and environmental inpact assessment. Inresponse to the date -line dates for the
proposals, two proposals were received. One was from Mondev International)in Montreal.
That proposal which you have received in your mail was basically a very broad brush
proposal which had no specifics in response to the City's request for propcsals.
The other proposal was put forth by Worsham Brothers in joint venture with Turner
Development Co. which is a wholly -owned subsidiary of the Turner Construction which
is one of the maior construction corporations in the United States. Yesterday,
a meeting was held with a Selection Committee consisting in City personnel and
people who are extremely conversant but non-competitive in the developmental field
in Miami. That Committee consisted of Charles Crumpton, Vincent Grimm and Dick
Fosmoen, Assistants City Manager from the Administration here. John Gilchrist and
myself who were in project development and Roy Kenzie who is the Executive Director
of the Downtown Development Authority. In addition, from the private sector, Lew
Fisher who is the President of General Development Corporation and Dave Lumberg who
is also a loca] developer, were at yesterday's meeting too, listening to the presen-
tation. In addition to that, the University was represented by Aldo Barnett who is
the Business Manager. After the presentation, because it was only one ballot presen-
tation made, the task of the Selection Committee was no longer to evaluate which
was the better of the two proposals but to truly evaluate if the proposal that was
made was valid and would be worthy of being pursued by the City as being the private
development of portion of the Convention Center. The Committee,at the conclusion
of the presentation, met formally and unanimously agreed that the proposals,as pre-
sented to them yesterday, was worthy of consideration by the Commission. At this
point, I'd like to turn over to you the floor to the prospective developer, Earl
Worsham.
Rev. Gibson: Let me ask a question, Sir, for the record...you're telling me that.
we sent out the advertisement and only two people sent in material that you can evaluate?
Mr. Connolly: Only two responded.
Rev. Gibson: And then only one really showed up to proceed.
Mr. Connolly: That's correct.
Rev. Gibson: All right, I understand that. I want that for the record so nobody
can say that, you know, we didn't give John Doe or Mary James an opportunity, let's
make sure. The other thing is a pet peeve of mind because usually after you do what
you are going to do, you know, the buck stops here and I have to cry and I want to
know who to cry on...whose shoulder to cry on. Are there any local people involved
in... or joint venturing with...; you know what I'm talking about?
Mr. Connolly: Yes, Sir.
Rev. Gibson: Ckay, let me see who... or know how they are so that,you know, as I
go through this process if something goes wrong I know to go right on their door
step, step and don't have to call them in New York or, you know. Let me sea who
those men are. That is, I want to see them now, I can't speak for Plummer and I
can't speak for Rose. Father Gibson wants to see them.
Mr. Connolly: On the developmental team proposed, the architect for the private
developers --the same architect that we have used in public spaces-- is Ferendino/
Grafton/Spillis/Candela; and two of the principals....
Rev. Gibson: They are here?
Mr. Connolly: ....two of the principals are here, Hilario Candela and Ed Grafton.
Rev. Gibson: All right, gentlemen, I just want to make sure I see you.
Mr. Connolly: In addition, the General Contractor for the developmental team is
Frank J. Rooney who is a local General Contractor and had been here for...I don't
know how long. Bill Southern is present and....
Rev. Gibson: All right,sir, 7 know that name anyway. Go ahead.
Mr. Connolly: ....all right, we'll proceed with the presentation.
OCT j..�i `w •
02
Mt, Worsham: Mr. Vice -Mayor, Mrs. Gordon, Mr. Plummer, I'm Earl Worsham and
President of Worsham Brothers. We'll be acting as the principal coordinator
of the development team making this proposal to you. First of all, we'd
like to thank you sincerely for holding this Special Meeting to hear our presentation
Each member of our team will be performing significant services indispensable to
the project success and will identify each of the members of the team so you'll
have an opportunity to see them. Briefly about Worsham Brothers, Worsham Brothers
was founded by my grandfather and his brother in 1877 in Knoxville, Tennessee.It's
continued by my father and his brother and I grew up in the construction industry,
as a water boy, a hod carrier, carpenter's helper and all sorts of varied occu-
pations working under my father. I grew to love construction and the fine build-
ings that my father had built, in fact, most of the earliest skyline of Knoxville,
Tennessee. My father took pride in his buildings and Established a reputation for
quality. Instead of directing my education to engineering,he directed me into the
finance; first at the University of Tennessee and then gi-duate work at American
University while I was serving my two-year service time at Lhe Pentagon. After
service,I entered into the construction field by reactivating Worsham Brothers and
soon moved into the development field. I have participatedDas a principal)in well
over 200 million dollars various types of development projects including housing)
shopping facilities, dormitories, and the Hyatt Regency in Knoxville. Much, if
not most of this development work, has been with governmental or quasi Governmental
agencies. I have fond that good architecture -through this process of develop-
ment.selis that exciting architecture makes good economics and good economics makes
good projects. Most important of all are good partners. This project has good and
exciting architecture and we think very, very excellent partners and if we are
fortunate enough to be selected and work with the City, we are sure that the City
as a partner with us will make a whole team and good partners. At this point in time
I wonder if we might turn out the lights on the... right... very good, very good,
leave one on, that's fine... I would now like to introduce my co -developer, Jim
Griffis of Turner Development Company, and before Jim stands up I would like to say.
Jim is President of Turner Development Company a wholly -owned subsidiary of Turner
Construction Company and Jim resides in Chicano for he is directing a large urban -
housing program.. He also has projects underway in a Tampa bay region and in Beford,
Massachusetts. Turner Development and Worsham brothers are the proposed co -developers
the contracting, proposed contractinc party with the City. Tom Burlock also of
Turner Construction who is a Senior Vice -President and Jim Grif.fisiwill now show
you some brief slides and coment on the work and the accomplishments of Turner Con-
struction and Development Company. (Slide presentation)
MY. Burlock: Mr. Vice -Mayor, gentlemen, we are pleased to be with you today. The
slide behind you represents a composite city of buildings completed by Turner Con-
struction Co. in 1972. Each year -for almost 50 years.we have pre -produced what is
called Turner City and you can see from the diversity of the buildings there that
they represent all building types. 1973, the tall building in the middle is the
Standar1 0i1 of Indiana. 1974, 1975, 1976. Each year, each of the year represented
here illustrates work in excess of $600 million . Jim,would you like to say a few
words about these developments?
Mr. Griffis: Yes. Let's see, a 145-unit high-rise obvious a condominium in Chicago
that we has developed and completed in 1974 and successfully sold it out last year,
incidentally, we've started about three blocks north of that that would be a 40-
story high-rise condomini'•-
Mr. Burlock: Thank you Jim. This is a mixed -use project in Indianapolis-'1erchants
Plaza"- consisting in the Hyatt Regency and an office building... There is an interior
view of the same project.... Here we have an addition to the Continental Plaza Hotel
in Chicago, Western International... An interior view of a Hotel in Hong -Kong where
we provided pre -construction consulting services... This is a Civic -Center in County-
0ffice building in Syracuse, New York... Here we have a 400-seat theater, it's part
of that complex... This outstanding building is the UNDC -United Nations Development
Corp. hotel and office building, built for the United Nations people. Thank you very
much.
Mr. Worsham: Thank you, Tom. At this point I would like to introduce another member
or our team, Mr. Michael Buckley, he is a young man with vision and innovation.
Michael is President of Halcyon, LTD., of Hartford and Montreal, Canada, and has
just completed one of the rdost exciting and unique intra-city shopping complex there
is in the country. It is called the "Market" -City Corp Center, it's a high-rise
atrium type facility within the City Corp Center in downtown Manhattan. It has
been featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Fortune and elsewhere.
03
OCT 191977
Michael also directed the design and development of the 200,000 sq. ft.Civic-
Center shops in Hartford, Connecticut, a central city development in Hartford
owned by Aetna Life Insurance Co. Michael will speak to you and show you some
slides of his work and some of his ideas... Michael Buckley.
Mr. Buckley: It's a pleasure to be here this morning...(Slides presentation)
That's an aerial shot of Hartford,right on the middle of it is the mixed -use
project that was a joint venture between the City of Hartford, Aetna Life &
Casualty and the ITT Sheraton group. It's an interesting project in sense that
the City had to take the initial risk, everything else is built on air rights above
it, Aetna Life & Casualty representing in one way the private sector response in
the same way that Mr. Worsham would represent here. It had a very large civic
arena with a variety of uses inside, we have a ice hockey team, and they can have
circuses and boat shows inside; but the retail space was being marketed by Aetna
Life & Casualty and they did a very poor job of it... That's what it looked at a
year after the Coliseum opened... Ten months later, keeping enough ineut by
Aetna, we made it look like that...Now, the reason I say that is because in sell-
ing it we had to do some unusual things. Downtown there is a difficult to make
things happen and we have to make downtown Hartford work. We used the message job
and open the doors to one of the nation's richest markets and we did some interesting
things with combining both food and retail and I think there are many similar
situations to the site. That's, unfortunately, because of the lightness of the
room you can't see the plan... that's what they call promenade cafes which are
seven different kind of ethnic food stands... and there are Greek and Italian and
Mexican and, you know, and Delhi and that's what they look like
they can accommodate 3,000 people a day. In addition to that kind of thing -where
you can have a desert from one country and a main course from another-... we put in
series of informal watering holes... that's a bar called the "Asylum"... and there
is a French Creperie...anu a Jaranosc. Restaurant, unfortunately named "The Rising
Sun"... and then the "Tour of Four" is a luxury first-class white -tablecloth restau-
rant on the second floor of the downtown shopping mall, and you need reservations
to get in there now - a year and a half after the place has been opened. Now.
what that did was allow us to do some other kinds of things through retail... this
is a specialty department store in early rendering and what it looks like today...
and I'il just click through these... that's a rendering and what the shop looks
like... I'll just click to these in a hurry to show the standarded design and you
can imagine the kind of merchandise that's available... that's a cookware shop
which does a nice little piece of demonstration, little feature display and col-
lects a crowd of people regularly... An English educational toy shop... even an
antique shop in a downtown shoppina center... and there is a large central space
in this that takes care of the exit and outflow from the main arena, you will
also have a large central space in this, it's an opportunity for various kinds of
promotions... this happens to be one called "Extravanganza" it happens to run in
Easter time. The name of the game is people and the kinds of inter -actions that
you can create... Now, another level, you can't see the top of the slide but that's
a discount store in the bottom and on the top is a large dome... that's an old
market piece in downtown Dayton, Ohio that is being transformed by combination, again,
of the City and the private sector, they've got every kind of finance that you
can believe trying to get that place to lc:'' like this ,which again will be a
specialty retail and we are going to recreate the market all over again -the same
market that was there in 1910, dress it up, put on a new cloth and have it become
a people place again. There are City development bucks in this, there is Community
Development dollars in it, they did it away with the dome and they are using the
Public Works bill)all sorts of very fluid financial arragements... Just some views
here of the plan and the kinds of food and product that we want to get back inside
there and some images of what would look like, from the bakery to the creamery,
fish market... on the second level to a collection of restaurants and retail.
Now, another scale... this is New York City... that's the headquarters for City
Corp. which is the holding company for CityBank, I guess it's one of the largest
banks in the country if not the largest... In the base of it, it is a three level
shopping mall; now, two level shopping mall that never worked in Manhattan before
so we are giving the job the figuring of doing something to do with this. We chose
an international theme which we call the "Market at City Corp Center". It focuses
around the international experience, New York being a very cosmopolitan city .
There are some similarities in this project to, again, what we envision for the
site here in Miami. We had proposed that clustered around an atrium that goes
seven stories tall in the inside would be a series of cafes, restaurants and every-
thing related to food including home furnisLings... It's just some idea of what
it would look like,it open. in a month and a half...These are some model shops...
but I do have ... there is a shop - the one large store that's open now which is
an off -shore English company making their first intrusion in the United States
OCT 191972
called "Conran's" and it contains gourmet foods, houseware and everything re-
lated to international lifestyle... and I apologize for the darkness of the slides.
Now, what it's interesting about this project is, inside it there is, again, one
of these atriums, and you'll see when you see the architectural presentation that
that project also focuses around an atrium. The trick is to bring them to life...
and without slide, I conclude it.
Mrs. Worsham: Thank you very much, Michael. I would like to say that we are honored
at possibly the most well-known architectural firm in Miami as part of our team,
Ferendino/Grafton/Spiilis and Candela. They are working every face of Miami like
can be pointed to with pride, and I'm sure that each of you have been a part of the
environment created by this fine firm. We selected Ferendino/Grafton/Spillis and
Candela not only because they have done the architectural and engineering work on
the base facility for the City and the University but also because we recognize
their very superior appreciation for outstanding design --outstanding and exciting
architecture --and as I previously stated, we believe that design sells and exciting
architecture makes good economics. At this point I would like to ask Mr. Hilario
Candela if he would go through a brief history of the architectural concepts of
this project and what we are doing.
Mr. Candela: I think it's appropriate for us to go back at to where we were at the
beginning and where we are today and see what we are going to do tomorrow. In the
fall of 1975, the City made a decision to go ahead and go forward with the Convention
Center program and the first thing, of course, we had to look at was to analyze what
the needs of the City were to put the Convention Center on this site...(Slide presen-
tation) This site, as you all very well know, right on the mouth of the river,
next to the Brickell Avenue Bridge, on of the most beautiful sites in downtown Miami,
nieghboring to the new River Walk just recently developed by the City. Our task was
to look at a total program --not only look at short range but at long range --and see
what the needs of the City are and will be in the future, and clearly define and
identify what the City goals were. Those aoals, essentially, were to create an ac-
tivity center, to make sure that whatever we did was goina to bring back new life
to downtown Miami, that we were going to bring new jobs --not only during the con-
struction timebutforever--that we were going to bring people back into our corc
and that we were going to have something to be very proud of; and essentially a develop-
ment of quality. We did this and we came to you with a proposal that essentially
places the Convention Center at the tor of that kind of a development and that es-
sentially, made the Convention Center the catalyst that was ucingto make all of
these things happen. That proposal had these elements: Assembly areas, meeting
rooms, exhibit spaces, parking garage, retail area, hotel area, airline terminal
and pedestrain bridges which means connections to all of the other blocks around it
to make sure that whatever we were doing was going to benefit also all of the neighbor-
ing blocks and all of the neighboring activity around the Convention Center -downtown
as a whole... This was a model...this is a slide of the same model that you have in
front of you which shows the site looking at it from the South from the Brickell Ave.
Bridge and it shows, of course,the siteccnprised of the two parcels --the parcel on
the south side of the Expressway encompassing essentially the Convention Hall itself,
and the Conference Center Activities. The parcel in the north block encompassing the
parking garage, additional hotel -office space and the airline terminal... All these
views of the same model show the relationship to the river...but the most important
--one of the most important concerning, again, was people and to utilize all of our
assets --and essentially one of the main assets beiny the river and the relationship
of the development to the river. When I talk about people, we are talking about the
fact that all of the elements of this program had a great common partner which was
activity --the meeting rooms, the assembly spaces, the exhibit spaces --and it just
became natural to house them around one atrium such as the one that Michael Buckley
referred to a while ago...one central patio with a Florida landscaping where all of
the people would enter through, break through million...etc., to make sure that it
was a 24-hour tab activity present at all times, and that where we could tie it only
the City of Miami with the University of Miami programs so that at the end of this
projectiwe would have additional meeting rooms provided by the City of Miami, ad-
ditional auditorium provided by the University...Assembly halls of this kind which
could be used for multi -purpose where the emphasis, again, was on quality which was
your dizection... where we could use, for instance, simultaneous translation as one
of the basic requirements --kind of like the United Nations type conferences on this
kind of meeting rooms...This is what we did, this was a master plan and program
that was presented to you after working with your staff with elements of the com-
munity, various consultants, etc...and this master plan was alaroved in June '76.
You then authorized us and asked us to go ahead with design drawings and construction
drawings, to go ahead with the south parcel elements; in other words, the Convention
Hall and the Conference Center which is represented by this other model. The Convention
Hall, being the larger mass on the top of the slide... the Conference Center of the
University spaces which inlcude a 500-seat auditorium, a 250-seat auditorium and a
05
'OCT lb1911
c=)
variety of meeting rooms, being the other rooms that we are now pointing at on the
slide --all housed around the central atrium and with the emphasis, again, being on
activity on the river's edge This is where we are right now, this is
where we are with 90% of our drawings finished and ready to be able to begin con-
struction, to break ground before the end of the year. At that point, this kind
of information was teen forwarded by the City to all of the potential private develop-
ers, all of these drawings and all of this information. One of this group, one of
these developers, Mr. Worsham, came to our office and then aske,. us to look into the
development of a 500-room hotel on top of this base, as it was anticipated in a
master plan, to see how well it fit with...into the master plan, how well it fitted
into the goals of the City...This is what we did...and this is a pen and ink, black
and white sketch of a 500-room hotel on tope of this base. Essentially, what we then
now have is an integrated center, a multi -use center, such as the ones that have
.been referred to here before;but a center that becomes a good neighbot to existent
development that we can come in and stretch the dollar which has already been spent
in the Riverfront Walk Development. A center which capitalizes on the beauty which
is going to be more so in the years to come on the river's edge, and a center where
we could have promenades such as these...a center which would receive not only the
fresh dollars of out-of-town people coming into conventions, but a center which will
be open of a 24-hour day to the people of our community which will meet a lot of our
great needs for this type of activities right in the heart of our City...There is a
great deal of similarities in what our drawings and our sketches and our final prod-
uct in terms of the base of the building has and some of the other ones that you have
already seen; and, specifically, Mike Buckley,I think could talk to you a little bit
more about that....Michael?
Mr. Buckley: We are really talking about more than just a Conference Center. The
way we see this...we see three different audiences that we want to attract to that
place. One is the downtown working population, those who are already downtown. To
capture a sustaining portion of that group,we need to have retail and restaurant, a
broad selection of both merchandise --food and accessory at moderate prices. Ad-
ditionally, we've got to capture some of the after work crowd and we can do it with
a cafe that fronts on the river; we've got to have interesting things with high
personality and I think that the interesting thing to note about that is that if we
do a good job of that, it will help everybody else downtown --where the interesting_
things that happened in Hartford after we dumped all those good opportunities in
that one square block...all the restaurants around had a terrific time and six new
cafes and restaurants have opened since then in the past year in downtown Hartford.
The second audience that we want to address is obviously the Convention and Conference
attendees and this audience is transient,they are going to stay for two or three
days,they are imp�resse.: on Miami --it's important. We want to turn these people
into walking boulevards for the City of Miami and the only way to do that is to make
sure that their stay is both interesting and convenient. This group needs a couple
of things, it needs .sufficient variety in terms of restaurants to make their stay
a little more memorable, they need retail in gifts to take home with them,
and they need convenience goods, they need a travel agency, they need barber shops,
they need to take care of the last minute items like that, and it's to be concen-
trated and focused in a way that appears to them that that appears to them to ex-
tremely convenient. The third group is the Greater Miami population and visitors
to the .. ty. Now, I don't think that it's going to become a major destination in
the sense that people will come from out-of-town there every day but you'll capture
two to three trips a year and it's important that visitors to the Cite want to see
that place and they want to go there. And the key to that is the concentrated
focuses --some specialty merchandise and the uniquely themed restaurant comriex that
we envision for that. Now, I think that there is something else that is very important
in terms of marketing --the regular episodic anouncements, anouncer•.tzts of new confer-
ences and conventions or a sort of a built-in marketing employ and the retail and
restaurants can benefit enormously from that) if they dovetail together. I think
that's a unique opportunity here in somthing that really ought to be thought about
quite carefully.
Mr. Worsham: Thank you very much, Michael. What you are seeing now, is a project
that I built in Knoxville, Tennessee --it's the Hyatt Regency...you can see it's a
beautiful lake front site with mountains in the background. Knoxville, unlike Miami,
downtown was really dying and they needed a new hotel. The last hotel that was
was built in Knoxville was built by my father in 1926 and they came to me and to
our firm and asked us if on a piece of Urban -Renewal property, if we could put together
an exciting new hotel that would be convention -oriented, that would serve to help
make downtown Knoxville grow and with their hard work we put together this
06
OCT £ i I
particular facility...there is another shot of it up -closed, you can see it's a
rather outstanding architectural design...again, I go back to our experience here
that design sells and design and strong architecture makes good economics because
this is what happened in Knoxville, Tennessee. This hotel is extremely successful
and it's producing a nice cash flew now, and a good return on investment... this
is a shot of the interior atrium of the Hyatt Regency in Knoxville, and you can
see it's exciting, there are a lot of things going on down in that atrium. The
hotel also has conference rooms, it has a banquet facility and many of the similar
elements that will be contained in our proposal here. Now, I would like to get
into the proposal itself and what I would say is that people who make this kind of
thing happen and who actually employ the work force- almost 350 men and women that
would be employed during the construction portion of this project, our people,
frankly like Bill Southern. Most of you know Bill Southern as a Principal and
Manager of Frank J. Rooney, Contractors, certainly, one of it if not South Florida's
finest General Contractor. Bill has built many of Miami's finest and most notable
structures such as the Bacardi Building, General Development Co. offices, Mercy
Hospital, the Omni, First Federal Building and many other buildings for the University
of Miami -including the famous Mailman Center. Bill has worked tirelessly with us
in developing our proposal, our concept and specifically our cost estimates today;
and will be the firm ---Bill Southern and Frank J. Rooney--- within our team,
executing and directing the on -site construction activities. It is really a pleasure
and a privilege to be associated with such a fine man, and believe me he is a fine
man because we've worked together, have become friends and he has a fine firm.
Bill? At this point I wonder if you might step up and shat about some of the
specific services of our proposal and how you might implement them during the
various phases of the work that are going to be necessary to be done.
NOTE: Mayor Ferre entered the meeting at 9:45 A.M.
Mr. Southern: Without getting into too much detail -and elaborating, putting a
project together from this stage on, has become very important. Most of the major
projects1that we have accomplished before,have, basically, followed this formula.
Just briefly as it states there, the first is the cost evaluations and our recom-
mendations to the owner, in this case would be the City and the University.
The scheduling of the entire program --the light and success of a program is a
successful schedule, one that has meaning, one that is workable. These do take
time and analysis to prepare. Estimating service , I think it speaks for itself,
it's a never ending task that must be accurate and complete. The economic analysis
while we dovetail all of that with our purchasing, space, sufficiency studies -as
it says -it's a constant liason on making the team work economically, completed on
time, at a price that we have predicted and we'll hope. r)uring construction well
follow the same list of procurement services, subcontract materials preparing
proper bid packages, taking the packages, putting them out to bid to the proper
local market public bidding and what have you. The supervision -we work very closely
in this instance with Turner drawing on some of their expertise in the areas that
they've worked the same as ourselves. The computerized scheduling, again, this
comes back with monitoring monthly, daily, this schedule which we must hold to -
the accounting, and cost control. Labor relation is a very important point. We
happen to Le right at this point, in my opinion, at a very prime time to put our
present work forces and mechanics in this town on this major project should it
proceed now, it's a market that well, basically, our labor forces are proud of
South Florida. We don't have a lot of work around here right now, they have
gone elsewhere. As I was telling the fellows yesterday, we have many people in
the other states where we are operating,walking up and say "Bill, when can we
come home? When can we come back to Miami? When is it going to happen?" This
will be the beginning of that. The coordination of the participants, Jack is.
I think, basically, I've spoken enough on this Earl, I could go on and on....
Mk. Worsham: Okay, Bill, I know you could, and I thank you very much.Again, I might
say that Bill Southern is a very strong man and we are really looking forward to
working with his firm and the execution of the execution of the construction ac-
tivities on job site. The next item is the program itself --a lot of which you have
already heard and , basically, I'll run through this quickly-- is that we do plan
to have 500-first class -and I emphasize first class hotel rooms, approximately
30,000 sq. ft. of the specialty restaurants and retail portions that have been
described to you by Michael Buckley. In addition to the City Auditorium, the City
Exhibition space, the meeting rooms and so forth and the University's meeting rooms,
we plan to add additionally approximately 12 more meeting rooms for 10,500 sq. ft
as in our program.. The second item1and possibly one of the most important)is that
we plan in our proformas and economic package we plan to invest $5 million in
and as part of our financial plan into the base facility. What we contemplate is
aCT 191977
ah air -rights lease for the hotel above the base facility and some use -rights,
you know, for the restaurants, etc., within the base facility but part of our profor-
ma is a $5 million investment.We would also.. -and we recognize that the promotion of
this complex most be a joint effort between the City and our firm, our management
4 firm and our group- and to that extent as part of our financial plan as well, we have
proformed to sign a $250,000 for the pre-pomotion and pre -opening expenses of the
hotel and the center. We estimate teat this is approximately 50% of the total
amount required to properly pre-pomotion and pre -open the facility. Our objective
is to produce a vibrant mixed -use complex that functions as a single destination
facility, accommodating conventions, conferences, continuing education programs,
lodging and shopping. A total cost -as we proforma- is approximately $23 million
which cost is to be born by the private sector, by the developer. In the operational
phase we anticipate, of course, that the hotel will be managed by a first class
management firm. We have not selected the management firm at this point of time, we
have serious negotiations with some of the major firms, hotel management firms in
the country. The City and the University, of course, will operate their facilities
and obviously -and we are confident that those will be operated in a first class
manner at their expense...This is a diagram and the slide doesn't come out too well,
but it gives an idea of how the dollars relate one to the other...the green portion
could be representative of the developer's investment and you can see the air -rights
above that base facility...we have a price -tag so to speak of $18 million...and in
the little yellow slot there, that's representative of the University's Conference
Center that goes within this particular facility and the investment by the University
is contemplated at approximately $3 million... the other green portion down below is
that $5 million that I've mentioned to you as our investment into the base facility...
then the tan -orange colored area is representative of the City's investments which
is approximately $10.5 million plus the land. A couple of important points that are
on that chart that -I apologize that you can't read from here- are that during the
construction phase that approximately 350 people - men and women- will be employed
in the work force and also , once the facility is in operation we anticipate that
there will be approximately 400 permanent jobs provided by this total complex...
Now, this is a chart that you will have copies of all of this -and, incidentally, I
will pass out package after our slide presentation which is just about over- sc that
we can have discussions, open discussions -and these charts and things will be in your
package... but this is a break down of our estimated cost which comes out to $22,800,000
and includes, acain, the base contribution and includes.our estimate for the cost of
the hotel tower in consultation with Frank J. Rooney and Bill Southern and includes
the furniture fixtures and equipping of the hotel and the kitchens and it's in a
first class manner and then a manner that would be equal to a western international
or some similar t!pe facility... it includes design fees, financing costs, interest
costs, operating capital, and we even have an item of $500,000 set aside in our
overall budget of $22.8 million to $23 million to cover any initial operating loss
that may be encountered... This next slide, again , you can't read it but it will be
a part of your package, is a very detailed proforma of the operating results that we
anticipate from this hotel. You will recall that Gladstone Associates did an indcpth
economic study ana survey and also projected the economic results from operation for
a 500-room hotel. Just one comment about it is that we believe these figures to be
very conservative because our bottom line is approximately 4 percentage points below
less than that projected by Gladstone, but, again, we want to be conservative at this
point in time,and we feel that the operations are profitable and now the rest of the
track -the necessary financing and to proceed without investment into the project and
for us to go ahead- but this is merely to show you that we have done a really indepth
study... But that all ties in to what does the City get) what is our proposal to
the City)and our proposal to the City is dual- it will be two rents that we are
currently proposing; one will be a base rent that would escalate from a $150,000 the
first two years to $250,000 in the 9th and loth dear. The reason for the escalation -
it ties back into the proforma--is that hotels in this type of facility take time to
mature and what we are trying to do in our objectivelas partners with the City in
this projectswould be to scale a rent that would 'De tailored to the success of the hotel
because we believe that the hotel will get more successful as time goes on as Miami
grows so we have tailored two basic rents -based on the base rent and that rent is
to be paid in any event. The other rent is a performance rent --the base rent if you
recall was based upon so many dollars fixed per year-- the performance rent is an
addition to the base rent and is to be added to it and it begins when the hotel has
achieved room sales and this rent is based upon room sales a $5 million; now, to give
you an idea then you can go back an look at the proformas, but we anticipate that
that performance rent will come in approximately the second year. To give you an
idea, the performance rent at $5 million on the 500-room hotel would mean an approxi-
mate 7€ occupancy of the hotel at our projected rent. So, as the hotel becomes more
successful and as the room sales go up, the rents on proformas to the City run from
2% of room sales upwards to 5% of room sales. Again, the concept of partners together
working that)as Miami grows and as our hotel becomes more successful, the City of
08
OCT IJ/ /
1
Miami will participate in those. It's, additionally then structured this way because
We anticipate that your costs of operations of your. Convention Facility will also
escalate intC during that period of time and i.r:s;;t,'.ftd of having a fixed rent, we think
it very important that yeu have a rent escalatiee that as infaltion goes up the room
sales will ge up, etc.; end it would be rrore 1neeme for the City...And what does this
mewl tm the (_ i t y based pun the pro`erna? The 1 rceections that we had shown on about
three ::l i,iee 1nter.. . Ther first eeer we do net ,il:t ici.pate, as . said, any performance
rent, _.,, that the Cit_ , rant will be aplrexi.-ae, ,,e$150,000 that first year. The
second year, we antic; ,_ite the base rent of a $13 , 0 )0 being paid plus another $127, 700
mdkinq for d total r); . 227 , 7o0 the seeond year. in nic}: another year ur the chart,
the 7th year , the ba,=C: -ent would he $225,000 and the per icy; rckince ren', $23 ,000 for
approximate31' $46O,0 ) in rent to the City with t.lc 1.0th) year ';ivieg the City almost
$600, U;:0. It comes out to an _average per veer over that 10-.vear: period of $400,000.
Again, h s chart and these estimates are based upon the consf_ r'✓ative proforrma that
we have prepared that ties into your study that you commissioned Gladstone Assoicates
to do. Now, these are some recuest.s that we need to have in part of our proposal.
Mrs. Go. ee: It's a question, please. I received most of your information but I don't
recei year naming any revenue returned on anythira-: but room rent.
Mr. Wcrshar: : That's correct, Mrs. Gordon.
Mrs. Gordon: Die you name anything else?
Mr. Worsham: Ne, we selected room rent as the percentage basis on which to base our
pe,r crmance rent because it is very difficult with the food and beverage, being oper-
ated by a n,:r;her of different people possibly,of the accounting for how much food
and eeverare and other items; se what we are trying to do is take something that was
easily auditable,there will be a room tax --we anticipate a room tax --and then it would
be....'ou wculd know e>:tctly what rents you will be gcttin_ based upon our sales of
rooms; so we based it upon rooms only.
Mayor Ferre: Mr. Worsham, I'll tell you ar_I members of the Commission, I have a series
of q'uestl_.... that I have fa ask you too,bet I'm come tc hold my questions back and
I wc'.:1d likes to ask t.:-i<' members cf the Commission to write them ni a gad so that you
can finish your presentation and then we can get into the discussion period. Okay?
Mr. Worsham: Fine, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. The request of eh'; City basically is that
the A.,reern' nt.--the Lease -hold Agreement that we would enter into with the City --that
it be ac:-eptah.1e to our Lenders and that it he nortceggeahle, that it will. be an Agreement
cony;tru'_tec in such manner that we can get finaneine on it. Second, that the per-
fortr r ce rent portion of our table be subordinated to debt service and return to
equity in the amount of $2,450,000 per annum of hotel private sector earnings...Now,
that's whet I'm saying, that's the bottom line...we have to make debt service payments
and we me asking that the performance portion not he payable until we have received
enou-:h money...and that number we have estimated to be $2,450,000. Further, we
would request that in order: that: there will not a doable payment to the City, in
other wores, performance rent, and base rent plus Real. Estate taxes, that we be given
a credit agair,st our rent for the City portion of the i.eai Estate taxes that we would
be payi•'g; that's in order to keep from us having to pay really three rents --one, Real
Estate taxes; two, a base rent; and three, a performance rent --and we recognize that
Real Estate taxes must and will be paid in our proformas. The fourth item is that
the developer...we have the right to develcp Phase "II", per our first refusal the
Dallas Park site, hotel site under terms ar.d conditions that :tee mutually acceptable.
We feel it very important that this project_ move as quickly as ressible into Phase "B",
so that a parkinc garage, our parking structure of some rrat.:re can be built there.
We have given a good deal of thought to the parking requirements necessary for this
project and we are explorin:. a number of defferent financing :methods for a possible
parking garac:e and would like :o see the Phase "E" site move into the development
stages e. :iekly as posy:i,le. ,,w, in summary, yoe're saying some specific request
and SurnW spe.. _.ic proposals and sc: e specific benefits to the City. We want to be
pereeeee with the City to produce en economic, vibrant and viable project.
nee,- to et, •t as soon as possible in older to pursue the Federal Grant to produce
sigeif icent eml_' oyment and basically we are saying that we will do everything we can
to work w th you to accomplish this goal. W'nat we need is you, authorization to
the City Maneeer to issue a letter of intent to enter into an acceptable contract
incorporating the ' sic provisions of tnis pro; .,s.z1 and then we can go to work right
nr and again , we 4 on the project as qui::kly se possible in the various basis
teat you've seen. And thank you very much, at this point of tirne, I think I'll
09
OCT 191977
pass out these packages and 1'11 try to answer any questions as best as I can for
clarification etc.
Mayor Ferre: Thank you very much, Mr. Worsham. First of all,let me apologize to
everybody here for being 45 minutes late. The City of Miami today passed out recog-
nition to the employees that had worked for many years and Father and Rose, this
morning... and J. L.,... we had about 250 employees that they have collectively
worked 4,700 years in the City of Miami.Unbelievable. And we recognize over 400
people that have worked 5,800 years, and of course, those numbers are staggering,
that anybody can work that long. We have 40 year -people, many 30-year,must of have
maybe 25-30 year people. Unbelievable,how many years the services has been to the
citizens of Miami. So, as important as this is, I with all the respect, there is
nothing more important than thanking people for rendering a service , and I just
couldn't get away from that... So, I apologize for being_ late. Okay, now, Mr. Worsham,
if you would, I'm sure the Commission will have a series of questions, and I recognize
any member of the Commission for any questions.
Mr. Worsham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, I will, from time to time, refer answers to
certain participants on our team in the event that I can't answer the questions
specifically.
Mayor Ferre: All right. Anybody have any questions?
trr. Plummer: Untortunately4 as you know, we all have been tied up with a lot of work
and budget and other problems. Rose started to hit upon a point which I would like
to go further and I've not had the chance and maybe my questions are unfair but still
so that I can somewhat try to sit back and make an analysis.You show your contribution
to the City of approximately $5 million and two other contributions, one of a quater
and one of a half,then we come.. -a quarter of a million and a half or a million -..then we
come to the other side and that's the City on the receiving end. You show a base
draft which is fine and then you show what you call a performance. Now, as I see it,
you're talking about rent or gross sales of the hotel....
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir.
Mr. Plummer: All right. Now, right of the bat in just one instance which is approxi-
mately 30,00 sq. ft. of restaurant and other specialties, I think it's your termi-
nology,I see no income to the City; now, my question has to be, why?
Mr. Worsham: Well, Mr. Plummer, first of all, let me say a couple of things. The
$5 million is investment in the base facility is a fixed proposed item is not a
approximately $5 million, it is $5 million.
Mr. Plummer: Well, are we also talking though that that really in fact is not a
contribution. You are getting something tangible for that $5 million at i.h3t is
additional space not in the original proposal.
Mr. Wrosham: Yes, Sir, that's correct.
Mr. Plummer: So, there is a little conjecture, maybe semanties of the contrihutic-ns-
a contribution is an outright gift, in my estimation.
Mr. Worsham: Let's call it an investment possibly and to the base facility which,
incidentally, we are not requesting the City to expand the space beyond your initial
plans and specifications that are 90% completed at this point of time, but we might
call it an investment for the lease hold right to use that space within the base fa-
cili':y; we do not anticipate, of course, having any fee sample title to it at all,
it will be a use right in the base facility.
Mr. Plummer: But here again, it would be that air space which you are proposing,
would be under your control.
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir.
Mr. Plummer: And it would be for your benefit,
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir.
Mr. Plummer; Okay, let's go from there,
10
OCT 1,91971
Mri Worsham: All right. Then, to respond further as to what arrange....
Mr. Plummer: Excuse me. I'm assuming, so that you can speak to the total question,
that that air space for the additional $5 million is going to generate revenue.
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir, we certainly hope it does... and the reason that we have
tied our rent to room sales is that room sales are a more definitive figure. If
we, and I would be willing to in our negotiations with the City Manager, and the
City team, if you desire, we could change the rent schedule to include food and
beverage but what I looking at is total dollars that would be coming to the City
and I think that, you know, food and beverage sales and retail sales are in many
respects very difficult to account for them and I would have to change the rental
percentages down if we i::'_cuded food and beverage. We obviously anticipate that we
will sell merchandise, food and beverage in that 30,000 sq. ft.- approximately
30,000 sq, ft. of space-- but it was just easier to tie it into the room sale$
the hotel...
Mr. Plummer: Where I'm lost or where I want a clear definition is,are you including
the gross sales of that 30,000 sq, ft. lumped with the hotel gross sales but using
the formula of the hotel; or the thing I'm scared of is that the City is not going
to be deriving any revenue from the 30,000 sq, ft.
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir, you will be getting revenue from that area but because all
of those things go into our hotel and total financial package. Our total financial
package is approximately $23 million and in order to service that and make a profit
and service the debt, we anticipate that there will be income from food and bever-
age and income from hotel room. We mean in stating that....
Mr. Plummer: But,is that in the hotel itself or that additional 30,000 sq. ft?
Mr. Worsham: Well, Sir, let's see. I'm agreeing with you from the stand point that
we will have income from these other activities, other than hotel room sales,..and
that income is important for us to make a profit and pay the debt on our $23 million
investment. I'm saying, however Sir, that it is easier for the City to audit it and
make sure that the figures are exactly correct by time the performance rent to room
sales only. I will say that if the Commission feels otherwise, feels as though
they would prefer a rental based upon a combination of retail,food and beverage,
and hotels that I will negotiate in good faith with whomever you have me negotiate
with to change that formula, to include that if it could make you feel better.
Mr. Plummer: Well, I think we ...I'm speaking only for one, that's how I feel,
but let me ask you this,you have thismass of figures which I have not been able
to dwell into yet but will. What do you deal is the financial picture as to gross
revenues from that 30,000 sq. ft. Have your financial experts given you a figure
on that?
Mr. Worsham: Hes, they have, Sir.
Mr. Plummer: That being what?
ir. Worsham: We anticipate that -oh let's pick the second year that food and bever-
age ,ales will run in the neighborhood of $6 million in total gross revenues.So
it's significant... approximately $6 million.
M.-s. Gordon: That was an answer to our question, I'm sorry someone is disturbing.
Mr. Worsham: Mrs. Gordon, the question was what do our financial experts anticipate
in the way of food and beverage revenues and I said in the second year our projection
show approximately $6 million including beverage revenues.
Mrs. Gordon: Okay, I understand. And one related question to the questions you've
been asked is,the $2.4 million which was to service, debt service in other things;
is that a deduction from total revenues produced by the entire project or only from
room sales?
Mr. Worsham: No, that is from revenues from the entire project, yes, Ma'am.
Mayor Ferre: Excuse me, would you repeat that?
Mr. Worsham: Yes. The $2,400,000 item that Mrs. Gordon brought up -that I mentioned
concerning the subordination of the rents to the City --is a figure of profit from
11
3 tevenues that would be generated to out portion of the private sector= -•food,
beverage, retail sales and hotel rooms.
Mr. Plummer:
That would be an operating reserve ...our reserve for debt service.
Mr. Worsham: That's correct. Now, operating....
Mr. Plummer: Let me get back to my former question. My question was, what would
be or had been developed a total gross dollar of revenue for the 30,000 sq. ft.?
Now, if I read your projections here correctly, from the hotel alone, you're talk-
ing about $6 million for rooms, $G million for beverages...I can sure tell what
that hotel is going to be... Anyhow,the total figure for 72% occupancy is $13,451,000
for the hotel alone and that is what you are basing your percentage revenue to the
City on. Now, I come back to the saying,have your people taken and projected for
you what the total revenue would be from the 30,000 sq. ft. of restaurants and
specialty?
Mr. Worsham: Not specifically. We haven't broken it down into that kind of point
at this stage, it could be, but again to respond, Mr. Plummer, to what your concern
is, now, I understand that and I don't think I've made myself entirely clear but
I would say that the $13,451,000 is the total revenue at 72% occupancy which it
occurs,we hope,in approximately the third year. Is the total revenue that we antici-
pate receiving from all sources within that facility, the gross revenue. I'm
sorry, of course, I see what you mean, the net income from the store that's
the bottom line.... excuse me I'm sorry...right, you are right. But, again, I would
be willing to change our formula if it would make you feel better.
Mr. Plummer: Well, Sir, you know, I'm one that sits up here and I like that bottom
line. You know, I'm not really concerned as much about whether you use a formula
or percentage or what, I want to know what the City is giving, you know, and I'm
sure you're just as interested to know what Worship is going to be getting in the
bottom line because you're laying you neck on the shopping block like we are; but
as I see this here, I see at this time unless I'm wrong and that's why I ask questions
and I'll be the first to admit if I'm wrong, I don't see any income from the 30,000
sq. ft.
Mr. Worsham: -Going to the City?
Mr. Plummer: Going to the City.
Mr. Worsham: Well, let me say that I'm extremely....
Mayor Ferre: /M1. Worsham, excuse me for interrupting you, we have certain time
constrained, so I think it's important for this Commission to ask questions and to
get answers; I would hope that we all don't dwell on one point for half an hour or
an hour because I don't think there' going...we can come to any conclusions to this
anyway...because we are not here to negotiate this contract with you as I see it,
what we are hero- to do is one of three things. One, postpone it and not come to
any conclussion; two, J. L.,would be just turn it down and tell them to walk away
and forget it; and the third thing, is to authorize the Manager to sit down and
negotiate this and come back with a negotiated contract.
Mr. Plummer: Well, Mr. Mayor, it's the number one,I'm definitely not interested in
a postponement when you called this meeting it was for the benefit of us and the
developers so that while they were here they could make this presentation. I had
no idea or did I expect this morning to make a decision as you said when you called
this meeting. Number 2, I'm not here to tell them good-bye and don't want your
deal, if I did I wouldn't even be here this morning or I wouldn't be asking questions;
and number 3, I don't want to turn it over to the Manager to have him spent a whole
hell of a lot of time to negotiate something from the onset it's not acceptable to
me when I've got to vote it at the end.
Mayor Ferre: I understand ana I respect that.
Mr. Plummer: Now, Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry that I have to dwell on this point but if
the man gives me a very simple yes or no answer I can quit dwelling. My question
still is, are we deriving revenue from that 30,000 sq. ft.?
Mr. Grafton: Inaudible.
Mr. Plummer: I didn't read it that way.
12
our lb19//
Mayor Ferre: Why don't you speak into the microphone so it's part of the record,
please? Otherwise we get into trouble around here...your name for the record....
Mr. Grafton: Edward Grafton, Architect. Mr. Worsham has said that the 30,000 sq. ft.
revenue is bound up in the hotel room revenue to you and he told you why it is because
it isn't easier to account for, all right. Now,you don't like that, he has further
said, that he would also negotiate them separately so that you could see revenues
from the 30,000 sq. ft. and you could see revenues from the hotel rooms. Now, all
I'm saying is that...well, you say he didn't say it but he might not (inaudible)
Mr. Plummer: No, no, no. Now, wait a minute, I'll ask him, Sir, do you agree with
what he just?
Mayor Ferre: Say it.
Mr. Plummer: Mauricellet the man speak for himself, please.
Mr. Worsham: Unfortunately, I was talking with partner Mr. Grafton, so I didn't
hear everything that Ed said. Let me respond one more time and say this, first of
all, we are paying $5 million for that 30,000 sq. ft. Secondly, we are extremely
interested in what the City gets out of this project because you have to use those
funds in order to operate this project and that's why we designed a rent that would
be fair and equitable and sufficient amount of money, we hope, what is in the City's
hands to properly operate this facility and that's how we arrived to this figure;
the method by which it was arrived at was for simplicity purposes and we would change
the formula if you like as far as the total dollars are concerned this is what we
are willing to n•_�y.
Mrs. Gordon: Can I have, what term of a lease were you contemplating --how many years?
Did you say ?
Mr. Worsham: Well, I'm contemplating at least 75 years, probably, but we prefer a
90-year lease that would be, say, 30 years with to renewal terms depending upon what
the legal implications are because I'm not exactly sure what the City can enter
into, I think, it's a 30 plus two 30's, something like that.
Mr. Plummer: Just for the edification, Mr. Mayor, and it is if I were had the time
to read further, it is not included. The rental to the City, if you look on the
bottom line of page 10, using the 72, figure we would be showing not in the hotel -
is not grouped in with the gross, it's at the bottom of these columns --and it shows
net rental income stores, 30,000 sq. ft.at $7 per foot, I assume, there is a question
mark -why I don't know- but that shows $210,000 aside from the figure they use to
develop the City's revenue. That's what I was trying to get to from the very be-
ginning.
Mayor Ferre: J. L., again, I want to repeat my statement so that perhaps it is not
misunderstood. I have just gotten all these f:•ackets--I've never seen this before,
I certainly want to read this, there are a lot of things that need to be done between
now and the time we come to an agreement... Lew, I'll recognize you in a moment.
We've got Lew Fisher from the Chamber of Commerce, he wants to speak and... the point
I'm trying to make is that I don't see how in the world at this one City that we can
absorbe all the complicated figures that are presented before us. We have, this is
perhaps the single most complicated and important subject -the matter that we have
before the City of Miami Commission in size, just the magnitude of it -now, God knows
it, for us to get the Watson Island it took us 8 or 9 months, we must of had ten
meetings --I hope we don't have to have ten meeting on this, on the other hand, there
are some key things that have to be brought out-where...is there a representative of
Mondev here? Why isn't a representative of Mondev here today?
Mr.Grassie: My understanding from the staff, Mr. Mayor, is that they chose not to expand
on their initial proposal as they have been requested by the staff so it did not....
Mayor Fern:: In other words is a little bit like that total guy who came here I
says, here I am a nice guy, here is my track record, if you want me I am available.
Mr. Grassie: A little bit like that, yes.
Mayor Ferre: So, in other words, this is the only solid proposal that we have
before us?
Mr. Grassie: In the sense of being completed andlLa,-ing expande.a on all the questions
13
OCT 191977
eked by the staff, yes. This is a proposal that's recommended....
Mayor Ferre: Now, Mr. Grassie, I'm sure you understand that with us just getting
this information fresh is no way that this Commission is going to authorize the
signing of a contract of any kind. So, what is it exactly...now, Mr. Worsham, the
reason we are meeting today is out of courtesy to you, Sir, because as I understood
it from Mr. Connolly, you have all these people that come from Turner and yourself,
and what have you, and you were here to make a presentation before the Chamber of
Commerce Committee yesterday. Now, the reason why we are meeting today....
Mr. Plummer: Let's just clarify that on the record, would you please?
Mr. Grassie: The Committee that war interviewing the proposers yesterday,was princi-
pally staff Committee, in the City's Committee we have representation from the
University of Miami and ....
Me,"nr Ferre: Wasn't the Chamber of Commerce present? Wasn't the University of Miami
present?
Mr. Grassie: ....with representation from the University and the Chamber of Commerce.
Mayor Ferre: Excuse me, Mr. Plummer, I'm sorry that I'm late, I don't know, perhaps
the first speaker was the Committee Chairman, who's the Committee Chairman?
Mr. Grassie: Well, Jim Connolly was the first speaker and he did name all of the
persons who were on the Selection Committe, Mr. Mayor, you....
Mayor Ferre: Well, is this, therefore, a recommendation from that Committee?
Mr. Grassie: It is a recommendation --a unanimous recommendation of the Committe--
that the City accepts this proposal in general terms and indicate its intent to go
forward with this developer, that is, of course, not the same thing as authorizing
the sinning of a contract.
Mayor Ferre: Now, let me ask you the next thing, is the University of Miami here?
Is anybody from the University of Miami to speak for the University?
Mr. Grassie: The Business Manager for the University of Miami was part of the Com-
mitte and did concurr ....
Mayor Ferre: What's his name?
Mr. Worsham: Oliver Bonnert, Business Manager of the University. There is nobody
here present from the University today.
Mayor Ferre: Were they satisfied with this?
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir, they were.
Mayor Ferre: Do they say that they would, in principal, accept Worsham Incorporated
or whatever their name is?
Mr. Grassie:
Yes, they did.
Mayor Ferre: Now, if you forgive me, Mr. Worsham, but I think you know4before you
build a story which it's where we're at now, I need to know the base of all
of this, I'm sorry that I was late...I don't know the base. Was the Chamber present?
Lew would you... Mr. Lewis Fisher, President of General Development who as I under-
stand is the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Subcommittee on the Convention
Conference Center, is that correct?
Mr. Plummer: That's correct.
Mayor Ferre: All right. How many people do you have in your Committee, who are
they, have they met regularly, did you in the presentation...did you come to a con-
clusion?
Mr. Fisher: For the past two years we met at least once a month reviewing the various
stages in progress....
Mayor Ferre: Who's on your Committe, Lew?
14
OCT 1919"
Mt. Fisher: Tom Bomar, of the First Federal; Harold Walker of Ernest & Ernest;
Melvin Jacobs of Burdines; Jim Billings; Herbert Leeds; Stanley Mann; Staplef
Pierce . The Committee ha:; been relatively intact that period, there's been one
or two substitutions during the two-year period and, I think, has worked closely
through a long, tedious and fascinating process...we're encouraged by the point
that we are at today, we did review and several members of that Committee --of our
standing Committee of the Chamber, along with Dave Blumberg, representative of the
University, substantial members of representatives of the staff of Miami --did meet
last night with the developer group reviewing some details...let me ask some of
these same questions that can I have one point of clarification, I think you asked
a very proper question, and we had that same question last night, I didn't hear the
answer come quite as clearly and I don't think you're quite satisfied with it yet
either.
Mr. Plummer: I'm not satisfied with the answer, but I got my answer from this
column of figure-.
Mr. Fisher: Let me see if I can give it one different way, one additional way.
Mr. Plummer: Ask the Mayor, he is the one that....
Mayor Ferre: Lew, what I want you to do basically is lay the basic predicate of
what you're...if you need to do that...to lay your predicate, that's fine. What
I'm trying to do is get the foundation of why we are meeting here and what your
recommendations are. Then, I think,...I'll tell you I,myself,have twelve questions
that I've written down that I haven't even gotten into them yet.
Mr. Fisher: Let me just say, I think, I'm sure that question will be answer in
the process. We are here to ask today that the Commission formally approves and
authorizes the City Manager to issue a letter of intent am: to proceed with negoti-
ations with these developers --with this developer group --toward the sign of contract
for pre -construction and construction management....
Mayor Ferre: Excuse me. Skips don't go, I want your opinion on this too because
I saw you frowning a little bit and I want to get all these things....
Mr. Fisher: I believe it is very simple, that's what you were asking, this is what
we reviewed yesterday, this is what that Committee unanimously approved yesterday
in my asking here today of the City Commission.
Mayor Ferre: Are you here as a citizen or as representative of that Committee? as
the Chairman of that Committee?
Mr. Fisher: Well, I think I'm speaking right now as the Chairman of that Committee.
Mayor Ferre: I see... and are you telling us that that Committee went through this
and you're recommending that we proceed?
Mr. Fisher: Along those lines, issuing a letter of intent and proceeding,author-
izing the City Manager to proceed with negotiations.
Mayor Ferre: Did you take this to the regular Chamber Board?
Mr. Fisher: No, we did not.
Mayor Ferre: Okay. Will you?...to get the Chamber's full support on this?
Mx. Fisher: Oh, absolutely.
Mayor Ferre: Now, let me ask you something else with regards to your deliberations.
Have you gone into this in sufficient detail where you're satisfied that so far it
makes sense for us to pursue this?
Mr. Fisher: Without any question. I would not sign a contract today,but on the
basis of what we have asked, absolutely, yes.
Mayor Ferre: Lew, let me ask you one last question with regards to your function.
You say that we sign a letter of intent, do you mean by a letter of intent that
this would be legally binding on us?...or do you mean a letter of intent that yes
we like your basic proposal and yes we do want to proceed in negotiations and yes
we will proceed but if we don't come to a final agreement we don't come to a final
agreement.
15
UV 191977
Mt. Fisher: Yes, I don't believe the letter of intent should be worded to say that's
going to be legally binding upon the City that ultimately sign a contract to go on
board with the project and it's just simply to state its intent to proceed in good
faith with the developers toward the timely signing of a contract and get ....
Mayor Ferre: I think it's important that not only the University of Miami but that
the Chamber of Commerce and people with a business experience such as yourself help
guid_ us --I'm not saying that you are going to control what's going to happen here
but I think your input is valuable in the negotiating process.
Mr. Fisher: And we'd like to work with you.
Mayor Ferre: Are there any other questions?
Mr. Plummer: No, Mr. Mayor, I would just like to make the record very clear.
Unlike yourself, Sir, I received this material on Friday last in the afternoon and
I haven't had the time to go over this material and that is what is generating my
questions of today which is in that area of cloudiness that I need some clarifi-
cation so that I can go back and further study this. And, Mr. Mayor, if you don't
want to do it today I'm just telling you before that day comes.
Mayor Ferre: Mr. Plummer, I think this is the third time I've had to repeat my
statement and I hope that perhaps this time I can... I apologize from not explaining
it properly. Let me see if I can explain it better. I do not think that we are
going to come to a conclusion on this thing on a definitive final basis today, it's
too bia a project, it's too important, it's going to take too long. I also don't
think that all of the questions that need to be answered can possibly be answered
at the session. On the other hand I completely agree, and you as a Commissioner,
and Mrs. Gordon, and Father: Gibson, have absolutely every right to ask all the
questions that you deem necessary; I would hope --I can't imposed it on you, I only
hope --that we don't get into the fine detail of negotiations at this session that
we don't see the forest for the trees;I would hope thatwe would have a general idea
of what's involved, no commitments, and that we either say --look what you presented
is not acceptable or what you presented is sufficiently acceptable to tell the
Manager along with all these Committees and people)to start the negotiating process
and come back, and I don't think this is going to be done in one session...I think
we are going to have two or three sessions on this by the time we're finished.
Mr. Worsham: Mr. Mayor, may I say something in that regard? I recognize that your
time is extremely valuable. This is a very complex project. There are a number
of questions I'm sure that you absolutely must have, I have a suggestion that possi-
bly, that you as a group give us a series of the questions that you may have, let
us respond to them in writing, you know publicly, and let your experts go over
those questions because I think we can answer those questions; but we do need a
letter of intent in order to proceed as quickly as we can toward; the finalization
of many items. We need to know that we are , at least, at this point in time the
selected developer to work with the City, to produce this project and we understand
that we must have a mutually accepatable contract.
Mayor Ferre: All right. Precisely, that was my point. On that basic and key
point, this is why I kept asking whether Mondev was here. Mr. Manager, I was
very impressed with the Mondev group when I met with them, they are a big out-
fit out of Canada,they have been very successful. Are you and your Committee
satisfied that did not have a serious and intent as these people that are being
presented here?
Mr. Grassie: The staff evaluation, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Commission,
is that Mondev,for their own reasons,was not prepared to give us much information,
to be as responsive to the questions asked of them as of the Worsham group.
Mayor Ferre: Do they have any kind of specific proposal?
Mr. Grassie: Very little specificity, mostly a general proposal relying on their
background.
Mayor Ferre: Did you give them the opportunity to come before these microphones
and be present here today?
Mr. Grassie: They were invited and we had anticipated.until yesterday that they
would be here.
16
OCT 3. 9197 7
Matot Ferre: Mr. Crumpton, I see you going like that, what's that mean?
Mr. Crumpton: (Inaudible , away from the microphone)
Mrs. Gordon: Mr. Mayor,... Father Gibson did you want to speak?
Rev. -Gibson: I want to ask Mr. Crumpton for the record. Did you say to them that
after the Committee heard the presentation)if they elected to come1that the Comission
would be in session today hopefully to give a letter of intent.
Mr. Crumpton: Yes, Sir, they were well awared....
Rev. Gibson: I haven't asked you if you were there aware. No, no. I said --did
you ask them? Did you say it to them?...You know, it's a lot of difference between
being aware, Mr. Mayor, because that won't hold them in Court...if you must say to
them...look, look, I'm not a lawyer and I went to school for a day --law school for
one day-- did you say to them that the Commission will be meeting this morning ,
hearing the presentation, having the presentation of any and all, and that
the Commission may well want to give each a letter of intent.
Mr. Crumpton: Yes, Sir, I personally told that to Mr.Ranson of Mondev.. I also
personally spoke to Mr. Bacon who is their Vice -President for development and expressed
the schedule to them.
Mrs. Gordon: Mr. Mayor, may I express a deep interest in this project. I am --
I don't want to get too excited, have a big let down perhaps, but the important
things -for my point of view -are that the return to the City be equal to,at least,
what private development would receive in the same position when the final bottom
line is drawn,and how you divide it up,and how we get it,its up to the negotiating
team, but that is what I would expect that the City not get less then.
Mayor Ferre: I agree.
Mrs. Gordon: Okay. I also would like to be able to feel secure in that any addition-
al kinds of revenue that might be generated from some future actions of legislatures
or others that you might be reading me, if such thing should come into being in the
future that appropriate revenues would then be assigned to the City as a proportion
of the revenues generated to the developers and owners of the development. I'm
speaking,specifically,to gambling perhaps, or whatever that I might not even...not
envision today because we are talking about a period of time beyond my grandchildren's
time. I would like too,•ir. Mayor, if you have ready for it, to offer a motion of
intent to the Manager t..n further consult with the various parties and to move as
rapidly as possible always bearing in mind,as 1 said before,that the City not receive
less than private development what expect us to return on their investment.
Mayor Ferre: Rose, with your permission, I'll recognize you after everybody has the
opportunity to ask whatever questions, I want to....
Mrs. Gordon: Okay, but that would hold the motion, then, I feel that it's appropriate
but I honestly don't think, as J.L. said and you said, that we can come to a final
decisions today at all.
Mayor Ferre: Let's na' get back... J. L. would you forgive me if I ask a final
question on the record?
Mrs. Gordon: Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, may I just comment one more time? To the developers,
that wherever possible)that first consideration be given to local people, that includes
management,
Mr. Worsham: Absolutely.
Mayor Ferre: What she is talking about specifically is within the contract...now, this
is a contract division...now, these things that Mrs. Gordon specify and I'm going --
I've got a list too and I'm sure Father and everybody else is going to have the
list --is that this is part of the negotiating procedures that you get involved in.
Now, Mr. Manager, I've got one general type of question, did we advertise this in
the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other national media?
Mr. Grassie: Yes, Sir, we did and Jim Connolly will review that for you, if you
wish.
17
OCT
Mayor Ferre: For what period of time did we advertise, Mr. Connolly? One day,
a week?... ten adds, how many adds?
Mr. Connolly: We advertised in all of the local newspapers and in five national
additions to the Wall Street Journal for one day. We also directly solicited non -
developers who would express interest in working with the City.
Mayor Ferre: How many? Five, ten?
Mr. Connolly: I think there were six that we had received responses from prior
to that advertisement.
Mayor Ferre: There were six nationally recognized developers that you personally
contacted? •
Mr. Connolly: Prior? Yes. Who had inquired prior to the advertisement.
Mayor Ferre: Was Worsham one of those six?
Mr. Connoly: No, they were not.
Mayor Ferre: How did Mr. Worsham find out about this project? --just that a curiosity
...for the record.
Mr. Worsham: Through advertising.
Mayor Ferre: Through advertising where?
Mr. Worsham: A friend of mine in Atlanta -that was doing some work in Atlanta- saw
an advertisement that there was going to be this project and brought it to my at-
tention and he was doing some work here in Miami and I came to Miami to take a look
at it.
Mayor Ferre: Saw an advertisement where, in the Wall Street Journal?
Mr. Worsham: I'm not exactly sure where he saw it, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Ferre: All I want is to make sure that the record reflects that this is
being properly advertised and that this is how Mr. Worsham came here because he so
heard in one of the major acis-1..because that's the provision in the law. Now, let
me ask you, I.r. Knox, from what you know of this so far, do we comply with all of
the laws at advertising and letting everybody know about this and so on?
Mr. Knox: Yes, Sir. There is no formula or requirement for accepting a bid for a
conceptual kind of project and the only requirement is that proper notice have been
given and all interest parties have a reasonable opportunity to respond.
Mayor Ferre: So, we are on legal grounds as far as,if we wish at this time,ask
the Manager to commence negotiations -or what have you, letter of intent- so that
they can come back with the specifics for further discussion in a future week --
could we do that legally?
Mr. Knox: Yes, Sir.
Mayor Ferre: Okay. Now, Mr. Plummer.
Mr. Plummer: For the record. Other than what I received last Friday which is a
letter from Mondev--is that pronounced correctly?-- dated September 16 and a
development proposal dated the same date. Was anything further given at the meeting
yesterday or in addition at any time (inaudible)
Mr. Crumpton: From Mondev, Sir? No,Sir.
Mr. Plummer: In other words, this is all they gave the City.
Mr. Crumpton: That's correct.
Mr. Plummer: And their presentation...did they make a presentation?
Mr. Crumpton: The elected not to come and make any presentation whatsoever to the
Committee last evening.
18
OCT 1blin
Rt. Plummer.: They made no presentation at all.
Mr. Crumpton: No, Sir.
Mr. Plummer: The only correspondence you have had with these people are these two
.documents.
Mr. Crumpton: We have had many...I have had two telephone conversations plus a
personal talk with one of their Vice -Presidents. Mr -Connolly has had numerous
telephone conversations with the main principal of Mondev.
Mr .• Plummer: Is that Mr. Hallot?
Mr. Crumpton: No, he has had conversations with Hallot, but he's also had conver-
sations with Mr. Ransom.
Mr. Plummer: So, for the record you are indicating that they did not come yesterday
to make a formal proposal. They were aware of today's meeting and did not choose
to come..
Mr. Crompton: That's correct.
Mr. Plummer:.. And that the only documents in writing are those two documents which
I have just referred to. You are also stating for the record that no one else has
made a formal proposal in writing as it relates to this- a Conference Center.
Mr. Crumpton: Let me deferred to Mr. Connolly. To my knowledge, no.
Mr. Connolly: Those are the only two proposals that we had as a result of our
publicly advertise and distributed request for proposal.
Mr. Plummer: You've not received anything else in writing as a proposal.
Mr. Connolly: No, Sir.
Mr. Crumpton: We have had conversations with other interested developers who have
indicated that they did not wish to submit anything at this time..
Rev. Gibson: Mr. Mayor and members of the Commission --two things --I would hope
that there would be a follow-up document in writing so we can have it for the record.
"Pursuant to our telephone conversation this is our understanding",so that the record
would be crystal clear that he misunderstood you, we would have it and if you misun-
derstood him he would have it.
Mr. Crumpton: We would confirm our telephone conversation in writing with the
Mondev.
Rev. Gibson: At least.... The second thing is,I am concerned that the Chamber goes
on record telling us that they had a formal meeting, that this was probably discussed,
they know all about it and this is the reaction of the Chamber and this is their
recommendation Now, 'he reason I want that is, Father Gibson doesn't know one
doggone thing abouthigh financing butI know the Chamber does. If the Chamber doesn't)
if they don't have nobody, then I know we're in trouble and then what I want to do,
you know, because usually later on somebody says-- well, you know,.:you know they
duck out and then they criticize this Commission and we try honestly and earnestly
to do a fair, impartial, reasonable, honest job. So that when the papers write,
the papers would know that we heard from everybody even our 50th cousins because
you can find them in the Chamber- they know how to add... and multiply.Okay?
Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, let me....
Mayor Ferre: Oh, wait a minute. There is a question that I want Mr. Fisher to
answer.
Mr. Plummer: He did answer...I thought.
Rev. Gibson: Sir, are you going to be prepared to bring us a document...tell
enough?
Mayor Ferre: He wants something in writing.
19
OCT 19 1977
Mt, Fisher: Yes. I'll take this today to Alvah Chapman and I'll get a Board
approval of the specific recommendation and a letter from the Board of the Chamber
of Commerce.
Rev. Gibson: Thank you, Sir.
Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, let me make the record very clear, please. Mr. Worsham,
this is to you directly, Sir. We once had a City Manager around here that said:
" If you can't afford to hang your laundry out and let it look clean, it must be
dirty". Now, all I'm saying, I'm very pleased that you are here. I'm very pleased
that you're interested in joining with this City which speaks highly of this City,
but I hope you don't misinterpret my questions that I'm trying to due you in or
the project in, I'm very excited as Rose and all the rest of this Commission, but
when we are talking about a project in the neighborhood of a total of $40 million...
represents a pretty big investment and I think before the day comes that the contract
is signed --and I hope truthfully that that day is not that far-off-- all of these
questions must be answered. As Father Gibson says, black and white don't lie... So,
I hope you don't misunderstand my line of questioning in anyway, Sir.
Mr. Worsham: I did not, Mr. Plummer, and I, in fact, appreciate your question. I
think you were very much to the point and I can understand, on the specific point
that you had questions on, how that could be confusing the way I presented it and
I apologize for that but to answer specifically, I will respond in writing to all
questions and there will be other public record.
Rev. Gibson: I hope nobody thinks that I have any item in my hid pocket, you know,
I've always like to put it on the table so that later on nobocy walks out of here
looking at me askance. Mr. Shepard, I want you to come to the microphone, please.
I want to ask this question because this affects the thing I've always known you,
you know, known you as, that is, hotel, convention business, okay, and plus, it
isn't to far from where you are, you know, and I remember the last time w:2 were talk-
ing about air -rights going with the walk way ... and all of that. Mr. Mayor, since
I'm not conductiong the meeting, I just want to kind of get a response, a reaction
but if I'm not in order, please rule me out and let it come right out.
!'_r. Shepard: Well, first of all I'm very excited about the fact that we are finally
going to have a Convention Hall; when I w=s President of tre Hotel Associaticr in
1955, we started this, and I'm verypleased that we're about to get someone here to
build it for us. Commissioners, I, for the first time today, this morning, is when
I heard, and I saw the report concerning the amount of revenue that the City would
get from this project and I would like very much to evaluate it, I cant' evaluate
it at this stage unless I can see the figures and the facts and so forth and I
think that Mr. Worsham and his group seem like a very fine group but at the same
time I think that we, the City of Miami, should get all they can from this project
and still leave them with a profit and I'm talking without the conflict of interest.
I may be involved in the management and I may not, but I still feel that the City
should be and should get as much as they possible can and still leave everybody
with a piece of the pie.
Mrs. Gordon: Do you think that comparing it to a return that would be expected in
the private sector would be inequitable arrangement because....
Mr. Shepard: I would like to reserve my opinion there until I see the figures and
go over.
Mayor Ferre: Skipp, I think really what everybody --and I'm sure I speak for
Mr. Worsham as well as everybody in the City --what we want to do is to come with
something i'ts fair... I think what we want, you know,... there is an old saying
in Wall Street that there is always room for the bulls and there is always room
for the bears andthere is no room for the pigs.
Mr. Shepard: I don't think there is any possible danger of giving them a letter
of intent subject to these conditions, I think that would be a fair thing to do but
subject to negotiating a proper return for the City.
Mayor Ferre: Skipp, this is going to take, believe me, this is going to have... and
I don't mean that, you know, to be spouting off on this, but you know, Jimmy Knight
who after all is one of the two Knight brothers who are founders of the Miami
Herald and have a major interest in this community --is personally putting in $3
million from his personal foundation, this is not Knight family, this is he,
Jimmy Knight...that's a lot of money and he's been sitting around for the last five
20
ocr ��' '
Years waiting for somebody that get this thing moving and first was going in Coral
Gables, as you recall, and they had a battle and back an forth, and what you have.
Now, you know darn well that this is going to get a very careful scrutiny from Jimmy
Knight, from the Knight Foundation, from Alvah Chapman, and all those people in the
Miami Herald.
Mr. Shepard: How about the Miami Herald?
Mayor Ferre: You know darn well that the Miami Herald is going to go over this with
a very fine tooth comb;you know,that the Chamber of Commerce is going to...T.ew richer,
is the President of General Development which is one of our major corporations here,
he is the Chairman of it. I welcome --and I'm sure everybody does --your input into
it and I think you're going to have all kinds of press releases and people and... I
would say that this is a community that is not very bashful of criticizing things
and you'llhave all kinds of comments in the next couple of weeks or month and I'm
sure this will have a lot of public scrutiny, so we certainly welcome your input.
Mr. Shepard: Whatever input I can give to the proposal, I certainly will.
Mayor Ferre: It', important because you know this business, and I think it's im-
portant for your....
Mr. Shepard: It will be an honest opinion.
Mayor Ferre: All right, now, Mr. Plummer, back to you.
Mr. Plummer: Mayor, I'll abide by your wishes.
Mayor Ferre: No, I think it's important that you ask whatever questions you have;
but, again we'll say, that I don't think we can spend tw') hours coming, negotiating
a conclusion: here. That, we'll do next time.
Mr. Plummer: No:., first of all, I would have to know from Rose and the Legal
Department...a letter of intent...you intend to do, ,chat?
Mayor Ferre: To tell the Manager to start negotiating.
Mr. Plummer: Okay, now. That's the point, Mr. Mayor, that I'm trying to prevent,
--a problem. You know, Pin. Grassie sail to us about a year ago when we had this
negotiation with the man in the endeavor of pigskin --don't send me out to do a job
and then when I come back and do the best job that I know how, take it away from me
and make me in my credibility --as I recall the terminology-- look bad.
Mayor Ferre: Life, J. L., that's life... what else can you do?
Mr. Plummer: I want to tell him in the front what I, as a Commissioner, expect
in the end....
Mayor Ferre: Fine, tell him.
Mr. Plummer: ....and until I have that time, I don't want him to start negotiating.
That's all I'm trying to tell you.
Mayor Ferre: Listen, you go ahead and ask any questions that you want and we can
schedule another Commission meeting if you want further discussions. This is got
to be a completely open process.
Mr. Plummer: Very definitely...but a letter of intent telling him to start negoti-
ations this morning?... No, Sir.
Mayor Ferre: Well, J. L., how else can we get the ball rolling? You know, in a foot-
ball game somebody has to blow the whistle for the guy to kick the ball that start
the game. Now, if you don't want somebody to kick the ball, how do you...?
Mr. Plummer: Also there must be a man blowing the whistle when there is a penalty.
Mayor Ferre: How do you propose to get started?
Mrs. Gordon: J. L., I've clot an idea. Perhaps,J. L.'s concern is that the letter of
intent would be on ending period of time and instead of that we could put a time frame
of ninety days, a hundred and twenty days, or whatever is needed... sixty days?...
I'm not saying the time frame... thirty days?... a time frame. I don't think you
21
OCT ��j]
cats really lock it in tight but I think I understand why J. L. feels as he does...
but even a week, or two weeks, or three is an ordeal, we are not going to be able
to issue a letter of intent based upon anything more specific than we have right now, I
don't think. The final... the conclusion will be when the negotiating period has
been concluded whether or not it includes those interests that are best for the
City of Miami because, you know, we're interested in it from the stand point of
that point...what's best for the City of Miami?... and they're interested, of course,
in their own point of view but there's going to have to be compromises and back and
forth negotiations bearing in mind that I, as a realtor and appraiser and a person
well acquainted with Real Estate returns --that I will look at it with that view
and when I see it I'm going to say... now, if I were the personal owner of that
property and I receive this proposition would I accept it as a fair deal? And if
I would say to myself, yes, I would then I would say the same thing for the City.
I think I'm ready to move the motion, J. L., it's you that...
Mayor Ferre: Rose, I've got a whole bunch of questions which I would like to get
into the record... you know, I'll tell what I'm going to... I've been very patient
but ;n about two minutes I'm going to cut everybody off so that I can speak into
the r�,-ords some of these questions and then we can move.
Mr.Candela: Just one short reminder to all of us that there is a timetable involved
with the Federal funds that we have to get underway within the next sixty to ninety
days (inaudible)
Mayor Ferre: That's correct. All right. We all understand that. All right,
Mr. Manager, here are the points that I,in Gregg quickly wrote down, of course I'm
sure I'll have more as we go along. Ih the first place, I question the length of
the lease, Mr.W°orsham, being 75 years, I think that it should be as long as it takes
for you to finance, if you got a 30-year mortgage, I think that 's the length of
the...I don't see that it requires anything more than that...if you can't make a
profit and pay the mortgage off during the mortgage period, I don't see that you
can require much more than that. That's my personal opinion as it's right now.
If it's 30, 35... Iscertainlyidon't see any need to tie up the City for 75 years.
Mr. Worsham: Would you like for me to respond individually?...Or each one? Or make
out some respond in writine?
Mayor Ferris: T'll tell you, if you want to... but what I'm trying to avoid is to
go into a two-hour discussion because we can spend an hour on this.. Okay?
Mrs. Gordon: I thought you set the guidelines before, Mr. Mayor, that we would not
go into this kind of U-,ing for discussion now, that we would respond in writing to
the....okay.
Mayor Ferre: Oh, that's exactly my point... is that I don't want to go... that's
why I don't want to get into a big twenty -minute conversation with Mr. Worsham
about how long the lease should be;I'm just telling you what my concern is into the
record. Number 2, with regards to taxes, I disagree that the lease should be de-
ductible from taxes. If I own this property personally --and I think that's got
to be the criteria-- and you were to lease this property from me, you couldn't...
you're not able to say, well if I pay taxes on it then I'm not going to pay you a
lease because in any private property you're going to have to pay taxes. And I
think that the question of whether or not you pay taxes really is nothing to do on
a fair return to the City for the lease of the propert'• and I completely disagree
with Rose Gordon on the premise but I think the lease has got to be done in such a
way as if it were the private sector involved; and we own the property, we are going
to lease you the air -rights once it's a reasonable type of return for the value or
for the investment. And point number 3 with regards to Plummer's statement, I
don't personally have any fixation as to what it is, you may want to put some of
it to rental for the commercial space, you might want to put some of it as a per-
centage of beverage, you might want to put part of it into the hotel rooms --I
don't know whether it's a wise thing to put all of it into the hotel rooms because
your rental space might do very well; and your bottom might do very well and you might
be a 50€ occupancy --I would hope not, but I think this is the type of thing that
we are going to sit down and negotiate. Now, with regards to the location, as I
understand that the location is all on this side of the Expressway, we are not in
anyway dealing with Phase "B" eventhough I've noticed that you want to write a
first refusal. Now, let me put ill thin way, Mr. Grassie, we are now dealing or
talking to somebody about a World 'Trade Center over on that site. I wouldn't
want to get into a contract or binding document and all of sudden we're moving
22
OCT ist911
t
along on the World Trade Center and all of a sudden we've got to put it in the hands
of Worsham and end up with some hassle between the World Trade Center organization,,
or what have you,and Worsham. So, somewhere along the line...now, if that doesn't
work out and even in the future we have an idea or Mr. Worsham comes up with an
idea to put up an international merchandise mart or an exhibition hall which as
you know was Phase 2 that we want to go into, fine. On the other hand I wouldn't
want, for example, Maurice Alpert. I wouldn't want to deny him the right if you
are too tied up with the project and have all your financial resources into this,
for you to hold up Alpert...and I don't have anything with him I'm just picking
their name out of my mind who I know is interested in some of these things. Sup-
pose he wants to come and put up an international trade mart like the one in Atlanta,
and he says this is the location. I wouldn't want...I think you ought to have a
right of refusal but it has to be a reasonable right of refusal, you have to have
certain time constrains and if that doesn't work out then we go on to somebody else.
What I'm trying to say is that I don't think you ought to have a legally binding
document that would put a cloud over the title of that property that we couldn't
develop. Now, as I understood it,I hear that there is not subordination of the
property but as I understood the presentation you wanted the subordination of the
income or a waiver. --if you will-- up to a certain point of gross income or
a gross. Now, I think that's a reasonable request but 1 think it has to be limi-
tations to it. I don't want for this to be mismanaged, for example, I'm not talking
about you...you retire or move to France or what have you and then or you sell
your company and somebody else comes along five years from now and he has some
crazy ideas about how to manage all of this and the next thing you know is he ends
up in a mess that room rentals go down, you don't put clean towels in the room,
you know, whatever. And I think there has to be certain limitations; if we are
going to put up with that type of a thing, fineibut it has to be a number of years
that has to be limited too, I don't think you can do on forever and it might be
mismanagement, another thing is not returning... somehow the City is got to have
the right to overcome that problem; I think that's something that we can negoti-
ate out. With regards to improvements for legislative acts such as casino gambling,
I think anything like that should be subject to renegotiation somehow and we have
to be very careful on the proviso for it. Now, I also have a question as to the
design. Are we clearly...is it clearly spelled out that the City of Miami has a
final say on the design? That's clearly spelled out. Are you going to be using
the architects of the City as chosen?
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir.
Mayor Ferre: You are not going to be coming in with some new outfit here for your
building.
Mr. Worsham: No, we are using local architects, the fine firm of Hilario Candela
and Mr. Grafton.
Mayor Ferre: They're going to be doing the hotel so that the it's the same architect
doing both things.
Mr. Worsham: Yes, Sir.
Mayor Ferre: Now, financial ability. Obviously what we have here is a $45 million
project; now, I know, basically,where we already have $412 million into it by the time
we buy the Patricia and that other parking lot we are going to have $5 million into
it or more and we've got about $101 million left from the City, is that right? In-
cluding the$3: that the Federal Government is going to give us, is that right?
And in addition we are getting $3 million fron the University which it's really
$2.4, as I recall, is not $3 and it ends up...usuable is $2.4 million, is that right?
Okay, so I know more or less where we have $13 million and you're coming up with
$23,as I read it, you're not coming up with these $23 million out of your pocket
or not all of it, this is coming from an insurance company or some financing compa-
ny and I think we need to have insurance... I feel, Bill, I've wanted to tell you
I feel very comfortable with Franr;j. Rooney into the picture and I feel very comfort-
able with the Turner Company which is one of the top national building -investment
type of firms,that's terrific. Is there a representative of Turner here?... the
three of you are from Turner? Are you financially involved in this or are you
just consultants or what? You will have ownership of part of this. I think that
somewhere along the line we need to know with all the respects to you, Mr. Worsham,
but I just...I don't know you from except that you look like a nice man,
you came from Atlanta and you've got a nice track record but somewhere along the
line before we finalize we need to know that this is financeable because I hate
to go through all this expense putting pilings in because Hilario Candela is all
23
ekcited that we got the project going and we are going to lose the Federal funds,
And all this. And , you know, start driving piles we found out that the Prudential,
or the Equitable or somebody thought is was a nice project but now they won't give
you but an $18 million or $15 million mortgage and you can't come up with the rest
or you got the morgage commitment but you don't have the construction loan but you
are going to get that in ninety days or something like that. What I'm saying is
that before we finalize, I think we need to have,one, a statement that you are going
to have that you are going to come up with a $23 million; now, whether it's from an
insurance company or otherwise; and two, that you've got your interim financing
from construction worked out. We can't take a chance, it's just too important.
Mr. Worsham: Very good point, Mr. Mayor, and that will be necessary to be done,
of course. Obviously, we cannot proceed with any activities on the financing for
our... in finalization or even making applications for commitments until we know
that we are dealing in good fait}, we the City toward a final contract; and that's
why we need to,frankly, 'ave a letter of intent so that we can get involved with
these items that must be done-- to financing,specifically.
Mayor Ferre: All right, those are the questions that I had for the record.
Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, getting back to the motion... Mr. Knox, you answer for
me, Sir, if you can. What,if any,obligation will the City incur by giving a letter
of intent?
Mr. Knox: Mr. Plummer, is my understanding that the obligation of the City of
virtue of this letter of intent is)that it would negotiate with this enterprise
to the exclusion of others, period, and without any obligation to arrive at a
contract. The obligation is that this is the exclusive agency with whose the City
will negotiate with an anticipation of arriving at a contract.
Mr. Plummer: With a dead line.
Mr. Knox: Sure, if you wish to impose.
Mr. Plummer: In other words, the City would be under no binding obligation if we set
a sixty-day or a ninety -day time frame and at the time... at the end of that time
something hasn't been negotiated then they lose the exclusive right, is that all
we are talking about?
Mrs. Gordon: Mr. Grassie, what period of time would you recommend that the letter
of intent include?
Mr. Crassie: I would think that it should not be longer than sixty days, Mrs. Gordon.
Mrs. Gordon: I would, then, include sixty days as part of the motion...the letter
of intent simply being an option to negotiate with the City for a respective develop-
ment that would be satisfactory both to the developer and to the City. I think
that covers enough grounds.
Mayor Ferre: It does.
Mr.Ccinolly: If she isn't, I'd like to explain something after you. In the proposal
that they have brought forth there are two things; one,is a letter of intent that
they can use to go and get the financial package tie'' -1p; the second is, and it's
a very important point, they are asking us to retain their construction management team
on a fee basis inmediately where no payment of fee will be made , in other words,
all their exposure...no payments be made conditional to them,coming back and get-
ting a financing, and getting a firm contract with the City. They're asking us
during that period of time which might be as much as six months,to pay their out of
pocket expenses which is the field staff they will have during the construction
cost estimates in a local work but there will be no fee pay.. They are asking
for that and because of our getting into the Public Works grant we really have to
start construction in about eighty days.
Mr. Plummer: But what happens if there is no negotiation? if the negotiations
fail?
Mayor Ferre: Then we have problems.
Mr. Connolly: What we are planning to start construction is to do the salvage
excavation of the indian site in a field surveyed that was asked for by the State
Start Preservation Officer and the Federal Gove:.nment. That alone, if I start in
24
our 1� 77
before the ninetieth day and that alone, is a three month process,will put us at the
point that we start the construction but at the meantime the design inpact that
their team is going to have into the architectural drawings as it's done now, has to
be evaluated at the construction and pre -construction services that this particular
team have expressed can provide; they are asking for us to take advantage of on a
fee basis but no payment of fee until they have a firm financing and a firm contract
and a safety full cover.
Mrs. Gordon: And what if that never happens too with them paid...that bill?
Mr. Connolly: They will take the loss on the fees, the typical developer's risk
--capital investment.
Mr. Plummer: But what is the fee?
Mr. Connolly: The fee was projected on a Board and is negotiable, they had a fee
of 1% for pre -construction services and a fee of 2.9% of the City's portion --City
University portion of the Convention Center.
Mrs. Gordon: I'm not going to include in my motion, I think I would have to leave
that part of the request to the Manager's discretion because you're asking of --you're
naming numbers now that we don't...I don't want to be pinned down on numbers right
now. I'm perfectly willing to proceed with the letter of intent as the way we've
described it and if necessary to proceed with that portion maybe we can take it up
at out next meeting, at least we will have time to digest numbers.
Mr. Connolly: The other thing about the letter of intent, in our proposal.. Earl,
what was the amount of time that you've asked for?
Mr. Worsham: In the letter for the letter of intent, Jim, I don't think it was ad-
dressed specifically on the letter of intent portion. I anticipate you that you
would give us a letter of intent and then we will sit down inmediately and I mean
inmediately because that recognize your problem to negotiate a contract that we
can come back to this Commission with an end -up discussion before actual approval.
Mrs. Gordon: That suits me but not what you are asking for. I'm not ready right
now, today, this morning, to give you any commitment as to a fee for anybody whether
it's going to be something in the future to become retroactive or not. I would,
perhaps, after we get more specifics but not now.
Mr. Connolly: Well, time is of an essence and those services just will have to be
generated as soon as possible.
Mrs. Gordon: Well, okay, then I might be brought to Mr. Plummer's position, he is
not ready to say anything right now because maybe he is the wise one.
Mayor Ferre: Well, I think the point is simply this, this community has been wait-
ing for this project for over 20 years as Skipp has pointed out; number 2, we pas-
sed bonds which in 1954...was it? and it had basically $5 million...60 what?...64...
we had basically $5 million sitting there for the last 13 years; and number 3, you
had Jimmy Knight from the Knight Foundation waiting for 5 years and we ourselves
have been about this for 2 years. And this Commission... I think it's really time
to get moving... I think what Mrs. Gordon is recommending is appropriate, I don't
think it's in anyway illegally binding, and I think it's the beginning, I think it
shows good intention on our part and I would like, if I may Rose, recommend that we
couch it this way --%:he yeas the City of Miami is desirous of commencing with our Con-
vention Conference Center along with the University of Miami, and whereas this
project was properly advertized nationally according to law and whereas there is a
Committee that was selected by the Administration which is recommending that we
negotiate with this outfit, therefor... and then the rest of your motion.
Mrs. Gordon: It was very simple, it simply says that we had direct the Manager to
proceed with a letter of intent to negotiate and that's it.
Mayor Ferre: Is there a second to that motion?
Mr. Plummer: To negotiate? No, Ma'am. What's he going to negotiate?
Mrs. Gordon: Well, to proceed, J. L., to further the idea you have to start some-
where. Now is the time to start, at least, by way of a letter of intent... no, let
me finish the thought. The thought is simply that you must have a point of begin-
ning. I'm not ready or willing to accept as Connolly's suggestion, that we commit
2
OCT 1 V i97 7
ourselves to anybody's fees right now, today; but maybe next week or the week after
we have more information. Today I am ready to say I like something I've seen,I,
again, say I don't want to get too excited to be let down but I do hope that we
can go ahead and I would like to see the City begin thinking positively and that
is the intent of the letter of intent.
Mayor Ferre: Now, we have a motion on the floor, is there a second to the motion?
Rev. Gibson: I'll second it.
Mayor Ferre: All right,there is second on the motion; now, under discussion.
Mr. Plummer: Under discussion, Mr.Mayor, my vote will be negative, I want to say
why. I think that for this Commission to go any further this morning than giving
this developer the exclusive right to negotiate for a period of 60 days is not
proper. I think that I'm willing... I know I'm willing to vote this morning to give
this company the exclusive right to negotiate for a period of 60 days and nothing
more and nothing less. Now, the motions as it stands, I will have to vote against.
Mrs. Gordon: I'm sorry, J. L. I didn't hear you because someone was speaking to me.
Mayor Ferre: Let me see if I can paraphrase it, if I may, J. L. What Plummer is
saying is that he is purportedly willing to recognize that these people have the
exclusive right to negotiate for the next 60 days.
Mrs. Gordon: That's the same thing, is it not?
Mayor Ferre: No, it;s not that quite. I would recommend, Rose, so that... because
I think it's healthy to get, you know, a unanimous decission. We take that as a
first step and then I would commit myself to vote with....
Mrs. Gordon: Without a letter in other words?
Mayor Ferre: No, I'll go along with your motion. Plummer will vote against it but
I think it's important that we, at least, get that on a unanimous basis.
Mrs. Gordon: I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, I don't understand the difference and if you
clarify the difference... you don't want it in a letter from? or you do want it
in a letter form, J. L.? What do you want?
Mr. Plummer: Fine in a letter form. Rose, your motion said to start the negoti-
ations with the Manager. Now, I'm not saying that,because until this Manager knows
the express intent of this Commission, I don't think you should send him to do a
job without telling him what your expectings are.
Mayor Ferre: J. L., it's a chicken and egg situation.
Mrs. Gordon: J. L., would you name the words you wish me to say and I'll say them?
Mw, Plummer: Rose,...oh,... would I love to! Would you please make a thousand
copies of that?
Mrs. Gordon: All right, let's try it.
Mr. Plummer: Rose, that we have seen the project of Worsham and Associates,we like
it and we give them the exclusive right to negotiate for a period of 60 days.
Mrs. Gordon: Okay, that's what the motion is.
Mayor Ferre: Will you withdraw your motion for a second?
Mrs. Gordon: That's the motion, yes.
Mayor. Ferre: Will you withdraw your second, Father?
Rev.- toibson: All right.
Mrs. Gordon: That's the motion, I think it covered it very well.
Mayor Ferre: Now, we have a motion; there is a further discussion on the motion,
it's made by Plummer... Call the roll.
26
OCT 1y 1977
Mt. Angie: Are you going to second that, Mrs. Gordon?
Mts. Gordon: I made the motion and Father Gibson seconded the motion and j, L+
agrees ac this is the wording he would accept, so we have it.
The following motion was introduced by Commissioner Rose Gordon, who moved its
adoption.
MOTION NO. 77-820
A MOTION ACKNOWLEDGING A PRESENTATION MADE TO THE CITY
COMMISSION BY WORSHAM BROTHERS & CO./TURNER DEVELOPMENT CO.,
CO -DEVELOPERS, OF A COMPREHENSIVE PROPOSAL FOR THE DEVELOP-
MENT OF THE CITY OF MIAMI/UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI JAMES L.
KNIGHT INTERNATIONAL CENTER, AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER
TO NEGOTIATE WITH WORSHAM BROTHERS & CO., EXCLUSIVELY, FOR
A PERIOD NOT TO EXCEED 60 DAYS, AND TO COME BACK TO THE CITY
COMM•MISSION FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION.
Upon being seconded by Vice -Mayer Rev. Theodore R. Gibson, the motion was
passed and adopted by the following vote -
AYES: Commissioner Manolo Rebose
Commissioner Rose Gordon
Commissioner J. L. Plummer, Jr.
Vice -Mayor (Rev) Theodore R. Gibson
Mayor Maurice A. Ferre
NOES: None.
Mayor Ferre: Now, I'll give you the gavel, Father, and I would move you, Sir,that,
WHEREAS.. --and you just copy all the"whereas" that I said before that we've advertise
that we've done this and that we've done that-- I move that we hereby authorize
the City Manager. One, to give to these people a non -binding letter of intent which
specifically states what Mrs. Gordon compromise --and everything that Mrs. Gordon
has said; and secondly, that we authorize him to begin negotiations and bring back
to this Commission his recommendation so that we can begin the process of deliber-
ating on this matter, and so move.
Mrs. Gordon: But, Mr. Mayor, if you can explain to me what specific differences
there are from what you are saying and what was passed.
Mayor Ferre: There is a big difference. The motion that we just passed says, look,
we like what we see, we'll accept it, we give you the right to commence. Now, the
second motion which is your original motion and you can make it as far as I am
concerned, I'm perfectly willing, you know....
Mrs. Gordon: I have no private ownership.
Mayor Ferre: But the point is this, somebody is got to kick that football to get
the ball going; now, the way Plummer has left it, the football is at rest.
Mrs. Gordon: Mr. Clerk, would you read the motion back that was passed, please?
Mr. Ongie: You don't mean the one with the "whereases" now, just ....
Mrs. Gordon: The motion that was passed unanimously.
Mr. Ongie: That the City Commission has seen the presentation made by Worsham
Brothers Co.Inc.and that we like the project as presented and authorize the City
Manager to negotiate within a period of 60 days.
Mayor Ferre: No, that wasn't Plummer's motion.
Mr. Ongie: Well, we have about three motions on the floor, Sir.
Mrs. Gordon: That's the motion that I heard and that's the one that I....
Mr. Ongie: Mr. Plummer, if you want to, I'll check the tape back and I think that
we have about three different motions.
2
Mt, Plummer: How can a motion so simple be so difficult? My motion was to resolve
their presentation. We like it and we give them the exclusive right to negotiate
for 60 days, period. How can ...(inaudible)
Mayor Ferre: We voted for that and I voted with it because I agreed with it. I'm
taking the next step. The next step is to tell the Manager to begin negotiations.
Mr. Plummer: Rose, may I try, since you and I seem to be on the waves line, is
that okay? I want to stand on that. What I'm saying, Rose, that the Mayor's
motion is giving it inmediately to the Manager to negotiate . I am saying....
Mrs. Gordon: There's a team of...J. L. knows that there is team of people that
have been working on ....
Mr. Plummer: What I'm saying I think it is totally unfair to send it to the Manager
without this Commission expressing what is expected of the Manager in the negoti-
ation. I don't want the Manager coming back here like he did with the Robbie
Contract, he negotiated the hest he could without any instructions from this Com-
mission, this Commission tore it apart completely changed itI and rightfully so,
He stood up and said you're breaking my credibility... this is not your problem,
Sir, this is history.
Mayor Ferre: Now, listen, J. 1., I'll tell you what. If the Manaaer tells me that
with that motion that was passed unanimously here, he feels he has sufficieny authority
to sit down and commence negotiations...then I would draw my motion, I frankly...
well, you answer.
Mr.-Geassie: The practical aspect of it, Mr. Mayor and members of the City Com-
mission, is that we have to continue discussions with the proposed developers. Now,
I think that what Commissioner Plummer is trying to accomplish is laudatory, it is
a sort of thing that I would like to see, I do not think that we can get it done
within the time that we have available to us. I really think that under the time
pressure we have, we have no .alternative but to continue the staff discussion with
the developer and bring back to you a proposal.
Mayor Ferre: But, Mr. Grassie, you know, we keep playing all these little games
around here. The fact is that that's exactly what the motion intends to give you
the authority to do, and I just have to stand on that motion whether it goes down
or not because for us to leave it in a nebulous way where you can but you uon't,
and you will but you don't know...I mean that's a lot of nonsense. Now, somebody
has got to start talking to these people unless Mr. Plummer wants to be a committe
of one to go and do it again! and if that is the case, then we'll make the motion that
he goes and negotiate with... you know, but somebody has got to sit down and start
negotiations and frankly, in this Commission in the 8 years that I've served on
it)it's always been the Manager who begins the process of negotiation.
Mrs. Gordon: But who else would be except the Manager, J. L., even unspoken in that
motion. It certainly isn't going to be the head of some department unless the Manager
tells them to do it. So, because, J. L. has the reluctance to say it and I see no
harm in not saying it. I don't think that it makes any difference, it's still going
to be done...even to negotiate with the Manager, they're not going to negotiate
with the Clerk or with somebody else... you negotiate with the Manager, the head
of our government as far as negotiation.
Mr. Plummer: Mr. Mayor, I will take your criticism in the vein which you proffered
but Mr. Mayor I am obligating my grandchildren. There is a difference between a
negotiated contract and a proposal. Yes, I want the Manager to sit down and this
team this afternoon and start developing this proposal but there is a big differ-
ence between a proposal and a contract.
Mayor Ferre: Look, the contract can only be signed after the City Commission has
authorized. J. L., I plead with you to understand what you're doing. This gentle-
man is from Atlanta, the press is here, this thing is going to be reported as a
lack of confidence in our part. I think we have got to be able to come out of
this thing saying, Manager go negotiate and bring back to this Commission a contract,
we believe in the project, we believe in you, Mr. Worsham, and Mr. Manager you go
and negotiate...now, you understand that you can't tie the City down to anything
until this Commission agrees. But what's the Manager for if he doing exactly
these things.
Mrs. Gordon: Mr. Mayor I wish to bring to your attention the fact that you asked
- before that this be a unanimous position. I think by pursuing as vigorously as you
2.
OCT 19131?
ate to the point that you are trying to make, you really are not going to accomplish
a great deal more than just to divide the Commission and destroy the possibility
of our harmonious conclusion. I think that we are all here in a court, we want to
proceed, I wouldn't pursue it if I were you but you do as you please.
Mr. Plummer. May I inquire, Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Ferre: You're killing the project.
Mr. Plummer: Is that your attitude and price?
Mayor Ferre: It isn't my attitude, I'm very sorry, Mr. Plummer, I have to be...
I don't mean to be critical of you, you know I respect you a. great deal; in my o-
pinion you're taking a negative position, I think you're jeopardizing this project
on something that is absolutely foolish that has absolutely no substance. All of
this is style, you're worried about something stylistic in measure and not sub-
stantial; and the simple point is that I think that we have to have the courage of
our convictions. If you want this project to get going in my opinion, you've got
to tell the Manager, Manager to commence negotiations, bring them back when you have
something to talk about, we'll talk about it and then we proceed from there. Now,
for you to go in this nebulous Alice in Wonderland attitude is nothing more, in my
opinion, than a reaffirmation of why this community never gets anything done....
Mrs. Gordon: J. L., watch out)you will be in "Tip off" next Sunday.
Mayor Ferre: .... and I call this...well, okay... I call this nothing more than the
Interama syndrome, here we go again. you've seen it, how many times have
we had it. Everybody is against this, they're against rapid transit, they're against
that,we don't want it, we don't want it... so we never get anything done.
was talking about all these fabulous dreams that never happen because there's always
somebody that instead of looking at the substance of it, wants to tag the style and
there we end up, I'm sorry I got to say it on the record.
Mr. Plummer: Mr. Worsham, Sir, you heard the original motion giving you the exclusive
right to negotiate for 60 days, Sir. Do you need anymore intent than that, Sir?
Mr. Worsham: Mr. Plummer, I think, in listening to this conversation, as I interpret
what the Mayor is saying is that he wants active negotiations to begin and look
forward with the project and I think that's what each on everyone of you has expressed
to me and I appreciate that. Further, I think, in the analysis, as I see it, that
you're concerned that the Commission's input is not going to be properly taken into
consideration and what I want to say back to you --and maybe this will solve this --
is that,as I've said before, we want your input. Mayor Ferre gave me a list of some
five items that are items to discuss in negotiations and believe me a few of those
items will be negotiation. I would like to have a similar type of thing, a response
as we talked before and get the Commission's feelings with regard to how you feel
about this proposal that is on your desk because we do have a proposal on you desk,
specific proposal. Transmit those to the City Manager, I will respond to them and
they will be incorporated into the negotiations and we will all go forward inmedi-
ately with the intent to reach an agreement.
Mrs. Gordon: Can you do that with the motion that was passed?
Mr. Plummer: Rose, excuse me. I get back, Sir,would you answer my question? My
question was very simple.. You heard the motion which passed unanimously giving
you the right of 60 days to be the exclusive person to negotiate --is that sufficient
for your needs?
Mayor Ferre: What are you going to negotiate with Mr. Worsham?
Mr. Worsham: I anticipate negotiating with the City Manager.
Mr. Plummer: Can I asking him to answer my question? It's a simple question.
Mr. Worsham: CoLld you give just a minute?
. Mr. Plummer: I could give you all the time, Sir.
Mr. Wosham: Mr. Plummer, the motion as passed would be acceptable to us provided
we have someone to negotiate with and then we can,in good faith,go about it.
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; CT Lbw/
tev. Gibson: Mr. Mayor, let me say this. You know, we're just playing that works.
Now look, Sir, the little time I've been on the Commission --that's five and a half
years ending this month-- there's only one person to negotiate around here and that's
the Manager and what Plummer is trying to do is Plumm,mr trying to say to the Manager,
look man you don't have the last word, the last is with us. We have been bit around
here and nobody wants to put this on the table before... and I don't plan to get
more bitten no more, no more. Okay? I ain't going let nobody bite no more if I
know it. You go and talk with the Manager and if you and the Manager come back with
a reasonable suggestion we'll bite the bullet. I ain't biting no bullet with my
hands tied behind my back, okay?...so you know where apartment I am, now I don't
know where the rest of you are.
Mrs. Gordon: I'm with you.
Mr. Plummer: Well, just to try and let the Mayor sleep tonig";it. Mr. Worsham, I
want to repeat for the sake of being repetitious and redundant which I am many times.
Sir, I like your proposal. I think it's great, I hope we consummate a deal, there
is no negative thinking on my part against you, I've never met you before this
morning but, Sir, a $40 million generates a lot of questions and those questions
have got to be answered before this Commission adjourns'.
Mayor Ferre: All right. Mr. Chairman, I pass the gavel to you and I make the second
motion.
Rev. Gibson: I get the gavel, make the motion.
Mayor Ferre: I move you, Sir, that the negotiations be conducted between Mr. Worsham
and the Commission as the Committee of the Whole because obviously what you're expressing
is a lack of confidence in the Manager's ability to do this and as far as I am
concerned then you have to go to the next one. Well, that's exactly what's been
said.
Rev. Gibson: All right, there is a motion. Do I hear a second?
Mayor Ferre: Then I make a third one. I move you, Sir, that Mr. J. L. Plummer
be authorized to carry out the negotiations for the City of Miami with Mr. Worsham.
Rev. Gibson: All right, there is a motion. Do I hear a second?
Mr. Plummer: I'll fall out of this chair if I second the motion, of course, I'm not.
Rev. Gibson: Do I hear a second? All right, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Ferre: Then I move you, Sir, that the Manager be authorized to proceed with
negotiations and bring it back to the Commission after he's made his negotiations.
I move you on that.
Mr. Plummer: He has to do that by Charter.
Rev. Gibson: A motion has been made, do I have a second?
Mrs. Gordon: Excuse me, what was your comment, J. L.?
Mr. Plummer: He has to do that by Charter.
Mrs. Gordon: Of course, he does. It's a motion redundant.
Rev. Gibson: Do I hear a second? All right, the motion is lost --no second.
Mr. Plummer: Mr. Worsham, did you walk away from that podium, Sir? Do you under-
stand that this deal is alive and vibrant and we're very much interested?
Mr. Worshan: Mr. Plummer, yes, and to respond in particular when I understood
that I do have someone to negotiate with by Charter, I have a good feeling that all
you,Commissioners,are behind this project and are negotiating in good faith and
have questions that need to be answered and we will try to do that.
Mr. Plummer: Would you like to run for Mayor?
Mrs. Gordon: He's got to wait two years.
Mayor Ferre: All right, very funny. Anything else?
3'
OCT15�i1
Mr. Plummer: Yes, may I have a copy for Commissioner Reboso so I can put it in
his office?
ADJOURNMENT:
k
There being no further business to come before the City Commission, the meet-
ing was adjourned at 11:40 A.M.
ATTEST: Ralph G. Ongie
CITY CLERK
natty Hirai
ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
Maurice A. Ferre
MAYOR
OCT 191977
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