- May 14, 2024
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Delayed for four months since allegations of potential wrongdoing were first brought against local partners of One Park and City Commissioner Erik Arroyo, the proposed luxury condominium project in The Quay may soon find its way back to the agenda of the Sarasota Planning Board.
In an email on Thursday, City Manager Marlon Brown informed legal counsel on both sides of the controversial project that the Florida Division of Law Enforcement has concluded its investigation and has exonerated all parties.
The email to One Park representative Bill Merrill and to Robert Lincoln, who represents residents of the Ritz-Carlton Residences in opposition to approval of the project, read:
“Per the State Attorney’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has closed all investigations related to the above subject matter. Official documentation is forthcoming next week. I will be in touch regarding the scheduling of the continued Planning Board public hearing once I discuss with internal staff.”
That hearing is over a requested change to the general development agreement with The Quay, which would allow developer Property Markets Group to combine blocks 1 and 9 in order to build One Park over Quay Commons — the primary street into The Quay — above an approximately 20-foot-high breezeway.
Residents in the Ritz-Carlton building, collectively known as Block 6, oppose the plan, claiming the master association of the development owns the air rights above Quay Commons and that they cannot be conveyed to PMG by Quay master developer GreenPointe.
The air rights ownership matter is scheduled for a ruling sometime in September following a mid to late August hearing before Judge Hunter Carroll of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court. That hearing is scheduled to occur during a three-week period beginning Aug. 14.
Even if Carroll rules in favor of One Park, the plan to combine blocks 1 and 9 — which are not adjoining but PMG maintains meets the city’s definition of adjacent and therefore can be combined — still must eventually be approved by the City Commission once it receives a recommendation from the Planning Board.
The FDLE investigation began in April after local One Park investor James Bridges met with Planning Board member Michael Halflants, an architect and partner with the firm of Halflants + Pichette, about potentially performing a preliminary massing study for an unrelated local project.
News of that contact prompted Brown to cancel the public hearing scheduled for April 12, which was announced at the start of the meeting, and to turn the matter over to the Sarasota Police Department for a potential criminal investigation. Days later, the SPD referred the matter to FDLE, which launched an inquiry into alleged bribery of a Planning Board member. That matter was announced cleared by the state agency in a letter to Police Chief Rex Troche dated May 9.
The next day, new information was provided to the FDLE, alleging Sarasota-based financial education company MoneyShow, headed by fellow local investor Kim Githler, last year donated $10,000 to Sarasota City Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Arroyo, who will ultimately cast a vote for or against the One Park plan. As a result, FDLE was required by statute to reopen the inquiry.
The donation, though, was not the focus of the reopened investigation.
“We never really felt this investigation was relevant to us, and in fact the FDLE told us specifically several times that the investigation wasn't relevant to us,” said PMG Managing Partner Daniel Kaplan. “We were always unclear as to why the city attorneys and the city manager chose to coalesce those two separate issues.”
Rather, the Sarasota City Foundation and Arroyo’s involvement were under scrutiny, including a technicality in the timing of the foundation’s registration with state and federal governments.
The donation in question was part of funds raised by Arroyo at the Mayor’s Ball he hosted in fall of 2022, from which proceeds were dedicated to Sarasota City Foundation. The ball was held just weeks before his 2021-22 tenure as mayor ended.
"There were hundreds of people who attended the Mayor’s Ball and everyone had to write a check to get in, and the fact is they singled one person out for what is clearly some type of political witch hunt that we were in the crosshairs of,” said Kaplan. “The investigation from a One Park standpoint has been closed for months, and it shows the overall issues with the city in the process that we had to wait an additional several months just to get put back on the schedule.”
Because One Park would not be placed back on the Planning Board agenda until the investigation was concluded, regardless of One Park being cleared earlier in the process, PMG President and CEO Kevin Maloney called it a delay tactic by opponents of the project.
“I appreciate FDLE’s time, but of course not surprised by the results of what is clearly a pressure campaign of baseless accusations and fishing expeditions specifically designed to influence votes at City Hall,” Arroyo said. “It’s disappointing that residents serving their community have to endure these kinds of attacks. But regardless, I remain committed to giving everyone appearing before the City Commission a fair shake.”
Kaplan said the delay cost PMG more than just time.
“We had to spend unnecessary dollars on lawyers and time that we could have spent elsewhere,” Kaplan said. “We’re spending a lot of our corporate time at the principal level on the project, dealing with artificial roadblocks that are being put up at the detriment of us finding new business opportunities and other things that, quite frankly, we're looking at within Sarasota.
Pending the outcome of the legal process, Kaplan said he anticipates One Park going back before the Planning Board in October.
“We're focused now on the legal proceedings to establish ownership of the air rights,” Kaplan said. “We really think by this time in September we'll be in a place where the property we're buying (the air rights) is rightfully the owner’s to sell and hopefully the city stops putting up roadblocks to stop our project from moving forward.”
And if Judge Carroll erects that roadblock instead?
“We would redesign the building," Kaplan said. "Our sales contract (with GreenePointe) contemplates that if we can't buy what we were sold, the price will change accordingly and we'll redesign the building into two buildings.”
