INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — If the county and a proposed new tenant can get on the same page, business could continue better than usual at the Vero Beach Sports Village, according to Minor League Baseball President Pat O’Conner.
Vero Beach businessman Marlin “Soapy” Immell is in line to assume Minor League Baseball’s lease for the sports complex and has been working to transfer $1.2 million to the county to seal the deal, O’Conner said Friday.
Immell formed Tower Sports LLC in April this year to create the corporate structure needed to take on Minor League Baseball’s lease.
Attempts to reach Immell Friday were unsuccessful.
Despite comments from Indian River County staff that the third-party lease assignment is “preliminary,” County Attorney Alan Polackwich drafted both lease and escrow agreements for Tower Sports LLC to sign.
“It’s all depending on the deposit,” County Administrator Joe Baird said, which as of Friday had not been made, adding that the funds would mainly be coming from Ohio.
There is a Tower Sports & Fitness LLC registered with the State of Ohio, which operates a complex used for athletics and business and entertainment functions. Attempts to confirm the companies’ relationship were unsuccessful.
Under the proposed lease agreement, Tower Sports LLC would continue operation of the Vero Beach Sports Village much the way Minor League Baseball has.
It essentially “steps into the shoes of Minor League Baseball,” Polackwich said.
The draft lease agreement would require Tower Sports to pay the county five percent of its gross revenue on the 15th of each month. Currently Minor League Baseball pays the county $1 a year for its lease.
The company would be in charge of controlling the schedule and use of the Vero Beach Sports Village as a training, sports, educational, entertainment, conference and youth athletic facility, according to the draft lease.
Minor League Baseball currently receives $50,000 a year from the county to be used for marketing the Vero Beach Sports Village.
Tower Sports, by comparison, would receive reimbursement up to $66,550 its first year and up to $75,000 each year after that.
O’Conner got in touch with Immell in late February or early March after Immell went to the county inquiring about the Vero Beach Sports Village lease. He said Baird directed Immell to O’Conner and the pair spent more than an hour on the phone discussing possibilities.
In a week’s time, the two met face-to-face and worked out an agreement in principle, and according O’Conner, has waited ever since for the county to decide whether or not to move forward with a lease transfer.
Minor League Baseball and Immell had hoped to transfer the lease by April, but can’t individually sign an agreement until the county approves.
Polackwich said Friday that it was his understanding that Minor League Baseball was having difficulties of its own nailing down an agreement with Immell.
“That’s very disingenuous for them to say Minor League Baseball is holding this up,” O’Conner said. “He really wants to get this thing done.”
Minor League Baseball is interested in reassigning their lease with the county due to mounting displeasure over how it perceives the county has been treating them.
Earlier this week, in a show of protest, O’Conner had the signs on the Vero Beach Sports Complex’s property covered in tarps. The tarps have come off, out of deference for the athletes coming to the facility starting Sunday for a lacrosse camp.
O’Conner said he was protesting the county’s refusal to reimburse $50,000 for the construction of the signs. He has also complained that the county’s administration continues to drag its feet on building the long-sought cloverleaf of youth ball fields, a soccer field and installing lights.
Regardless of the frustration, O’Conner said Minor League Baseball does not intend to walk away from its lease or the Vero Beach Sports Village.
“This is not an ‘or else,'” O’Conner said of reassigning the lease, instead, it would be a “good deal” for the county and Minor League Baseball.
As it is, O’Conner estimates it costs Minor League Baseball $5,000 a day to the facility. In the first year of having the lease – which was signed May 2009 – Minor League Baseball lost $1 million. This year, the organization is on track to lose $500,000.
Despite that, O’Conner said the Vero Beach Sports Village could turn a profit – given time and the fields Minor League Baseball says it needs.
