INDIAN RIVER COUNTY-The proposed new tenant poised to take over Minor League Baseball’s lease at the Vero Beach Sports Village has until the end of business Thursday to either deposit $1.2 million into escrow or walk away.
County Attorney Alan Polackwich told commissioners Tuesday morning of the drop-dead deadline for the tenant – identified as Marlin “Soapy” Immell of Tower Sports.
If Immell fails to deposit the $1.2 million into an escrow account, the county will begin moving forward on the long-planned cloverleaf of youth ball fields, a $2.6 million construction project.
Commissioners Tuesday approved the escrow agreement between the county and Tower Sports – provided the funds come in by deadline.
If the escrow requirement is fulfilled, the county would have 30 days to finalize an agreement with Tower Sports to assume Minor League Baseball’s lease at the Vero Beach Sports Village.
The county’s administration has received a two-week extension from the contractor and Minor League Baseball for the start of construction on the youth fields.
The extra time is meant to help the county come to agreement with Tower Sports or another alternative lease-holder before committing the $2.6 million for fields that might not otherwise be needed.
“The county just needs to commit,” Commissioner Peter O’Bryan said of moving forward with the fields in the event the deadline is missed. “We owe that to (Minor League Baseball).”
Commissioners have asked that county staff get in writing from the current lease-holder, Minor League Baseball, that it agrees to postponing the cloverleaf of fields for two weeks.
“Unfortunately, in the press last week or so, there’s been a lot of kind of he-said-she-said back and forth with Minor League about lights and timing and things like that,” O’Bryan said, adding that he’d like to see staff get the two-week postponement agreement in writing with Minor League Baseball so there is no question moving forward.
