VERO BEACH — The City Council gave its consensus Tuesday night for staff to begin drafting a request for proposals to purchase the 90-year-old, red-brick building on the railroad tracks in Historic Downtown that for many years served as the old diesel power plant.
A few weeks ago, City Manager Jim O’Connor told the council that he’d been approached by several interested parties who had their own vision for the building, which was set to be renovated and subdivided into marketable commercial space. Concepts include a brewery and an arts center.
The tenant, B-B Redevelopment Team, of which custom builder David Croom is a major partner, is embroiled in a legal dispute with the City of Vero Beach that’s been going on for nearly three years over allegations of unfulfilled promises, and unpaid rent bills. That suit is still ongoing, and City Attorney Wayne Coment said he expects it to go to trial in December or maybe January.
In the meantime, the council gave Coment and O’Connor to negotiate a formal lease termination, which O’Connor and Coment said would mean the city would give up any rights to future rent, but it would make the possibility of clear title less murky, “so there’s no lingering doubt that the city has absolute possession of it.”
The B-B company has already handed the property over to the city. “As of Nov. 5 they turned over the keys,” Coment said, adding “We don’t feel that we should hold up on doing an RFP.”
O’Connor said B-B had done a Phase 2 environmental audit and found some signs of contamination, so he’s engaged the scientists who conducted the audit and allocated up to $15,000 to better quantify what is on the site and what would need to be done to mitigate it. That data would be fully disclosed to any potential bidders.
Coment said once the RFP is published via the city’s purchasing department, interested parties would have 45 days to perform due diligence before bid packets would be due. By then, he hopes to have some resolution on the lawsuit.
Trial attorney Louis B. “Buck” Vocelle is handing the case on behalf of B-B. Vocelle took the case over from Croom’s wife, Janet Carney Croom, when she was appointed to a judgeship by Gov. Rick Scott.
