by Beth Kassab | Nov 14, 2024 | City Commission, News, Uncategorized, Zoning and Development
City to be new landlord for Michelin-star restaurant and Austin's Coffee in $4 million deal
The mayor says leases on the property will be honored, but the city needs the land for drainage and road projects
Nov. 14, 2024
By Beth Kassab
City Commissioners voted unanimously to pay $4 million for an acre of land on the corner of Fairbanks Avenue and Denning Drive that is home to Chef Michael Collantes’ Soseki, which earned a Michelin star in 2022, and longtime community spot Austin’s Coffee.
The vote came after owners of the businesses made pleas for the city to allow them to continue to operate or help them relocate.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio said the seller of the property approached the city and “if we don’t buy it, it will go to someone else.”
City officials have eyed the land for roughly 20 years as a potential piece needed to widen the busy intersection to improve traffic flow, add stormwater drainage and grow neighboring MLK Park, popular for its playing fields.
Chef Michael Collantes
“In addition to the left turn lanes … there will also be an opportunity to expand the park,” DeCiccio said. “So what I want to make clear is when we purchase this, we are not looking to terminate any leases. We are not looking to buy them out. We are looking to honor the leases there.”
But that promise didn’t alleviate trepidation from Collantes who spoke to the commission and noted the more than $1 million investment he has in the intimate modern omakase-style restaurant. He also has other concepts in the building including Bar Kada, home to a large sake collection, and is set to open Perla’s Pizza Cocktails and more next year. He has lease options on the property that run through 2035.
“We put in quite a big amount of money in infrastructure,” he told commissioners. “I would hate to pick up and move this amazing restaurant and move outside of the city of Winter Park.”
Jackie Moore, co-owner of Austin’s, said her lease is set to expire next year and questioned whether adding left turn lanes would make a noticeable difference for motorists.
“If a turn lane is put in, it would take seconds off, not minutes off,” she said, referencing a conversation she had with officials at the state Department of Transportation. “You would be displacing businesses that have been there for decades.”
She added that the city should compensate the business owners if they are forced to move.
The 1-acre property at 929 W. Fairbanks Avenue is owned by a company managed by Andrew Dubill, a principal in Avanti Properties Group based on nearby Pennsylvania Avenue.
The seller was not at the meeting but City Manager Randy Knight stepped out at one point to phone the property company’s representative after commissioners asked for 75 days rather than 60 days for due diligence before finalizing the deal. The seller agreed to the change.
Commissioners discussed whether they might lower the price they are willing to pay if the due diligence turns up code violations or environmental damage from former businesses that will require costly work.
“We would either have them fix it or reduce the purchase price accordingly and go in and fix it ourselves,” DeCiccio said.
Knight said it could take years before the turn lanes are added or the other projects take place such as the beautification of Lake Rose — now the name of the famous 1981 sinkhole that swallowed a home and at least five Porches at a repair shop.
At least some of the businesses could still operate even if that work is underway, perhaps with a reorienting of the building entrances toward the park. The six leases, which expire between 2025 and 2035, bring in about $180,000 in rent each year.
The city will use $1 million from the parks acquisition fund and $3 million from the newly-expanded Community Redevelopment District to cover the purchase price.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 31, 2024 | City Commission, News, Uncategorized
Orange commission approves Winter Park CRA and arts funding
The Winter Park Playhouse and the Rollins art museum will benefit from tourist development tax funding set aside for community groups
Oct. 31, 2024
By Beth Kassab
The Orange County Commission this week approved two major milestones for Winter Park — an infusion of dollars that will allow major arts projects to move forward and an extension and expansion of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
Heather Alexander, the co-founder and executive director of the Winter Park Playhouse, expressed relief after the unanimous vote of the commission that will keep the beloved community musical theater in Winter Park after it nearly lost its lease. Without the TDT dollars, the future of the organization was uncertain.
“I cried … my husband was to the right of me and he grabbed my hand and he was like, ‘OK this is it,’ and one of the commissioners made the motion and as soon as they said it was unanimous I just burst into tears,” she said. “It was a big day for arts and culture.”
The playhouse project, through a partnership with the city of Winter Park to purchase and renovate its current building after nearly losing its lease, will receive $8 million between now and 2028. The city will own the building and the playhouse will continue to operate as a nonprofit there through a long-term lease.
The same vote also secured $10 million for the Rollins Art Museum, which made a bid to take over the old Winter Park Library but was pushed aside for the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts.
Other groups receiving TDT dollars include:
- City of Apopka: $13.1 million to construct and improve softball fields, the amphitheater and other facilities. Estimated total cost of the project is $13.3 million.
- 4R Foundation: $12 million for a community events center plus and outdoor stage and lawn at 4Roots Campus, which also includes a farm and classroom space in Orlando’s Packing District neighborhood. Estimated total cost of the project is $65 million.
- Orlando Science Center: $13.9 million enlarge and remodel the outdoor terrace and event venue. Estimated total cost of the project is $14.1 million.
- Rollins College: $10 million to construct a new art museum for new art museum. Estimated total project cost is $30.6 million.
- Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation: $2.1 million to improve the auditorium, including a patron’s room. Estimated total project cost is $3.1 million.
- Winter Garden Art Association: $4 million for a new museum next to the current space. Estimated total cost of the project is $7 million.
- Orlando Family Stage: $5.8 million to remodel and operate the auditorium. Estimated total project cost is $7.6 million.
- City of Winter Park : $8 million to acquire, enlarge and remodel the Winter Park Playhouse. Estimated cost of the total project is $10 million.
- Friends of the Mennello: $2 million (request was $13 million) to enlarge and improve the folk art museum. Estimated total cost is $30 million.
- Orlando Museum of Art: $2 million (request was $7.2 million) to repair the roof and HVAC system. Total cost of the project is estimated at $7.5 million.
- PAST/Wells’ Built Museum: $2 million (request was $5 million) to acquire the property and construct and improve the museum and auditorium. Estimated total cost is $10 million.
At the same meeting, the county took the final step to continue Winter Park’s CRA until at least 2037 rather than sunset it in 2027 and grow the boundaries along Fairbanks Avenue toward Interstate 4.
Larger boundaries mean more property tax revenue that would typically go to the county government will remain in Winter Park for projects such as sewer infrastructure, road improvements and other needs.
The new CRA, which is controlled by the City Commission, is projected to generate between $162 million and $213 million in revenue through 2037.
“It’s a very elegant mechanism to make sure more of our taxpayer dollars stay with the city,” said Peter Moore, director of management and budget, at a city meeting earlier this year.
CRA’s are used across Florida by cities and counties as a way to finance redevelopment and specific projects. It works like this: property values within a CRA’s boundaries are frozen at a certain year — in this case that year would be 2023. Then, as values rise, any taxes on those properties collected above the frozen amount go into a CRA fund rather than back to the city and county that would typically collect them. (The city and county still collect taxes each year up to the frozen amount and school board taxes are not affected.)
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 18, 2024 | Election, News, Uncategorized
Steve Leary and Kelly Semrad in final fundraising stretch for District 5 Orange County race
The two are on the Nov. 5 ballot in the only open seat this year for the Orange County Commission
Oct. 18, 2024
By Beth Kassab
Former Winter Park Mayor Steve Leary remains the fundraising leader in the District 5 Orange County Commission race against UCF Professor Kelly Semrad with donors from the tourism and development industries continuing to drive his total.
Leary raised $322,000 and spent $218,000 through his campaign account and a political committee he also controls, according to the most recent filings. The bulk of that came in before the August primary, when Leary trailed Semrad to a second place finish by 2,800 votes.
Recent Leary campaign donations include $12,000 from hotelier and philanthropist Harris Rosen and his companies plus another $1,000 from Frank Santos, a member of Rosen’s executive team.
On Thursday, Leary posted an endorsement from Rosen on his campaign Facebook page in which Rosen says Leary is “the ONLY candidate qualified to serve.” Leary wrote that he is proud to have Rosen’s support and called him a “TRUE tourism expert” — an apparent dig at Semrad, who is known as an expert in tourism economies and conducts research and teaches at UCF’s college of hospitality management named for Rosen.
Neither Leary nor his campaign responded to a request for an interview for this story.
The Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association’s political committees recently gave Leary $2,000.
Another $2,000 came came from a company affiliated with the developers behind the proposed Sustanee project that includes nearly 2,000 homes on ranchlands in east Orange County. The developers sued the county over the commission’s rejection of the project earlier this year.
Kelly Cohen, a lobbyist for Lake Nona developer Tavistock, which is also attempting to develop additional rural lands, gave $500. Developer Alan Ginsburg and BusinessForce, the political committee for the Orlando Chamber of Commerce, each gave $1,000.
Development of rural lands and how the county should divvy up the dollars collected from the Tourism Development Tax are key issues in the District 5 contest as well as the races for Districts 1 and 3.
The Nov. 5 ballot also includes two questions for voters related to development. The first asks voters to designate a rural boundary in the county and the second would give the County Commission the power to stop potential developers from voluntarily annexing their land into other jurisdictions such as the city of Orlando.
Leary has said he supports establishing the rural boundary, but has not answered a question that would give the rural boundary measure its teeth: Whether he supports the move to allow the county commission to block annexations by the cities.
Semrad is a vocal advocate of both ballot questions and is also pushing for more tourist tax money to be spent on local projects such as transportation vs needs exclusive to the tourism industry.
She has trailed in fundraising with a total of $86,000 so far, according to the available filings. She does not have a political action committee.
Her contributions include $1,000 from Orlando Democrat Rep. Maxwell Frost’s political committee, $500 from Ruth’s List and $1,000 from the Orange County Firefighter’s Association. Her supporters also include local names such as political pundit and advocate Dick Batchelor ($250); retired Judge Cynthia McKinnon ($100) and others.
Semrad said she knows she won’t make up the fundraising gap between her and Leary, but is focusing on talking with as many voters as possible.
“We’ve got more than 100 volunteers who knock on doors every weekend and waive signs,” she said.
While few voters open to door to talk with canvassers face-to-face, she’s noticed many speak to her or the volunteers via phone through their doorbell camera apps — either from inside their homes or wherever they happen to be.
“Those interactions have been way more informative,” she said. “They’ll say, ‘I love your platform,’ … Our numbers are coming in really strong.”
While Leary has a significant fundraising lead over Semrad, he is behind the top fundraisers in Districts 1 and 3 where Austin Arthur raised about $500,000 through his campaign account and political committee and and Mayra Uribe has raised nearly $500,000 through her campaign and committees that have supported her.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 17, 2024 | City Commission, News, Uncategorized
Winter Park closes in on major CRA expansion, celebrates wins from Hurricane Milton
The CRA is expected to help fund stormwater projects that became a high priority after Hurricane Ian in 2022.The impacts felt by Hurricane Milton were less severe
Oct. 17, 2024
(Photo caption: Commissioners Craig Russell and Kris Cruzada assist residents with sandbags before Hurricane Milton made landfall last week. Courtesy of the city of Winter Park.)
By Beth Kassab
Winter Park officials on Thursday celebrated relatively few power outages and far more contained flooding that occurred after Hurricane Milton compared with Hurricane Ian two years earlier as they also took steps to finalize a major expansion of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
The CRA expansion will help pay for a number of projects within its boundaries that cover downtown from Interlachen Boulevard to roughly U.S. 17-92 and — if the new borders get approval from neighboring Orlando and Orange County — Fairbanks Avenue to Interstate 4.
The two-year process to expand the CRA and extend its sunset date from 2027 to 2037 coincided with the time Winter Park also contended with the fallout from Hurricane Ian, which raked through Central Florida on Sept. 29, 2022 caused the worst inland flooding in modern memory. The storm dropped 13 inches of rain, according to the tally from Orlando International Airport.
Milton brought heavy rains, too, but the Winter Park total is estimated in the 5 to 6-inch range, according to Gloria Eby, the city’s director of Natural Resources & Sustainability.
The proposed CRA expansion.
Less rain combined with actions the city vowed to take ahead of the next big storm led to fewer problems overall.
Mayor Sheila DeCiccio commended the city staff for “a truly outstanding job,” noting “everything I have been to — people are in awe of the city of Winter Park.”
City Manager Randy Knight said “a lot of improvements have been made since Ian.”
As a result, there were no reports of flooding inside homes this time and most Winter Park residents had power from the city-owned electric utility throughout the storm. At peak outage, 275 customers were without power, according to the city.
“The electric utility knocked it out of the park,” Knight said, crediting the city’s long-standing efforts to underground all of the city’s power lines, which is about 80% complete.
“It took courage 20 years ago when this commission decided to buy the utility,” he said. “Every commission since then has kept [the undergrounding project] in the budget … and we’re seeing the benefits today.”
Storms like Ian and Milton, though, brought far more rain than wind to the city. And that causes more issues with flooding versus trees downing power lines.
As a result, the commission has focused on studying stormwater projects. In fact, a meeting for commissioners to discuss the results of water basin studies was postponed twice in recent weeks — once for Hurricane Helene and then again for Milton. The meeting is now set to take place next week.
DeCiccio said Thursday that the additional money from the CRA expansion would help, in part, with drainage issues that fall within the agency’s boundaries. Orlando and Orange County are set to take up their ends of the agreement before the end of the month and, if approved, the CRA expansion would mean an additional $57 million in tax revenue that would remain in Winter Park rather than going to the county.
The city took measures to avoid flooding ahead of Milton such as opening lake drains or adjusting weirs to improve water flow where possible.
But more is needed. For example, before Milton landed city workers drained the pond at MLK Park near the library, but some streets still flooded nearby, though no water was reported inside homes this time around.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 3, 2024 | City Commission, News, Taxes, Uncategorized
Winter Park Playhouse, Rollins come out as winners in TDT recommendations
They are among 11 arts and culture projects that the Tourist Development Tax board is asking the County Commission to fund
Oct. 3, 2024
By Beth Kassab
The Winter Park Playhouse and the Rollins Art Museum are on track to receive their full request for dollars from a portion of Tourist Development Tax money set aside for arts and cultural projects over the next five years.
The playhouse project, through a partnership with the city of Winter Park to purchase and renovate its current building after nearly losing its lease, will receive $8 million between now and 2028 if the recommendations from the Tourist Development Tax Advisory Council are approved by the Orange County Commission later this month.
The Rollins Art Museum, which made a bid to take over the old Winter Park Library but was pushed aside for the Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, will receive $10 million between 2026 and 2028, according to the recommendations.
The college announced this week that museum leader Ena Heller is leaving to take a position as the next director of the Boca Raton Museum of Art, but President Grant Cornwell told the Voice in a statement that the vision for a new museum will continue with a broad base of support.
“It has been an honor to work alongside Ena, whose visionary leadership has transformed the Rollins Museum of Art into an integral part of the College’s mission,” Cornwell said. “I am deeply grateful for her contributions and creativity and for ensuring the museum’s successful standing as we build upon the foundation she is leaving. The museum has strong support and a vital group of members, donors, partners, and patrons supporting it, and we are excited about this next stage as we come to closure on our future museum.”
The County Commission will take up the funding requests for final approval on Oct. 29.
Earlier this year, local arts groups were invited to apply for grants from $75 million of tourist tax money set aside over the next five years for local arts and cultural projects. The tax on hotel rooms brought in a record $359 million last year in Orange County, a significant recovery from the pandemic years, which saw collections drop to about half that amount.
Winter Park Playhouse
The bulk of the hotel tax goes toward paying off the construction costs and operating the Orange County Convention Center, other large venues and Visit Orlando, the publicly-supported organization that markets Orlando as a destination.
The convention center’s operating expenses exceed its revenue so far this year by $12.6 million, according to the comptroller’s report at the Sept. 27 meeting. The subsidy paid by the county out of tourist tax dollars to keep the convention center operating in the black is tracking higher this year than the previous two years, the report showed.
In all, 14 groups originally applied for the arts money with requests totalling $126 million.
Three groups were deemed ineligible for the funds, leaving 11 groups with requests totalling $94.2 million — nearly $20 million more than the allotted $75 million budget for the projects.
A committee led by former Orange County Comptroller Martha Haynie met to rank the projects and recommend how much each would receive.
The Tourist Tax Council, which includes Orange Mayor Jerry Demings, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Eatonville Mayor Angie Gardner, four hotel owners or industry representatives who must remit the tax and two others, accepted those recommendations at its meeting last week.
Haynie urged the board to reconsider the criteria for future local arts projects to put less emphasis on driving overnight hotel stays — a move that she said could help demonstrate how the tax is used to benefit local residents vs. the tourism industry.
“I think when the Board of County Commissioners can demonstrate the interest and the support of local cultural organizations it supports the position county has always taken,” to reserve the bulk of the tax for industry projects amid pressure to expand how the tax is used, Haynie said. She noted that expanding uses of the tax “in the long run probably would not serve the county as well as it has been served today.”
Intensified calls to use some of the hotel tax revenue on local projects such as roads or train lines are playing out in three county commission races on next month’s ballot. That is especially the case in District 5, which represents Winter Park, where former Mayor Steve Leary is receiving financial contributions from the tourism industry against Kelly Semrad, a UCF professor who studies tourism economies, and is calling for the tax to more substantially benefit people who live in Orange County.
Demings focused his comments on the “financial readiness” of some of the organizations who requested money.
“We have had some challenges like the Pulse Museum and others when they don’t execute the fundraising to cover the gap to do the project and then the project gets extended and the price escalates and then they come back and request additional money,” Demings said, though he said he was pleased to see geographic diversity in the list which touched on Winter Park, Winter Garden and Apopka. “The list looks pretty good, but I still remain somewhat concerned about the ability of these organizations to cover the gap … so we’ll see where this ends up.”
Haynie’s committee recommended all but three organizations receive the amount of funding they requested. The recommendations to be considered by the County Commission later this month are:
- City of Apopka: $13.1 million to construct and improve softball fields, the amphitheater and other facilities. Estimated total cost of the project is $13.3 million.
- 4R Foundation: $12 million for a community events center plus and outdoor stage and lawn at 4Roots Campus, which also includes a farm and classroom space in Orlando’s Packing District neighborhood. Estimated total cost of the project is $65 million.
- Orlando Science Center: $13.9 million enlarge and remodel the outdoor terrace and event venue. Estimated total cost of the project is $14.1 million.
- Rollins College: $10 million to construct a new art museum for new art museum. Estimated total project cost is $30.6 million.
- Orlando Philharmonic Plaza Foundation: $2.1 million to improve the auditorium, including a patron’s room. Estimated total project cost is $3.1 million.
- Winter Garden Art Association: $4 million for a new museum next to the current space. Estimated total cost of the project is $7 million.
- Orlando Family Stage: $5.8 million to remodel and operate the auditorium. Estimated total project cost is $7.6 million.
- City of Winter Park : $8 million to acquire, enlarge and remodel the Winter Park Playhouse. Estimated cost of the total project is $10 million.
- Friends of the Mennello: $2 million (request was $13 million) to enlarge and improve the folk art museum. Estimated total cost is $30 million.
- Orlando Museum of Art: $2 million (request was $7.2 million) to repair the roof and HVAC system. Total cost of the project is estimated at $7.5 million.
- PAST/Wells’ Built Museum: $2 million (request was $5 million) to acquire the property and construct and improve the museum and auditorium. Estimated total cost is $10 million.
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by Beth Kassab | Oct 1, 2024 | City Commission, Election, News, Uncategorized
Kris Cruzada to seek reelection, but Todd Weaver decides not to run
Two City Commission seats are up for grabs in the March election — one political newcomer has already filed
Oct. 1, 2024
By Beth Kassab
Kris Cruzada will seek a second term in Seat 3 on the City Commission while Todd Weaver has opted out of running again for Seat 4 ahead of the March 11 election.
Warren Lindsey, a well-known criminal defense attorney who has lived in Winter Park for 30 years, has filed to run for the seat left open by Weaver’s decision.
Lindsey is a first-time candidate for office and currently serves on the city’s Planning & Zoning Board.
Warren Lindsey
That experience, he said, led to a desire to get more involved in city government.
“It’s wonderful — you really see democracy in action,” Lindsey said. “People from all walks of life come up to the podium.”
If elected, Lindsey said his priorities will be keeping taxes low (Winter Park has the second lowest millage rate among local cities) while preserving the quality of city services, including the police and fire departments.
He’s also interested in economic development and improving the health of the Winter Park Chain of Lakes.
Lindsey, who graduated from Stetson University and the University of Florida law school, practices at Lindsey, Ferry & Parker and previously practiced with Chandler Muller and Kirk Kirkconnell, who both died from cancer in 2012. The Winter Park group was known for taking on some of the highest profile criminal cases in the state.
Kris Cruzada
Weaver, an engineer who was first elected in 2019, said his professional responsibilities are taking more of his time so he decided against seeking a third term.
Cruzada, an attorney first elected in 2022, said he wants to continue initiatives he started in his first term such as working with his fellow commissioners to shore up the city’s aging infrastructure, including roads and flood prevention measures. He also wants to continue to make the building code more predictable so that landowners have more clarity over how they can develop their property.
“I want to continue on the path of what I set out to do,” said Cruzada, a lifelong resident of the area.
He graduated from the University of Central Florida and earned a law degree from St. Louis University. Today he practices family and personal injury law and works for his family’s property holdings company.
Todd Weaver
Candidates looking to enter one of the city races must qualify by Jan. 21. They are elected to three-year terms and can serve a maximum of four terms or 12 years on the board.
The March 11 ballot will also include a referendum asking voters whether or not the city should keep in place its ban on gas-powered leaf blowers to help regulate noise and emissions. The current ban, originally passed in 2022, is not yet being enforced after a controversy erupted earlier this year when landscape companies argued the rule imposed too heavy of a financial burden.
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