Pursue a Not-to-Exceed Loan of $12,000,000.00 to Complete the Design, Permitting, Construction, and Equipping of Sports Fields and Other Improvements at Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus – Office of Management and Budget – No Funding Required

1:18:48Aye. Okay. Okay, next item C thirty-three. Um

1:18:56The description goes pursued not to exceed a loan of twelve million dollars to complete design permitting construction equipments. Sports fields and other improvements at Wire Grass Ranch Sports Campus. Um Before they speak, I'm gonna just say the reason I pulled it. Um This came before the tourist development council. Uh the information we had. I thought was very limited. Um I do believe in the project and that we do need to do some things out there just the way this funding's going for the way this project's started, which we'll go through. Um

1:19:27I'm just not comfortable just saying we're gonna go out and do this instantly, uh the way it's set up right now. I think we need to look at other ways to fund it go through it, but um I'll let you s you guys do a presentation on it first.

1:19:39Yeah, sir before Adam and Bob speak, uh I'll just say that You

1:19:42know,

1:19:42we've we've looked at this and and I think what you'll see here that Adam is and and Bob can present will will kinda cover the the the groundwork of of both the agreements as well as where the funding's coming from and some of the challenges that they've faced in order to try to meet this this contractual obligation and kind of show show the boundaries of that. So Adam.

1:20:01Good morning, Commissioner. Adam Thomas Torres. I'm Director for Pasco County. Thank you so much for hearing this today. Um, I do want to reiterate the importance of this item to be moving forward today. We do have a contractual obligation with the family that donated the land to the sports campus. Uh, currently, the sports campus sits in Wiregrass Ranch and is a centerpiece of Wesley Chapel and our sports tourist development. Um, today we'll just go over a brief uh presentation of the the property and the construction of the

1:20:31proposed bid that came in and was uh not awarded yet but uh triaz is the contractor that um we plan to move forward with Um The proposed scope for the uh phase two of the sports park project at Wiregrass Ranch is five fields with uh lighting, all five fields, and also the multi-purpose fields that are currently sits today. We're also going to be lighting those two multi-purpose fields. So you're gonna have a total of seven multi-purpose

1:21:02fields at the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus. Uh parking for the area, concession stands with Restrooms, three pavilions. We have a multi-trail that was supposed to be constructed and opened at the same time. We opened the indoor facility. We have the parking area for pavilions, concession trails, the road that that is going to take all of the teams out to the multi-purpose fields, additional landscaping. Stormwater Ponds and Park Expansion. So this is the

1:21:32overlay of the Wiregrass Ranch Sports Campus of Pasco County. The red line indicates the current road as it sits. A is the actual indoor 100,000 square feet of indoor space. B is the hotel which is operated by main cell lodging. It's the residence in. Um I believe that My sunglasses or my glasses on. That's C. Uh that's the current multi-purpose fields, the event launch

1:22:02space that are is actually used as multi-purpose fields right now. The black Uh road is the proposed road that takes you back to the five additional multi-purpose fields along with the yellow and black line, which is the multi-purpose trail that is proposed in the bid. The defined elements of the cost of the $15 million request on the loan is the exterior pro improvements that's your your fill, your curbs, your fencing, your your parking, your

1:22:32roads is around six and a half million dollars. Building that's your restroom concession stands is a little over 1.7. Fields count they came in at a little over uh four and a half million dollars for the the turf surface, the under draining and the uh the the root zoning for for sprinklers. Also electrical for the the the lights on each field, landscape and irrigation, and you have a contingency budget of of a little over $250,000.

1:23:04Okay. And I want to say this is more information than we had presented to us ahead of time at the board, uh that we did get this sheet right here. That map is a lot better to look at, so thank you for that, Mike. We uh So anyway, so I I after going through this, I had a meeting with staff on Monday, uh talked about this. They sent me the Porter Agreement from certain amount of pages which I just handed to the board members here. Uh looking through it um There's a few points I want to go through and and and talk

1:23:34about as we go further with it.

1:23:38When you talk about the initial agreement coming through, I'm just gonna read some things to you because my my big thing is not getting it's not about getting the project done, but how we're gonna get it done, how we're gonna pay for it, how we're gonna fund it, how we're gonna finance it. Uh this project first started as a $14 million project. Uh went up to $25 million project. The debt service, I believe, is $1.2 million a year we're paying on this for interest. Interest in the new debt proposed right now could be as high as one point eight million. So when I look at the uh Third page

1:24:08that we have in the back under the recitals it says And I'm just going to read some highlighted quotes that you that you have highlighted on your pages. It says provide enhanced public recreational opportunities to county residents with the goals of significantly increasing overall tourism throughout the county. Whereas the county has committed available funds in the amount not to exceed 14 million. That's how we started. Um And it's anticipated to include multipurpose fields. Okay, keywords anticipated to include multipurpose field to accommodate

1:24:38soccer, lacrosse field hockey and or football. Go down a couple more pages again highlighted out in the document I sh I just shared out the exchange property. and donated property are restricted to a sports park complex and for active or passive public park and public recreational uses. Uh the next sentence down it talks about in It's principal public use. Active or passive public park. in

1:25:08public recreation purposes. All secondary uses including not limited to related to facilities and infrastructure for a sports complex shall be clearly incidental and accessory to the such as the primary uses. Going further a few more pages. Um This would be like page seven at the bottom of uh see, I'll read H. The county Shall act. Acting in good faith uses best efforts to enter in into agreements for the operation and maintenance of

1:25:38the sports park complex, deemed necessary by the County to have the sports complex designed and d as determined by the County for the intended use as stated here in with the 24 months of date of conveyance of the sports pike property, we did that. Um Go down to J. It says Um Shall negate the owners or affiliated R related entities to obligation to pay applicable parks or recreation impact fee to the DRI, which means they're not gonna be assessed

1:26:09any impact fee, they're just gonna have to build it. Um get on a couple more pages.

1:26:19And again, this is just highlights in there that that speak to public uh access. Um this is one of the things we did on the recitals of facts for the next agreement that was done later on. The county will be adopting, approving, implementing an increase in the tourist development tax from two percent to four percent. And when we made this statement, and Commissioner Weightman at the point in time uh had said, you know, we need to do something for the west side of the county, and I believe it was about five million dollars was supposed to be allocated toward using tourist elements

1:26:49funds toward the west side of the county. We haven't done that yet, but that was one of the conversations we had on where the money was gonna go. Um next sentence the county will be entering an operations agreement with Rad Sports, which we did.

1:27:02Next page two of twenty eight. Uh whereas the county will obtain financing or have legal available of available funds in the amount of at l of not less than twenty-five million dollars for the construction, development, and operation. of the sports park property in the sports park complex. Whereas this amendment and all of flycatcher's obligations hereunder are supposed to be subject in contingent upon the County's satisfaction of the flycatcher written waiver, to the County's adoption, approval, implementation, increase the tourist development

1:27:33tax, Um

1:27:37Next page over goes to page four of twenty eight. Corporate events shall be permitted and other events may be permitted, subject to fly catcher's prior review and approval. Um we're trying to keep out outside stuff that didn't belong but was okay to go along with it. Um this I need help with. And this map is actually gonna help me see it now. uh use of partial eye on the sports park property. it says at least one of the fields to be constructed in parcel I of the

1:28:07Sports Park property as it's picked on the new site plan will be open for public use. Uh not less than ninety percent of the sports plaques complex operating hours. The use of PowerPoint's A, C, F, and G Uh parcel Yeah. the generally not be available for public use And parcel H The colony acknowledged agrees. that everything depicted there shall be open for public use. No

1:28:38fee or charge at all times during the operating. hours. So that's I and H of a lot more flexibility. Yeah. And pretty much Those documents, you know, I think should have been in our board agenda, frankly. Um I think it should have been a T D C's agenda. Yeah, I I am a big fan of Wiregrass. I mean when they opened up their uh first approval with J C Penny many years ago, I was very proud to be there in my tuxedo, J D. uh supporting what was going on out there.

1:29:08And when you showed me the project, sitting down with your dad. Um I says this is just gonna be an amazing product. And what and what the porters have done has been absolutely phenomenal. first class all the way, uh and that's what they're striving for is first class all the way. And I think That impetus led us to to use the words premiere. That's what we want to be out there as Premier every step of the way. So I just want to make sure as we go through this project, how we fund it is the key to what things we need to do first should be prioritized.

1:29:38And I don't think we can do that with the agenda item you've just thrown before us and just even with the comments I've just shared with you. Uh but seeing this thing from the get go, from the start And how it's evolved. It's got great potential. It's a great plan. But we gotta find a way to pay for it the best way possible. And knowing we've got debt service right now, I think it's $1.2 million. Bob can correct me if I'm wrong, this new debt service is going to go to but $1.8 million a year for interest. I think we can do this better. I think we can use other sources. We've got penny for Pasco money, we put for trails.

1:30:09This looks like a trail to me that connects two properties around the property, which is why this was designed that way. Um the road infrastructure if more needs to be done there. We can look at transportation impact fee for the whole DRI, which is twelve thousand units, I believe, is approved. If that's impact fee money, which we just uh have for transportation, you could even took look at the impact fee portion to put into trail money if you need to. Uh as far as parked impact fee money. And and talking to Keith about

1:30:39this as well, there's going to be a proportion of when this is going to be sitting dead, not to be overworked and overrun, but to be looked at. We should be looking at how much money is appropriate to use for impact fee money. and just the way we have this in front of us right now, I don't think we get all the detail that we should. I would like us to work on this for the next thirty days, bring it back to us. No matter what we do today, even in the in the Tourist Development Council. wanted to do the same thing to get a better look at this whole thing because we didn't have this map in front of us, which again, I greatly appreciate the detail

1:31:09that is done from just last night's comments or this morning's comments to get this done. And with that, I think that's a good question Um Bob, if you want to answer this the question about the debt service?

1:31:20Uh yes, sir. Thank you. In 2018, the board borrowed $15 million to build the original facility. The debt service on that is $1.5 million per year, which is a $17 million loan. And we estimate a 15-year loan for the $10 million or $12 million we would need for this facility would be an additional $800,000 per year in debt service.

1:31:42Okay. So different numbers, so I appreciate that, but still a significant amount of money.

1:31:46Can I

1:31:46ask Bob a question? Yes. So Bob, if we were to get this loan, it would be the pledge would be tourist development tax?

1:31:55Yes.

1:31:56Is there anything preventing the county from using other revenue sources to repay the loan? In other words Could the account use park impact fee? um or penny for Pasco or other revenue sources to repay the loan.

1:32:10Yes, we can use whatever funding is available to pay back the loan. The the banks prefer a single source as the pledge. So if we're unable to pay the loan. Then they would go to that one. So the pledge

1:32:21revenue source doesn't necessarily have to be the actual revenue source we

1:32:23use.

1:32:26With the General revenues we could pay it back with uh impact fee or tourist development tax.

1:32:32And if you had money in those different fees and accounts, instead of having to go borrow the money, pay the morrow money back, we're paying interest, you could just take the money from those funds and put it forward. Correct. Okay. And that's what I really want us to take a look at. And I know we can't do that today. I know we're not prepared for that. I know we don't have the agenda for it. I know you haven't done the research for it. It was just something that came up at TDC, how we're going to go do this and look at these options. So it it let me ask you this, Bob. How much time would it take you to take a look at the funds available with the things I've mentioned and David just mentioned? We can actually go look and maybe

1:33:02bring something back to us to say we could

1:33:09I'm I'm I'm okay to continue this can continue this two weeks and get all this information in front of us. Mr. Carbell.

1:33:16talking about here first first and foremost. I mean there are is there are park monies that are being put into this right the total cost of this facility is 15 million dollars roughly a third one

1:33:27five

1:33:27we'll call it 15 million I'm sorry so 15 million dollars for this for this construction Uh approximately one third of that cost more or less is coming from other sources other than tourist development tax sources. So those included park impact fee.

1:33:48So there is a there is that that are going in. This this balance here gets us the the amount of money that we need to to essentially finish the job. I understand too that we are using general revenue to bridge the time so we can get started because we do have a construction bid that is currently there. uh uh successful bidder has agreed to extend his bid while we work through the financing issues, but we don't want that bid to necessarily expire or we would lose that that

1:34:18that that contract. Um so uh now the question that's on the table here might is is are we talking about using interfund loans? Are we talking about using other sources to pay back? Because in my opinion this This facility functions as a tourism function. So from an administrator perspective, I I believe that the tourist development tax should be paying for it personally.

1:34:49I mean Adam can talk more more to it as far as it being a tourist facility, but I I just need clarity on what it is we're talking about with other sources, Bob. I don't I'm not I don't really understand.

1:35:00Well I I brought the idea, so let me tell you what I'm thinking. So when I look at the yellow, if you get the map up. When I look at the yellow trail, the way it's verbed uh oh the verb is in the agreement that we have is those trails are connecting to parts of the DRI. It's designed to make it so those people that are in there can actually use this and get to it. It's not necessarily people going from point A to point B. They got parking for that. So that trail system right there is gonna benefit the D RI. And w those G people in the DRI have

1:35:30paid impact fee. We put money in for trails for impact fee. We put money in for the penny for Pasco. Pretty much all the transportation that we have is for trails. Those two sources I think work very well. The road network, when we first did the the red road, that was a big deal. And remember we talked about using touristone money as opposed to r r regular transportation money to pay for that. That was a big, big conversation. I think it's the same conversation here. You've got people that are coming from the outside. coming in here, so they're using our road road network. If we own

1:36:00this thing and call this our road, which I think we are. I don't see w where we can't use transportation impact fee, gas tax money, or other other sources to go pay for that road either.

1:36:10So to be clear, Mr. Chair, I don't believe these are collector arterial roadways. Your mobility fees are designated for Collector and arterial roadways. Okay. So now Gas tax. Tiff, that's a little different conversation, but um I don't think you could use mobility fees or transportation impact fee. And again,

1:36:29I'm I'm just throwing everything out there on the table to go look at the things we can look at and the things we should be looking at to go, how can we best pay for this? Because if you get a pay interest of We're only paying. One point five million a year on interest. For the phase one. This is just phase two. We're gonna add another eight hundred grand. That's money that's in the county conference that could be used for other tourism things later on that we can't use because you're paying interest. So if we got other things that are applicable, and I get the keywords applicable to all this year. I think we should be looking at that. Number one financially

1:37:00it makes more sense rather than borrowing money if you have the money and other sources that can pay for it and justifiably so, I think it's worth that conversation. And just again, And you know, we see we say there's been pushed for two years. I've never heard we had this issue that was out there that's out there, and I respect JD Porter for bringing it forward and I know he's he's done the right thing. He's worked with staff. He didn't want to bring it to the commission. He tried to work in-house with it, but right now it's come to a head and he's frustrated with it, and I don't blame him. But I think if we wait two weeks, let's

1:37:30get more information. Let's go look at all the sources that could be worked and let's find a way to get it all done. But just to go say we're gonna go borrow the money, I don't think it's the right step.

1:37:40Commissioner Weightman. Thank you, Chairman Mariano. Well I appreciate the fiscal conversation here. Maybe Mr. Engels office has some interest free loans we can use to help get this thing moving forward. Uh sorry. No look at the right-of-way. I wasn't here then, but we're what three years behind schedule on this? The reason this is costing so much is because we're three years behind schedule. I mean, no matter how you slice it and dice

1:38:10it, it's an expensive new world we're in Um And I want to become compliant in the contract. And Get get back aligned with this project how we should be as a county and as an operator and potentially what what the future of this this project's gonna be. Uh quite frankly I'm not sure. Willing to wait two more weeks? I'm ready to go forward with it today. Mm, I guess the county attorney question

1:38:41in the interim I mean if we approve this today. You can use that two weeks since there's an extension with the contractor to look at how we're gonna pay that contractor, right? But in order to move forward, we need to approve this item today and then we could figure out the funding sources to pay the contractor.

1:39:00But it's not a little bit more than a little bit. Pigeonholding us as to how and where that loan money comes from.

1:39:05Correct.

1:39:06That

1:39:06was that was where I asked the right-of-way.

1:39:07Which I think addresses the Chairman's concern of how

1:39:11So if I could offer something uh to the conversation. I was just talking with with Mr. Gorg about it. Uh you know, it'd like it like any loan, there's there's nothing that would uh preclude us from early payment, repayment. What we're seeking is authorization to go forward to the private market and and get a loan to to do what we need to do. If we were to establish other sources or find other sources, you know, if the board wants us to direct and and report back on that, we can. So if we find, say, a million dollars hiding under the couch cushions. Uh. that would

1:39:41qualify for the trails, as Commissioner O Mariano points out. We simply can either deduct that from the loan cost and make those payments. But we we need the authorization to go forward to get the money so we can actually start the project. Um and we can I I I see no reason why we can't handle that in parallel and bring that back to the board for approval. Um but I'm I'm offering that as a suggestion just for the motion

1:40:02to get moving. Wait before we go. Can I make can I just ask you something? Sure. So You're basing your information that we're in default based upon what?

1:40:12The contract.

1:40:14So the contract I just handed you or do you have one before?

1:40:21I'm fully briefed and aware of everything that's going on with this project. I've had multiple briefings, renderings, staff meetings, briefings. I And I'm new to the board. So I I don't know where the disconnect is. Maybe staff isn't talking to all five of us. But I'm pretty well briefed of where we currently are in this project and where we should be. and talking with Goldstein County. I mean we talk Pretty

1:40:53pretty regularly, Chairman Mariano. Mr. Chairman I don't think you read paragraph eleven of the first amendment.

1:40:58So on that agreement that you have right there, I was handed that at nine fifty-five. Nine f maybe nine fifty-eight. Part of the reason I got here here a couple minutes behind, just kind of try to scan that as quick as I can. So Read read to where we're in default.

1:41:14Okay. Um All multi purpose paths and sidewalks and all multi purp multi purpose fields depicted on Exhibit A Shall be constructed and completed during the first phase of the construction of the sports park complex, including the indoor sports facility. And we shall cause the construction to be complete Prior to the first CO of the indoor sports facility.

1:41:33Okay. So why when we borrowed twenty-five million dollars did we not know we weren't complying with everything else that had to be done in the project? I mean we we we approved it, we sent it, we signed it, we financed it. And you're telling me we went through the and financed the whole project at twenty five million dollars and we didn't do everything we're supposed to do? And nobody was aware of it?

1:41:54So the obligation there, my understanding, and I can't answer staff will have to answer this, but my understanding is the indoor sports complex when it went actually out to bid after we got the loan came in over budget. Okay. significantly over budget. So as a result They had to cut something out of the budget and what was cut out of the budget was the fields.

1:42:12So we no other plan was made to bring it back forward to come to us and we're just hearing this. So I'm hearing it two weeks

1:42:18before.

1:42:21Parks did budget about four or five million For the fields The issue was that when they went out to bid for those fields, it came in much higher than what they had budgeted.

1:42:31It wasn't just the fields, it was all the trails, too.

1:42:34That's correct. So in

1:42:35in the roadway. Commissioner Yeah. Commissioner Starkey.

1:42:39Oh, the saga of what to do with the tourism money. Man, this thing's bounced around the county for decades. Um You know, before this went over there, it was over here. Uh but I am in full support of this project. I think we have an obligation to finish it. Um I do want to hear again later during Commissioner Weightman's remind me what Commissioner We said about the m and I recall that some money being spent over here. Um it it pains me that it's such a big hit

1:43:10on our tourism. um folks, but I think we need to finish our obligation and to me This is all The painful Detritus of not funding parks. Like we should have for the last thirty years, forty years. So I'm gonna say again We need a parks M STU, not a big number, but a number that gets more Um bondable. capital money into

1:43:40parks so that we can finish building what we should have built twenty, thirty years ago. So and maybe w help pay this back and get some of the other projects that we all know we need so badly going. So I am like Commissioner Weightman, I am in support of moving forward today, but I do want to revisit it. Um and go over some of the things you said later.

1:44:03Commissioner Oakley. Yeah. Um I'm for moving forward with this this project. We've been waiting too long, this two and a half years past due of having these fields built. And we've had tremendous growth in this past two and a half years that caused more and more use of these facilities. If we'd have done it back when we were came out with over budget for what we were planning on doing instead of waiting this part would probably

1:44:33cost five million and instead we got all the inflation, the high costs and everything. that's causing the issue that we have. We don't need to wait any longer. We need to go forward and make sure that uh we do the right thing with this field and for Wiregrass, uh the sports park uh It's gonna continue to do well. It's gonna do even better. I appreciate uh Rec coming in and taking over management and update to this point they've done a very good job in

1:45:03doing that and their goal is to Make that more and more tourism and bringing more people into this area but we need to get this done. So with that I'll make the motion we go forward. True.

1:45:17Um I I want to add one more thing and I'll second it. Um Commissioner Oriano.

1:45:21Commissioner Starkey.

1:45:22You know, um Mr. Collier made such a big investment there in that hotel. And um he made that investment based on a full park, not a partial partial complex. And so if we wanna have these partnerships with these respected businessmen in our community, we we need to come through with our obligations.

1:45:45Mr. Waven? Anything further? All right, so I would say that again I am thrilled with what the Wiregrass product has done, what they've done. The Porta family's been phenomenal. Uh I don't think their demands are uh an issue whatsoever. Um I do know that when we did finances before, we went from fourteen to twenty-five. And even with twenty-five that wasn't enough. After this there's still gonna be more I believe we're gonna need to do. Um I think we should Get it. Even if you go forward with looking at the loan

1:46:15I think we should add it into the motion. I would appreciate it. If we would take a look at the other funding sources that are available that we can look at, anything that's applicable that's appropriate. And go look at it. Financially Because right now, does anybody here know what the tourism Assets are, revenues coming in, and has anybody considered What if we have another COVID and the or if the economy shuts down for some other reason and all of a sudden these tourist developmental revenues drop and you have nothing more? N not enough money to go pay the debt off. So

1:46:46because of all those things to think about If you're gonna make a motion to approve it, which you have I would like you to add into let's go look at the other sources and bring it back to the board in two weeks.

1:46:56Uh Mr. Thomas w is wanting to s say something.

1:46:59So I just wanted to um put a caution, a word of caution. If you start using other pots of of money, this is a tourism facility. Uh we planned and envisioned this facility along with the multi-purpose fields, indoor space, to actually have this as the centerpiece of our sports tourism efforts. If we start using other sources of money, while you start to really cap the usage of tourist development on this particular property because you're gonna have organizations, you're gonna have teams wanting to use the property because

1:47:29it's built with other sources, not with Taurus Development Tax. So I just wanted to

1:47:33But that trail could be built with other

1:47:35Yes ma'am. I'm talking about the multipurpose fields. Yeah. Yes ma'am. Yeah.

1:47:38No, and and I want to keep a balance of the two. I mean and I've and I fought from day one you heard me was you first got here. I want to make sure that the focus of this whole event, this whole facility was going to be a b tourist development. The excess time that would work that wouldn't hurt the facility, that it should be open. And it's even in here in the contract I mentioned five or six different points where it talks about public use. So it's not just solely that. But again, uh I'm going to just well

1:48:02Yeah. Otherwise Mr. Cronin's gonna be here all day. Okay. Not

1:48:07out there working deals for us.

1:48:09All right, call motion.

1:48:10District One, Commissioner Oakley.

1:48:12Aye.

1:48:12District two, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Bradford.

1:48:18I

1:48:19District 5 Chairman Mariano.

1:48:21Nay. Hope we don't make another $3 million mistake. Thank you. I'm

1:48:25here.

1:48:26What page was that?

1:48:27Commissioner Weightman. Like to move it a h a little bit. Just Congratulate Wiregrass Ranch on the opening of since they're here on Wiregrass Ranch Boulevard. I think that's something that we can All smile about and uh Good work there. Good looking road. Been traveling it up and down. And uh congratulations and and thank you guys. Yeah,

1:48:47JD, great job out there. It's it's phenomenal, everything you've done out there, and I completely support you just it's all financing.

1:48:58Parks M S T Uh.

1:49:04Um

1:49:06Jack, what page was that public park on? Public use on? Do you make it?

1:49:11uh you the highlight of stuff I guess. Just kick it up.

1:49:14I'll

1:49:14I'll I'll show it to you. Okay.

1:49:18on four year one. Okay.