Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/260020
But Hines ultimately agreed he was com- fortable with the provision for the $1 million escrow payment if SHD never constructed the hotel. "An escrow doesn't have many loop- holes in it," Hines said. Patterson expressed concern about more than the county's inability to make sure a hotel is erected on the site. She also was not happy, she pointed out, that the negotiated deal called for the county to pay $494,798 to the developer to construct the parking spaces at the Main Street site. "If the board does do it, we're leaving four hundred something thousand on the table," Patterson told her colleagues before the vote. She further noted that the agreement called for transferring the U.S. 301 property for $1.5 million less than its appraised value — even if the value of the parking site at 2051 Main St. was factored into the equation. "We are tak- ing a loss on property value," Patterson said. Commissioner Joe Barbetta, who has long supported development of the downtown property that now serves as a county park- ing lot for the adjacent courthouses, led the charge to approve the deal, at times sparring with Patterson. Besides the $958,862 the developer would pay at closing and the construction of the new parking lot, Barbetta said the county would be getting a lively project that would bring jobs and vibrancy to the upper end of Main Street. Connelly told the commissioners SHD is "abso- lutely committed" to constructing the hotel tower. Connelly has local development experi- ence. His firm Civix built Midnight Cove I & II on Siesta Key, the Center Pointe Office Building on Main Street and MedEplex in Haines City. The developer has also secured financing for the hotel project, as well as agreements with Kimpton Hotels, he pointed out. An aerial view shows the Main Street site where new parking spaces will be created to make up for those lost at 20 N. Washington Blvd. Image courtesy Sarasota County Sarasota News Leader February 14, 2014 Page 16