Station Street Project back on the agenda

"It's Deja Vu... all over again."

--Yogi Berra

At its October 19th meeting, the Apopka City Council will take up an issue both familiar and controversial - the Downtown Apopka Station Street Project.

Council rejected the lone bid on this Request for Proposal (RFP) from Standard Investments and Holdings, LLC on a 5-0 vote at its January 19th meeting. At the time, Commissioner Kyle Becker, also running for mayor, expressed concerns about the RFP.

"The biggest red flag for me on this one is obviously we put an RFP out to the street, and we get one response," said Becker. "That's a red flag... because you don't have a variety [of proposals]. That's what happened with our city center with Taurus, and we see where that's at. I think we should learn our lessons."

Becker also took issue with campaign donations made by Tony Benge, one of the Principals from Standard.

"I think it should be publicly known that the interests that are part of this bid process have ties to people that are running on this Council. So I just want to make sure that it's only a one bid response, and there are multiple interests of the people that are bidding that had direct ties to campaign contributions for a member of this Council. I just want to put that out there for public consumption."

In the 2022 mayoral election, Benge contributed to Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson's campaign. Benge is the President of Benge Development Corporation, which is currently developing the $500 million-plus Floridian Town Center mixed-use project in Apopka.

At the next Council meeting, Benge tore into the Council for its 5-0 vote against his project - particularly Becker.

"I was the lone bidder in your RFP process," said Benge. "Our team spent $35,000 and countless hundreds of hours working with our architects, engineers, planners... the same ones that are involved with Floridian Town Center, plus two other large developments we have here in Apopka. For our trouble, I was personally insulted and had accusations leveled at me by Mr. Becker. That because I opted to exercise my God-given right to support a political candidate of my choice... that was the basis of the denial of the RFP."

It was a tense and uncomfortable process that the City Council probably does not want to repeat. But that was in the heat of a mayoral election. Now, nine months later, have feelings changed? What are the differences in this RFP process? Do we have multiple bids or new bidders? What looks different?

The answer? Not much. Take a look at the similarities:

In the Apopka City Council Agenda Packet for the October 19th meeting, the Staff Report on the Station Street Project reads as follows:

REQUEST: Approval to negotiate and return to City Council at a later date for final approval of a contract.

SUMMARY: On August 28th, 2022 staff re-advertised the project via RFP2022-95to seek a developer for the Downtown Apopka Station Street. The request included the following requirements: A Mixed-Use development consisting of residential (apartments or condominiums), commercial units on the first floor, an open space event area (3/4 to 1 acre), and pavilion (for a farmers market, craft fair, movie night, public events, etc.), and parking. The RFP included scope changes to identify residential uses as the primary use with subsequent commercial uses on the first floor; and language was added to highly encourage the developer to hire contractors and sub-contractors that are minority-owned businesses.

There are a modest number of changes, but essentially it's the same RFP.

The statistics from the advertising campaign were as follows:
Vendors Notified: 1,011
Project Views: 607
Vendors Following the Project: 24

In the first attempt, 734 vendors were notified, and 32 followed the project.

Also in the report, Community Development Director Jim Hitt includes an "Interested Developers List". There are 10 developers on the list - but only one made a bid. 

The list included:

Smith, Broomfield & Howard Construction and Restoration, LLC. - Orlando
Rhodes + Brito Architects - Orlando
Hold Thyssen - Winter Park
Hannibal Square Community Land Trust - Winter Park
Florida Property Investments Assets, LLC - Winter Park
Millenia Partners - Orlando
Graff Holdings - Clermont
Schmid Construction - Clermont
Mosaic Development - St. Petersburg
Benge Development Corp. - Winter Park

It is the exact list of interested developers from the previous RFP, even down to a small detail.

In a thread of emails obtained by The Apopka Voice from Nelson, Hitt responded to Purchasing Agent Jessica Pugh, saying that he emailed everyone except Schmid Construction in Clermont because he could not obtain an email address for their company. In the most current list of developers, Schmid's email address is the only one missing from the list - again.

The Interested Developers List in the current RFP

Like I said, this process is eerily similiar to the first.

In the end, one submittal was received - from Standard Investments and Holdings, LLC. The same result as the first RFP process.

According to the Staff Report on the RFP:

The evaluation committee was formed, consisting of the same five members as the original RFP: James Hitt, Community Development Director; Shakenya Harris-Jackson, Grant Administrator; Nicole Kennedy, Sustainability Coordinator; Kenneth Goodwin, Executive Director for Homes In Partnership, Inc.; Monique Morris, an Apopka Citizen.

The evaluation committee reviewed and assessed the submittal based on the scoring criteria outlined in the solicitation: qualifications of the development team, quality of design proposal, value to the City, financial viability, and financial return. On October 12th, 2022 a virtual evaluation committee meeting was held (the meeting was advertised on OpenGov and was open to the public). The overall final scoring for Standard Investments and Holdings LLC is 84.6 out of 105 pts.

In the previous process, this same committee gave Standard an 86 out of 105, and unanimously recommended an intent to negotiate with Standard Investments and Holdings LLC - again.

It's surprising that Benge made a second bid after the way things were left, and after his scathing remarks about the Council and the Station Street property.

"...the City now won't get a $10 million investment," he said. "We reallocated that money to Titusville. So we're building 350 apartments next to SpaceX and project Kraken, that will be far more lucrative for our company. Apopka will suffer. Perhaps Mr. Becker and his family would like to guarantee the $10 million loan and go do the project himself... because it has such sizzle. Well, that sizzle sir, with the contamination on the site next to the railroad tracks. And if you read the RFP, the city wants to sell a roughly three acre parcel but they want half of it back improved for $900,000. And you wonder why you didn't get a lot of bids. Contaminated site adjacent to the rail tracks, unbelievable restrictions on what can be done, but we're willing to do it to help Apopka."

Despite the name calling, the re-allocating of funds to Titusville, and insults to the Station Street property, Benge is back to take a second bite of the apple, and let bygones be bygones. Perhaps the City Council will be in a mood to forget the past... or will Deja Vu happen all over again?