05/19/2003 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting 5-19-03 Page 17 Council President Buckholtz said site approval, plan approval-and the restaurant we are talking about like it won't be like a pancake house; we are talking about a fine steakhouse--- Mr. Riter said so it would be a Wyndham or Wingate. Council President Buckholtz clarified this is a Wingate. In my estimation, as long as it was this caliber or higher it would be fine and the same with the restaurant. Mrs. Mills asked, can we define the caliber of the hotel and the restaurant as far as their ratings? I am sure there is somewhere we can go. Ms. Calta and Council President Buckholtz said that was done in P&Z. Ms. Calta said Bernie did a great job describing it. Council President Buckholtz said we do Development Agreements all the time so it was my intention or my understanding at P&Z that before this project gets off the ground (and I spoke with whoever the representative was at that time) that we can package this all up in a Development Agreement as tight as we want it. Dr. Parker said I would feel more comfortable if we had some commitment in writing indicating that and that would be more of an approval based on that written commitment. Council President Buckholtz said they had no problem with that at P&Z. He asked if Mr. Baka wished to introduce himself and speak. Greg Baka, OMNI Realtv Companies, said I've walked through the various meeting processes and have done most of the presenting with Mr. Panzica (who couldn't be here tonight.) Understanding your concerns, I think what we had attempted to do was present, for example, is present the Wingate Hotel (it is something we have actively pursued at this point and actually have franchise approval for.) We haven't secured the franchise because we haven't secured those dollars until we know we have the use permit for the site. It's a chicken and egg scenario for us. But we would be willing to (I think) enter into some agreement to guarantee the quality; I'm just not quite sure as we stand here tonight, how to define that to your satisfaction right now. The Wingate, for example, is representative of the quality we would be building. It might be a Hilton Garden (which is probably one step up from the Wingate, but iYs going to at least be what I would consider Wingate quality.) And that's the franchise we are pursuing now so I guess that's the best I can answer that particular question. Related to restaurants, I think we had indicated no fast food. We would look upscale but would also be looking at reasonable mid-tier restaurants serving both lunch and dinner. Again, we will be talking to National franchise restaurants like Fridays, potentially Applebees or Carreba's; things of that nature. But until we can present a site that they can indeed consider using, we can't go to them and offer the site so we haven't been able to lock in those commitments. Council President Buckholtz asked if there were any further questions.