Long History as Park Land Will Likely Require Public Vote

In 1941 the Bayfront Seawall was created to protect downtown. In addition, the L-head and T-heads were constructed creating the municipal marina. Shoreline boulevard was constructed on top of the fill material behind the seawall. High-rise hotels and office towers were subsequently constructed on this man-made fill.” (A History of Development in Corpus Christi) As soon as the parkway called Shoreline Drive was constructed on this fill, planning to create a bayfront park along that drive began and have advanced ever so slowly in the same direction for over fifty years. That is until City Council decided to deviate from this plan. (to see historical park plan pics see Coliseum Gallery)

The Coliseum was abandoned in 2005 by the then City Council (including Mark Scott and Brent Chesney) after slapping themselves on the back to build the American Bank Center with 2,000 more seats than recommended. It is now losing between $5-7 million a year.

They had no plan for the Coliseum and let it fall into disrepair, ostensibly so they could later declare it an eyesore and tear it down. Citizens complained they lost an affordable venue for community and family events and fought suggestions to tear it down. In town hall meetings they consistently asked that it be used as a public venue for its traditional uses, as a mercado or some other adaptive reuse.

Three Council’s have attempted to issue RFP’s. The first one in 2006 when the City Council went through a process that ended in a vote to negotiate with Omni Owner Robert Rowlings and his com-
pany TRT.

Strike One
That proposal would have created a carnival on the bayfront with a Ferris wheel sent citizens into an outrage. The lease period would have been 60 years allowing a change in use to any kind of enter-
tainment venue without returning to City Council for approval. Most looked at it as a bald faced attempt to grab valuable public land for future private development.

When Mayor Henry Garrett was confronted on the author’s radio show with evidence that the development Services Department had created a evaluation instrument that made no mathematical
sense and was rigged to reverse the consultant’s evaluation of the projects. Garrett claimed ignorance. No meetings were held after that on contract negotiations and the proposal was quietly dropped.

Strike Two
The new majority swept into power in the 2007 election promised to take up the Coliseum issue and did. After going through a lengthy process of town hall meetings the committee put out an RFP which resulted in Leisure Horizons being granted the right to negotiate a contract. Again We the People was left to pick up for Development Services. While doing routine background checks, WtP found a disturbing history for owner Joseph Prevratil. Prevratil had a similar deal to manage the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California that resulted in his companies filing bankruptcy after accusations of misuse of funds and contract fraud were brought up to a new City Council. Prevatil admitted no wrong doing but paid back the City of Long
Beach $6 million and sold a condo he and his partner bought in Hawaii with company funds to satisfy the
bankruptcy judge.

The Leisure Horizons proposal expanded into adjoining land with a hotel planned for phase two. It was
dropped when Prevratil failed to meet several extended deadlines to produce a letter of credit showing he
had the ability to fund the proposal.

Third Council, Third Strike?
The current Council came into office determined to “do something” with the Coliseum, led by Mayor
Joe Adame who said he wanted it resolved in six months. Adame promptly threw out the citizens
committee who had been working on the project for over a year and appointed his own committee of pri-
vate real estate interests.

Brass Realty entered the picture when a new RFP was issued. The other players were NRP from San
Antonio and Leisure Horizons, both previous bidders, Brass and the National Swim Center. Brass was in-
vited into the deal by Adame, after he invited them down to look at the possibility of building a hotel next to the American Bank Center.

No one knows whether this was a private deal or a public one. No mention of such an idea has sur-
faced at any public meeting and most of the property in the area is owned by TRT’s Robert Rowlings.
Another local realtor stated it was to look at a development “under the bridge”. That would be the location of Joe Adame’s proposed Cotton Yard project that hasn’t been able to get off the ground because of a lack of funding.

Brass’s proposal was unique from the beginning because it didn’t include doing any adaptive reuse with
the Coliseum, supposedly the object of the whole effort. That would fall on local Ice Rayz owner Tim Lange who would renovate and operate the Coliseum under a separate contract.

What Brass came up with was a monstrous development covering the whole bayfront (see front cover)
including McCaughn and Sherrill Park. It was quickly pointed out that the areas covered by their proposal
were park, were way beyond adaptive reuse of the Coliseum and would require a vote of the people.

That was borne out by a Texas Municipal League opinion requested by the City stating that “[l]and owned, held, or claimed as a public…park.” is in all probability a park and a “Conservative course of action would be to err on the side of caution and treat areas that citizens think of as a park as such.”

While Adame voiced his embarrassment at the discovery that the land was park land, it was Adame who
had asked that the land be included and that the City Legal Department should find a way to do it. When the Legal Department could not give that answer. Someone at City Hall decided to hire John Bell. Sources inside City Hall stated that Bell had been brought in “because legal refused to give a decision the Council wanted to hear.”

Send in John Bell for the Save
Indeed Bell gave an opinion to the City Council suggesting they could do what they wanted. If there was a problem with the master plan, change it but that no public vote was necessary. Bell also assured the
Council that any language in the November Bond Election on Proposition 7 (see cover of this issue) re-
garding funding the festival park, could simply be ignored.

City Council eager to get some deal, jumped on the Brass plan and Bell’s opinion. The whole Brass development, which originally was 29 acres, now supposedly was going to cram the into less than seven acres. The National Swim Center was told they produced too little information too late.

Council members jumped quickly on the band wagon ignoring committee members cautions on the
matter. Instead they voiced that they “needed to do it now” and as District 1 Councilman Kevin Kieshnick
said, “don’t worry about the details.” It passed unanimously except for Mark Scott who wanted to give the swim center another week to provide requested information.

In an attempt to find out what had went on behind the scenes WtP Has made requests for information regarding the Mayor’s communications with the Legal and Developmental Services Departments and Brass Realty. These have been delayed to the fact that that they were referred for an opinion the State Attorney General by the City.

So What is the Real Plan?
Since that time various sources have stated the parties are very far apart in negotiating a contract. Council
members had expressed that they didn’t want apartments on the site, but funding for other types of proj-
ects could be unavailable in the current climate.

It remains to be seen if the Council is so desperate to “do something” that they will take the Brass plan.
Brass made it clear during their presentations, they are open to anything, repeatedly responding to all
objections or questions with “we can examine that.” But what they were most insistent on was that they
be put in charge as the “Master Developer”, which would give them control over how the area should be
developed.

Brass has promoted themselves as the biggest manager of lease property in San Antonio. But that record
is being questioned by many. San Antonio Developer Dan Judson says he’s never heard of owner Rick Rodriquez or the company. An August San Antonio Business Journal listing the biggest commercial developers in San Antonio doesn’t include Brass or its sister company Magi in the top eleven. It turns out their role in a much toted project in Pensacola, Florida is not as the project manager but only as an after deal fundraiser.

Please Ignore the Fine Print
While Brass claimed to want the least in cash from the City, the fine print says otherwise. The $2 million
direct investment would go to the Coliseum with Lange picking up the rest for that renovation. The big
kicker is on the other deal the one Brass wants to build on adjoining City park land. They want a Tax
Increment Financing district that would put increases on that and surrounding property back into public
improvements they would get the benefit of. A 380 agreement like the ones granted to the never built Cross Town Mall and La Palmera that would return most of the new sales tax generated back to them. The want hotel and motel tax money and abatements of the property taxes that they would pay on improvements. The land would be tax free because it would be owned by the public. They also want the City to provide all of the policing, maintenance and cleaning of the “public areas” between and around their buildings and to indemnify them against lawsuits on those properties.

This would give Brass the ability to attract outside investors in deals that would benefit Brass but produce
questionable payoff for the City, let alone kill potential development onprivate property behind it that not
only would have their view shut off by the five story Brass plan but, would never be able to compete
with the tax subsidized deals they could offer.

Brass spokesman Diane Cibrian is the sister of Port Commissioner Bobby Gonzalez. Cibrian served
one term on the San Antonio City Park Council before running a losing race for mayor. She was criticized in articles in the San Antonio Express News and the San Antonio Current for seeming to use her position to encourage campaign contributions in return for assistance in zoning cases.

Whether Corpus Christi can attract a reputable developer for an adaptive reuse of the Coliseum may
be in doubt, but there is no shortage of people who want to convert the valuable public property to
their own use and profit. Meanwhile the citizens long term plea for an affordable venue, a public
festival area and to finalize the bayfront park system is being put on hold one more time.

For additional articles on the Coliseum go to www.wethepeoplenews.net.