Adoption of Resolution Amending the Concession Agreement with Dialemi, Inc. (known as Jim’s on the Course), to Provide an Extension for Completion of the Event Center at the Corica Park Golf Complex. (Recreation 5301)
Okay. So five is adoption of thank you resolution amending the concession agreement with Deli Meat Inc known as Jim's on the course to provide an extension for completion of the event center at the Korea Park Golf Complex. Do we want to hear from staff? Do we have whoever? Oh, it's pulled because we had speakers clips. Right. Okay. Do we want to brief staff overview of. Can you give us the 30,000 foot level as well? Then go ahead and introduce yourself. Thanks. Sure. Absolutely. So, Amy Wooldridge, Interim Assistant City Manager. So let's see, the brief overview is that the concessionaire Jim's on the course is is moving toward is in an agreement with the long term concession agreement with the city of Alameda to provide food and beverage at the golf course at Creek Park. He is building an event center as part of that agreement. That event center, he's expended about 8% of his budget toward completion of that event center. He's received his building permit and his his he has exceeded his original timelines and one as well as one administratively provided extension. And so this this amendment, before you provide additional months to the end of December 31st, 2019, which in which is where full completion and certificate of occupancy would be required. This amendment also adds the event, the enclosed patio and some version of that of design that would be determined later as a requirement as part of this amendment . Those are the key components of this amendment. Okay. Are there any council questions or clarifications and separate work? Councilmember Desai Thank you very much. Mr. Woolridge The question that I have is we received a letter via email from a stakeholder involved with Greenway. I believe the CEO name escapes me. Here was George Kelly, who was concerned about having perhaps a 30 day timeline within which certain plans could be. Is that something that that, you know, is that something that you you were able to review and then come to some activations on that you can share? Absolutely. Thank you, Councilmember De. So, yes, I'm happy to report that I've I've I had previously spoken to another principal with with Greenway Golf last week and also had already spoken with Tom Jacobs, the owner of gyms in the course and and what we can do and council that your purview can certainly add to this amendment is . Well let me back up the goal really here is to ensure ensure a quality that the final product of the event center is a quality product and that really is in line with with the facility as a whole. What we can amend is a few things that I would recommend 45 days that the city has approval of all furniture, furnishings, fixtures and equipment for any. Some examples would be light fixtures, the restroom, counter flooring, walls, fixtures, chairs, tables, the patio furniture and pavers. That's an outdoor patio area adjacent to the event center. The carpeting, any interior exterior wall, finish paint window shades. So I have that detailed out. The other things I would recommend and has been agreed to is a landscape plan that again is approved by the city and that would be required to have approval by also 45 days within signing of the contract amendment. And then also there's been questions about the age vac and whether it is or isn't included. So I think we just put it in writing that there will be a fact included in this in this project. Great. Thank you for clarification, Miss Voltage. When you say you would recommend that in 45 days City has approval of the have ebony fixtures, furnitures and. Equipment. Equipment approval at what level? By you by. Greenway by. Well contractually they're not gyms on the course is in a contractual agreement with the city, not with Greenway. So I would recommend approval by me as the representative of the city. The way I generally operate is, is the reality is I would be working with Greenway staff and I would talk to them and, and make sure that all parties are on the same page. But there's really not a contractual agreement between Greenway and Jim's on the course. Okay. Okay, I've got that. Any other clarifying questions from staff, from counsel, if not will go to you have me. Sorry. Yes, Councilmember. This fall. Where do we see this 45 day? It's not currently in there. This would mean in addition to what what is in the packet. Okay, so my question is, are we allowed to, on the dias make an amendment? Well, what I would mean. If that's what the desire of the council is. So this is what I might suggest. These are clarifying questions, and I'm not sure we've had a discussion yet because I think we'd like to hear. I'll hold. That up. Hold that hold that thought. Okay. Any other clarifying questions at this time? Okay. If not, I'm going to. I'm sorry. Councilmember Vella. So, Amy, if Greenway doesn't like something that you know and they tell you that they don't like it, essentially, is that going to hold this up or what would happen? I know that you're you're kind of offering to mediate between the parties, but if there's some sort of issue or discrepancy or something like that, what happens? Ultimately, it's still city discretion and city approval. So it would be in my discretion of whether I think that's valid or not. My goal with this approval would be that we have a good quality product at the end of the day that benefits the golf course as a whole and benefits the city because any revenue comes back to us. And also my goal would be to make sure it matches. You know, we don't want to have one type of paper over here and another type of paper over here so that it matches the look of the facility as a whole. But ultimately, it's city discretion. Thank you. Any further clarifying questions? Okay. With that, thank you as well. With that, we will go to our speakers. We just have two speakers, 3 minutes each. Gentleman, it's George Kelly, followed by Ed Downing. Mr.. Mr.. Kelly. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And Council. My name is George Kelly. I'm the CEO of Greenway Golf. I'm the one that wrote that email yesterday. And basically, to express my concern over the, you know, the division and the quality of the improvement that is proposed to take place with the event center. One of the things that, you know, I'd like to point out, and I think it's very obvious to all of you, is that Greenway has made a tremendous investment in this golf course over the last six years. I got to say that we're one of the only companies in America investing as heavily as we are in golf at a municipal level. I'm proud of that. And I think at the end of the day, it's going to be a good investment for us, but that remains to be seen at this point in time. Everything that we've done to date is with the highest of quality in in our intent. And I just want to make sure that that the event center has this consistent level of quality. We don't want to have a situation where, on the one hand, you see the golf side and you go, wow, this is pretty cool. And then you go over to the event center and there's something missing. So with that being said, one of the things I wanted to point out is that currently most of the patrons at gyms are non golfers with the event center going in. Most of the patrons are going to be golfers. So it's very this is a critical time for us. And but having said that, and in speaking with Amy and understanding the vision and and her commitment to seeing this through, I support the extension until the end of the year with the condition that within the next 45 days , we have some level of specificity in terms of the quality of the improvements that are going into place. Obviously, we're not going to be the ones that can approve or disapprove of it. But I think working with Amy, we have a good relationship with her that will get the result that we want and need. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kelly. Mr. Downing. Mayor Council City staff. My name is Ed Downing. I'm chairman of the Alameda Golf Commission. A week ago tonight, the Alameda Golf Commission met and took a unanimous vote in support of the city staff recommendation to modify gym's concession agreement. So I'm here tonight just to inform you that and express my strongest support for moving ahead with that. My belief is that Jim, as a longtime Alameda business, he deserves the opportunity to finish this project. And having talked at length to the folks at gyms, I believe that that will happen. I'm also encouraged tonight to hear the discussion about Greenway and the folks at gyms getting together to resolve these issues. I think that would be very beneficial. So I'm just here to express my strongest support. Thank you very much. Thank you. That's my last speaker's. I'm going to close public comment and open council discussion. I'm going to just lead and say that I do have concerns and I've spoken with Ms. Wooldridge about this, that this. And the. Contract was given to gyms on the course back in December of 2017 and there were a number of completion dates that have been missed. I think the first one was probably unrealistic because it was six months to complete an event center. But I am concerned that we are now, when we come to the end of this year, going to be two years from when this project was first supposed to have started. But I you know, I, too, am encouraged by the communication from Mr. Aldridge and from Mr. Kelly. But colleagues, what do you think? Who wants to start? I'll go with Councilmember Vela. And Madam Chair, I think you noted this. I think some of the there's a bit of idealism involved in the original plan in terms of seeing things through and getting things permitted. I don't you know, one question that I had asked Ms. Wooldridge, when when we met, was specifically what's the typical permitting time for some of these things and would it have even been possible for somebody else to have gotten it done? And I think, you know, when we look at it from that angle, I think that, you know, it would have been a lofty goal to get all of that done in the in the time specified. But I also think that the the language proposed and some of the concepts discussed about trying to make sure, you know, first of all, the city still has the ability to make sure that everything's synthesized and works out there. And and the extension, the extensions, not asking for an unreasonable amount of time. So I'm I'm inclined to support it. I saw Councilmember Desai stand up. Thank you. I just want to make three points. First is I had the pleasure several weeks ago of of going through the golf course, the south. BARTLETT Yeah. And, you know, obviously everyone knows I'm not a golfer, but I got to say, that is an incredibly beautiful course. I mean, the the semi athlete in me and the urban planner in me just has to just be amazed by that course. And I hope maybe if residents can, I don't know, walk through there, they will just be startled at how beautiful it is. But in addition to it is functionality in terms of dealing with water and all that kind of stuff, it's just amazing. I mean, I went there after there are some rains and there are people still golfing out there. The rain had occurred the day before, but the golf course was dry and so I was just amazed at the quality of work that's been done there. So I do. So I'm very glad to see that, you know. LAPD Director Woodridge and soon to be assistant. Soon to be interim city manager. Woodridge is, you know, taking will be incorporating, you know, ways in which we can make sure that the project that that's really at hand is aligned with is consistent with the the incredible beauty of the golf course that you have out there. If if residents have a chance, you should go tour it because it's so it's amazing. So I'm very happy that about the 45 day period over which, you know, hopefully landscaping plans will be submitted as well as, you know, city getting approvals with regard to Finney's. I guess the third point I want to say is, you know, yes, for some it's been, you know, maybe two years. But, you know, I remember voting on this, I believe, in 2015. So for me, it's been four years. So. So we do have to get moving in terms of having not only a beautiful golf course, but an event center that that that complements the beautiful golf course. Because, I mean, the extent to which how beautiful it is, as we were people even talking about it in terms of possibly having a PGA event there. So so I'm just talking about, by the way, the South course. I expect that the north course, I think it's called, will be just as beautiful. Anyone else. Okay. And I will just just segway on to that that yes, I believe that completed. Well, this course in the event center has the ability to attract pro golf tournaments and, you know, the banquets and all that follow. It's also been a great opportunity for young golfers, the youth golfers, to learn the sport. And it's a great form of recreation. And also the event center in the beautiful location should be a possible venue, say, for weddings and banquets and such. I will and I very much would approve this adopting this resolution with the amendment that recreation parks director, interim assistant city manager Aldridge made about the 45 days to approve the Fannie's if come December of 2019, this project isn't completed, I will not be inclined to entertain another extension, but I hope it doesn't come to that. So with that, Councilmember Odie. I think the two of us didn't talk. But okay. I mean, I'm going to support this as well. I just want to point out, if you look at the staff report on page two, it wasn't until December 17th, just a mere three months ago that they actually received the building permit and that there's still mechanical electrical permits that that they're waiting for review. So I why some people may be concerned about the the time length and the delay. I mean, a lot of that is probably on the city for not issuing permits. So I don't feel necessary to hold that against the concessionaire. I am concerned about this 45 day thing, which, you know, the public doesn't had notice about. I didn't have notice about. And I mean, I'm just curious whether that's something we're even allowed to do on the fly here. So with that, I'm going to turn to our inner city attorney, Michael Roush. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, mayor and council. I would agree that I would not recommend that we add that to the Second Amendment at this time. I think Council has given direction with respect to what it wants to see with respect to the 45 day review period. Let that run its course. If there's an issue with that in some respect, we can bring back a Third Amendment. But I would be more comfortable with just dealing with the Second Amendment, with the provisions that are in the agenda report, rather than adding this on, because perhaps some member of the community might not have understood that this was going to be part of what the council was going to discuss. So, Mr. Marsh, to your point, what if we were to come out with a language, Madam City Clerk, continue this item to the next meeting in order to get that 45 day period in? Because I do happen to think when we look at the delays and I am I am not aware of any evidence that it was our city's building department that has caused the delay. And so I certainly wouldn't want to rely on that. The fact that they just got the building permit in December, a year after their contract was granted. So is it possible to come back? And before you answer that question, I think I've got comments from, like I said, the vice mayor and then Councilmember Vella. Well, I do think we have the ability I would just say to to add this, I think it's actually adequately noticed. It doesn't specifically tie us into something, but I will not be supporting a Second Amendment without the this this language. I wanted to thank. I'm going to go with Amy. I don't know what to call you anymore. So any. Title must always. Work. She spent a lot of time. We talked a lot about the need for these types of concerns. I know that there is a lot of just concern between the parties out there. And I think this gives us a little bit of control to make sure that we can help everybody reach the goals that we wanted to. I really appreciated Chair Downey coming in speaking. I too agree that this is an operator that's a local business that we should be supporting. We should be going out of our way to support our local businesses that every at every turn. On the other hand, like the mayor, I will not be entertaining future amendments. It's time. It's time to get this thing done. So I however, we decided to go forward related to the noticing. I am not inclined to sign a Second Amendment and then hope that we have a signed Third Amendment at some other future point. Councilmember Vela. I had a couple more questions for this, Will Rich. So that with regarding the permit issues, can you kind of talk a little bit about that in terms of what the timing of the permits were and when or if there was a permit that was delayed longer than others? I can't speak to other permits. Every permit is unique in terms of the level of complexity. It depends on what submitted it. And so there's that. But I will say I don't think this was held up by the permits. I think I worked very closely with staff and public works and in building. And actually I think they worked very hard on this. It took about it was submitted plans were submitted July, beginning in July, the first week of July. So it did take a number of months. And that and I'll say also when you have a complex project, I've been through a number of complex permits myself with the park projects and oftentimes they we had two, three, four rounds of hold comments that you have to respond to and get back. So he had either three or four rounds of hold comments and so it was also our city staff doing their due diligence. You're saying hold the comments. I'm sorry, hold comments. Is is when through in the review process, there's questions from the reviewer and they write down they hold the permit, the issuance of the permit until those questions are answered. You know, and we have an operator who that he then had to go and get the information because he's not an architect from his consultants. And so that takes time. So that permitting process did take however many months. That is off the top of my head to five months. But I think everybody did their best. Okay. And then with regards to some of the items that, you know, that that are of concern in terms of this 45 day period, you know, to what degree are you going to be reviewing them? I mean, to what degree are we going to are you proposing that we kind of get involved? I would be reviewing to the degree, for example, that, you know, the paving matches, as I mentioned, the existing paving the landscape plan is certainly something I would work with on with Greenway because I also want them landscape to match the existing landscape out there. You know, Mr. Daneyko and I have already talked about, for example, treatments in the restrooms and he's confirmed with me, he's already planning on concrete counters and tile. And so I'm looking for for quality and also just for the the overall look of it, I'm certainly not an architect or designer, so I'm really just looking to make sure we have a generally good product. Okay. And my final question is, what happens if this isn't like if the extension isn't approved. If the amendment is not approved, he is in breach of contract. And we have to look at terminate. We have to terminate that contract subsequently. Greenway Golf is it has in their contract that they have the first right of refusal for food and beverage service at the golf course. So essentially Greenway would take it over. If they if they chose to. Yes. Okay. Thank you. And I have Councilmember Brody. Thank you so quickly as well, which it sounds like there was really nobody at fault. These things just take time. Yes. Okay. So I'm comfortable with that. But I think we should understand that as we're asked to do a Second Amendment, that these things take time. So it's completely reasonable that the concessionaire would ask for an extension. So through the chair, I I'm curious to hear the vice mayor's logic, if he cares to share on why he thinks it's okay to do this. Because, you know, I'm fine with adding an amendment with this 45 day if if the council believes it's something that we're allowed to do. So I'm actually going to take the first crack at that, if I may. I appreciate the abundance of caution when it comes to noticing items and making sure that we're clearly informing the public. I really do believe in this case we would still be adhering to both the spirit and the letter of the Open Government Commission of the Sunshine Ordinance, because we are being asked to adopt a resolution amending the concession agreement with Daly MI gyms and the course to provide an extension for the completion of the event center. We are presumably about to vote undoing that extension. The fact that within 45 days the recreation parks director, acting city assistant city manager wants to see the the provide the offerings for the the furniture's fixtures and equipment. I don't see has any material impact on the extension that we're being asked to grant, essentially a one year extension. I just I don't see it. It's not I mean, I would imagine we didn't ask her, but that if that 45 days went by, she would probably come back to the council and. Ask for our direction, but I. I just think we might be getting a little too cautious here. I mean, maybe there's no such thing as too cautious, but maybe there is. And then Vice Mayor, did you want to add to that? No, I think based on the way that this is noticed, it's noticed that somebody knows that we're talking about amending the agreement. This is an amendment to the agreement. Anybody who wanted to come and speak to or had concerns about how we might amendment this agreement would be very clear that they knew that this I think this is a great example of how we should title an agenda is are our agendas. So so with that, do I have a motion as I see it? I see. Yeah, go ahead. So, okay. I'm of approval of the item with the additional 45 day provisions outlined by Ms. Wooldridge. And do I have a second and do I have any comments? Discussion. Or shall we. Vote? Well, I mean, I. Have a councilmember village, so I. Do think that that part of the staff report is what was presented to the parties involved. So we're amending it. So if we're amending it, you know, if staff could comment on whether or not this this proposed amendment has been discussed with the parties involved and if they think that they can. Work with that. Actually work with it and comply. Yes. I've discussed with you in the last couple of business days. The amendment with both parties involved in all have agreed both parties being gyms on the course in Greenway. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Wooldridge. Councilmember decided you want to say something. Okay. Did I get a second? Okay. We did so. Okay. We've had a motion. It's been seconded. All in favor. I that was unanimous. Okay. This. This resolution amending the concession agreement is adopted unanimously as amended. Very little. Thank you. Okay, so our next. That's right. Our next item that was pulled from consent is it's 8:00 and we're still in consent. Who?