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Lakeland commissioners thought they had wrapped up three Mass Market-area property sales in December. But one clause reopened the deal.
Haus 820 owner Laura Shannon said she couldn’t move forward with the $1.1 million purchase of her building, knowing the contract allowed the city to buy back her parking lot at any time with only 12 months’ notice.
The issue resurfaced during an agenda study session on Feb. 13, where Shannon made a direct appeal to remove the city’s “option” to repurchase her parking lot.
By Monday, commissioners — acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board — unanimously approved a memo authorizing new contracts for Haus Management and DOU Bakehouse without the buyback clause.
A deal that wasn’t quite done
Haus 820 is located at 820 N. Massachusetts Ave., a brick building built in 1924 as an A&P grocery store. With help from the CRA, the property was redeveloped into an industrial-style event venue that has hosted weddings, corporate events, and community gatherings since March 2017.
“I’m unlike any other industry in the fact that my business and my building are the same thing,” Shannon said.
If the city ever exercised its buyback option, it would be the death of her business, because an event venue cannot survive without guaranteed parking, she said.
Event bookings are often made years in advance. An appraisal might capture the land’s fair market value, but she said it would not reflect lost bookings, brand equity, or long-term contracts.
Commissioners voiced sympathy.
“Businesses don’t thrive in uncertainty,” Commissioner Ashley Troutman said.
An actual business vs. a ‘phantom garage’
City Attorney Palmer Davis told commissioners that the purchase option was intended to preserve flexibility should the city decide to build a parking garage in the nine-block Mass Market area. A consultant’s master plan for the district identified the parcels being sold to Haus 820 and DOU Bakehouse for surface parking as the best sites for a future parking structure.
Davis said the city could use its eminent domain powers to compel a sale in the future, even without the clause. But that path is much more expensive, with hefty legal fees for both parties.
Several commissioners said the garage may not materialize, and in the meantime, established local businesses need stability to invest and grow in a district the CRA is trying to strengthen.
“It’s a phantom garage,” Commissioner Guy LaLonde Jr. said. “It’s a garage that doesn’t exist. It’s a garage that we don’t know is going to happen.”
Although DOU Bakehouse did not voice an objection to the clause, for consistency, the commissioners directed Davis to redraft both agreements without the purchase option.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed Troutman’s quote to Shannon.
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