Harry Grove Stadium Lease Saga Continues

George Wenschhof

In my column last Wednesday, I wrote about how the Request for Proposals (RFP) and award process for the lease of Harry Grove Stadium by The City of Frederick reminded me of the famous comedic routine by Abbott and Costello; "Who's on first".

Noticing the City of Frederick had the lease of the stadium as an agenda item for this coming Wednesday city workshop, I emailed city administrator Josh Russin for specifics to be discussed.

He replied indicating the city lease negotiating team will present to the mayor and board of aldermen a draft lease which does not include any additional revenue sources (dropping parking revenue) and requires The Keys to pay utilities. You can read my email to Mr. Russin and his reply here.

Interestingly, five months after the lease is finally ratified, Russin indicates the city and The Keys will negotiate terms for additional revenue sources such as parking, advertising and naming rights.

Why the additional revenue could not be agreed upon over the last several months of negotiations remains a mystery. One sticking point had been the Keys offer to receive the first $125,000 (later reduced to $115,000) of parking revenues before splitting revenues with the city. This was to offset their annual cost of utilities.

The upcoming five months from October through February are not baseball playing months in our area of the country so one would assume the utility fees will not be significant during this time.

The other team to respond to the RFP was Frederick Atlantic LLC. Monday, Managing Member Jack Lavoie, sent a detailed email to the mayor and board expressing his dissatisfaction with the award process. Mr. Lavoie added he will be unable to attend the workshop on Wednesday and asked for his email be read into the record.

Lavoie points out what I mentioned in my last column, The Keys did not offer to pay utilities in their RFP submission, stating in his email "The proposed Lease does not comply with competitive bids & the RFP terms tendered under a sealed bid by the Keys. This results smacks of collusion and "back-room" dealing."

In a column published on 8-21-2011, I proposed a series of four steps, which if taken, were intended to result in a fair outcome to both bidders and the city.

One of the steps involved a discussion by the mayor and board on what additional revenue sources, if any, were acceptable.

Updated (in bold) 8-30-2011 8:45 AM ET

Another one of the steps I suggested was for the mayor and board to agree on and use a projected expense cost to the city for the stadium. This would then be used to compare to the offers received.

This morning, I received from Alderman Karen Young a financial spreadsheet showing the bid received from Frederick Atlantic LLC, far exceeds in revenue to the city, what was bid by The Keys. You can read it here.

At the end of the first year, Alderman Young's financial projections show The Keys offer resulted in a net loss to the city of $62,948 and Frederick Atlantic LLC was a plus $83,852. Over the ten year period, her projections show a loss of $629,480 from The Keys offer and a plus $148,520 from the Frederick Atlantic LLC offer.

It is not too late for the city to discuss and reconsider their awkward award process to date and see if there is a better way to finalize the Harry Grove Stadium lease.

Stay Tuned...

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