Ocean Walk expansion likely to get final OK despite sale

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

It is unclear when the Key West City Commission will resume its regular meetings post-Hurricane Irma but when it does, one of the items on the agenda will be the proposed final approval of a contested expansion of the Ocean Walk Apartments on South Roosevelt Boulevard.

Commissioners had voted at their last meeting to approve adding 80 apartments to the 296-unit complex and were slated to make the second and final vote on Sept. 6. That meeting was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. But shortly after the first vote, Ocean Walk Apartments was sold to a new owner.

No mention of the pending sale was made during hearings at both the Key West Planning Board and city commission. But a press release put out nine days after the city commission’s first vote on Aug 15 said the current owners of the rental apartment complex, Mast Capital and Rockpoint Group, had agreed to sell it to Passco Companies, a real estate investment firm based in Irvine, CA, for $101.5 million. Mast Capital and Rockpoint Group purchased Ocean Walk Apartments three years ago for $75.35 million.

Despite being surprised at the sale, some city commissioners said they will not change their vote. Commissioner Richard Payne, who represents District IV where the apartment complex is located, said the proposed expansion meets all the city’s development regulations and the sale of the property doesn’t change that.

“Being a [former] judge, I’ve seen it before,” he said about an ownership switch immediately after an expansion is approved. “Everything is contingent on [the expansion approval], I imagine. It doesn’t make any difference to me. They have to follow all the development plans.”

Mayor Craig Cates agreed that the new owners have the same development rights as approved by the city planning department and planning board. The updated development plan didn’t ask for any variances to city code regulations, he pointed out.

“Besides, we need the apartments,” Cates said, referring to the fact that 24 out of the 80 new apartments will be designated as affordable rental units. “Everybody wants affordable housing. But as soon as they want to build it, it’s ‘not in my back yard.’ We deal with that all the time.”

Cates was referring to multiple objections to the project from some current Ocean Walk tenants and residents at next-door Las Salinas condominiums. Las Salinas resident Pamela Meck presented a petition signed by 106 Las Salinas families against the Ocean Walk expansion.

“The proposed expansion and parking waiver will also dramatically diminish the quality of life in this area by greatly increasing safety risks and concerns, creating excessive noise disturbances and generating significantly higher volumes of vehicle and pedestrian traffic,” Meck told planning board members at their June 15 meeting, where they voted 4-1 to approve the project.

But Jim Hendrick, a spokesman for expansion developers, said he had met with several people who objected to the project to hear their concerns. Because traffic and parking were top of that list, the project architects came up with a way to increase the number of parking spaces to two for each new unit. As a result, the developers no longer needed a parking variance to be granted by city officials. Speed bumps, extended sidewalks and additional lighting were also added to the plans “specifically to address their concerns about traffic and the impact of these additional cars on the road,” Hendrick said.

The new units at Ocean Walk will include one, two and three bedrooms. Rent prices currently range from about $1,775 for a one-bedroom apartment to $2,825 for a three-bedroom unit. While 24 of the new units will be deed restricted as affordable, the remaining 56 apartments will be rented at market rates

““This is an asset that will continue to perform over time and one that we plan to hold long-term. Our strategic approach is to continue a series of capital improvements to upgrade the property, further positioning it for long-term growth,” new owner Passco Companies said in a press release announcing the purchase of Ocean Walk Apartments.

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