Peary Court purchase voted down

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

When asked where he would be when the decision on the Peary Court purchase was announced, City Commissioner Jimmy Weekley joked that he would either be checking into a local funeral home or doing a victory dance at the Green Parrot.

Jokes aside, Weekley had a lot on the line. As the commissioner who publically envisioned the deal to purchase the housing development as a way to maintain its affordability to local workers, who helped negotiate a $55 million purchase price and who then convinced a majority of the other commissioners to approve the deal, Weekley was the public face of the Peary Court referendum vote. He helped form a political action committee, Housing First, to promote the purchase and along with Key West Housing Authority Executive Director Manny Castillo, spoke at the member meetings of practically any local group that asked.

But it wasn’t enough. With all 10 of Key West’s precincts reporting, the final vote was 43.75 percent (3,017) for the purchase and 56.25 percent (3,879) against. And the second ballot question authorizing the city to acquire bonds to purchase the 157-unit complex was rejected by 41.69 percent to 58.31 percent.

“We did our best and unfortunately didn’t do as good of a job as we should have,” Weekley said after the final vote was announced. “Unfortunately, the citizens don’t see it the way I did.”

Vowing to “move forward” with new plans to pursue new affordable and workforce housing for Key West, Weekley said he blamed the loss on three things: what he called “misinformation” put out by opponents to the purchase, the high price of the proposed $55 million project, and some voters possibly misunderstanding the wording of the bond ballot question. But he acknowledged that there were some unanswered questions about the deal, including the physical condition of the apartments and whether the rents would be as low enough to qualify for affordable.

Mayor Craig Cates, also a vocal supporter of the Peary Court purchase, said shortly before the final vote was announced that supporters were unable to get enough information out to voters to allow them to “put all the pieces together.”

“We tried to get all the information necessary to make an informed decision. You totally can understand how difficult that is,” he said.

Weekley said the possibility of the city buying Peary Court is now a dead deal. He said he has been told by the owners of the property, White Street Partners, that they are going to sell it and have “two or three” prospective bidders already lined up. What a new owner will do is unknown. However, the Key West Historic Architectural Review Commission (HARC) effectively killed the plan by White Street Partners to develop the property into luxury housing. It is conceivable it could do it again with a new owner.

“If the city isn’t allowed to purchase it [Peary Court], it’s not the end of the world,” the mayor said.

The lone city commissioner who publically opposed the purchase was Margaret Romero. She had drawn the ire of Cates with her persistent questioning of the deal and its financing. Romero said she will now develop proposals that would sustain existing housing that is affordable as well as negotiate with developers of new hotel and apartment projects to include affordable units in the project.

“I’m very pleased with the results,” she said about Tuesday’s vote. “The next step is try to do things to preserve currently affordable housing…. and try to leave it with the free market.”

Also on Tuesday’s ballot was a referendum to extend the current half-mill property tax for Monroe County Schools. That “flexible funding” referendum passed handily, 71.25 percent to 28.25 percent. Property owners will continue to pay 50 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value to the schools.

In the presidential primary results for Monroe County, Donald Trump crushed Marco Rubio by 53.9 percent to 24.47 percent. Ted Cruz was third with 9.46 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich drew 8.75 percent.

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