Duprey could seek $500M in damages

A SWARM of lawyers, lobbyists, consultants, and public relations specialists descended on Fort Lauderdale City Hall Tuesday night in an effort to persuade city leaders to approve the lease agreement and site plan for a highly controversial waterfront condo and retail project, which is owned by Trinidadian business magnate Lawrence Duprey. For months, debate has raged about Palazzo Las Olas, a 173-unit condominium complex slated for Las Olas Boulevard and the Intracoastal Waterway. Hundreds of residents packed commission chambers for a marathon hearing still chugging along without a City Commission vote late into the night, according to a report in yesterday’s Sun Sentinel newspaper. As expected, the Palazzo team came out swinging — even threatening. “It is our view the city cannot change its mind at this point,’’  attorney Bill Scherer said. He argued the project has already gone through most of the city’s review processes in the past two years.

Scherer said costly litigation was likely if the commission voted “no” on the final approvals. The developers could seek damages in excess of $40 million, including $26 million in lost profits, $8 million in accrued liability and $5.2 million in out-of-pocket expenses, he said. “Responsible developers don’t spend this kind of money without having a concrete foundation on which to build,’’ Scherer said. In 2001, commissioners, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, picked Palazzo Las Olas over two others: plans for a new home for the International Swimming Hall of Fame and an Arvida retail/condominium complex. In March 2003, the city’s Planning and Zoning Board also approved the project 5-4.The Palazzo Las Olas team showed its deep financial pockets by rolling out a high-tech, multimedia presentation, including mini-screens mounted in front of each commissioner. The Palazzo team reiterated its arguments that the project will bring the city $24 million in public improvements, including a garage with a thousand parking spaces, a grocery store, a “linear park’’ on the waterway, street scape improvements, a two-storey building for city use, beach equipment storage and space that could house a police sub-station.

They also noted that the developers waived an earlier requirement for the city to pay them $3 million, and argued the project will generate over $1.5 million in annual taxes, create new jobs and become the city’s largest minority-owned public-private partnership. Lawrence Duprey executive chairman of CL Financial Ltd, the billion-dollar conglomerate financing the project and based in Trinidad and Tobago, spoke briefly to ask the commission for support. Critics say the 1,000-space parking garage will serve mostly residents, not others who need parking near the beach, and that the linear park would be merely a narrow, mostly hidden sidewalk. “In many ways it’s a beautiful project,’’ said Steven Glassman vice president of the Central Beach Alliance in a phone interview Monday. “But it’s in the wrong spot. The sin of it is that when you’re in the middle of it, you won’t be able to see it. It’s too massive and too dense for the site.’’