Secret deal to sell Ford Park for fraction of cost

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After two decades of Jefferson County taxpayers footing the bill for the $117 million Ford Park Entertainment Complex, and the exponential upgrades and repairs its needed from almost Day One, County Commissioners voted this week to sell the property to the highest bidder – with just a little over two weeks time for anyone wanting to purchase the property to secure the minimum $22 million starting bid. However, as elected officials allude to a deal that’s been in the works “over a year,” a vote to allow such a short amount of time for bidders to come forward would benefit a potential horse racing and future casino enterprise envisioned and pitched by the man who headed the now-defunct and rundown
Palms at Pleasure Island Golf Course.

All of the County Commissioners present for the Aug. 11 discussion agreed that it made fiscal sense to want to sell the Ford Park complex that includes Ford Fields, Ford Pavilion, Ford Arena, Ford Exhibit Hall, The Barns, Ford Midway, Gulf Coast RV Resort (land lease), Golden Triangle Sports Academy (land lease) and Southeast Texas Baseball/ Softball Academy LLP (land lease). According to County Auditor Patrick Swain, the total cost of the complex comes in at $117
million. The total still owed is $21.6 million.

County Judge Jeff Branick was busy hosting a visit by Gov. Greg Abbott and not in attendance. Only one commissioner present voiced any issue with the roughly two-week bid opening. Commissioner Brent Weaver, indicating he was looking out for the best interest of Jefferson County residents, said more time should be allowed for potential bidders.

“I think the bid specs and the process should allow more opportunity, more time, for this to go out nationwide,” Weaver said. “Having such a short window in the bid reduces the circle of potential bidders. “We wouldn’t get the best we can for this property.” And, as Texas inches closer and closer to legalized casino gambling to go along with already legalized Greyhound and horse racing, the property at Ford Park is poised to become prime real estate, Weaver argued.

Off I-10, easy access, a brand new (also taxpayer funded) easy access ramp to support Ford Park traffic, with a law allowing gambling to attract the Texas crowds heading east to Louisiana?

“If that would occur, the value of this property would triple,” Weaver said. Not giving potential investors enough time to check out what the facility has to offer – and, in turn, offer the county a fair price – doesn’t bode well for garnering the best deal for the taxpayers the complex belongs to. “I feel this is a little hasty, a little rushed,” he said. “I want to see this go forward – but slower … to make sure we’re getting the best value for this piece of property.”

Commissioner Eddie Arnold said he would usually “take pretty close to the same stance” as Weaver, but since the elected officials have been working behind closed doors with a potential buyer for over a year, he was ready to move forward with a timetable that suited an intended buyer.

“There are potential bidders out there and its time to move forward while we have bonafide potential bidders,” Arnold said, referring to one potential bidder anticipating only paying what’s left of a price tag county taxpayers have been paying down for 20 years. “It has been a burden to taxpayers for 10-15 years.”

Arnold said the county is within its legal rights to offer such a window of opportunity for bids on public property. “They have to give 14 days,” Arnold said. “The county is giving 16,” including weekends.

The bid package was released the day after the vote to sell Ford Park. According to Assistant Purchasing Agent Jamey West, the massive undertaking took time to compile. Once released, the 392- page bid spec and appendices were too large to send via email.

“It is a complex bid. Great,” Arnold said, no hesitation given to allow more time for potential investors to take a thorough look at the plentiful paperwork. Arnold also implied that the bid specifications were available to potential bidders prior to Aug. 11 “for a couple months,” he said. West, in charge of filing the Ford Park bid specifications, indicated nothing was available before Aug. 12.

“We’ve been working in executive session with a potential bidder for almost a year now,” Arnold went on to say. “A bird in the hand is better than one in the bush.”

Hello birdie

The “bird in the hand,” according to Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick, first approached the county about purchasing Ford Park “probably a year and a half ago, but I did not take it very seriously at the time,” he said. Palms at Pleasure Island Golf Course marketer Kevin Johnson met with commissioners to discuss submitting a horse racing application for an enterprise Johnson wants to operate at Ford
Park with investor and Miami Heat franchise partner Robert Sturges.

Johnson, who had moved on to greener pastures after plans to revamp the Pleasure Island golf course tanked, worked with another horse racing enthusiast beginning in 2018 to bring the possibility of pari-mutuel betting to a county vote. Both propositions to voters – legalizing parimutuel wagering on horse racing and legalizing pari-mutuel wagering on simulcasts – passed.

Johnson is linked on a long string of DBAs (assumed names), on file at the Texas Secretary of State as key membership in businesses including Johnson and Associates Advertising, Marketing & Distribution, Inc.; Del Puebla Foods, U.S.A., Inc.; The Olive Company, Inc.; Port Arthur Renaissance GP, Inc.; Del Pueblo Holdings, LLC; and The Palms Golf Resort at Pleasure Island LLC. Only one – Port Arthur Renaissance GP, Inc. – has not yet been forfeited.

Port Arthur Renaissance has undergone quite a metamorphosis, though. Paperwork updated, and now going with a Renaissance Development Group alias for the Port Arthur LLC, Johnson aligned his DBA to serve as the governing arm to form the 5496 Ford Park Limited Liability Company in January 2020 – although six months later the county-owned Ford Park Entertainment Complex was still not even announced for sale. But, it isn’t the aptly named “Ford Park LLC” applying for a gaming license at Ford Park – although there is an application in the works for the same.

Beaumont Racing Venture, LLC, with managing members Sturges and Patti Johnson, Kevin Johnson’s wife, have been in consistent communication with the Texas Racing Commission. May 19, Sturges was in conference with the Texas Racing Commission to open an application period for a racetrack in Jefferson County. Commission attorney Devon Bijansky outlined a request from Beaumont Racing Ventures, LLC to open a 60-day application period for a Class 2 racetrack in Jefferson County. Sturges and (Patti) Johnson were on hand to speak to the governing board.

“We’d be in a position in midsummer to file application if the opportunity presents itself,” Sturges said. “We are working with Jefferson County, who is the current owner of Ford Park located on I-10, and have been talking to them for some time since the referendum passed in November by the voters of Jefferson County approving a racetrack in the county. And, we expect to be in the position, again, by midsummer to file an application when we would be in control of that site, which is a 200-acre site, multi-use.”

Nearly three months before the county would even consider opening an, albeit short, bid opportunity for Ford Park, Sturges regaled the racing commission with all the amenities of the complex he believed was his for the taking.

“There’s an indoor arena, an amphitheater, recreational softball fields, an RV park. It’s a real multi-use facility, and we believe that a racetrack there will be successful and act synergistically with the other elements of Ford Park,” he said. “And, we also are in the final stages of our discussion regarding the financing. We think our application would be in order, again, so that we could file by midsummer for your consideration.

After his spiel, there was only one question asked of Sturges: What is the desired date for the commencement of the 60-day period?

Two days after the meeting, the file was made with the Texas Register. Racing Commission Public Information Officer Robert Elrod said that the end date for the application period is 5 p.m. on Sept. 3.

“They will need to have some sort of contract (lease, option, purchase, etc.) in place for the land,” before the application can be made, Elrod confirmed. The same day County Commissioners agreed to set a two-week bid period on one of the county’s most expensive pieces of property, save the “no” vote from Commissioner Weaver, the panel also voted to award a $30,000 contract to JLL Valuation & Advisory Services, LLC for a property appraisal on the Ford Park Complex. According to the agreement, the appraisal should be ready four weeks after Commissioners Court approval to award the contract – which is roughly two weeks after bids on the property are due.

The Ford Park bid specs can be found at www.co.jefferson.tx.us. Any submission to the racing commission regarding proposed racing and betting at Ford Park will not likely ever be revealed. The operation of a racetrack and the participation in racing “are privileges, not rights, granted only by the commission by license and subject to reasonable and necessary conditions
set by the commission” and added by Acts 2017, 85th Legislature, effective April 1, 2019. The April Fool’s Day legislation also included a clause to keep the information submitted on the racetrack applications away from public scrutiny. Documents submitted to the commission by an applicant are not public records and are not subject to Chapter 552 of the Government Code.

EDITORIAL - AIN'T NO SUNSHINE

By Don J. Dodd

Backroom dealing under the guise of “Executive Session” has resulted in the Ford Park Entertainment Complex, which has cost taxpayers upwards of $100 million so far, being rushed to the auction house with a minimum bid set at just $22 million. This price tag is by no coincidence the amount a private company working with Commissioner Michael “Shane” Sinegal for the last 10-12 years on casino projects has been prepped to pay.

Commissioner Eddie Arnold’s own words reveal the elected officials have been working over a year to make a deal outside of the prying eyes of the public, and also out of view of any other potential investor that may be willing to pay a more fair market value for a property so highly valued. While $22 million is not normally a sale to balk at, any idea that it even broaches fair market value for the 221-acre sprawling complex is obtuse. For county officials to go along with such a deal, at best would be against the spirit of the laws governing public entity procurement and, at worst, outright illegal.

See, in Texas, a public official – or, for that matter, an elected body such as Commissioners Court – much the same as getting a bid for supplying copy paper or staples, must go out to bid in order to secure the best value for the taxpayers who are footing the bill or to sell any public property.

They also cannot make a deal to sell the public’s property without first seeking the best possible price through a sealed bidding process. The deal made by the court this week to put Ford Park out for bid is already unsealed because the prospective buyer – Port Arthur Renaissance GP LLC, or Port Arthur Development, or Beaumont Racing Venture, LLC, or whatever other named corporate shell owned, controlled or operated by one Kevin Johnson, his wife or the troop of supposed investors in his myriad of schemes – has already seemingly been given a “green light” to plan their future on the public dime.

This group should not be given the unfair advantage of, at minimum, “over a year” to assess the property, negotiate lease agreements with tenants and secure financing, while the rest of the public gets two weeks. Just because something may be legal, that doesn’t make it right. Sure, the powers that be set minimum standards – the lowest possible effort that can be afforded and still technically cut the mustard – but striving to barely squeak by those measurements is no lofty goal.

We need look no further than our own Jefferson County Courthouse to see how backroom dealing and on-air deflecting can have a seat in “legal” and still be as wrong as two left feet. We need our elected county officials to give more than Sinegal’s gambling buddy the opportunity to grow Ford Park – and give taxpayers the opportunity to recoup some of its investment by a fair bid for sale of a $117 million entertainment complex a closed-door deal would have unloaded for a fraction of the cost.