Full steam ahead for City of Palms Park?

Will a city known for having hiccups regarding major developments be able to pull off one of its biggest ones yet?

A committee told the Fort Myers city manager to start negotiations with Pitch Prime LLC despite a protest from United Soccer League, the runner-ups.

There’s more than one obstacle standing in the way of closing the deal with Pitch Prime LLC.

One is the scoring process.

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Last month, the city council voted in favor of Pitch Prime to acquire City of Palms Park.

That vote is still under scrutiny.

Runner-up USL protested against the scoring, calling it unbiased and unfair, which brings us to the second obstacle, which is more of a question: will the city face a lawsuit?

In January, Pitch Prime LLC pitched their plan to turn this former professional baseball stadium at City of Palms Park into a mixed-use sports and entertainment complex.

Other groups presented, but Pitch Prime succeeded. Then, the council got heated.

All that over two councilmen, Liston Bochette and Fred Burson, who gave out zeroes on a 1-5 voting scale. USL, who got second place, called the vote biased and unfair.

On Wednesday, the city’s dispute committee was tasked with deciding if there should be a revote, and USL attorney Sawyer Smith warned everyone that if members invalidate the protest, they should expect a lawsuit.

Even with that, the dispute committee decided the city could proceed to the next step of a finalized deal with pitch prime negotiations.

“That recommendation has been less than 24 hours, so I don’t have a formal recommendation yet,” said city manager Marty Lawing. “Once that recommendation comes to my office, we’ll evaluate that with our legal team and evaluate the merits of the protest, and then I’ll make a decision and recommendation to the city council as to whether we continue negotiating with Pitch Prime or some other options.”

Lawing said those other options include re-issuing the request for proposals and hearing proposals again. In other words, back to square one.

Lawing was asked if mistakes were made in the voting process.

“Still, under evaluation, you know, we’re looking at it from every angle to see, there was a lot of talk about spirit and a lot of talk about intent, and those types of things, so errors or mistakes could be part of it,” Lawing said.

Lawing said it’s too soon to say if and when negotiations may take place with Pitch Prime.

Lawing was asked, “USL had threatened a lawsuit. Where does that stand? And are you expecting an injunction?”

“I don’t know that that was a threat. I don’t know that we took that as a threat. It was mentioned going across the street or something like that– at this point would not factor into our decision,” he said.

Across the street is the courthouse, so where does the City of Palms Park stand?

As Lawing mentioned, he, his office and the legal team must evaluate the merits of the protest. Then, the decision goes to the city council, deciding whether to proceed with Pitch Prime or move forward with “other options.”

In terms of a timetable, lawing said there’s no specific time frame by which any of this must be done.