The Hamilton brothers must decide by noon today whether to rescind their flawed bid to run Clearwater's South Beach Pavilion.
By JENNIFER FARRELL
Published June 8, 2004
[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
Beachgoers enjoy the shade of Clearwater's South Beach Pavilion. Howard Hamilton will run the pavilion until the end of June when his lease expires.
CLEARWATER - Ken and Wade Hamilton cannot change the numbers in their original bid to take over the South Beach Pavilion when their father's lease expires this month, city officials told them Monday.
And by noon today, the brothers must decide if they'll stand by their three-year offer, which contains a mistake that would pay the city an extra $173,846 per year, based on last year's revenues.
On Monday morning, Ken Hamilton apologized for the goof but said the family could not afford to stick with the flawed offer, which proposed paying the city $329,281 a year, against 2003 revenues of $870,105.
That's more than twice the amount paid last year, records show. The Hamiltons say they meant to propose paying $155,435, a figure that beats their competitors by $25,273 and $12,813, respectively.
Hamilton said he made a clerical error in the bid after typing it himself while his assistant was on a cruise.
"I take total, full responsibility," he said. "I apologize profusely for my mistake."
During a public presentation at the city marina, Hamilton and his lawyer, Harry Cline, pleaded with city officials for the chance to fix the error.
"We've got 40 years of commitment to this beach," Hamilton said, adding later: "If 40 years of commitment are not worth a typo . . . I have let my family down and I have let my community down if you don't accept this bid."
But the family's connections - brother Hoyt is a City Council member and father Howard has run the beach concession since it was built in 1969 - didn't sway the city's legal department. According to the request for proposals sent out by the city last month, no corrections of errors or omissions are permitted after the fact.
To allow the Hamiltons to change their bid would be unfair to the other bidders, according to assistant city attorney Bryan Ruff.
Harbormaster Bill Morris said the city sent the Hamiltons a letter Monday giving them until noon to decide how to proceed.
"I don't want a debate," he said. "I just want a yes or a no."
Besides the Hamiltons' bid, the city received two other proposals to operate the lucrative beach concession on the sand west of S Gulfview Boulevard.
Earlier this year, Morris said, the city considered and rejected operating the pavilion itself after the current lease expires June 30. Because Beachwalk, the city's planned redesign of the area, would take away parking from the pavilion, the lease is limited to three years. After that, the future of the business might be endangered by the lack of parking at the pavilion.
Because the business would require significant startup costs - Morris estimated $400,000 for cooking, staff and beach equipment - the city opted to seek bids.
"In three years," Morris said,"it's almost impossible to make your money back."
But the city sent out its request late and gave bidders just 19 days to respond.
The Hamiltons, who have helped their father operate the business since they were kids, were uniquely positioned to compete. Not only do they have decades' experience running the concession, their family already owns the equipment and has extra storage at another of their beach businesses, the Palm Pavilion.
On Monday, the other bidders worked to convince the city staff they could meet service demands and turn a profit.
"I'm not looking to make this investment to watch it die," said Michael Frangedis, owner of Flipperz Beach Shop and Licks Ice Cream.
Frangedis, who bid with a partner, said he would be able to reopen the concession within two weeks, if awarded the lease.
A third group, headed by Dan Waters, said it would open the concession immediately, in time to serve customers on the July Fourth holiday weekend.
Waters said his group would offer jobs to all current employees at their existing pay. His partners, Laura Flowers and John Hamele, also proposed upgrading offerings at the gift shop and making quarterly contributions to local organizations such as the Sailing Center, Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce to encourage tourism.
Waters said the group would computerize the pavilion's financial records and put gift shop merchandise for sale online. Boosting sales over $1.5-million, he said, is a reasonable goal.
"I just don't see anyone with the innovation to go out and get it at this point," he said.
City staffers are expected to meet again this week to rank the bidders before making a recommendation Monday to the City Council, which will vote on the issue next Thursday.
