Horse Park Plan Is Pulled Apart by Horses - Investors vow to resubmit proposal for village-owned land.
BY JASON SCHULTZ PALM BEACH POST STAFF WRITER
WELLINGTON — Just days before the village council was to vote on whether to sell the K-Park property, the group of investors who said they wanted to buy the 67-acre site and turn it into a horse park has withdrawn its offer.
Jack Van Dell
“It’s getting to become a much more complicated project than it originally was,” said Jack Van Dell, a local jeweler and representative for the Horse Park LLC group that was trying to buy K-Park. “I’d just rather get it all together and get back at them later.”
The withdrawal comes after a village consultant raised questions about Horse Park’s plan and after village residents and some council members had spoken strongly against it.
“We’re even more convinced now that it doesn’t really exist,” Mike Nelson, chairman of business and economic development for the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, said of Horse Park’s plan. “This is just a play to acquire the property for $10 million and then flip it.”
The village-owned land on State Road 7 at Stribling Way has been slated to become everything from a recreation area to a Palm Beach State College campus in the past.
During the summer, the council signed a letter of intent to sell the property to Van Dell’s group for $10 million and gave it several months to return with a completed proposal, including a sound business plan. During that time, the village agreed not to explore bids from other suitors.
Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said the council was set to vote Tuesday on whether the group had met all the criteria the village had put on the potential buyers when the council signed the letter of intent.
Van Dell said his group wants to build two hotels and a 5,000-seat equestrian event center on the property as part of its horse park to attract shows. He claimed the scope of the project that the group wants to build has grown to about $120 million from $40 million.
But the proposal and the group has been widely criticized by some council members and residents.
Nelson, who was thrilled to hear of the group’s withdrawal, argued that a horse park business was not economically viable on the property and claimed the investors really wanted to just sell it all off for commercial developments such as strip malls.
A consultant hired by the village to evaluate the group’s horse park proposal also found major problems with the plan.
“It is concluded that the applicant has not fully met the requirements of the Letter of Intent,” wrote consultant James Fleischmann.
Fleischmann said he questioned whether everything the group proposes would fit on the site.
He also said the number of event days the group is using in its revenue projections was higher than comparable horse parks and that there was no basis for the number of tourists the proposal assumes the horse park would get.
Van Dell said he had not seen the consultant’s report so he could not comment on it. But he said the group knew the village would have many more questions, so they decided to take their time to get the project right.
“This is not a hurry-up-and-get-it-done kind of deal,” Van Dell said. “The land is not going anywhere.”
Cohen said that with the group’s withdrawal, the exclusive agreement the council had with Horse Park is now expired and the council can decide if it wants to talk to other bidders for the land.
Chuck Mineo, one of those potential bidders, said he wanted to build an oval pedestrian park and line it with shops such as cafes.
Councilwoman Anne Gerwig said she was never in favor of the horse park idea because she didn’t think it belonged right next to busy State Road 7. She said she wanted to see some of the land turned into commercial developments and use the revenue from that to turn the rest into a public park.
Van Dell said the group was not asking for the exclusive ban on other bidders to continue, arguing that he didn’t think any of the other bidders could match his group’s potential jobs and economic impact.
He estimated it would take his group 60-70 days to complete its proposal, then return to the council.
Palm Beach Post jschultz@pbpost.com
