By Marvin G. Cortner
Editor

Osceola County commissioners punted again Monday on spending tourist tax reserves on additional outdoor playing fields, giving three developers 30 days to offer plans on what they could do with $7.5 million in county seed money.

Because of falling tourist tax revenue due to the recession, what began several months ago as a plan to build a $50 million amateur sports complex with up to 16 playing fields and an indoor facility eventually diminished into a plan to build eight fields using $19 million in tax reserves. The amount available for the project then dwindled even farther after commissioners Monday approved $8.295 million in funding for other projects and $3 million to cover two years of operating deficits at the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Developers still in the running for some type of project include Harmony Development Company, Avatar Properties and Falcone Group. The three companies were ranked the top firms that originally responded to a request for proposal to build an amateur sports complex that would help the county increase the number of overnight stays – and thus tourist tax revenue – relating to amateur sports.

Commission Chairman Fred Hawkins Jr. said there isn’t enough tourist tax reserve available for the county to become involved in a sports complex project at this time of the scope originally thought and that private enterprise should take the lead on developing such a facility, not the county.

“We have to take the burden off the county in this,’ Hawkins said, adding that the various sports organizations that would benefit from additional playing fields must provide an investment in the project, whether the site is in Harmony, across from Osceola Heritage Park (Avatar) or near the intersection of West U.S. Highway 192 and State Road 429 (Falcone).

Commissioner Brandon Arrington pushed for development of eight playing fields on 150 acres at the county-owned Mac Overstreet Park, an undeveloped 449-acre site along Lake Tohopekaliga between Kissimmee and Poinciana.

“As far as ball fields, we could get moving at Mac Overstreet quickly; we’ve owned it for 20 years and never found funding to do anything with it,” Arrington said, adding that fields at the park could be a fall-back position if developers don’t make any offers for projects.

The bottom line costs for the eight playing fields as proposed by the three companies, including land, were: Avatar, $27.75 million (includes a regional stormwater control component); Falcone, $19.5 million; and Harmony, $16 million.

Representatives of all three developers on Monday said they were still interested in talking about a possible public-private partnership in a project.

Jim Lentz, representing Harmony Development Company, said everyone should have learned a lesson.

“You did this backward; you should have figured out how much money you have first,” Lentz said. “Quite frankly, we think our location would work. Can we do a partnership? Yes. We are getting tired, as you are. We are anxious to get moving but I can't promise you that we will be here with a proposal in 90 days.”

Avatar’s Tony Iorio said that the “game has changed totally” and that he and other company officials would need time to put a new plan together.

County Attorney Jo Thacker told commissioners they should determine whether building eight ball fields now would be a stand-alone project or whether it would be the beginning of a larger sports complex, like the one originally planned.

Spending that was approved

Among the projects and spending commissioners did approve Monday on a 3-2 vote (with Commissioners Ken Smith and Michael Harford opposed) were:

• $3.9 for Osceola Heritage Park and Silver Spurs Arena improvements.

• $2 million for a new museum of military history at Osceola Heritage Park, to be located in the current Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau office. This amount includes $250,000 over the next two fiscal years for operating expenses and $800,000 for an eventual expansion.

• $1.8 million for the relocation of the Osceola County Historical Society to Shingle Creek Regional Park. This amount includes money to build a new museum at the nature center on West U.S. Highway 192 (at the former Roadhouse Grill site) and relocation of the Pioneer Village to the Babb Property in the park as well as $350,000 for two years of operating expenses.

• $600,000 to establish an events acquisition fund and to buy four new portable wooden playing surfaces to accommodate overflow events from Disney.

• $3 million to cover two year’s worth of operating deficits for the visitors bureau.

• And $400,000 over two years for operating expenses at the Osceola Center for the Arts.