Will "The Collector"/DOW PUD project fiasco result in the electoral defeat of St. Augustine City Commissioners LEANNA FREEMAN and ROXANNE HORVATH on November 8, 2016?
Will discerning visitors ever want to patronize crass DAVID BARTON CORNEAL's folly and subsidize the willful State College, Pennsylvania attorney who destroyed Carpenter's House and privatized and carved up our State-subsidized DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES in the name of profiting from a "luxury" hotel in a working class town?
You tell me.
The DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES, in which the State of Florida invested $2.1 million in scarce preservation funds, was sold for $1.7 million by the Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences, which breached its fiduciary duty to the Estate of Kenneth Worcester Dow.
Carpenter's House was destroyed by CORNEAL
(Photos: SAR & HCN)
The Star General Store's logo was painted over by CORNEAL
Speculator DAVID BARTON CORNEAL looks crushed as he learns my appeal from his demolition of Carpenter's House (temporally) delayed his DOW PUD application; at left is fired former City Planning and Zoning Director MARK ALAN KNIGHT; at right is ROGERS TOWERS law firm partner ELLEN AVERY SMITH
Former Vice Mayor DONALD CRICHLOW lobbied former colleagues less than a month after leaving office and was never prosecuted for it.
HARB voted 2-1 to allow destruction of Carpenter's House, Chairman Randal Roark dissenting
Commissioner TODD NEVILLE and wife HEATHER lobbied for CORNEAL's project, while demanding to use City funds to pursue a libel lawsuit against Michael Gold and Historic City News for expressing an opinion about his alleged conflict of interest -- never reimbursing the City for research done by estimable City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ
Mayor Nancy Shaver, center, was the only Commissioner who approached hearing with an open mind.
Commissioners LEANNA FREEMAN and ROXANNE HORVATH, to her right, face re-election races on November 8, 2016.
Capt. Lee Geanuleas, U.S.N. (Ret.) led the neighbors opposing the DOW PUD
Blake Romeyn Souder, who testified against and researched the CORNEAL deal;
(that's City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E., who looks askance and uncomfortable)
Well, check out the revisionist history and pure propaganda in the St. Augustine Record October 2, 2016 concerning what is now being called the "The Collector Luxury Inn and Gardens."
Our State of Florida invested $2.1 million in the DOW MUSEUM OF HISTORIC HOMES, the dream of Kenneth Dow et ux.
The Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences breached its fiduciary duty, failing to market the museum, conning Mr. Dow into turning it and his collection of art and antiques over to it when no "respectable" St. Augustine institution would accept them because Mr. Dow was Gay and his wife was Lesbian. Then the Daytona Museum sold the museum for $1.7 million -- yes, less than our State of Florida invested in restoration.
Then Mayor JOSEPH LESTER BOLES, JR. toured contributor DAVID BARTON CORNEAL through the complex, with the dirty deed recorded so it was not publicly known during the 2014 mayoral election (which BOLES lost to Nancy Shaver by 119 votes).
Then developer-directed City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E., firmly in CORNEAL's hip pocket, told First Coast News he was "delighted" with the purchase and privatization of yet another historic property in St. Augustine.
CORNEAL enlisted what he called "THE MINORCAN MAFIA," descendants of prior owners of the homes whom he euchred into thinking the City of St. Augustine would tear down the homes for parking -- or CORNEAL would rent them to students and African-Americans -- if he did not get his way.
CORNEAL enlisted Record development reporter (and former sports reporter) STUART KORFHAGE as his willing amanuensis, with one-sided stories, including one libeling neighbors by implying that they had slashed tires of a painter (who was later arrested, convicted and incarcerated in a child sex sting).
Then DAVID BARTON CORNEAL purchased the services of three prostitutes -- two (2) of five (5) Historic Architectural Review Board members (PAUL M. WEAVER, III and JEREMY MARQUIS) and the City's former Vice Mayor (DONALD CRICHLOW) -- who appear to have violated Sunshine and ethics laws and were never prosecuted. St. Augustine has no ethics ordinance and state laws are weak and poorly enforced.
Commissioner TODD NEVILLE was an advocate for CORNEAL, as was his wife, HEATHER, who attacked opponents on Facebook, calling us "haters," while denying she had been paid to lobby.
City Attorney ISABELLE CHRISTINE LOPEZ inflicted unfair procedures on opponents, who could not aggregate their time, resulting in a fractured presentation by attorney Jane West and clients.
The fix was in, the procedures cooked up by the City Attorney were unfair, and DAVID BARTON CORNEAL did not even have a court reporter. Wonder why?
At the hearing, it was painfully obvious that Mayor Nancy Shaver was the only Commissioner with an open mind: she valiantly presided at a fair public quasi-judicial hearing on the Planned Unit Development. Four Commissioners refused Mayor Shaver's reasonable request to recess, with Commissioner LEANNA FREEMAN particularly nasty about the alleged necessity of talking past midnight, rather than deliberating another day. Commissioner ROXANNE HORVATH obviously prejudged the matter, reading from a crisp statement that had a staple in it.
Neighbors' well-documented, expert concerns about zoning, traffic, noise and other issues were ignored by four Commissioners -- LEANNA FREEMAN, ROXANNE HORVATH, TODD NEVILLE and NANCY SIKES-KLINE (who procured a biased, unscholarly "opinion letter" emitted by six University of Florida professors who blithered generalities about project benefits at her request, without speaking to zoning experts or any of the neighbors.
In the words of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, a robber baron not unlike CORNEAL, "Let the public be damned!"
So the estimable City of St. Augustine City Commission voted 4-1 (Mayor Nancy Shaver, dissenting) at 12:30 AM on the early morning hours of August 25, 2016 to allow the former Dow museum to be hacked up into 30 hotel suites after, mutatis mutandis, the HARB voted 2-1 to allow the venerable 105 year old Carpenter's House to be destroyed, based on flummery, dupery and nincompoopery emitted by DAVID BARTON CORNEAL and his henchmen, with two of five HARB members recused because CORNEAL was paying them money to work on the project. At one point that summer, in the City Hall courtyard, I overheard HARB Vice Chair PAUL M. WEAVER, III tell DAVID BARTON CORNEAL that he could "sell ice to eskimos.")
Then CORNEAL held a party at 1 AM, celebrating his corrupt victory, with City Manager REGAN a guest.
This was one of the lowest points in the 451 year history of St. Augustine, and it was ignored and covered up by typically biased St. Augustine Record news stories and editorials.
Now, after destroying the integrity of the homes, after materially altering this historic resource for money, after defacing the authentic Star storefront on Cordova street and installing an inauthentic swimming pool on the property, DAVID BARTON CORNEAL finally plans to open it, perhaps by November 19th.
So this morning, on October 2, 2016, reporter Stuart Korfhage has another impudent attempt at deception and historical revisionism in the St. Augustine Record. Stuart Korfhage's revealingly trite title, after all, is to cover "development," and all of the developers' works and pomps, treating their propaganda as holy writ, more stenographer than news reporter. There is no Record reporter with the word "environmental" in their title, the Record being firmly entrenched with development and the undisclosed foreign investors in LLCs.
STUART KORFHAGE kind of reminds me of the ditty about corrupt British journalists by writer and civil servant Humbert Wolfe, CB, CBE:
You cannot hope
to bribe or twist,
thank God! the
British journalist.
But, seeing what
the man will do
unbribed, there's
no occasion to.
FROM MUSEUM TO INN: Dow property set to begin new chapter as The Collector Luxury Inn and Gardens
St. Augustine Record
Posted October 2, 2016 12:11 am
By STUART KORFHAGE stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
It’s been almost two years since the Dow Museum of Historic Houses of St. Augustine was sold, and now it’s about to reemerge as The Collector Luxury Inn & Gardens.
Tucked in between Cordova, Bridge and St. George streets, the property that has been many things over the last two centuries has been renovated and consolidated into a boutique hotel in one of St. Augustine’s most desirable locations.
“Whenever you can work with something such as this property with such great history to bring it back to life and really give it a life of its own that it will be able to take care of itself is a lot of fun,” said Howard Letts, the inn’s general manager.
Letts works for Charlestowne Hotels, a hotel management company contracted by Collector owner David Corneal.
For more than a decade, Letts worked in Charleston, South Carolina, where the company has seven “luxury” hotels and other properties under its control.
Since May, he’s been in St. Augustine, helping to prepare The Collector — named in honor of the property’s last resident, Kenneth Dow, a well-known collector of art and antiquities — for its first guests.
The plan is to have the inn ready, or at least some of it, for guests by the time the Nights of Lights festival kicks off Nov. 19. That would be about two years since Corneal purchased the property for $1.7 million.
Since gaining approval from the city to demolish one building and renovate the rest of the property in order to make it an upscale hotel, workers have been busy refurbishing nearly every inch of the grounds and buildings.
Some of the work has been for modernization like wiring for television and internet access or bathroom makeovers, and some of the labor has been for structural soundness like replacing termite-eaten beams.
There has been the addition of a small swimming pool, a conversion of one building into a bar, an addition of historical markers, a leveling and re-laying of bricks pavers and new landscaping throughout the grounds.
What is emerging is a mixture of historic elements and modern amenities that most travelers expect. And Letts said the plan is to accomplish this without detracting from authenticity that makes the property so attractive.
The last hotel he worked in had elements dating back as far as 1840, which is comparable to The Collector. The oldest building there is the Prince Murat House that goes back to 1790.
While there has been concern among some in the city that the historic elements of houses will be harmed by the conversion from a museum to a hotel, Letts said those involved are careful to preserve the property as best they can. And when the physical elements can’t be saved, at least the character has been preserved and on some cases recreated.
He can point to Corneal’s project just down Bridge Street in the property that used to be the M&M Market but is now Preserved Restaurant as an example of how the owner operates. That historic building has been renovated in a manner that has impressed many residents and visitors.
“Same dedication to the quality of the project and the history,” Letts said. “There were no shortcuts or corners cut at the Preserved, and there have not been here.”
While anxious to open, Corneal said he’s been pleased with the way his plans for The Collector are taking shape.
“It’s taking on the form that I envisioned it would take, and it’s coming together,” he said. “I think everybody when it’s finished will be pleased with it.”
Early indications are travelers will be drawn to the new inn. High-quality rooms within the city center are few. If The Collector can deliver on its promises, it’s likely to be very popular.
“We really believe we have a nice little niche to fill in St. Augustine,” Letts said. “We believe we will offer a lot of the same intimacy and privacy of the B&Bs but then (have) many of the amenities and services of a four-diamond luxury inn or hotel.”
Richard Goldman, president and CEO of the county’s visitors and convention bureau, said The Collector is exactly the kind of property many visitors to St. Augustine are seeking.
“It’s the area where we had the opportunity to grow the best and that is in the luxury category,” Goldman said.
He added that the inn has the bonus of being in a location that encourages walking because it’s so close to restaurants and attractions. The hope is that the guests there won’t add much to congestion because they’ll check in, have their vehicles parked and mostly leave them while enjoying the city.
Letts said the value of the location is one of the many positives of The Collector. It’s close to many popular areas but just far enough away to be relatively quiet most of the time.
“We’re only blocks away from the water or blocks away from the (Plaza de la Constitucion),” Letts said. “It’s a great city with nothing but growing visitation, which is due to the fact of the history of the city the friendliness of the people. The restaurant scene in St. Augustine has grown. And it’s just got a great selection of attractions and, of course, our beaches.”
The new hotel, with its 30 unique rooms, will fit into the city almost seamlessly, Letts hopes. The goal is to be comparable to successful downtown hotels like the Casa Monica and the Hilton Historic Bayfront Hotel.
“I hope I hear (from future guests) what wonderful service they received and how this is their new home away from home when they’re here in St. Augustine,” he said. “Because they actually are homes and that’s the feeling we want to give them.”
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