Key West officials voted on June 4 to take a closer look at the Key West Yacht Club’s $1-a-year lease with the city of Key West.
City commissioner Sam Kaufman had proposed a resolution directing the city manager to review the 99-year lease, which was signed in March 1961 and expires in 2060, to ensure the club is in compliance with its requirements.
“The city commission further directs the city manager to provide the commission with recommendations on how to remedy any determined non-compliance by the Key West Yacht Club,” the resolution states.
An area of potential concern is a clause in the yacht club’s lease that requires the city to approve any subleases that are granted by the yacht club, which may pertain to the leasing of its 68 boat slips.
Given the annual revenue from those slip rentals, Kaufman said on June 4, “That could be $15 to $20 million total with no revenue coming back to the city. We have to think of whether that’s lawful and whether that’s valid pertaining to the lease, which says the club should not sublease without the consent of the city. And there;s no evidence that consent was ever given. I don’t know why we wouldn’t at least look into this. We’re trying to restore public trust. If the commission turns this down, the optics are really bad.”
The commission didn’t turn it down. Kaufman’s motion 5-2.
“If there are lease violations, they need to be identified,” commissioner Donie Lee said before voting in favor of the lease review. “I don’t think this resolution hurts anything. If we’re owed some money down the road, we can use it for infrastructure improvements.”
Commissioners Aaron Castillo and Mary Lou Hoover were the two dissenting votes.
Yacht club commodore Kris Pabian declined to discuss the item before the commission vote.
In the past, members of the club have pointed out that the Key West Yacht Club was instrumental in persuading state officials to give the entire Garrison Bight area to the city of Key West. In return, a small part of the waterfront property was retained for the club, which started in 1938 and now has 338 members.
Club’s only permanent resident returns
While boaters and members come and go from the Key West Yacht Club, one resident has remained a permanent fixture around the docks.
A resident great blue heron, who has been a beloved and familiar sight for years, recently fell ill and was taken to the newly renovated Key West Wildlife Center for treatment and rehabilitation.
The yacht club’s dockmaster called the wildlife center when he saw the bird down and unable to stand in a mangrove area.
“Thanks to the swift actions of the dockmaster and the Key West Wildlife Center for the care they provided, the heron has made a full recovery and was successfully released back into the wild at the Key West Yacht Club on June 10,” said Pabian. “We were thrilled to work with the Wildlife Center to get our resident heron back to good health. He is the only permanent resident of our docks and we look at him just like our members — as family.”
