The Fort Lauderdale fiasco known as One Stop FTL is finally dead. Four years later.
The city agreed to terminate a sweetheart deal with a developer who secured a 99-year lease on a prime slice of downtown real estate for a relative pittance to build a glitzy food and entertainment emporium. This week, Jeff John’s grand plans went up in smoke — and mirrors.
For years, red flags were everywhere. But city leaders swooned over the color renderings and once again fell under the spell of land-use lobbyist Stephanie Toothaker. They dismissed warnings from their constituents that began at a workshop in 2022.
“There’s a lot of unknowns here,” cautioned Mary Fertig, a long-time Fort Lauderdale activist who has been skeptical of developer-driven public-private partnerships that shift land from public to private hands.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board issued repeated editorial warnings.”This land is your land, Fort Lauderdale,” was our headline of Aug. 20, 2021.
Then came “Green space giveaway” on March 3, 2022. “A city’s spectacular One Stop flop” on May 10 told readers the end was near as the unanswered financial questions intensified, one after the next.
Sorensen was the key
City Commissioner Steve Glassman belatedly delivered the final blow to One Stop FTL at a meeting Tuesday.
“You have to be able to have a trust factor,” he said. “I no longer have that.”
It was inevitable. Two weeks earlier, all four of Glassman’s colleagues clearly signaled they wanted to pull the plug. So Glassman, like everyone else, could see which way the wind was blowing.
In the end, he risked being left alone in supporting a venture lacking any credibility. That could be a major political liability if, as many assume, he considers a run for mayor in 2028.
In this case, greater credit goes to District 4 Commissioner Ben Sorensen, who started a dialogue near the end of a meeting on Sept. 3 that led to Tuesday’s termination. Sorensen also voted for this bad deal in 2022, but he had lost all faith in the project’s ever-changing finances and was instrumental in its final demise.
Mayor Dean Trantalis, after combing through the contract documents, discovered that One Stop FTL’s decision to sell 52% of the project to a shadowy company on Long Island, N.Y., needed the city’s written consent — something the developer didn’t seek.
Voices in the wilderness
The only commissioner who opposed the project from the outset was Heather Moraitis, who resigned before her term expired. Her replacement, John Herbst, who had been city auditor, was fired after he voiced opposition to the deal, which likely intimidated city staffers into staying silent about their concerns.
At a workshop on Feb. 15, 2022, the mayor asked Herbst if, based on market conditions, he could defend the project as a good return on investment for the city. “No,” Herbst replied. Hours later, he was gone.
Herbst and Moraitis were voices in the wilderness. So were area residents. When Larry Forman of nearby Flagler Village doubted the developer’s credibility at that 2022 city workshop, Glassman berated him and told him his facts were wrong.
After Tuesday’s termination decision, Flagler Village resident Leann Barber, one of the earliest critics, said by email: “Our sacred park space was turned over to a nightclub operator … The result should not be a surprise to anyone.”
Lawyer and blogger John Rodstrom III’s dogged reporting kept alive the nagging questions about just where One Stop FTL would ever find the money. He wondered why the city didn’t conduct more rigorous background checks on a shady new investor.
“Fort Lauderdale deserves better than that,” he said.
Protect what’s still left
The city can now pick up to pieces and move forward.
It’s a perfect opportunity to protect what little green space remains downtown.
City leaders should enact much more stringent controls to foster greater financial accountability and transparency.
They should heed the wishes of residents, preserve the One Stop site for future generations and make all 3.3 acres a park, as the city’s own downtown master plan specified. The public needs to be relentless in protecting what’s theirs. Never stop asking questions.
In Fort Lauderdale, this is a celebratory moment. It took far too long, but for once, the people won.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. Contact us! Send an email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
