The City of Plant City has been working for 20 years on making Midtown useable. The properties in this 14-acre section of town were previously used for industry, and part of it was a landfill.
The first part of the plan was for the city to acquire the properties—which took years. A second step was remediating environmental issues on some of the land that resulted from industrial use. For example, while trenching for electrical conduit, the workers were hitting Model T frames and engine blocks.
“I don’t want anyone to get alarmed about the environmentals,” said Bill McDaniel, City Manager. “These things are contained or remediated. They are all cleared, or on the verge of being cleared. It is not a hazard to anyone.” Village Creek Park in Midtown is a part of the environmental remediation strategy. The trees in that park were selected for their ability to pull things like nitrogen and iron out of the soil.
A third stage of the project was building infrastructure. The city reconstructed the roadway network, built sidewalks along Evers Street and Wheeler Street, installed a storm water system including two ponds, and built a utility architecture.
After initial plans with several developers had fallen through, in July 2022, Plant City selected IDP Properties, based in Valdosta, GA, as the sole responsible developer to rebuild all seven Midtown parcels. IDP focuses on development for mid- to small-sized cities. Since that time, Plant City and IDP have been putting together and negotiating a development agreement to move forward with the project, which would construct 400 residential units, including 50 townhouses, and 25,000 square feet of commercial space. The contract was submitted for discussion, approval, or denial at the City Commission meeting on September 23.
City Commissioners responded by questioning delays and the developer’s true interest—specifically referring to the two years it has taken for IDP to present the development agreement. “In business, time is money,” said Commissioner Bill Dodson. “Delays, whatever the reason, could mean less commitment. We are spending money that is not ours. It’s the city’s. It is prudent to be wise and careful with spending. If it is your money you’re spending, you can be as careless and risky as you choose, but we have taxpaying residents to hold us accountable for our business practices.”
“The two years has been spent in negotiating the points of that very complex agreement,” McDaniel commented. “We have been in contract negotiations since the Request for Proposal was approved. It is a back and forth process. You have the legal issues, you have the business points. There is a lot of back and forth to arrive at a middle ground where everybody feels like they are getting what they need out of it.”
Commissioner Dodson questioned the logic of using the same methodology for reaching this new agreement for Midtown redevelopment. “You can’t expect a positive change by using the same development proposals,” he said. “We must find a method which protects the city while encouraging development and opportunity.”
Among other items objected to by Commissioners were IDP’s resistance to the city’s requirement of showing their commitment to construction financing, and a clause which would not allow the city to object to the Phase 1 owner.
IDP is also the developer for Wheeler Street Station. “Why hasn’t that happened?” Commissioner Jason Jones asked. “How do you think you can do Midtown, if you haven’t started Wheeler Street Station?”
“We can’t control the market,” Carter Broun, IDP Vice President of Development said during the Commission meeting. “We don’t control interest rates. Insurance rates are up 30 to 40 percent, particularly in Florida. Construction costs have increased. At the end of the day, a development has to make sense financially. With interest rates coming down, it makes Wheeler Street and Midtown much more viable projects. Conditions have to be feasible, and right now they are not. We are 100 percent committed to it. Where we find success, typically, is in our commitment to hang in there as long as it takes to figure out a solution. Midtown is within our wheelhouse. I can’t guarantee success—I would be lying if I did. But what I can guarantee is our commitment to the project and our commitment to Plant City. We think that there is great opportunity in Plant City, and we do believe we are on the tail end of some inflation-induced interest rates. No one would love more to see this project succeed than us. We think we are the right team to do it.”
“I would like to see a change in approach from giving exclusive development rights to one group in favor of taking each of the seven parcels and working with several different developers to get things started,” Dodson said. “I believe that approach would create more variety in design, more control for the city, and a more competitive business environment.”
Commissioner Dodson requested City Manager Bill McDaniel and City Attorney Ken Buchman to research best practices before a new proposed development agreement is presented for consideration. The deadline for reworking the specified points of the contract, and researching other options, is the City Commission meeting on February 10, 2025.
Dodson said he would not vote for the resolution in its current form. “But, I am interested in what comes back after the research on best practices is completed and presented.”
“Their positions were clear, their directions were clear,” McDaniel said, referring to the City Commissioners’ comments. “We will go back to the table to see what we can do to resolve the questions that were raised last night. It is a research project. We will do the research and see what we