 
Gulfport Officials Tour VA Property by Keith Burton - GCN 10/14/08 Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr lead an entourage of city officials, including members of the City Council and members of the Gulfport Development Commission on a visit of the former VA hospital property Monday afternoon. The trip was to get officials excited about a pending property transfer of the 92 acre site along the beach and north of the CSX railroad tracks. The event was announced during a City Council meeting last week, the same week that grand jurors investigating Warr's receipt of a Homeowner Grant heard testimony from officials with the Mississippi Development Authority who provided the grant to Warr. The group met just inside the property's main gate and toured some of the buildings on the site. They then boarded a Coast Area Transit trolley bus to visit the property's northern section where the VA operated a large laundry facility. There, the group sat down on metal chairs in a circle and discussed ideas for what the property could be used for. Warr told the group that the Veteran's Administration plans to turn the northern section of the property over to the city at the end of this month, and then the rest of the property would be transferred to the city by the end of this year. Since Warr first announced that the property would be transferred to the city two years ago, Warr has made several public announcements on when the property transfer would occur. Each time, the dates came and went with no transfer. That is likely the case this time as well. According to VA officials contacted by GCN Tuesday, there are no
specific dates yet established for the transfer. VA spokeperson Nikki St.
Amant in Biloxi told GCN that there would be a formal ceremony regarding
the transfer but that has not yet been scheduled. "Typically for
ceremonies, we plan two months out from the event. We have nothing
In addition, the VA property transfer would typically be an event that would have congressional leaders making the announcement of specific dates, not a local mayor. Neither Congressman Gene Taylor or Senators Thad Cochran or Roger Wicker have officially announced a specific date for the transfer. The VA property transfer is reportedly the largest land transfer ever made by the Veteran's Administration. What is at issue is the credibility of Mayor Brent Warr. Some see Monday's tour as a political "dog and pony" show without the dog or pony, as the city does not yet have the keys to the property, and that the event may have been scheduled to redirect the public's attention from the federal grand jury investigation. Local major media, the Sun Herald, and WLOX, have been major supporters of Warr and have not reported on the grand jury's investigation, as has GCN and the Clarion Ledger. Attending the tour of the property Monday was Hancock Bank's George Schloegel, who was appointed to the Gulfport Development Commission by Warr. Hancock Bank and many of its employees were among major contributors to Warr in his election in 2005. In a WLOX news report Monday evening Schloegel said of the property: "I see the most valuable piece of property in the state of Mississippi,
and it's sitting right here on the gulf coast In a 2006 article published by Sun Herald-owned Journal of South Mississippi Business titled, “VA Property Could be a Plumb for Development,” quoted Hancock Bank CEO George Schloegel in Sept. 2006 saying, “Developers will be salivating over it." (Photo right: Aerial photo of VA property)This past August, Congressman Gene Taylor said he was seeking to add a provision to the transfer that would restrict the property to "public use only." And if the city fails to act properly on the utilization of the property, it would revert back to federal government. GCN called Taylor's office Tuesday for a comment on the latest transfer date, but did not receive a return call. The Gulfport Development Commission was created under the state's urban renewal laws this past April. Urban renewal agencies typically try to restore blighted areas often in low income neighborhoods or derelict downtowns. But that is not the mission of the Gulfport Development Commission. It was established to negotiate contracts with developers to build several large projects on city-owned property, including the VA, that were designed by urban architect Andres Duany. Duany was hired by Warr to design a "look" for the city. Specific architectural plans and construction plans have not been made to date. Among the ideas floated by Warr and Schloegel Monday is to solicit private developers to refurbish and lease existing buildings from the city to open hotels or restaurants. Developers also could build new buildings and then lease the land and the building from the city. The city would then turn a profit on the lease agreements and hotel and sales tax from the businesses. As these activities are not what a typical urban renewal agency does, the city plans to change the development commission's name to the Gulfport Re-Development Commission. There will also be a vote soon to revise some of the commission's bylaws to give the City Council more control of the agency. The following are some photos of the group's tour Monday.
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going
on at this time regarding a ceremony for the transfer," St. Amant said.
