City seeks partnerships with Kaleta

City officials want to improve parking and multi-use trail connectivity near the Cortez Bridge with the help of a local developer.

BY JOE HENDRICKS SUN CORRESPONDENT | jhendricks@amisun.com

BRADENTON BEACH – City officials are pursuing two potential public-private partnerships with the Bradenton Beach Marina’s new principal, developer Shawn Kaleta.

One partnership pertains to proposed improvements to the city-owned parking lot next to the cell tower and the Public Works building, adjacent to the marina. Another pertains to the multi-use trail that passes through the marina property.

During a March 1 Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) meeting, City Attorney Ricinda Perry and Mayor John Chappie referred to Kaleta as the marina’s new owner. A mortgage and security agreement dated Jan. 10 lists the Bazzy Marine Corp. as the mortgagor and the Holiday, Florida-based

Capital Property Ventures LLC as the mortgagee. The agreement references “a principal amount of $14 million from mortgagor and Aquabiz LLC.” Kaleta signed the agreement as the mortgagor and as president of the Bazzy Marine Corp.

According to the Florida Division of Corporations, John Porreca is listed as the registered agent and authorized person for Capital Property Ventures

LLC. Aquabiz LLC lists attorney Louis Najmy as its registered agent and Kaleta and Daniel Courtney Zoller Jr. as managers.

When previously contacted by The Sun on numerous occasions and asked whether Kaleta purchased the marina from the Bazzy family, Najmy declined to comment. Former marina president Mike Bazzy also declined to comment.

Cra Discussions

During the CRA meeting, Perry initiated the parking lot discussion and noted that the CRA members previously authorized Colliers Engineering to put together a parking plan. The plan Perry presented shows 23 parking spaces at the cell tower. Perry said the goal is to create a nicer parking lot and one that’s compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“You have that plan in place. A property owner in the area is desirous of actually building out that parking plan and doing all the landscaping and markers, but they didn’t want to pay for installing pavers,” Perry said.

She identified the property owner as Kaleta and said Building Official Steve Gilbert wants to see an engineered parking plan before moving forward with the proposed improvements.

“We want to make clear that this is a public parking lot. We want to make sure that whatever’s put in there is low maintenance. It’s our parking lot. We’ll be maintaining it,” Chappie said.