The fate of the Paradise Ocean Club at Fort Monroe remains up in the air as the club’s owner is accusing the National Park Service of allowing the building to fall into disrepair and deliberately delaying lease negotiations.
Club owner Baxter Simons said he’s being “stonewalled” by the park service as he attempts to renegotiate the terms of a new lease of the property, where he operated the popular beach club for 10 years.
“Here’s what’s going on in a nutshell; they don’t want us back in there,” Simmons said. “They’re trying to force us not to take the lease by making it as rough on us as they can. And there’s no hiding that, it is blatant.”
Simmons’ popular beach club was forced to close last year after Labor Day weekend when the park service abruptly ended the club’s lease negotiations. The club was at the end of its 10-year lease and seeking to renew. The park service subsequently issued a new request for proposals to reopen bidding to lease the site to other businesses.
Simmons reentered lease negotiations with the park service this year in an attempt to reopen his business. But the start of the summer beach season came and went without any agreement.
Now, Simmons says “it has gotten to the point where they are bullying us and trying to make us go away.”
Kevin Garden, a legal representative for the club, sent an Aug. 3 letter to the National Park Service Regional Director Gay Vietzke outlining several outstanding disagreements holding up lease negotiations.
One issue is the current state of the building.
Garden’s letter notes Paradise Ocean Club was selected for negotiation of a proposed lease in March. But when Simmons went to inspect the facility, he was shocked to find it was not in the same state as he left it when his business vacated.
The letter describes the facility as being “in complete shambles.” Simmons says there’s now mold, destroyed HVAC ductwork, graffiti, damaged flooring, and other issues.
The club informed the park service of the poor condition of the facility. Simmons wanted NPS to adjust the lease terms or to provide rent credits so that Paradise Ocean Club could address the damage.
The letter says the park service “absurdly asserted” to Simmons that he had agreed when he submitted a bid to accept the facility “as is” and that no adjustments would be made to the lease terms.
However, Simmons says he agreed to accept the condition of the facilities at the time of a walk-through the National Park Service conducted in November, not — as the letter describes — “the decrepit condition of the facilities which NPS had knowingly and deliberately caused.”
“The building should be in the same condition that it was marketed in when they showed it back in November,” Simmons said.
National Park Service spokesperson John Warren declined to specifically address the allegations in the letter.
“We’re not going to respond to individual things,” he said. “We’re not going to try this in the press. The NPS continues to negotiate the lease in the multi-use facility formerly known as the Officers Club at Fort Monroe. And the National Park Service is committed to engaging and welcoming all communities to enjoy our lands and waters.”
The letter also takes issue with the park service trying to restrict the number of patrons on the premises to 750 when Simmons said the park service previously told him the 750-person limit would only apply to people within the buildings. He said a 750-person limit on the premises would make the club “look empty.”
“On Saturdays, we’d have 2,000 people come through and on Sundays, we’d have 3,000,” he said.
Simmons estimates the crowd that showed up on Sunday afternoons was 95% people of color.
In the letter, Garden says the National Park Service is engaging in “blatantly discriminatory conduct at Fort Monroe National Monument by taking actions which will permanently close down a popular beach facility frequented by the underserved local African American community.”
Josh Janney, [email protected]
