Buyer found for Venice Jet Center, receiver says

By Kim Hackett

Published: Friday, November 6, 2009 at 5:07 p.m.

 

The Venice Jet Center has a buyer and it is not Venice, as some City Council members had hoped.

 

A federal receiver overseeing the center, once owned by alleged Ponzi schemer Art Nadel, faxed city officials a caustic letter

Friday to tell them he has reached an agreement “in principle” with a buyer.

 

Receiver Burton Wiand said that the undisclosed offer from a Florida company will be presented to a federal judge early next week

and then made public.

 

“The company has a lot of experience” running airport maintenance facilities, Wiand said in an interview.

 

News of the sale disappointed city officials, who had hoped Venice could purchase the Jet Center and gain a tighter rein on

airport jet traffic, a source of ongoing community tension.

 

Venice sent a letter to Wiand two weeks ago after the Jet Center’s manager indicated to city officials that they would be able to purchase

it for $3 million. But Wiand said he did not view the letter as a legitimate offer.

 

“The city has never made any proposals in good faith or had any good faith discussions with me,” Wiand wrote the city Friday.

“The city’s lack of good faith in this matter and the continued sending of self-serving disingenuous letters has not been persuasive.”

 

City Manager Isaac Turner called Wiand’s characterization “off base.”

 

“We have legitimately sought to provide what the Jet Center was asking for and protect the interest of the city,” Turner said.

“I understand he has a responsibility to maximize” profits, but added “some of the stances he’s taken have been counter-productive.”

 

Wiand is in charge of selling off the Jet Center and other assets owned by Nadel to reimburse investors who lost about $400 million

in Nadel’s Sarasota-based Scoop Investments.

 

The council still has to sign off on the Jet Center deal and is in an awkward legal position if it tries to object because it has repeatedly

said it wants to buy the center.

 

“If they don’t act nice, they’ll be dealing with Judge Lazzara,” Wiand said, referring to federal judge Richard Lazzara,

who is overseeing the receivership.

 

Wiand and the city have been at odds over the council’s refusal to grant hangar permits, which make the Jet Center more valuable.

 

Wiand filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration, claiming the city’s refusal to allow aeronautical development puts it

in violation of agreements it signed with the federal government when the city took over control of the airport in 1947.

 

The FAA is scheduled to rule by the end of the year.