By JOANNE L. PAPAIANNI
Asbury Park City Council members would like the city to be able to reserve some dates for its use at the new Fifth Avenue Pavilion when completed. But Madison Marquette, the owner of the building, is not so sure that was in the original agreement.
A vote on a conceptual review of the Fifth Avenue Pavilion may be postponed while the council and Madison Marquette work out the details.
At this week’s work session, council was discussing a review of the proposal for the pavilion but there was some confusion as to whether or not the city has a right to reserve dates for use of the building.
Most on council seemed to think 12 to 15 dates was sufficient.
However, Carrie Turner, General Manager of Real Estate Services for Madison Marquette, said negotiations for use of the pavilion would have to be opened up.
Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said in her opinion the language in the developers’s agreement regarding the use of Convention Hall, which allows the city to reserve days, would also apply to the pavilion.
But Turner disagreed saying those negotiations are not applicable to the pavilion project.
Quinn said she believed that reserving dates for the city was an effort to “stay with the spirit of the original agreement.”
But Turner said she would essentially have to tell prospective tenants that the city has rights to use their property.
“I have to tell a private contractor that the city may be using your front yard,” she said.
There was also some dispute about whether or not Turner was aware of the council’s desires to reserve dates.
Turner said she had not even seen the agreement additions that council members had in their possession.
City Manager Michael Capabianco agreed with Turner that the same language regarding city dates was not in the pavilion agreement.
Moor also said he wanted assurance that the name of the bandshell would remain the Arthur Pryor bandshell.
“Carrie, can you give us an answer Wednesday? We may not vote on it,” he said.
Council asked City Attorney Frederick Raffetto to clarify the issues before Wednesday night’s regular meeting.
“We need to have a discussion, we don’t want to vote on this until it is resolved,” Quinn said.
