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January 17, 2018
Raymond LeCompte
January 17, 2018
Terrebonne Parish is exploring the potential of buying or leasing parking space in the lot of its high-rise headquarters from HTV owner Martin Folse, whose purchase of the lot property from its long-time owner was finalized days before the public discussion began.
“We are going to try to purchase it or lease it and bring it back to the council for ratification or denial,” Parish President Gordon Dove said. “I am not for it or against it. I know that I will try to work the best deal possible for Terrebonne Parish.”
At issue are nineteen parking spaces in the portion of the lot nearest to the corner of West Main and Barrow streets. Most Parish Council members agree with Dove that the parish has a need for them, but indicated at the committee meeting that they would prefer an outright purchase of the land rather than a lease. Dove is also as a matter of general business principles of the opinion that a purchase would be better. A lease, he and others noted, would likely only be month-to-month and not for a set term.
Some council members and administration staff were surprised to learn that the parish does not own the parking area on the Barrow Street side of the building, which until Jan. 4 belonged to retired Houma insurance executive Edward “Sonny” LeBlanc. LeBlanc has leased it for years to Chase Bank, which until recently leased the government tower’s first floor from the parish for a branch and related offices.
Chase gave notice in August that it is moving, leaving the parish without a first-floor tenant and leaving LeBlanc with no further lease payments for parking spaces. LeBlanc later sold the lot to Martin Folse, with whom the parish now negotiates.
An ordinance passed at the council’s Jan. 8 committee meeting initially authorized Dove and his administration to enter negotiations to “acquire” the lot from Folse’s company MARFO Inc. It was tweaked after discussion to authorize discussion of a sale as well as a lease.
Never discussed at the meeting was the fact that Folse laid his cards out on the table weeks before, in a Dec. 7 email that made a flat out offer to the parish for a lease. The Times acquired a copy of the email, sent to administrative assistant Debbie Ortego but addressed to Dove, through a public records request.
Folse was in the process, the Dec. 7 email states, of closing on the property, consisting of three plots altogether. On one lot he plans to build a 6,000 foot structure which he will be leasing to a tenant he has already chosen. Folse’s future tenant, the email states, plans to use a second lot for parking. The tenant would like to use the third lot for parking as well, but Folse’s email says he wanted to offer that lot to the parish first. If the parish refuses, the tenant will lease it.
For the nineteen spaces on the third lot, Folse offers a lease of $34,675 per year. The figure is based on $5 per day for 365 days per space.
But the offer also contains restrictions.
The parish could only use the spaces from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, and would not have access to the spaces during Mardi Gras or other special events.
In the email, Folse encourages discussion of the offer in time for a final vote on the matter to be taken at the Jan. 10 regular council meeting. He encourages transparency overall, and in particular asks that Councilwoman Christa Duplantis-Prather, whose districts includes the government tower property, be informed of the discussion. He urges “full transparency” in any discussions.
In a recent interview the councilwoman said she was not aware of an email, but did have a discussion some time in December with Folse, during a tour of his studios, about his desire to lease parking space to the parish. Duplantis-Prather said she did not recall details of her talk with Folse during her meeting with him, which she never made mention of during the Jan. 8 council committee meeting.
Dove said he may have seen it, but nonetheless dismissed the significance of its stated terms. The email in any event would not have been included n back-up material for the council, Dove said, because it concerns a lease and Dove’s intent was to look at the potential of a purchase.
Part-time access to the lot space, he said, would likely not be an option the parish would approve.
A fair price for purchase of the parking spaces, Dove said, would depend on a determination of their fair value, though there is no guarantee Folse will agree to an outright purchase.
Dove was asked in the same interview why the parish did not reach out to Sonny LeBlanc rather than wait for a new owner to come into the picture.
“I called him,” said Dove, who stated that LeBlanc did not call him back.
A parish employee with knowledge of LeBlanc’s desire to lease spaces to the parish but who asked not to be identified by name, confirmed that LeBlanc had come to the government’s offices to make an offer after the bank’s intentions were first known. The employee did not know whether the offer ever made it to the Parish President.
LeBlanc has not returned repeated calls from The Times to discuss the sale to Folse, or to verify claims that he had sought to lease the property to the parish after he learned the bank would be leaving, but was rebuffed by officials.
That Folse would have reason to purchase the property is beyond question. His HTV headquarters is directly across Barrow Street from the government tower and he has had parking issues relating to the downtown location. Since the purchase he has moved his HTV trucks to a portion of the property.
Folse, who was dealing with a family illness last week, returned a call from a reporter and stated he does not wish to discuss the matter.
In his Dec. 7 email Folse states that he is offering the parking space out of a desire to be helpful to the public.
Some parish council members have said they would have preferred knowledge of Folse’s outreach prior to discussion of the potential sale or lease at their committee meeting.
“I do support going after that particular property,” Councilman Darrin Guidry said. “I think it is very important, if we can acquire it, if we can purchase it. I am a little concerned about leasing … I have no problem if the person who bought it makes a profit off of it. But we can’t pay more than the appraised value, that’s by law.”
Councilman Gerald Michel questioned whether the spaces were essential for the parish, which owns an adjacent parking garage that has easy access to the government tower and some lot space in the back.
Dove stressed the importance of parking with easy access to the building.
At both the meeting and in a later interview, he said the spaces on the Folse property would be useful for handicapped parking.
The matter of negotiations for the property was placed on the agenda for the committee meeting on Thursday, Jan. 4, the same day Folse’s deal with LeBlanc was perfected.
In emails between Assistant Parish Attorney Michelle Neil and Council Clerk Venita Chauvin, the night of Jan. 4, the agenda item announcing the discussion morphed from discussion of a lease to discussion of a sale.
Finally the agenda item read as “an ordinance that will authorize the acquisition from MARFO, Inc. of certain immovable property adjacent to Main Street situated between the Government Tower and Barrow Street in Houma, to facilitate the preservation of public parking in the downtown area and calling a public hearing on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 6:30 p.m.”
The ordinance was amended, at the request of Councilman John Navy, to state that lease or sale discussions be authorized.
Either way, council members agreed, no action on a purchase or a lease will be taken until the matter comes back before them.
Gerald Michel offered a prophecy during the meeting.
“It will be back as a lease and we are going to approve it,” he said.
“How do you know that?” Dove asked.
“I’ve been here for the past two years,” Michel said, sparking the tension that has marked his relationship with the Parish President.
“Yes and you haven’t done anything,” Dove snapped.
“I appreciate your opinion,” Michel said. “But it’s not correct.”
Committee Chairwoman Arlanda Williams then moved the discussion forward, asking for a vote on the ordinance, which passed.
In accordance with the ordinance, the matter will be discussed by the council at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, when the results of Dove’s efforts will be disclosed.
If they wish to, members of the public will also be heard.
