COLUMN: More Red Flags At University Beach

*This is an opinion column*

NORTHPORT, AL — Texas developer John Hughes was quiet for most of the first official meeting of the University Beach Improvement District Board of Directors in early June, keeping his gaze fixed on the thick agenda packet on the table in front of him.

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The brief gathering was a contentious one that ended with Hughes and his cohorts harangued by the few citizens in attendance at the oddly scheduled weekday lunchtime meeting at TTL, Inc.

Hell, the 10-minute meeting was held in Tuscaloosa, of all places. Along with the timing, that should give you a pretty good idea of who we're dealing with.

Unable to see the video link above? Click here to watch the full June 10 meeting on our YouTube channel.

But as the out-of-town board members scurried to get out of the little conference room after the meeting, a man got Hughes' attention when he called the developer "a crook."

"I am a crook," Hughes said in a sarcastic tone after turning around, before telling the man, "And I'm sorry you don't understand this project."

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We can spend the rest of this story debating the merits of maintaining professionalism during this incredibly immature and curt exchange, but to this reporter, it's more relevant to point out the irony of one of the developers telling a citizen that they didn't understand the project.

Never mind that the board made no proactive effort to provide the public with any documents or materials relating to the numerous measures voted on in this first board meeting.

Friends, ask yourself this simple question: How in the world is the public supposed to be informed on a project if everything is done in secret and voted on before the average citizen even knows what's going on?

It's been a recurring theme with this Northport City Council, especially since they voted to enter the public-private partnership agreement early last year with little public discussion or prior notice before the deal was signed in blood.

And on the eve of a crucial vote next week, it should come as little to no surprise that documents recently obtained by Tuscaloosa Patch show major changes to several key aspects of the proposed resort that have yet to be made public.

Winging It

It's been widely reported that the Texas-based developers of the proposed lagoon resort off Harper Road and McFarland Boulevard expect the massive project to bring in $350 million in outside investment, making it the largest economic development project since Mercedes-Benz U.S. International opened its plant in Vance over three decades ago.

As for the taxpayers, the City of Northport has already committed over $20 million in bond money for infrastructure improvements and roughly $61 million in sales tax revenue that's promised to developers they barely know over the 30-year term of the partnership agreement.

Still, using the developer's own words on the University Beach website that was launched several months ago, those outside of Northport might be easily duped into thinking the massive project is already punching tickets and turning a profit. Never mind that the site at present is little more than a wide tract of vacant farmland and an unsightly mound of red dirt.

"Set on 77 acres in beautiful Northport, AL, University Beach offers coastal resort residences, luxe hospitality amenities, boutique shopping, curated dining, world-class entertainment, charming event facilities, and thrilling water activities nestled against 10 acres of pristine, turquoise water and white sandy beaches."

You can almost feel the sand between your toes and Northport's ocean breeze on your face when reading such a description. But it's a universe away from reality, and the last time I checked, nothing will be offered at least until the target opening date in 2027.

As Patch previously reported, the University Beach Improvement District Board of Directors met in early June for its first formal meeting, where action was taken on several major items without any information provided to the public or Northport elected officials ahead of the meeting.

These approved measures included two fiscal year budgets — each totaling about $86,000 for boring expenses such as advertising, phone bills and insurance — a master special assessment methodology report, the assignment of an investment bank engagement agreement and the issuance of revenue bonds.

ALSO READ: University Beach Improvement District Board Manager Has Long History Of Regulatory Violations

The perceived lack of transparency on the part of the University Beach developers once again became a major talking point among Northport residents. Immediately following the meeting on June 10, Tuscaloosa Patch formally requested a copy of the agenda packet from the meeting that has still not been made public as of the writing of this story.

If you would like to see the full document, please email me at ryan.phillips@patch.com and I'll gladly provide a copy.

Just short of a month after the request, though, public finance consultant and University Beach Improvement District Board Manager Pfilip Hunt of Boca Raton, Florida-based Wrathell Hunt & Associates, provided Patch with the 251-page document Thursday evening.

The dense agenda packet is illuminating in spots, admittedly confusing in others, and substantially altered in some respects from its previous incarnations.

Nevertheless, perhaps the best place to start is a side-by-side analysis of offerings in the original incarnation of the project voted on by the City Council and compared to the latest version considered by the University Beach Improvement District Board of Directors in June.

For example, in an economic impact study dated April 10 that was conducted by Leisure & Travel Advisors, the developers anticipated 144 hotel guestrooms in the phase one Beach Hotel, while the initial proposal presented to the council said the Plaza Hotel in the second phase would feature 150 rooms.

But in the span of just a few weeks, the number of hotel rooms has somehow ballooned to 424 total units, which would make University Beach the single-largest hospitality offering in the entire metropolitan area.

The seemingly quixotic absurdity of so much hotel space comes into even clearer focus when compared to the Embassy Suites in downtown Tuscaloosa, the largest hotel in the metro in terms of occupancy, which has 154 rooms, or Hotel Capstone with 149.

In tandem with the additional hotel rooms, though, developers are also looking to drastically increase the footprint of a planned conference center from 33,800 square feet in April to 45,000 square feet when it was considered in June by the University Beach Improvement District Board of Directors.

As one hospitality official pointed out to me in a past conversation, most in the industry will agree that a 30,000-square-foot convention center is untenable without an onsite hotel that has more than 300 rooms. Still, with the drastic increase in proposed rooms and the amended footprint of the conference center, one can't help but wonder how these numbers are being formed.

This is a recurring theme from the meeting in June, especially as it relates to the residential properties that are already being pre-booked with starting prices just south of a million dollars.

At a time when so many in the middle class are struggling to make ends meet, the starting price for these homes is $800,000.

Indeed, plans in April called for 50 custom single-family residences or "beach houses" — a number that has now increased to 70.

If you consult the University Beach website, however, this number of "meticulously crafted beach homes" splits the difference at 64. So who can say for sure?

What's even more interesting, though, is the fresh mention of 275 multi-family units being incorporated into the development, which was included in the benefit allocation section of the agenda from the board meeting in June. It's worth pointing out here that "multi-family" units were only mentioned once before — in the initial proposal — with the developer first expecting to build 250 multi-family homes on a four-acre parcel.

Can you see a pattern developing here?

Another noticeable conflict can be found in anticipated visitor numbers, and many readers will likely recall when developer Kent Donahue's initial presentation in February 2024 predicted up to 440,000 annual visitors to University Beach.

Then you have April's economic impact report, which showed an expected 619,000 visitors in the third year of operation. The consulting firm pointed out that this would be when visitor numbers are expected to stabilize.

Now fast-forward to June and, for some reason, that number of annual visitors has increased to 644,000. And never mind that the updated numbers for its second year fluctuate from 613,000 total visitors in April's study, compared to 626,000 in the most recent numbers.

So, dear reader, I ask ... where are these numbers coming from?

While the origins of this data are likely of little relevance for the sake of our discussion, I'd insist we focus on what these numbers signify, so allow me to editorialize in closing.

As seen with the less-contentious Sports Illustrated resort planned for Tuscaloosa, it should be obvious to developers and public officials alike that the only way to garner public support is to be transparent and solicit the public's input during every phase of the project.

This was never the case in Northport, from the moment the wide-eyed City Council, desperate for a win ahead of the next election cycle, impulsively entered into a partnership agreement for a $350 million resort, to when developer Kent Donahue smugly refused to take questions from the public at the end of June's board meeting.

Northport citizens have been snubbed with little more than token input to their elected officials and the developers over the last year and a half, never once having any real say in such a consequential matter that will undoubtedly impact our community for years to come.

Northport City Hall is over the proverbial barrel, and it's not hard to see who is giving the marching orders, especially when you consider the controversy stirred up in March when Northport City Administrator Glenda Webb unilaterally appointed developer John Hughes as one of the city's representatives on the Visit Tuscaloosa Board of Directors.

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Webb insisted at the time that the articles of incorporation for Visit Tuscaloosa did not clearly define how to appoint members of funding agencies outside of the City of Tuscaloosa and insisted Hughes was appointed because he "has worked in the tourism industry for a number of years, he seemed to be a natural fit to engage on a growing tourism economy in the local community."

Indeed.

This reporter would respectfully wager that Hughes, who has only been active in our community since early last year, likely needs a GPS to find the Visit Tuscaloosa office but was handed a pretty influential spot on the local tourism board that otherwise could have been occupied by an actual Northport resident who is invested in our community.

Even more concerning is the track record of the University Beach Improvement District's Board Manager Pfilip Hunt — the newest player in this saga, who will be presiding over the board meetings like a chairperson.

As Patch previously reported, the Florida-based consultant has a well-documented track record of federal regulatory violations and controversies with public projects in Alabama.

To drive this point home, it has to be mentioned here that Daphne City Councilman Gus Palumbo said in February 2012 that an accusation against Hunt “scares the hell out of me," after Hunt's firm was initially considered to help the city refinance a bond issuance.

And while supporters of University Beach, if they actually exist, are likely to justify Hunt's offenses documented by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as a "cost of doing business," most of us Northport natives believe that the city shouldn't be in league with someone who has terrified public officials and had their license suspended for malfeasance.

What's Next?

Northport Planning & Zoning Administrative Official Kevin Turner deserves a medal or at least a healthy pat on the back for his efforts on the evening of June 10.

This meeting saw the developers and engineers scramble to cover their tails as the preliminary plat approval that was eventually tabled would have allowed them to begin selling residential lots, the revenue from which will likely be used to finance the early stages of the project.

Keep in mind, friends, local realtors closely connected to this City Council administration began hawking the non-existent properties on social media the day after the Council voted to enter the partnership agreement. With so much of the project sussed out in the shadows among an exclusive cabal, this represented a departure from unwritten decorum, where all shame and modesty were cast aside for the sake of selling homes that don't even have the statutory approval to be built.

Politically radioactive former Northport City Council President Jeff Hogg, who resigned in March 2024 just weeks after the city entered the partnership agreement, even posted on social media in May that he "just got a text message from a University of Alabama football coach ready to do a pre-sale on one of the luxury houses at Hogg-Land ... I mean University Beach.

"The ones that chirp the loudest on social media are not reflective to the overwhelming support this project has," he added.

Apart from Hogg's poor grammar and blustering arrogance on social media, the fact that he's admitting to fielding calls for pre-sale listings of University Beach properties over a year after leaving office should be pretty illuminating.

"[R]espectfully, I'm flattered that I am still thought of but can I just be a citizen now? My family has taken enough," Hogg told Patch in July 2024. "[I] couldn't tell you if a board was formed or who the council chose. … I don't even look at council meetings or minutes any longer. I just want to be a citizen."

But let's return to the P&Z meeting on June 10.

Indeed, apart from Turner, the other appointed members of the advisory commission asked irrelevant, stuffed-shirt questions or offered hollow commentary for the sake of being seen and heard, all while Turner stood firm in holding the University Beach developers to the standards they'd agreed upon.

Had Turner not presided over that meeting, this toothless group of appointed officials likely would've voted the measure through without batting an eyelash, before hugging Kent Donahue's neck and buying him dinner on the city's reimbursable dime after the meeting.

Turner's concerns were quite surgical, too, absent of political grandstanding and buttressed by his commitment to parliamentary procedure.

Northport planning officials stumbled over their words and visibly tried their best to shepherd the preliminary plat approval past the Commission, but Turner doubled down on his questions about certain requirements of the proposal that had not been met by the developer.

When it was clear that Turner was going to hold his ground until he had a real answer, a befuddled representative from TTL, Inc. came to the lectern and quickly agreed to table the vote on the preliminary plat approval until Tuesday, July 8.

As Patch previously reported, this represented a far cry from an indignant Kent Donahue sticking out his chin to the Northport Planning & Zoning Commission in April when he pretty much dared them to vote him down under the threat of legal action after he informed the Commission that he wouldn't entertain tabling a request for the creation of a special tax district for University Beach.

Again, can you see who seems to hold the cards here?

This resulted in a split 3-3 vote by the Planning and Zoning Commission and an unfavorable recommendation being passed on to a City Council that Donahue has by the throat.

Still, whether these political theatrics had been rehearsed behind closed doors ahead of the meeting or not, this instance showed the public that it was possible to catch these smug interlopers with their pants around their ankles in broad daylight.

And that's the perspective I want so badly for our community to understand — this fight isn't over and these developers aren't invincible, regardless of the facade they try to sell you during public meetings.

So friends, I'd encourage you to attend Tuesday's Planning & Zoning Commission meeting and make damn sure everyone in City Hall knows we as a community stand firm against this albatross of a $350 million resort in a Northport cow pasture.

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The views expressed in this column are his own and in no way a reflection of our parent company or sponsors. Contact him at ryan.phillips@patch.com