Daily Report has obtained a copy of the five-year lease agreement between Recovery Innovations Inc., the private company that will operate the Bridge Center for Hope, and Collis Temple Jr., who owns the Florida Boulevard building that will house the new taxpayer-funded psychiatric stabilization and detox center.
Temple, who was a board member at the time the Bridge Center board decided to locate the facility in his building but has since stepped down, made the document available. Hours earlier, reports surfaced that RII and the Bridge Center board refused a records request for the document, saying the lease was not a public document because it was privately negotiated between RII and Temple’s firm.
The Bridge Center is publicly funded by a dedicated property tax that generates some $6 million a year and was approved by voters in December 2018.
Despite RII’s position, Temple told Daily Report earlier today he believes in transparency and had no problem making the document public. Temple sent the lease to the Bridge Center board’s attorney, Murphy Foster III, who forwarded the document to the media.
The general lease amount—$1.1 million over five years—was already known. But the details had not been disclosed until now.
Daily Report is currently reviewing the document and will update this story as more details become available.
