The Holocaust Documentation and Education Center sought sanctuary in Hollywood for its more than 6,000 artifacts recording the trials and tribulations of the Holocaust and its survivors, but the Museum may need to find a home elsewhere now that the City of Hollywood has ordered the repayment of a $1.7 million loan – a loan the Museum said it cannot afford to pay back.
In 2004, the Holocaust Center bought a three-story building from the Community Redevelopment Agency for $1.2 million to relocate from its location at Florida International University to Downtown Hollywood on Harrison Street. The Holocaust Center would pay back the loan, plus interest, over 15 years. However, the Museum believed the City would eventually forgive its debt because of discussions with city officials verbally stating the scenario was possible, said former state Sen. Steve Geller, the attorney representing the Museum.
“Former Mayor Mara Giulianti thought (the Center) would be a tremendous asset to bring people to Downtown Hollywood,” Geller said. “The then-mayor tried to entice them to come. There had been discussions about changing the terms of the lease.”
But, during the Sept. 7 City Commission meeting, commissioners voted to declare the Holocaust Center in default, forcing the Museum to begin paying $16,000 monthly loan payments or face foreclosure because the City has “cut every possible break we could,” said Mayor Peter Bober.
Since the City faces a $38 million budget gap and has needed to cut employees’ salaries, city commissioners said they cannot afford to forgive the debt. But, the Museum would repay the loan to the Downtown CRA, which is separate from the City’s general fund. The funds cannot transfer according to state law. City attorney and CRA general counsel Jeffrey Sheffel said, however, that the Downtown CRA faces as bad of a financial situation as the City and needs the money to operate.
Unable to repay the loan, the Museum has repeatedly asked the City to forgive its debt, especially since it has put millions into fixing the 60-year-old building. Two months after the Museum bought the building from the CRA, it had to fix a leaking roof and disintegrating façade, replace the air conditioning, tear out the second floor, and bring the elevator and bathrooms up to code, Geller said.
“They have spent about $3 million to date trying to fix all the stuff that the City had told them was in good shape,” he added. “The City sold them a white elephant.”
However, Sheffel said nobody prevented the Holocaust Center from doing its own inspection of the building prior to purchasing it from the CRA. In addition, he said the City has already recognized that the Museum has spent a significant amount of money repairing the building, so it forgave $500,000 of the debt to help the Holocaust Center succeed with its opening.
“The CRA would like to see what it contracted the Center for,” Sheffel said. “They would like to see a facility that draws tourists to the area. And they would like to see their money paid back. That was the deal. We’ve been negotiating with them a long time. It’s not like we just started when Sen. Geller got involved.”
Geller and his co-workers at Greenspoon Marder, Attorneys at Law decided to represent the Holocaust Center not only because they felt indignant about how the Museum was being treated but also because they think it has a lot to offer.
The Center’s primary mission is to preserve, protect and perpetuate the authentic memory of the Holocaust by creating a permanent and irrefutable record of the testimonies of survivors, liberators and rescuers with these eyewitness accounts continuing to forge, enrich and enhance the process of Holocaust education in creating a living memorial through education, according to its website.
Founded in 1980 as a nonsectarian, nonprofit, multifaceted organization, the Museum has achieved international acclaim and recognition for maintaining the largest, self-produced, standardized oral history library collection. Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Raoul Wallenberg Project and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have all sought the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center’s expertise in developing their projects. The Holocaust Center also features a reference and research library which contains more than 6,000 volumes of Holocaust-related books and hundreds of DVDs and videos.
The future of the Museum and its artifacts in Hollywood, though, remains uncertain.
In April, the City appraised the building located at 2031 Harrison St. at $915,000 – a number Geller said was nowhere close to correct. He said the building is worth closer to $450,000 because of the cost of repairs. Geller said the Museum would consider paying off the loan for the right amount, pending negotiations and pending the right property appraisal. They have not disregarded that option.
The other option: fight the City in court for years.
“The Center has so much to offer,” Geller said, “and if the City doesn’t want them, then someone else will.”
For more information about the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center, visit www.hdec.org.
