By J. PATRICK PEPPER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Local real estate investor Hakim Fakhoury said Friday he was close to obtaining insurance on a leased city parking lot, a step that would allow city officials to extend his preferred development agreement for a west downtown project.
The two sides agreed in late May to extend the agreement until the end of the year if Fakhoury acquired the policy. Per their negotiations, the policy had to be in place by today or Mayor John O’Reilly Jr.’s authority to extend the agreement would be rescinded.
The insurance issue has proved problematic since the outset of Fakhoury’s Dearborn Village Partners Limited Liability Co. dealings with the city. DVP initially was awarded a lease on the Garrison street parking lot between Howard and Military as part of a 2005 development proposal.
Terms of the lease required that liability insurance be obtained so that, for example, someone who suffered an injury in the lot couldn’t sue the city. However, finding an underwriter for the policy has been tough, Fakhoury and city officials have said previously, because of confusion on the part of insurance companies about who owns the lot and what specifically would be insured.
But according to an e-mail from Fakhoury, the search for a carrier could be over.
“I did just get a positive response form the city’s agent that he thinks he has (a policy) taken care of,” Fakhoury wrote.
Asked if that meant he would be able to enter into the PDA by today, he responded, “God willing, yes.”