FORT LAUDERDALE — The politically powerful developers of the Brickell Station entertainment complex have obtained free parking for their customers in a Broward County-owned garage for the next 50 years.

The agreement will cost the city and county at least $250,000 a year — the amount they would have made under a city proposal to operate the garage for the county and charge 75 cents an hour for parking.

County Commissioner John Rodstrom and his colleagues said they agreed to the one-of-a-kind deal for free parking because they want to do all they can to help Brickell Station succeed and help revitalize downtown.

“People will say, ‘Why are they giving those developers such a deal?”‘ said Rodstrom, who represents the downtown area on the County Commission. “They have to look at the big picture.”

Brickell Station is planned as a $47 million complex of theaters, restaurants, bars and shops to be completed by 1995 at Brickell Avenue and the north shore of the New River.

Its developers include Downtown Development Authority Chairman Jack Loos; former County Commissioner George Platt, now an influential lobbyist; developer Pat Procacci; lawyer Dennis Haas; and Austin Forman, a prominent businessman whose family has long been influential in Broward politics.

Rodstrom said he feared the project would crumble without free parking on nights, weekends and holidays in the 1,200-space garage at Southwest Second Street and Brickell Avenue.

Rodstrom said he was told by Loos that if Brickell Station customers were charged to park in the garage, AMC Entertainment would cancel plans for a 24- screen theater there. That, Rodstrom said, would have guaranteed the failure of Brickell Station.

“Had we not been able to sign that parking agreement, AMC would not have come. I guarantee it,” Rodstrom said. “The whole development of Brickell was predicated on the AMC theater.”

But county files contain no mention of AMC threatening to pull out, and other county commissioners said they heard nothing about it. The developers described free parking only as another way to help the project.

AMC regional officials in Tampa said the absence of free parking would not necessarily have killed the deal, but might have pushed costs too high for AMC or the developers to bear. Also, they said, they have found that movie customers don’t like parking fees added onto the price of tickets.

“It’s a project with a lot of risk. From the beginning, there was an assumption there would be free parking. Throwing another factor in there would have made the deal more difficult,” said Rolando Rodriguez, AMC assistant regional manager.

Loos could not be reached on Thursday and Friday. Platt and others involved in the project declined to comment, referring questions to Loos and Harold Adelman, project manager for Brickell Station.

Adelman described the free parking as a boon for residents, not his bosses.

“I think what the county saw was a chance to open up the garage, free of charge, for the total county residents, which would bring more business downtown,” Adelman said. “It’s more conducive for people to come downtown if they have free parking.”

City officials have given considerable concessions to help Brickell Station, seeing it as a chance to rejuvenate the long-blighted riverfront area along Brickell Avenue. They took a $1.55 million loss on the land when they sold it to the Brickell developers this year for $1.3 million. The city had bought the land in 1988 for $2.85 million.

The City Commission also passed a law allowing bars to close at 4 a.m. instead of 2 a.m. in special entertainment complexes such as Brickell Station.

Brickell Station will contain its own 600-space garage beneath the AMC theaters, but Adelman said it would not contain enough free parking for the project.

The county garage is now used by workers at the nearby Governmental Center. It closes at night on weekdays and is not open to the public.

Under the new agreement, the free parking will be available to anyone — restaurants, the Museum of Discovery and Science and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts are nearby — but most parkers are expected to be for Brickell Station.

The developers agreed in the pact to pay for insurance and security guards, and keep the garage clean.

The developers also were given the right to build a pedestrian skywalk between the garage and the movie theater. Plus, county commissioners gave them the right to erect a lighted sign advertising Brickell Station on county property on Southwest First Avenue.

In addition, the agreement says that if the county ever sells the parking garage, it must offer it to the Brickell developers at an unspecified price without competitive bids.

The parking deal killed a proposal by the city to operate the garage for the county on nights, weekends and holidays.

The city had wanted to charge 75 cents an hour for public parking, then split the $250,000 a year with the county. The city has expertise because it already operates a 24-hour, citywide parking system with more than 9,000 spaces and two garages.

City Manager George Hanbury said he dropped his proposal in May so as not to jeopardize the developers’ plan. Hanbury said he has no regrets about the lost income.

“I’d rather have the taxable facility of $30 million than to see the $250,000 we would have gotten,” Hanbury said. “I just felt there should be public use of the parking garage when it’s not being used.”

Brickell’s parking deal was negotiated by Jeff Siniawsky, former assistant Broward County attorney and now an attorney with Platt.

Siniawsky sent a letter to Jim Flood, director of the county’s Office of General Services, in September 1992 saying the Brickell developers would be willing to pay the county “a reasonable fee” for free customer parking.

But, if a fee were paid, the county would have been required by law to put the garage out for a public bid to see whether anyone else wanted to pay the county more money for use of the garage, Flood said.

The county then decided it should go to Brickell Station for no fee at all.

Staff Writer Bob LaMendola contributed to this report.

CONCESSIONS

Some of the concessions Fort Lauderdale has made to Brickell Station developers:

— DECLARED a $1.55 million loss on the sale of the property after involving itself in a complicated land swap with the developers. The land cost the city $2.85 million in 1988.

— WILL BUILD a plaza and bandshell at the end of Brickell Avenue and the New River, as part of the Riverwalk park along the New River.

— PASSED a law to allow 4 a.m. alcohol sales, late-night outdoor music and no restrictions on carrying drinks from bar to bar within Brickell Station and other similarly sized entertainment complexes at the beach and downtown.

— CHANGED its enterprise zone boundaries to take in Brickell Station. The zone allows several tax breaks for employers within it.

— GAVE developers first priority to lease certain commercial dock space on the New River.