About a month after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis installed a new majority on the board that runs Orlando International Airport, a lobbyist at a firm owned by one of the governor’s biggest fundraisers registered to represent a new client before the agency.
The lobbyist was Chris Dorworth, a former Republican state lawmaker from Seminole County who now works for the Tallahassee-based lobbying firm Ballard Partners. And the client Dorworth signed up to represent before the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority was called Generational Capital Partners LLC, a 2-year-old company based in Detroit that airport leaders say they had never heard of before.
But corporate records in Michigan show that company was set up by a senior executive at a much larger firm that airport officials know quite well -- Walbridge Co., a major construction contractor that is suing the agency over a baggage-handling project gone bad.
The litigation has dragged on for three years and mediation has so far proven fruitless. Walbridge wants approximately $10 million more than the airport authority has offered in settlement negotiations, according to airport records.
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Dorworth, who withdrew as an airport lobbyist two weeks ago, described Generational Capital Partners as a “shared family office” that is separate from Walbridge. Walbridge is run by John Rakolta Jr. who is a major Republican Party donor nationally. Rakolta Jr. and Ballard Partners founder Brian Ballard have raised money together for President Donald Trump and former GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, among others; Rakolta Jr. was such a valuable supporter of Trump’s that the president has nominated him to be ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
State records show that Generational Capital Partners has paid Ballard Partners at least $20,000 so far since hiring the firm in April. Brian Ballard, an important fundraiser for DeSantis, registered to represent the company in Tallahassee. Dorworth registered to represent the company both in Tallahassee and before the Orlando aviation authority.
Dorworth said the lobbying firm has been hired “to make introductions to facilitate potential business and to help them navigate the state of Florida.” He said he never did any actual lobbying at the Orlando airport authority on the company’s behalf in the five months he was registered to lobby the agency.
“I have never represented Walbridge and have never been directly or indirectly asked by anyone at Walbridge or Generational Capital Partners to take any action regarding anything at that airport,” he said. “Our registration existed for if and when potential business presented itself.”
The Orlando aviation authority has been engulfed in controversy in the months since DeSantis put four new people on its seven-member board. The four DeSantis appointees, plus a fifth board member appointed by previous Gov. Rick Scott, last month voted to replace the agency’s top lawyer, whose firm is part of the litigation team in the Walbridge lawsuit. The board members voted to replace that firm with two others as the aviation authority’s general counsel, at least for the next six months.
Dorworth has been involved in some of the changes. He helped one board member get an appointment from DeSantis. He encouraged another board member to support the plan to hire new general counsels. And one of the new attorneys expected to take on some of the airport work, Lowndes shareholder Tara Tedrow, has also represented Dorworth on an unrelated housing development in Seminole County.
Dorworth said he decided to withdraw as an airport lobbyist because he wants to focus on lobbying for clients in Tallahassee. Airport leaders say the lawyers brought in as interim general counsels won’t have a role in the Walbridge litigation. The airport board is expected to vote on six-month contracts for the new firms on Wednesday.
It’s not clear what exactly Generational Capital Partners does or what type of business it would seek at the airport. On the registration paperwork submitted to the Orlando aviation authority, Dorworth said the company was involved in “investment clubs.”
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The company is a mystery to airport leaders. Phil Brown, the airport CEO, said he is not aware of any contacts between Generational Capital Partners and any airport staffers or board members.
“I have no way of knowing what Generational Capital Partners’ interest in the aviation authority is or was because I have had no contact or communication with the company or their lobbyist,” Brown said.
Michigan records show the company was set up in 2017 by Tom Dyze, an executive vice president and the chief risk officer at Walbridge. Its address matches Walbridge’s corporate headquarters inside the same suite in a downtown Detroit office building.
Rakolta Jr., the Walbridge chairman and CEO, and his wife, Terry, own a 7,200-square-foot waterfront home in Palm Beach where, earlier this year, they hosted an evening reception to raise money for greyhound adoptions. The attendees included U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Republican congressman from the Panhandle who advised DeSantis on his Orlando airport board appointments, and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is now a Ballard Partners lobbyist.
Gaetz said he doesn’t know Rakolta well and that he has never talked to him about his businesses.
Rakolta Jr., Dyze and other executives at Walbridge did not respond to requests for comment.
The litigation between Walbridge and the Orlando aviation authority, which dates back to 2016, is unusual. Aviation authority leaders say Walbridge is one of only two contractors that have filed construction lawsuits against the agency in the past decade.
The dispute centers primarily around a roughly $35 million contract Walbridge signed with GOAA in February 2013 to build new baggage-handling facilities at OIA. Airport officials say Walbridge fell “drastically” behind schedule on the project and then stopped cooperating with the agency, prompting them to cancel the contract.
Walbridge, which does work at airports across Florida, sued. The company said the aviation authority’s decision to cancel the contract triggered a provision in the deal entitling Walbridge to the costs it had already incurred plus a “reasonable” profit.
Walbridge hasn’t yet said precisely how much the company thinks it is owed. But the aviation authority says the claims appear to be for more than $17 million. At the same time, the aviation authority contends it has countervailing claims against Walbridge worth more than $2.5 million -- putting the total amount in dispute at close to $20 million.
The aviation authority offered about $7 million to settle the dispute last year, but it says Walbridge rejected the offer. The authority recently lost an appeal to the 5th District Court of Appeal in which it attempted to have Walbridge forced to comply with an out-of-court dispute resolution process. The lawsuit has spawned additional litigation, as well, in which Walbridge has sued the aviation authority for refusing to comply with public-records requests that the agency says have already cost it more than $180,000.
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