(a) The Authority is created for the following purposes:
(1) Implement the Plan for the Re-use of Roosevelt Roads Naval Station to be drafted by the Authority for Local Development.
(2) Follow-up on all and any transactions made by the effective date of this act by the Authority for Local Development.
(3) Obtain the designation by the Department of Defense as Authority for Local Development in charge of implementing the Plan for the Re-use of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station.
(4) Direct, supervise, regulate and maintain the economic development of the land and facilities of the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station.
(5) Conduct other activities deemed convenient and pertinent to the purposes of this chapter.
(b) In order to achieve the above purposes, the Authority is conferred, and shall have and may exercise, all the rights and powers necessary and convenient to make the same effective, including the following but without limiting their general nature:
(1) Have the force and effect of a public corporation for a period o[f] ten years as of the date of approval of this act.
(2) Adopt, alter and use a corporate seal of which judicial acknowledgement shall be taken.
(3) Draft, adopt, amend and repeal statutes for the administration of its corporate affairs and those norms, rules and regulations necessary or pertinent to exercise and carry out its functions, powers and duties.
(4) Have full control over all its properties.
(5) Determine the nature and the need for all expenses and the manner in which these are to be incurred, authorized and paid, without taking into consideration any provision of law which regulates the expenditure of public funds and such a determination shall be final and firm for all officials of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It shall also adopt certain rules for the use and disbursement of its funds and be subject to the intervention of the Office of the Comptroller of Puerto Rico.
(6) Sue and be sued under its own name, complain and defend itself in all courts of justice and administrative bodies and participate in commercial arbitration procedures.
(7) Negotiate and exercise with any person, including any federal or Commonwealth government agency, all types of contract, including but without it being construed as a limitation, administrative concession contracts pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, lease contracts, sublease contracts, surface rights contracts and all those instruments and agreements needed or convenient to exercise the powers and functions conferred upon the Authority by this chapter.
(8) Produce or contract for the production of plans, projects and budgetary costs for among other things, the design, construction, reconstruction, extension, improvement, expansion, repair, operation, maintenance or financing of any installation of the Naval Station, including the modification of said plans, projects and budgets.
(9) Design, build, reconstruct, expand, repair, maintain, finance or operate any installation the Authority may deem necessary or convenient to achieve its purposes or contract third parties to carry out any of these actions.
(10) Acquire any property inside the Naval Station or within a radius of five hundred (500) meters of the latter through any legal means, including but without limitation, through a purchase agreement, through the exercise of eminent domain initiated directly by the Authority in its own name, subject to the provisions of Section 9, subsection (d), or initiated by the Commonwealth at the request of the Authority, as provided by subsection (b) of § 3051g of this title, or through offer, legacy or donation, and to possess, conserve, use and exploit any property it may deem necessary or convenient to achieve the purposes of the Authority.
(11) Exchange, sell, in this case with the prior authorization of the Legislature, lease, encumber and dispose of in any other way, of any property of the Authority when deemed proper, necessary, incidental or convenient in connection with its activities.
(12) Appoint and discharge those officers, agents or employees and grant them those faculties, impose those duties and fix, change and pay them the compensation the Authority may determine.
(13) Take money on loan and issue Authority bonds, with the prior authorization of the Legislature of Puerto Rico, in order to provide funds for covering the cost for acquiring or building any property of the Authority or to carry out any of its corporate ends or for the purpose of refinancing, paying or redeeming any or its outstanding bonds or obligations. It may also guarantee the payment of its bonds and of the bonds of any of its subsidiaries and of all or any of its obligations or the obligations of any of its subsidiaries through assignment, pledge, mortgage or any other lien on all or any of its contracts, revenues, income or property.
(14) Accept donations from any person and use the product of any of said donations for any corporate purpose.
(15) Create through resolution those subsidiary corporations it may deem convenient to achieve the purposes of this chapter and transfer, lend or donate funds or any of its properties to such subsidiary corporations or guarantee any of its obligations; Provided, That said subsidiary corporations created through resolution shall be public corporations possessed entirely by the Authority. The same shall have the powers and duties that have been conferred by the Authority under the provisions of this chapter and that at the same time have been assigned to said subsidiary corporations by the Board; further, Provided, That the Board shall appoint the members of the Board of Directors of any of such subsidiary corporations.
(16) Acquire, possess and dispose of stock, shares in partnerships, the rights of members, contracts, bonds or other interest of other corporations or private partnerships and exercise any and all powers or rights it may have over these.
(17) Procure insurance against losses for the amounts and with the insurers deemed desirable, whose insurance may include, without it being construed as a limitation, insurance against civil liability for directors, officers, agents and employees.
(18) Exercise all those other corporate powers that are not incompatible with those herein expressed which, according to the laws of Puerto Rico, are conferred upon private corporations and exercise all those powers, in and outside of Puerto Rico, to the same degree to which a natural person would or might do.
(19) Conduct all acts or take all measures needed or convenient to enforce the powers conferred by this chapter or by any other law of the Legislature of Puerto Rico or of the Congress of the United States.
(20) Accept donations from individuals, corporations or any other entity or person to achieve the purposes of the Authority.
History —Sept. 29, 2004, No. 508, § 6.