by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
Talk about a blessing in disguise. When downtown auto body shop Sikes & Stowe received a letter from the City in 1995 saying their property was about to be condemned through eminent domain, their first instinct was, “No way.”
Now, seven years later, the oldest body shop in Jacksonville, started by Buddy Sikes’ grandfather in 1926, has tripled its business at its new building on West Monroe Street and is looking to expand the existing facility to accommodate a growing client base and a growing downtown.
“We were skeptical at first, but this really turned out to work to our advantage,” said Sikes, from an office surrounded by a fleet of freshly painted Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz cars. “The City was very helpful in making sure that we could relocate to a good location and continue to operate our business.”
The property the City wanted is catercorner to where Sikes is now, on Monroe Street between Broad and Jefferson streets, next to LaVilla. The City wanted the land because a new facility was in the works for Elkins Construction, a company that was going to add more jobs to downtown and accelerate redevelopment.
The city is legally able to condemn land if a new facility will contribute to ending blight.
The first step for Sikes, upon the recommendation of a client who is also a lawyer, was to call condemnation attorney David Foerster, who has been defending property owners who run up against the laws of eminent domain — the right of government authorities to seize land for public use — for 50 years, then coordinates the logistics of getting due compensation for land taken and money lost. That includes hiring engineers and appraisers to study the cost of the property and relocation expenses and then comparing that to similar sales in the neighborhood and previous situations with similar industries.
“We started looking for property in the suburbs, like Mandarin or the Westside, that we could afford,” said Sikes. “But the City was interested in keeping businesses downtown, so we started talking.”
According to Sikes, the City paid for the land, the existing building, relocation costs, appraisals and lawyers fees. Then they cut a deal on City-owned property practically across the street. What resulted is a building that is three times larger than the old one, which was built in 1945, meaning Sikes & Stowe could triple its business. And, Sikes said, the new location is a little easier to navigate so there is generally more consumer interest.
The building conformed to design regulations that the Downtown Development Authority places on land owned by the City — it uses Savannah brick — and fits in with the neighborhood, or at least what they hope the neighborhood will be. City Council had to give the go-ahead for the final design of the new Sikes & Stowe.
Sikes also worked with the City and St. Johns River Water Management District on environmental concerns for the new site because the land needed a retention pond for better drainage.
“We balked about paying for the pond, so the City paid for it,” said Sikes. “They were really more than generous.”
Everything worked so well for Sikes & Stowe they want to buy the property directly behind them, about the size of a quarter city block. Sikes wants to expand to include more parking and perhaps another smaller building.
Sikes & Stowe is one of several companies bidding for the property, which is owned by the City. The process will involve a presentation to the DDA with design concepts and general plans for the space. Sikes said the process does take awhile and there have already been three amendments made to the original plan. But, he said, the DDA, overall, is easy to work with.
“Hopefully, we’ll have an advantage since we own the adjacent land and we have worked well with them in the past,” said Sikes.
Al Battle, managing director of the Downtown Development Authority, said that every deal is different.
“There’s really not a whole lot of land left,” said Battle, who took over the top job at DDA about three months ago. “But the City always tries to be amenable to helping out companies that are going to contribute to the revitalization of downtown. There are plenty of ways we can get creative with tax breaks, discounts on land, blending property together and getting property ready for development that doesn’t cost the City that much but can mean a lot to a new company.”
And he noted that because the Central Business District has so much activity in a concentrated area, it’s a lot easier to make those kinds of projects happen.
“It’s a lot harder to make that work in the suburbs, where everything is spread out,” he said. “And as long as we can coordinate scheduling, usually we can accommodate.”
Battle said the DDA takes a common sense approach to working with companies to stay or relocate downtown.
“As long as it’s consistent with the Downtown Master Plan, then we can get involved in a positive way.”
Currently, Battle said, his attention is focused on the Brooklyn area near Riverside, where the new entrances from I-10 and I-95 will mean more traffic and greater accessibility.
“This whole area is really booming,” said Sikes. “Law firms and dental offices are moving in near LaVilla. There’s an architecture firm talking about building across the street. We want to be in the middle of the action.”
Sikes remembers when things weren’t so rosy.
“This used to be the roughest section of town,” said Sikes, who had to deal with car break-ins practically daily. “It was all row houses.”
But Sikes said since revitalization began about four years ago, he hasn’t had any crime problems. And that’s in a shop that has expensive cars parked outside year-round.
“It’s really almost perfect here right now,” said Sikes. “Just get started early. The government can help, but they don’t work that fast.”