by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The two-phase, $146 million Strand project on the Southbank between Riverplace Tower and the Radisson has hit an environmental snag that shouldn’t affect the project’s overall time line, but has already delayed the start of construction.
Several weeks ago, standard soil samples were taken at the site. The results of those samples indicated unacceptable levels of petroleum residue and arsenic. The developer — American Land Housing Group, Inc. of North Miami Beach — has asked the City to declare the site a brownsfield area. Such a designation would enable the developers to tap state and federal funds for a portion of the abatement process. And, it’s a practice quite common for many downtown Jacksonville developments.
“Most of downtown is a brownsfield area. Most of the riverfront at one point was shipyards,” said Jeannie Fewell, director of the City’s Planning & Development Department, adding that those long forgotten shipyards often left behind contaminated soil.
Deena Wells, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said the State is handling the arsenic clean up and the City’s Regulatory/Environmental Services Department is handling the petroleum contamination. Neither process, because of the preliminary levels of contamination found, will be easy.
“We did a Phase II environmental site assessment back in June,” explained Wells. “The levels found were none to the 20s in the preliminary data. Point eight is our target level for clean up, so it’s a high number.
“We are working with the property owner and the developer to enter into a brownsfield facilitated clean up agreement. The pilot testing has started, but there is no schedule yet.”
Wells said it was impossible to determine the cost of remediating the arsenic — a white powder used in weed killers and rat poison — at this point.
“We have no idea,” said Wells. “It will depend on what kind of levels we get in the contamination assessment.”
Fewell said the levels weren’t outrageous or anything that could potentially kill the development altogether.
“It’s something that can be cleaned up,” said Fewell. She also said developers quite often take advantage of brownsfield designations, regardless the size of the project. “Very small amounts come through here. The brownsfield money is well-known by some of the developers.”
Early this year, City Council approved $19 million in economic incentives for the project which was supposed to be under construction by now. Plans are for the first phase — a 32-story residential tower with 362 units, a 622-space parking garage and a public park — to be completed early in 2005. Jacksonville Economic Development Commission executive director Kirk Wendland said the remediation process should not adversely affect that schedule.
“I don’t think that will have any affect on the project,” said Wendland.
The brownsfield designation is currently in the form of a resolution introduced to Council last week and is on the Council Finance Committee’s agenda next week. The resolution, however, is not an attempt to get the City to fund the entire clean up, but just one of the bureaucratic hoops the developers must jump through. Most of the money will come from another source.
“They will probably get federal assistance for the brownsfield money,” said Ken Pinnix, the brownsfield coordinator for Planning & Development. “That funding comes from two sources: state or federal money and it’s really one big pool.”
Wendland said the environmental issue is also causing an ownership dilemma. The financial institution backing the project is hesitant to sign off on the deal until the property is contaminant free.
“Obviously, the buyer [developer] has not closed on the property and will not until they can get the environmental remediation done,” said Wendland. “They should close late this fall. I talked to them about four weeks ago and they did indicate all things looked good on the financial front and concerning their market study. The project will kick off as soon as they get the property situation done. It will be the latter part of the year before that happens.”
The delay may actually benefit the City. According to stipulations within the contract, if American Land Housing hasn’t broken ground on Phase II of the project — a 36-story tower with a 412-space parking garage and a seven-story office tower with another 258 parking spaces — by early in the first quarter of 2005 the City may use the undeveloped portion of the site as a staging area during the 2005 Super Bowl.
“If they are already into Phase II we can’t use it,” said Wendland.