by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The reluctance of downtown residential developments to report their occupancy rates is wearing thin the patience of the Downtown Development Authority.
During the DDA’s Wednesday meeting, member David Auchter said their reticence is making it difficult to predict how much downtown residential development is necessary.
“We have at least three residential projects I can think of just of the top of my head that are going to be coming our way in the next few months,” said Auchter. “How can we evaluate the potential success of those projects if we don’t know what’s going on with projects we have now.”
The discussion emerged following questions to DDA managing director Al Battle about reservation rates at The Shipyards development and Berkman Plaza’s occupancy rate. Battle conceded “that has been a hard number to get out of them [Berkman].”
DDA chairman Bob Rhodes said the occupancy rates were an essential component of a planned feasibility study for downtown residency. Considering lucrative incentives given by the City to developments such as Berkman, he said it was time for the developments to answer.
“We should give some thought on how to push a little harder to get occupancy numbers,” said Rhodes. “It definitely will affect our action on applications that we’re soon to get. This is time sensitive.”
DDA member James Citrano said Florida’s open records laws could be partially to blame. He said developers were reluctant to share information that they knew would show up in the media. Because the City has granted millions in tax-funded incentives to the projects, information passed to the City is public record. Citrano said the DDA should look for a partial way around Florida’s Sunshine Law.
“There’s got to be some way to get the information without it becoming public information,” said Citrano.