by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
It’s been over two years since the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission awarded Signet Development the rights to overhaul three crumbling buildings downtown. However, work has yet to begin on the $35 million deal, and according to City insiders, answers are few and far between.
As part of the development deal, Signet agreed to restore the City-owned Bisbee, Florida Life and Marble Bank buildings at the corner of West Forsyth and Laura streets, filling them with retail, residential and office tenants.
The City was to supply a low interest $11 million loan and a $3 million grant from the Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
In December, Signet representatives said the City Council would get a chance to look at the proposal by the first of the year, but so far nothing has been introduced.
Now, JEDC executive director Kirk Wendland says the development team is reevaluating the agreement.
“Right now the project developers are looking into the validity of the project and the viability of the market,” said Wendland, who declined further comment, leading some to speculate the deal may be dying or already dead. Wendland also said the JEDC is reevaluating the deal.
“It’s obvious they can’t do it for what they said they could do it for,” said Council member Suzanne Jenkins.“They can’t deliver on their end of the deal, so I say let’s take back the buildings and sit on them until the timing is right, until we can find another developer who thinks they’re as valuable as we do.”
Jenkins, who has been publicly opposed to the Signet deal for some time, has already communicated her feelings to Mayor John Peyton and his staff in recent meetings.
“They know how I feel about this and I have been pushing them to take a real good look at it,” she said. “They need to.”
Not only is she against the City issuing a low interest loan payable at 2 percent over 20 years, Jenkins said the funds being drained from the Historic Trust Fund could be better spent.
“I’ve said from the beginning that I don’t think we should give be giving them $3 million, that we needed a better deal than that,” she said. “Now (Signet) isn’t even doing anything with it. Nothing has happened and that money is just sitting there tied up.”
Others who were ultimately passed over for the development deal, said they could have made major strides by now.
“It’s disappointing,” said Mike Langton, managing partner of LB Jax Development.
As part of his original proposal, Langton wanted to adapt the buildings for retail and residential purposes. AmSouth Bank was to serve as a possible anchor.
“Those buildings continue to deteriorate because there doesn’t appear to be any kind of time frame or deadline for the other development team to adhere to.
“I say either do the deal or don’t, because I know we’d like another option to proceed.”
Calls to Signet seeking comment were not returned.