by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
A national developer is looking at downtown Jacksonville as a possible site for an affordable residential complex targeted at young professionals.
Former state House speaker and real estate consultant John Thrasher told Mayor John Peyton in a June 4 letter that he was bringing Churchill Development Group, of Lake Forest, Ill., to town Friday. Thrasher, a member of Smith, Hulsey and Busey law firm and president of Southern Strategy Group, said the group “expressed their interest in developing a major residential complex in the downtown area.”
The group received approval in February from Orlando’s Municipal Planning Board to build 35-stories of condos in that city’s downtown, according to the board’s meeting minutes. In addition to the more than 300 apartments, the tower would house a health club, a parking garage and 6,000 feet of retail. The condos would start at less than $200,000, targeting young professionals. Thrasher’s letter said Churchill is developing similar projects in Charlotte, Tampa, and Norfolk, Va.
The letter was sent to Peyton under the heading, “Background information for meeting on June 11, 11:30 a.m.” Thrasher said Mike Murray, one of Churchill’s principals, would be in town that day to meet with Peyton. However, mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy said Peyton was not scheduled to meet Friday with the developer or Thrasher.
Thrasher said the group was interested in a couple of locations, specifically mentioning the riverfront parking lot behind the old County Courthouse. The City will likely need that lot until the new courthouse is ready. Construction on the new courthouse is scheduled to finish in late 2007.
The project would meet one of the emerging objectives of the Downtown Development Authority: affordable downtown housing. A recent housing report commissioned by the DDA noted that most of the 1,100 apartments scheduled for construction in the next three years trend toward the the expensive end of downtown’s market.
The report’s author, consultant Ray Rodriguez, president of the Real Estate Strategy Center of Northeast Florida, said a viable market would need to offer apartments for sale at or below the $250,000 market rate.