by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
National developers have recently come calling in greater numbers to the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. They want City help with permitting and usually a river view, but City planners say that development incentives have been conspicuously absent from their list of demands.
The JEDC and the mayor’s office see the surge of interest as an indicator that the City’s downtown market could be heading toward self-sufficiency. JEDC Director of Business Development Jeanne Miller also takes it as evidence that previous City incentives have accomplished their goal of shaking awake a slumbering downtown market.
“It’s textbook economic development, really,” said Miller. “There’s a point at which it’s particularly helpful to prime the pump, assist with a couple of good projects, which, when they succeed, serve as a catalyst for the entire market.”
Miller said City assistance had clearly taken hold on the Southbank, an area she said was “on the path to self-sustainability.” Other areas of downtown might still require incentives to catch up to development along the river, she said.
The latest national group to show interest in downtown is Churchill Development Group, of Lake Forest Ill. One of the group’s principals, Mike Murray, visited Mayor John Peyton June 11, and is scheduled to meet June 25, with Miller and Downtown Development Authority Managing Director Al Battle to discuss the possibility of building an affordable residential complex downtown.
Mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy said the group told Peyton that the apartment prices targeted $160,000 to start. Churchill has built similar developments aimed at attracting the young professional crowd. The group has similar projects at various stages of development in Charlotte, Tampa, and Norfolk, Va. and just received approval from an Orlando planning board to build 35 stories of condos in that City’s downtown. That building would house 300 apartments, a health club, a parking garage and 6,000 feet of retail.
Murphy said the group was not interested in City incentives. Churchill approached the City after Peyton announced he was suspending the incentives for 60 days, while a four-committee team looks to streamline the JEDC. Peyton has asked for a more focused incentive policy. He wants to spend the City’s money on that will return the most jobs and income and only when it’s necessary.
Without incentives to negotiate, the JEDC could still help Churchill identify potential sites and navigate the City’s permitting process. The group asked specifically about building on the river side parking lot behind the County Courthouse, but Murphy said that site would probably be unavailable until the courthouse moves in late 2007.
“Unless we find somewhere else for the judges to park,” said Murphy. She said the mayor was willing to be innovative if the deal was a good one for downtown.
Miller said she and Battle would discuss the possibility of developing in Brooklyn or LaVilla, sections of the downtown market where redevelopment has lagged.
National developers are particularly attractive to the City, because they generally have enough money to offer less expensive apartments, without City subsidies. Smaller developers typically need to charge more to recoup their development costs. The rare apartment sold for below the market rate in downtown Jacksonville has usually been built with government assistance.
To encourage a diverse, self-sustaining downtown market, the City wants to build at both the high and low ends. 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 expensive end of the market.