by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The law firm of Coffman, Coleman, Andrews and Grogan will likely build an adjacent office building to its West Monroe Street offices, one of the partners said Monday.
Patrick Coleman said his firm would likely exercise an option to buy the LaVilla land from the City before November. Coleman said the land’s use was still to be determined, but said a building and parking would probably fill the vacant lot four blocks west of the new Duval County Courthouse’s construction site.
“I’m pretty sure we go ahead and purchase the parcel,” said Coleman. “You will see a building go up there.”
The option is the second phase of a development deal approved by the City in January 2002. The deal provides the law firm with the option to purchase the property and calls for construction of an 18,000 square–foot office building and parking. The firm used $2.1 million of its own and a $125,000 City grant in phase 1 to build the 20,000 square–foot building that houses its offices. The firm advertises 4,000 square feet of vacant first–floor space in that building.
If the firm decides to buy, it will do so at less than one-third the market price set last month by the City. The option conveys the land to Coffman Coleman at $4 per square foot. The firm paid $2.50 for the phase-one land. City Council members and City planners said in February that $15 per square-foot represented the cheap end of the LaVilla real estate market. They reached that appraisal when they nixed a $5 per square–foot offer for a parcel of West Adams Street land one block south of the Coffman Coleman parcel.
That number was tripled before the Council signed off on the deal. Unlike the West Adams developers — local attorneys A. Russell Smith and Harold S. Lippes — Coffman Coleman already has the City’s approval for their purchase. The deal was negotiated years before area rates began to climb. The chair of the Council’s Finance Committee said last month they were sure to climb further.
“That’s the cheapest it’s ever going to get,” said Warren Alvarez, the Finance chair. “The City’s investing $300 million down there; you think that isn’t going to kick up the land value?”
Jacksonville Economic Development Commission spokesperson Jean Moyer said the City had negotiated only one other multi–phase development deal in the area. She said Ted Pappas’ architectural firm had already exercised a similar option.
Moyer said the first phase of Coffman Coleman’s development would pay the City more than $1 million in property taxes over 20 years.