by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City has again changed its deal with Gateway Mall developers, allowing them more flexibility in repaying incentives that failed to generate jobs as promised.
The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission had already negotiated a deal with Gateway Development Partnership that would have reclaimed from the developer $90,000 in incentives, but reinvested the money into landscaping around the mall. Shortly before that agreement reached the City Council, the deal was changed to keep the money in the developers’ hands.
The new deal means the City won’t collect on the so-called clawback, which was triggered when the mall fell short of job projections. Instead the City will give the developer a $90,000 credit for an estimated $120,000 worth of landscaping improvements that the developer said would be done by January. Much of the work will improve the mall’s parking lots, but the developer has agreed to landscape City land along adjacent 44th Street and around a future Tax Collector’s office site. The deal easily passed through two Council committees and now waits for a full vote.
JEDC officials and the developer said the deal was a good one for both sides. Allowing the developer to keep the money simply eliminated the City as a middle man they said. John Alderson, a JEDC director who worked on the agreement, said it kept the money working in the Northside neighborhood surrounding the mall.
Terry Wood, a partner in the development team who oversees the mall’s operations, said the original $200,000 grant had actually created close to 300 jobs. The money was spent to install a sewage pump that drew a Publix to the mall. Several retail and office tenants followed the shopping center in.
Publix promised to create 150 jobs but only added 80. But when jobs from subsequent tenants are counted, Wood said the number is close to 290.
Wood said the addition of a Publix revitalized the mall and provided a necessary amenity to the Northside.
“We think it was a really good use of economic development funds,” said Wood. “The Publix was really needed here, and it’s been embraced by the community. It’s always packed, it does a great business.”
Still the JEDC would prefer not to make a habit out of granting credits for clawbacks. Spokesperson Jill Leavy said the deal wasn’t meant to set a precedent. She called it “a specific solution to a specific project.”