by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
At a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday for The Strand on the Southbank, Mayor John Peyton ditched the traditional chrome plated shovel for something with a bit more power.
After hopping into a diesel backhoe and receiving a quick tutorial from the machine’s operator, Peyton went to work.
Thursday’s ceremony marked the beginning of vertical construction on The Strand, a riverfront 27-story, 295-unit luxury rental apartment community.
The Strand is the first phase of the St. Johns Center development, a three-phase residential project on the Southbank.
The project’s developer, American Land Ventures’ Granvil Tracy, said the new development will bring a new look and new life to the Southbank and the rest of the city.
“This property has been vacant for many years,” said Tracy. “Over the next 30 years, this development will bring more than $100 million in taxes for the City.”
Now that construction is underway, Tracy said the new apartment complex should be completed in 22 months. Construction was pushed back because of extremely wet ground conditions thanks to the string of recent hurricanes, but Tracy said everything is ready to build now.
“We decided to put in the pool first,” he said jokingly.
Along with The Strand tower, Tracy said the first phase of construction will include redeveloping the Southbank Riverwalk. He said the developer has an agreement with the City, which includes refurbishing the Riverwalk’s surface, cleaning up the area and painting certain structures.
Construction on the development’s second phase, a 36-floor, 295-unit condominium tower called The Peninsula, should begin in January, Tracy said. The Peninsula’s construction should take about two years.
Though tenants for the rental apartments won’t be sought until six months before completion, Tina Kicklighter, director of public relations for the Robin Sheppard Group, said more than half of the Peninsula’s condominiums have already been sold. She said advance marketing of the condominiums has been “wildly successful.”
Both towers will feature retail shopping and cafes that will be accessible to the public, she said.
Once completed, constuction costs for The Strand will be about $55 million and The Peninsula will cost about $100 million. Kicklighter said the total cost for the three-phase project can not be projected because of the uncertainty of the last phase.
The third phase of the St. Johns Center is still in the conception stage, but Kicklighter said it might include an office building.