by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The Police and Fire Pension Fund will ask for $5 million in City incentives to help turn a pair of crumbling buildings into a mixed-use residential development.
Fund administrator John Keane said Wednesday that renovating the dilapidated Marble Bank and Bisbee buildings will cost about $12 million total. Keane has long said incentives would be necessary. The cost to shore up the buildings and remove hazardous materials such as asbestos, lead paint and toxic mold would make the project too costly otherwise, he said.
Keane noted that the Fund’s request would amount to less than half the City incentives requested by the buildings’ previous developer, Signet Development. However Signet planned to renovate a third building, the adjacent Florida Life Building. The Fund is setting aside plans for that building for now, Keane said, focusing instead on the Marble Bank and Bisbee buildings, which are in better condition.
The Fund’s redevelopment plans, including the incentive request, will require approval from the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the City Council. But first the Fund will have to get an extension on its Dec. 31 deadline to present the plans.
Keane said the extension was the City’s idea. An e-mail from JEDC Deputy Director Jeanne Miller to members of the mayor’s staff said the commission needed the extra time to identify potential funding sources for the project, to finish negotiations with the Fund and to present the agreement to the JEDC and Council.
City attorneys are preparing the extension request for introduction Dec. 5 to Council committees.
The City wants an additional 90-120 days, but Keane thinks an extra 60 days will be sufficient. At the JEDC’s request, Keane will present the extension to the Council.
“They want us to do the asking and they said they will support us,” said Keane.
After months of prep work, the buildings are near ready for renovation, said Keane. Despite the expected delay, Keane said the buildings should be ready to open by the end of 2006.
“I made a promise to Mayor [John] Peyton to have those buildings back on line by then,” said Keane. “It’s a scant year away so we won’t be sitting on our hands.”
The buildings, known as the Laura Street Trio, were given to the Fund in December 2004 in exchange for a $3 million credit on the City’s annual pension fund contribution. Signet previously intended to turn the buildings into office condominiums. When those plans lagged, the City turned them over to the Fund for residential development.