by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
When City planners and Churchwell Building owner Robert Pavelka first started discussing a condominium project with the potential to jumpstart the Bay Street Town Center, a lack of parking was viewed as the main obstacle. Eighteen months later, plans have been drawn and buyers for the condos have been lined up, but Pavelka is still waiting for the parking.
Pavelka plans to turn his family’s Churchwell Dry Goods Building on the corner of Bay and Market streets into 21 luxury lofts with 9,000 feet of ground-floor retail. City planners agree the project could provide a shot in the arm to the lagging Bay Street entertainment corridor, but finding parking for the project has taken equal parts patience and creativity. Without parking, the project isn’t feasible, said Pavelka.
A vacant, City-owned lot on the corner of Market and Forsyth streets could provide an answer, but Pavelka and the City are still discussing the terms under which Pavelka could use it.
Pavelka said his initial offer was to buy the lot. But the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission has been told by the mayor’s office not to sell, JEDC Deputy Director Jeanne Miller said Monday during the commission’s general meeting.
That’s led to a complicated lease arrangement wherein Pavelka agrees to develop the lot then rent the spaces from the City for $50 a space. Pavelka would then receive rent credits to make up for the development costs.
But that arrangement prompted some criticism from the JEDC board Monday and from City Council member Art Graham.
Graham questioned the monthly $50 per space rate. The Council just raised rates at the City’s downtown garages to $80 per space. That’s downtown’s market rate, according to a City parking consultant.
“Parking has obviously been a hot issue on the Council lately and I’m just looking for some consistency here,” said Graham. “We just raised rates to $80 because our consultant told us that was the market rate.”
Graham said he liked the Churchwell project, but he told Pavelka to expect his rent to climb before the lease receives City Council approval. Pavelka said he was willing to negotiate. He pays $60 for a space in a garage adjacent to the vacant lot, he said.
“The $80 figure is for all of downtown,” he said. “We’re talking about a specific area of downtown where the market isn’t as developed.”
JEDC Commissioner Zim Boulus said he was concerned about a provision in the lease that allows the City within the first five years to take the lot back from Pavelka.
“That could get ugly if you have people who, five years after they buy a condo, don’t have a place to park,” said Boulus.
Following the meeting, both Pavelka and Miller said they didn’t see the provision as a sticking point. Miller pointed out that the lease assures Pavelka of compensatory spaces in most cases if he loses the lot.
Graham said the lease “just seems like craziness coming down the line” and said he’d support the sale of the lot. But Pavelka said he’s interested in whatever arrangement allows him to advance his project before market and financial conditions change. He hopes to put the condominiums on the market by the end of 2006 if parking can be settled early in the year.
“Buying the lot was my first offer, but I don’t want to wait another six months while we negotiate a sale,” he said. “We need to get the momentum moving on Bay Street again. If I can’t move forward with financing arranged and interest from buyers, then you have to wonder when things are going to happen down here.”