by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
After all the talk about restaurants, bars and galleries, it might be parking that gets the Bay Street Towncenter moving.
The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission is in talks with Churchwell Building owner Robert Pavelka over his use of a yet-to-be-built, 38-space
parking lot on Market Street. A lack of parking stands as one of the last hurdles to Pavelka’s plans to turn the building into 21 luxury lofts.
The City thinks that development could provide the Towncenter with built-in demand for the entertainment venues the City seeks to attract to turn the eight-block corridor into downtown’s entertainment district.
“We all recognize the Bay Street Towncenter needs a shot in the arm, and building 21 luxury condo units there could jump start the entire neighborhood,” said JEDC deputy director Jeanne Miller.
The JEDC and Pavelka are discussing a deal that would have Pavelka pay to build surface parking on an empty lot at the corner of Market and Forsyth streets. A City parking consultant estimates the cost at around $78,000. Pavelka would then recoup his investment through rent credits on the lot, which would be used to provide parking for his tenants.
Pavelka likely won’t seek City incentives beyond help with parking, said Miller. Although the Churchwell development would use most, if not all, of the lot’s space, Miller said the deal would benefit the entertainment corridor as a whole.
“The lot is too small to do anything else with it,” she said. “But 38 spaces will support the needs of the Churchwell Building.”
The JEDC is discussing a possible five-year lease with Pavelka. Following that, the City would have the option to extend the lease with him, sell the lot if the price is right, or build a parking garage on the lot to serve the parking needs of the neighborhood as a whole.
But the possibility of a garage is still a long way off. Miller said the current lot isn’t big enough because the City would have to buy surrounding land to make room.
A garage would also cost more. A report from Walker Parking Consultants, hired by the City to evaluate parking in the Towncenter, estimated construction costs for a 145-car, five-story garage at more than $2.1 million or $14,000 a space. The surface lot would cost $1,600 per space.
The Walker report found two other possible parking suppliers for the Towncenter. First, the library development. Miller said the Atkins Group’s development plans for the current Main Branch Library site would feature 160 spaces. Those spaces would primarily serve the planned 70 condominiums Atkins envisions on the site. However, the underground lot will have enough space to support the development’s restaurant, retail and entertainment elements during off-business hours.
Walker said the private lot across Forsyth Street from the library could also impact parking in the area if some spaces were made available for daily parking. The lot currently rents spaces on a monthly basis only, largely to tenants of Independent Square, whose manager, Capital Partners Inc., also owns the three-story garage. The garage is available to transient parking during certain off-business-hour events such as concerts at the Florida Theater.
The garage’s manager, Republic Parking Systems, wouldn’t recommend a move away from monthly parking contracts given the current downtown economic climate, said Republic Manager Marcus Roberts. But that could change if downtown retail, restaurant and entertainment venues begin to attract enough visitors to make offering daily or hourly parking profitable, said Roberts.