by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Downtown stakeholders looking to attract more residential and retail development should look to Springfield as an example, according to a real estate research firm hired by the City to analyze the market.
The City hired Miami’s Lambert Advisory to evaluate residential development in and around downtown. A draft of the firm’s Urban Core Housing Plan identified Springfield, which extends north on Main Street above State Street, as a neighborhood the rest of downtown can learn from. In its final form, the study will help guide the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission as it continues to try to spur downtown development.
Springfield is notable for its success in attracting restaurants, bars and galleries to complement its surging residential market. Entertainment venues are viewed by the City as an essential component of a well-rounded market.
Lambert Principal Eric Liff gave much of the credit for the area’s resurgence to a group of “pioneering developers” who started building in the neighborhood when the area’s crime and lack of infrastructure scared off others.
But the City was an important partner in Springfield’s turnaround, noted Managing Principal Paul Lambert.
“It would be accurate to say these private development groups took off from the foundation provided by the City,” he said.
Lambert pointed out that Main Street had been rebuilt largely with public money. The Florida Department of Transportation and the City plan to spend about $7 million to continue to overhaul the street from First through 12th streets. The money will pay to improve infrastructure along the neighborhood’s main corridor, updating utility hook ups, widening sidewalks and resurfacing and landscaping the street.
Improvements are finished on the first four blocks. The City is seeking bids to extend the project to 12th Street.
An investment in infrastructure is viewed as one of the key components to further the resurgence in Springfield and throughout urban areas north and west of the river, according to Lambert’s housing plan.
Although a public/private partnership is credited with jump starting Springfield, a continued commitment to updating infrastructure can only be the City’s responsibility, said the plan. Deteriorating infrastructure like potholes, broken sidewalks and 100-year-old sewer pipes have held back progress in Springfield and threaten to do the same in other areas, it said.
“Private developers, businesses and residents can assist in other renewal efforts, but key infrastructure improvements can only be undertaken by the City,” the housing plan said. “The City’s effort must continue in earnest.”
The initial public investment in Springfield is paying off in rising housing prices. Lambert said houses in the area are now selling in the $300 to $400,000 range. Just a year ago, they were selling for $200,000, he said.
In addition to infrastructure, Lambert cited efforts to curb crime, litter and vandalism as driving forces in the neighborhood’s turnaround. City, state and federal incentive programs have also helped, he said.
But even without incentives, Springfield’s residential market will continue to flourish, said Mack Bissette, CEO of SRG Homes, one of the area’s primary builders. As long as the City continues to invest in infrastructure, developers will continue to invest in Springfield, he said.
“Springfield needs infrastructure and crime control and the market will take care of itself,” said Bissette. “That’s all you got to do.”