by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The City has a sign on the old Haverty’s building across from City Hall touting it as the home of the new City Hall Annex, but it may be a while before the building houses any City employees.
Last April in a three-day hearing, a jury ordered the building’s owner, Philip Browning, to accept a payment of $1.7 million for the 61,000 square-foot building. According to Steve Busey of Smith, Hulsey & Busey (due to a conflict of interest, the City has had to retain outside counsel for this case), the City actually offered Browning $100,000 more than the jury’s award.
“It (the jury’s verdict) was such a good deal, we offered a settlement to Browning of $1.8 million,” said Busey. “Mr. Browning reneged on that settlement.”
Busey said the original offer to Browning was an even better deal.
“We offered him $1.98 million before the trial. The jury award was $1.625 million and we settled on $1.8 million,” said Busey. “As you can see, Mr. Browning left money on the table.”
According to Busey, the City then filed a motion to enforce its settlement with Browning. That motion was granted by Circuit Court Judge Hugh Carithers, who presided over the case.
“Mr. Browning signed the settlement, but has not produced the deed to the building and now he is appealing the settlement,” said Busey, who will also represent the City during the appeals process. “We are the appellant and he is the appellee.”
Browning. a former Jacksonville resident who now lives in Atlanta, concedes the City is the owner of the building but says he didn’t get a fair offer.
“From a technical standpoint, the City has the title to the building,” said Browning, who owns the building through his company, Striton Realty. “The $1.8 million is in the registry of the court.”
Browning, is appealing the verdict and is sticking to his original asking price of $5.5 million. His appeal prevents the City from taking complete ownership of the building and that’s having a negative effect on the City’s ability to relocate current Annex offices and personnel and ultimately sell the Annex property to a developer.
The appeal is currently in the First District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee and Browning said he has no idea when the case will be heard. Browning says the whole process has already taken too long, but he is intent on getting his asking price for the building.
“Government moves as slow as mud,” said Browning, who, according to the Duval County Property Appraiser’s web site, bought the building on March 30, 1981 for $600,000, when he lived in Jacksonville. “The City has filed motions to dismiss and we have filed motions. It’s in the appeals court now.”
Circuit Court Judge Hugh Carithers said he couldn’t comment on the case in detail, especially since it’s now at the appeals level.
“There was a jury trial, each side presented its
evidence and the jury decided,” said Carithers.
“I’ve entered my judgment which supports the jury’s verdict.”
The building has a market value of $1.071 million. Browning contends it’s worth much more based
on the recent sale of similar buildings in the downtown area.
He is also appealing the decision because he believes certain errors were made in the trial and certain evidence presented by his attorneys wasn’t taken into consideration. Because the case is in appeal, Browning declined to elaborate on the errors or evidence, but did say, “The award was inadequate. We believe there were reasonable errors. We believe the verdict was wrong based on Florida law. We will work through the appeal and see what happens.”
Bruce Page, an attorney with the General Counsel’s Office who worked with Busey on the case, said he expects Browning’s appeal to be denied.
“My hunch is that it isn’t going anywhere. I expect the deal will remain as is,” said Page adding
the underlying land has a value of about half a million dollars.
Page said he isn’t sure when the appeal will be heard or when work on the building might begin. However, there will be a lot to do before the City can move its offices. The building needs new elevators and it has a pool in the center that must be removed.
“It will need substantial renovations,” said Page.