by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
A desire to boost downtown’s lagging retail sector drove City planners in 2003 to require that parking garages be built to include room for street-level retail. But now Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Executive Director Ron Barton is wondering if the City’s policy toward retail space might result in too much of a good thing.
Barton told the Downtown Development Authority last week that he was concerned that the policy would result in a surplus of empty retail space and suggested that changes might be coming.
“We need to take a hard look at the rules we’ve enacted and where we think ground-floor retail makes sense,” said Barton. “Where it’s not productive, we should think of other solutions.”
Barton said the requirement to make room for retail would add to downtown’s inventory of retail space, but might not make much of a difference in the number of actual retail businesses operating downtown.
“We don’t want to impose unrealistic expectations on the market,” said Barton. “You can only have so many coffee shops and card shops.
“You can’t have retail everywhere or you’re going to end up with failed retail everywhere.”
Barton favors a policy of focused retail drawn in by a growing residential market. The JEDC will soon seek bids for a retail consultant to advise on the most effective location for downtown’s retail corridors.
Retail businesses tend to thrive when clustered together, said JEDC Deputy Director Jeanne Miller. For an example, look at the retail development sprouting up around the Riverside Publix or the solid retail market in San Marco Square, she said.
Conversely, retail businesses tend to work against each other when spread out, said Barton.
“Downtown is too big. We don’t want to create an environment where we have downtown retail competing against downtown retail,” he said.
The current policy forces residential developers into retail construction, said Barton. Under those circumstances, the retail component is often treated as an afterthought.
“These developers don’t know a lot about retail. It doesn’t receive the same attention in terms of planning and design,” he said.
Case in point was an April dispute between the City’s Design Review Committee and Vestcor, the developer of The Carling residential development. The DRC took Vestcor to task for failing to include retail in the development’s 250-space parking garage.
Vestcor President Mark Farrell responded that there was no market for downtown retail and that the empty space would take away from potential parking revenue. The DRC gave Vestcor a pass contingent on a promise to build retail when the market will support it.
City Council member Suzanne Jenkins, whose district includes downtown, said she’s willing to listen to Barton’s ideas about downtown retail.
“I think we might have reached the point where it makes sense to have that discussion,” said Jenkins. “If we’re requiring developers to do things that don’t add to the rooftops downtown, then it makes sense to look at it. Our focus should remain on adding rooftops downtown, that’s what’s going to bring in retail.”