by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Downtown may be getting a new post office and several other retail businesses in the near future.
Metropolitan Parking Solutions (MPS) is the property manager and leasing agent for the retail space in the new parking garage on Duval and Main streets across from the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art and the new Main Library. MPS spokesman Michael Munz said one of the first tenants of the retail space may be the United States Postal Service, which vacated downtown in June 2003.
“We are actively pursuing a United States post office,” said Munz, an executive with the Dalton Agency. “There are two or three other retail spaces in the garage that we are looking to lease. They are 900-1,500 square feet each.”
Munz said MPS is close to reaching an agreement with a few businesses, but signed confidentiality agreements prevent Munz from disclosing who MPS is negotiating with at this point.
“We are hoping to make announcements by the end of the first quarter of 2006 or early in the second quarter,” said Munz. “Overall, we are looking to lease just under 20,000 square feet of space and what goes in depends on the configuration of the space.”
MPS is also managing three other garages downtown — the two near the sports complex and one near the new county courthouse that has yet to break ground. However, the City only owns the library garage, the others are privately owned and operated. That agreement is what gives MPS the leeway to negotiate directly with potential tenants and circumvent the bureaucratic process that can make those kind of negotiations lengthy.
Munz said selling a retailer on space in the garage isn’t the problem. It’s convincing them to set up shop downtown.
“The toughness is not the fact that it’s a garage, the toughness is that the downtown core has not quite caught on, but it’s almost there,” said Munz. “We have done a market analysis and the foot traffic is close to where it needs to be. Having plenty of covered, accessible parking now is certainly a plus.”
Munz said the typical tenant in a downtown parking garage would be businesses like coffee shops, dry cleaners and flower shops. A bar/restaurant did approach MPS at one point, but Munz isn’t sure if a City ordinance would permit an establishment that sells alcohol so close to First Baptist Church, which has property just a couple of blocks away.
“We will keep in the standards of good taste and what is legal in regards to the proximity of a church or school,” said Munz. “We have got people kicking tires right now and we hope to have a few lease announcements this spring.”
Republic Parking Services manages the parking spaces within the garage.