by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Five developers, five different ways to accomplish nearly the same thing.
Tuesday evening, five of Downtown’s top developers attracted a good crowd to the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art for a panel discussion sponsored by the Urban Land Institute.
Mack Bissette, Cameron Kuhn, Mike Langton, Walt O’Shea and Roger Postlethwaite all talked about the new hot button topic Downtown — residential housing and how to bridge the gap between high-rise, riverfront condominiums and apartment towers. What’s missing, they all agree, is the “affordable” or workforce housing element — the single-family home or townhome that teachers, nurses, police officers and firefighters can afford all while helping build critical mass in the urban core of downtown.
“I think the City needs to take a comprehensive look at it and Elaine Brown’s committee is doing it,” said Mike Langton, managing partner of LB Jax Development.
Langton is referring to the committee created by City Council President Kevin Hyde that Council member Brown is chairing. That committee intends to take an in-depth look at the Downtown housing market and how to create housing for the middle class. Langton believes the committee should pursue the matter quickly and with tenacity.
“We need an aggressive, comprehensive plan,” he said. “We have high-rises on the river but they are not much help. A lot of them are investor owned and unoccupied or vacant. The City needs to sit down and say, ‘What is the list of tools we need?’ and put them in the bag.”
Langton, who renovated the Knight Building on West Adams into loft apartments, says a bond program and land banking would help. He doesn’t think Downtown needs any more parks on land where affordable housing could be built.
Bissette is the CEO of SRG Homes & Neighborhoods. Although a majority of his company’s business is in Springfield where new and renovated homes are selling for in excess of $500,000, Bissette says he is looking at the area’s core. First, though, he’s waiting to see the exact parameters of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s new policy on public investment.
“We are looking at Brooklyn and LaVilla as possible sites for townhouses and single-family units in certain areas, but not on the river,” said Bissette, adding that construction costs are making it very difficult for builders to hold costs down. “It’s an exciting time to be here (Downtown). Nobody thought Springfield could do it, but we are at critical mass. I am selling houses for between $400,000 and $600,000.”
LandMar is on the verge of entering the Downtown housing market with The Shipyards project — a nearly $1 billion mixed-use project that promises to include office and residential towers as well as hotels, restaurants and public space. Postlethwaite said his company isn’t sure it will venture into workforce housing.
“As developers, we have to address it. But, there’s no easy answer,” said Posthlethwaite, the chief operating officer for LandMar. “As a developer, we need to work with local government on how to address it. Inclusionary zoning is not the answer.”
Kuhn is making his first foray into residential housing in his River Watch tower across from the Landing. The Orlando-based founder and CEO of Kuhn Companies said the issue may be the definition of affordable by today’s standards.
“For me, affordable is anything under $200,000,” he said, adding everything in the Barnett building — one of his three Downtown acquisitions — will be under $1 million. However, River Watch will have $1 million units.
Downtown’s tallest residential tower will be Hines’ 51-story, 300-unit The St. John. Hines’ O’Shea said his company is looking to create a tower with units that will appeal financially to as wide a spectrum as possible.
“We are trying to stretch pricing as much as we can,” said O’Shea, whose company is also developing Palencia in St. Johns County. “The lower levels will be for a broad market segment and more affordable. We haven’t finished pricing construction costs yet.”
O’Shea said he isn’t sure his company will ever be an active player in workforce housing Downtown due to the size of Hines. He said from a staffing standpoint, it’s very difficult to build affordable and workforce housing thanks to high overhead.