by David Ball
Staff Writer
Hal Horton, owner of the mixed-use building that houses the Metropolitan Lofts apartments at the corner of Church and Pearl streets, thinks a pool would be a great addition to the roof of the nine-story building.
It’d be very expensive, and he’d have to add another elevator to the top deck. Permitting may also be a challenge.
But why not? After a $16 million gamble with his first Jacksonville project, Horton said he is making money and looking to keep his foot on the gas despite other developers hitting the brakes.
Horton filled up his 115 New York-style lofts in 14 months and is about 70 percent full for commercial and business space. And with a new County Courthouse project seemingly moving forward and other local developers looking to build nearby, Horton said his building on the fringe of Downtown may soon be in the heart of it all.
“My mind is on the courthouse,” said Horton, standing on his roof and looking at the empty La Villa lots where the $350 million project is planned to be built by 2011. “Once that happens, the city shifts this way. Then I’d be in the center of Downtown.”
Paul Crawford, deputy director for the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, calls Horton a “pioneer” for developing a successful project in that section of Downtown.
“He’s gone to a difficult area, as opposed to places over toward the river or the urban core where there is more synergy,” said Crawford. “He’s having to create that synergy. And when the courthouse is complete, it’s going to change the entire face of La Villa over time.”
But Horton said he’s heard optimistic talk before. When he bought the building in 2004, the messages from City officials and stakeholders were about “all this money available for developers, 10,000 residents in 10 years and creating a vibrant downtown,” he said.
Horton said he received no money from the City, while he saw more than $36 million go to the stalled Shipyards development for public improvements. There are reportedly about 2,000 residents living in the Downtown core, although a handful of new units are on the horizon. As for vibrancy?
“I wish they would stop talking about a vibrant Downtown and do things to help people who want to come here,” said Horton, a short and slender man who talks fast and isn’t shy about sharing what he thinks are Downtown’s problems and possible solutions. And others are listening.
“Someone can come into the (JEDC) office and say, ‘Here’s the solution to a problem, do this,’” said Crawford. “But it’s better to come in and say, ‘Here’s the problem, how do we collectively come up with solutions?’ Hal can be one of those people.”
Horton has met with City officials and active groups like Downtown Vision Inc. and he said a few simple actions could make all the difference.
The courthouse is one, and better communication and assistance to smaller-scale developers is another. But the biggest improvement, and one that could have the most sudden impacts, is with the perception of the homeless and vagrant population, he said.
“I’m very frustrated with this. Everybody is concerned about the transients downtown,” said Horton, who added he recently lost a general manager applicant after he and his wife walked to The Landing one evening.
“He called on Monday and said he didn’t want the job — there were too many homeless,” he said. “I’m not threatened at all by them. They’ll just ask me for a cigarette or something.”
Horton said he’s seen this issue dealt with before. He was one of the first condo redevelopers in downtown Atlanta 10 years ago, and the vagrant problem was much worse than in Jacksonville.
“They (city officials) realized it was a problem and they cleaned it up,” he said. “First, they moved the homeless shelters out of downtown.”
Horton said another success from Atlanta was the use of hundreds of cameras that monitor transient activity and crimes.
And Horton said he is willing to provide much of the infrastructure needed to connect the system. His building at 421 W. Church St. houses a host of telecommunications infrastructure used when the building was occupied as a BellSouth and later AT&T regional operations center.
That center has since moved next door to be close to the countless wires and fiber optics running through that city block. Horton presently rents out space to companies looking to connect their telecom infrastructure in Jacksonville.
“There are solutions, but the only person who can do anything is the mayor,” said Horton. “The mayor is the head of what’s happening downtown.”
Crawford said the City is looking at all of the options, including studying the draw of Downtown homeless service providers, the effectiveness of a camera system and putting more officers on foot. However, he said development and growth could be the best cures, as more businesses and residents replace transients.
“The homeless are not the issue. It’s the perception of safety that’s the issue,” said Crawford. “You can pick out a homeless person when there’s only four people walking down the sidewalk. You can’t pick out a homeless person when there’s 100 people walking around.”
Horton said he applauds the re-energized effort to build the courthouse as well as the appointment of Ron Barton as JEDC Executive Director in 2006, which has helped communication between the City and developers such as himself.
However, Horton said there is still work to be done to make Jacksonville more attractive to developers looking at projects like the Metropolitan Lofts.
“Right now, if you want to pull up to the front and unload groceries, or if I’ve got someone coming to look at an apartment for 30 minutes, they can’t park out there,” said Horton about a street front that sees little traffic but is lined with parking meters.
“I asked if I could put a bag over the meters, and I was told I can’t do that. It’s just not helpful for residences. And when developers investigate this stuff, they take all that into consideration,” he added.
“We’re hearing their concerns and we’re addressing them in small ways,” said Crawford, who noted improvements to street parking in front of The Carling and Starbucks on Forsyth Street led to similar improvements along Adams Street.
“We want entrepreneurs. We want pioneers,” he added. “We want those people who are dedicated to Downtown and dedicated to their project and are willing to move it forward and trust that JEDC and the City will go ahead and address issues.”
In light of a few hurdles, Horton still said he is eying new properties for redevelopment around the city. Now is the time to buy, he said, and Jacksonville could still be one of the best investments in Florida and even the country.
“Clean up the transients, clean up the properties, the economy will turn around in a couple years and the city will be a gold mine,” he said.