The Downtown Investment Authority approved a resolution Wednesday asking Mayor Alvin Brown to issue a Request for Proposal to evaluate the commercial interest of the Sax Property in LaVilla.
The two blocks of City-owned property at 816 W. Union St. also is the subject of City Council member Clay Yarborough's legislation to appropriate $8 million for a consolidated supervisor of elections office.
"Given the DIA's unanimous direction on the manner, we'll move forward as quickly as possible to consult with Council and determine how best to explore what commercial interest may exist on this property," Chris Hand, Brown's chief of staff, said Wednesday.
Paul Crawford of the City Office of Economic Development told the authority there have been commercial interests in the property from restaurants and gas stations. He said an RFP had once been issued then pulled back and there have been appraisals.
The structure, which was not completed, was a City-incentivized project that reverted to the City and is part of a two-block City-owned area between Union and Beaver streets and North Davis and North Jefferson streets. According to Duval County property records, the total area of the land is about 3.5 acres.
According to the administration, conservative and preliminary numbers show the property valued between $11.2 million and $16.2 million and would produce first-year property tax revenue of $150,000-$230,000, based on certain improvements. Hand said the economic development office should have updated numbers soon.
Authority member Don Shea made the motion for the resolution, which was seconded by Tony Allegretti.
"I think we need to know what the options are," Shea said.
Yarborough's legislation would appropriate $8 million for the construction of a facility to serve as a consolidated elections office, combining the functions of the main office Downtown at 105 E. Monroe St. and the warehouse and elections center at 5200-2 Norwood Ave. in the Gateway Town Center.
As reported, Yarborough said the combination of the facility being built on City-owned land, monthly rent savings of $55,000 and the sale of the Monroe Street office would defray costs.
The need, combined with the certainty a permanent, consolidated elections office would have is worth borrowing funds from the banking fund, Yarborough said. He said the project could be paid off in about 10 years.
"It's a great need," Yarborough said recently. "To me it is a benefit that greatly outweighs the cost."
Brown has opposed the development of the building as the elections office and said a consolidated elections office should move into a building owned by the City.
"I do not support spending $8 million to build the building," Brown said last Thursday, although he did not say if he would veto the legislation if approved by Council.
Council is scheduled to review the legislation in mid-January at the committee level.
Also during the meeting, the issue of Hemming Plaza was turned over to the authority.
Council member Denise Lee chaired an ad hoc committee to explore the issue of what to do with the park. She provided the authority with the committee's findings, calling the facility "the most important City-owned investment of Downtown."
She advocated for the park to be run by a nonprofit foundation that would be created to take responsibility for programming and the day-to-day operation, which is a model she said has been used by parks around the country.
"I think City Council would be inclined to follow your lead and pass any legislation," she said, referring to a nonprofit or other authority plan.
Council member Don Redman has introduced legislation to remove the tables and chairs from Hemming Plaza because of the behavior of its patrons, but told the committee the bill can be held until the authority conducts its review.
"Private management has worked," Shea said, referring to Lee's nonprofit suggestion. "(We) have a real opportunity to do that here."
Authority member Jim Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record, will chair the authority's Hemming Plaza subcommittee to review the options. Allegretti later said he wanted to be on the subcommittee.
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