Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland said this morning he has three primary real estate recommendations — Downtown, Southside and Arlington — for the City to consider in the event operations are pulled from the Gateway Town Center.
Holland said he was waiting to hear today whether developer Carlton Jones has arranged a deal to keep the Gateway Town Center in Northside from foreclosure.
Jones said late Wednesday that he was working with the center’s attorney and had no comment.
Jones said a news release might be issued “once we have something to announce.”
“Tomorrow is the day Carlton Jones said he would have his financial partners in place and do away with the foreclosure issue,” Holland said Wednesday afternoon.
The elections office operates an election center and branch office at Gateway and its lease becomes month-by-month now that it’s March.
Holland said the 52,000-square-foot center handles poll worker training, a call center, equipment and testing in addition to vote tabulation on election night.
“That’s where our activity moves on Election Day,” he said.
Holland said his office does not want to continue on a monthly rental. He said Jones said the rent payments could be lowered with a new lease, although Holland said that depends on who owns the structure.
Holland also said the City needs to decide whether it is more cost-effective to own property or to lease.
“With new owners, you don’t know what direction they want to go with Gateway,” Holland said of the possible foreclosure.
Holland said City Council wants options for the office to relocate, including owning rather than renting.
“Gateway is not out of the question if he works out his foreclosure issue,” Holland said.
He said that in working with the City real estate division, his recommendations are:
• The former Park View Inn site at Main and State streets. Holland said it would cost $7.5 million to buy and renovate the property into a 72,000-square-foot office. It would combine the existing Downtown main elections office at 105 E. Monroe St. and the Gateway operations.
• The former State Farm building at 6400 Atlantic Blvd. in Southside. Holland said that space, about 110,000 square feet, would combine the Downtown main office and the Gateway operations and also could handle traffic court and the traffic division of the Clerk of Courts. Holland said that would save the City $350,000 a year. He said that the negative factor would be leaving Downtown, although early voting would be available at the Main Library.
• A design-build development along the Arlington Expressway where a shopping center was torn down and a roundabout built. Holland said that $6 million, 56,000-square-foot project would accommodate the functions now at Gateway and that the main office would remain Downtown.
“It’s really a decision now in the Council and mayor’s hands,” he said.
Gateway, at 5238 Norwood Ave., is the subject of a foreclosure suit filed Feb. 9 in Duval County Circuit Court against the owner of the Gateway Town Center, according to county records.
Gateway Retail Center LLC, a partnership that has a Miami Beach address, filed the suit against Gateway Center Economic Development Partnership Ltd. and several other parties.
Gateway Retail Center LLC filed a lis pendens – a notice of pending litigation – against plaintiffs Gateway Center Economic Development Partnership Ltd., Colbyco Enterprises Inc., Renaissance Design Build Group of Duval County Inc., Carlton D. Jones, Cal Development Inc., War on Poverty-Florida Inc., Gateway to Heaven Christian Center Inc., Colbyco Realty Inc., Wilson & Company Inc., the City of Jacksonville “and all others whom it may concern.”
Jones is an officer in many of the companies listed.
Jones described the potential new investor as a private investment fund.
Records show the property, consisting of 14 buildings, carries a 2011 taxable value of $11.8 million. Gateway consists of about 56 acres.
A City ordinance passed in June kept the Supervisor of Elections office in its current Gateway location for six months, with a month-to-month option held by the City after the lease expires this month.
Holland said the Supervisor of Elections Gateway facility houses elections personnel and machinery, and that includes a mailing apparatus that costs $35,000 to move, tabulating machines, training rooms and a 70-person call center.
With the August and November elections drawing near, “we need to have a Plan B,” Holland said.
None of the three new options could be ready for November, he said.
“We suggested that if for some reason a foreclosure prohibited us from staying Gateway, where would be go on a temporary basis?”
Holland said he hopes today or tomorrow to schedule a meeting with the administration.
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