If developers want a crack at the Shipyards, they’ll have about 30 days to come up with the details.
The Downtown Investment Authority approved the schedule Friday for developers to submit their plans for redeveloping the 46-acre riverfront site. The Requests for Proposals will hit the streets this week, with responders having until April 15 to turn in their plans.
Whether to keep the schedule at 30 days or extend it longer — perhaps to 60 or 90 days — was one of the main discussion points among board members. Board member Melody Bishop started the conversation, questioning the short time frame.
“Only because of the magnitude of this project,” Bishop said in an interview early Friday evening. “It’s been my experience, if you really wanted to see a vision, you need a lot more time.”
Bishop, an architect by trade, said it would take a team of skilled technicians weeks to provide a plan that outlined the visuals, ideas and financials for a competitive project.
“What’s our real intent?” she asked. “If it’s competitive replies and thoughtful and exciting ideas with real dollars and real projects … then I think we might need more time.”
The board agreed it could revisit the idea during its regular meeting in late March and could extend the time if needed.
The process began because Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s investment team formally submitted a term sheet to the city a week after a presentation detailing what he’d like to do with the property. Khan’s submission has set the pace for the process, which by Florida law requires 30 days minimum for others to submit their ideas.
Khan would like to turn the land into a massive mixed-use complex with a concept that has apartments and condos, a hotel, parks, a multilevel practice football field and more.
Khan’s terms had the city giving up the land, giving up tax dollars that would come with its redevelopment, improving the infrastructure and cleaning up the site.
The latter is included in the term sheet with a maximum price of $35 million, although his representatives have said it likely will be closer to $20 million. Khan’s investment would exceed $1 billion, representative Paul Harden has told City Council.
While Khan started the process, another party came forth to say he would be in the mix.
Patrick Mullen, CEO of Shitaki Enterprises, told board members Friday his plan would invest $1.4 billion over five years and create a boatyard and marina for mega-yachts along with an international festival marketplace. He said his company would pay for the site clean-up, but would seek available city and state incentives for the development.
A PowerPoint presentation submitted to DIA CEO Aundra Wallace states the company has contracts to service more than 40 luxury yachts and has bids to service Coast Guard vessels.
The 18-page document introduces the concept, with four pages of background replicating information from a Wikipedia page on the topic of “luxury yacht.”
Mullen said Monday the information in that presentation was preliminary and put together in three days in time to get it to the authority by Friday’s meeting. The actual plan that will be submitted will be a complete and original business plan.
“A lot more detail is on the way,” he said.
The pages dedicated to the festival marketplace talk about a “hospitality venue of shops, restaurants, nightclubs and inns operated by merchants from around the world, with different sections representing different regions of the world.”
It notes an Asian-Pacific, Caribbean and European area, all of which would annually bring 25,000 visitors while creating 1,500 permanent and 2,100 indirect jobs.
The boatyard and marine, the presentation states, would bring 250 permanent full-time and 400 indirect jobs.
In interviews with media during the board meeting, Mullen said he and others have been working on this for more than a year and definitely would be submitting the proposal.
He said the reaction since making the presentation has mostly been positive and that he wants what’s best for the city.
“We just want to get to work and put people to work,” he said. “I don’t want people to make this about Shad Khan against myself.”
Mullen was the registered agent for Shitaki Marine & Yacht Refinishing LLC formed in January 2010. The LLC has been inactive since September 2011 because of administrative dissolution for failure to file an annual report.
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