The Downtown Investment Authority will move forward with soliciting bids to dispose of the former City Hall Annex and Duval County Courthouse building and parking lot along East Bay Street for development of a convention center, hotel and parking garage.
DIA voted 6-0 to approve Resolution 2018-01-01.
“I’m going to be candid with you, this is a test of the market,” said DIA CEO Aundra Wallace to the board Wednesday. “I think it’s a good time for us to do so.”
After the meeting, Wallace said he made a “business decision” to begin considering the idea of a new convention center as opposed to it being initiated by the mayor’s office.
“It’s no secret that this conversation has been ongoing for a few years,” said Wallace. “But let’s make no mistake about it, I can’t do anything of this nature without the administration’s blessing,” he said.
Last year, Mayor Lenny Curry earmarked $8 million in his $1.2 billion budget for 2017-18 to tear down the structures.
Wallace said with other large developments planned for both sides of the Downtown Riverfront, the timing seemed right, adding that he couldn’t remember the last time the city gauged the market for a convention center with a real solicitation.
The DIA wants prospective developers to include plans for a 350-room full-service convention center hotel, a 1,700-space parking garage, a minimum of 200,000 square feet of public exhibition space, a 40,000-square-foot ballroom and at least 45 meeting rooms.
Plans also would include a full-service restaurant and complementary retail space along Bay Street.
The resolution says the project’s parking garage will need 400 parking spaces for hotel guests and 1,300 spaces set aside for convention center patrons.
While DIA members unanimously supported the move, several voiced concerns during the public meeting about the timing of the solicitation, potential access to the riverfront and the demand for a new facility.
Members Brenna Durden and Oliver Barakat offered minor changes to the language of the resolution to encourage prospective developers to maintain public access to the river and to develop retail along Bay Street.
They also agreed that the solicitation process should be expanded from 60 days to at least 120 days.
“This is probably our most valuable vacant piece of public riverfront real estate and I think we need to be very thoughtful and thorough about it,” Barakat said.
He and Durden suggested the agency enlist an industry expert to advise the DIA on the process, an amendment added to the resolution.
“Convention centers are particular gambles,” said Durden, who wanted further assurance from Wallace that any submissions were appropriate for Jacksonville.
“We’re looking for darn good proposals,” said Wallace in response. “And if they’re not good, we’ll score them accordingly.”
Mayor Curry’s office issued a statement Wednesday afternoon about the project.
“An important part of growing the city’s economy and creating jobs is working with prospective investors. We need to send the message to the business community, and the world, that Jacksonville is the right place and the best place to invest,” it said.
“The mayor respects the process for all downtown development; a process that starts with the DIA. As always, once the opportunity is presented to the mayor as part of that process, the administration will utilize a scorecard to ensure maximum return for Jacksonville taxpayers
City Council member Lori Boyer, who acts as the council liaison to the DIA, said it was important to consider the status of two other large Downtown proposed projects – Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s Shipyards development along the Northbank and Elements of Jacksonville LLC’s Southbank development called The District.
“My work on the Tourist Development Council has educated me that this is a three-legged stool instead of a two-legged stool,” Boyer said.
She said a new convention center alone isn’t going to draw groups to Jacksonville if there’s nothing else to do nearby.
The proposal doesn’t include costs, but a convention center study completed in June 2017 by Strategic Advisory Group estimated the main convention space could cost between $250 million and $430 million, with parking to add another $34 million to $51 million.
Wallace said his staff used the figures from that study to determine the square footage and hotel space in the resolution.
He said any city-backed incentives would be determined after a developer is selected and a term sheet is negotiated. “That opportunity will be made clear to those bidders,” he said.
The next move will be for Wallace and the DIA staff to hire an advisory firm with the goal of advertising the solicitation by early February.
Wallace said a three-member committee will evaluate the submissions. It comprises Barakat, Wallace and a representative from the mayor’s office.
Despite apprehension from some members, others were supportive of the idea in general, including DIA board Chair Jim Bailey.
“I’ve always felt like a convention center was the missing piece for Downtown,” Bailey said. “Right now, we don’t have the space to compete with a Charleston or a Savannah,” he said in reference to the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center in LaVilla.
Wallace said there were no immediate plans concerning that facility.
DIA board member Ron Moody, a property appraiser, said the riverfront property was prime for development and that a convention center seems fitting.
“We’re on a roll right now as far as the marketplace is concerned,” said Moody, who called the site “a strategically located piece of property that shouldn’t be ignored.”
“To do nothing,” he said, “is not the answer, that’s for sure.”