JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The status of a possible multimillion-dollar city investment into three downtown buildings is still up in the air.
On Tuesday, the Jacksonville City Council heard a proposal for $36.5 million in incentives to go toward a new redevelopment plan for the historic Laura Street Trio, a project in the heart of downtown that has sat vacant for years.
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According to News4JAX news partner Jacksonville Daily Record, the new incentives deal includes a $22 million city loan that would help guarantee a construction loan for the developer, SouthEast Development Group, led by Steve Atkins. It also includes a previously authorized $2 million forgivable loan from an earlier agreement, for a total public investment of about $60.5 million. No interest rate is stated in the legislation for the city loan.
Atkins bought the Trio at Laura, Forsyth and Adams streets in 2013.
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Some people in downtown News4JAX spoke to on Thursday said they have heard it all before and nothing has happened.
Hayes Basford said she is hopeful this development will happen – but not too optimistic it will get done anytime soon.
“Not in my lifetime,” Basford said.
In return for offering the loan to SouthEast, according to the Daily Record, the city would receive 12% of net cash flows from the project after its completion, as well as 5% of net proceeds from the sale or refinancing of the property, through the full term of the agreement.
Councilmember Matt Carlucci, the legislation’s lead sponsor, said the $22 million loan would be used if Steve Atkins and SouthEast failed to make their principal and interest payments on the construction loan over its first two years.
Carlucci, a longtime proponent of reviving the Trio, said the terms would likely need finetuning, but the investment would be worth the outlay. Not only would it restore several historically significant buildings built from 1902 through 1912, he said, but completing the project would rev up downtown redevelopment efforts.
“The history is deep, deep, deep. And you know what, we need to say that history because those buildings saved us, and they may just come around if we can do it again and save us with this deal or with another deal and propel us into the future because they are in the core downtown,” Carlucci said. “They are at ground zero of downtown and the ripple effect of other development that will come forth from the Laura Street Trio, I think will be will be a huge impact.”
Carlucci said that if SouthEast defaults on the construction loan, the city could end up owning the property.
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In June, the DIA board voted to send a term sheet including $36.5 million in incentives to the city council without a recommendation for or against it. DIA staff reported at the time that SouthEast did not meet certain DIA criteria for incentives, including the return on public investment.
The proposal would provide funding to resurrect and rehabilitate the Florida National Bank Building, Bisbee Building and Florida Life Insurance Building that make up the Trio and to construct two 11-story buildings on land adjacent to those structures on Laura and Forsyth streets.
The buildings would make up a $178.8 million mixed-use development that would comprise an eight-floor, four-star Marriott Autograph Collection hotel, a restaurant and rooftop bar open to hotel patrons and the public, and 149 apartments with market-rate and workforce housing units.
Mayor Donna Deegan is aware of the project and the concerns with the loan guarantee.
“Yeah, the Laura Street Trio is a unique project. It is. It is one that not only people are emotionally invested in, but one that is important for the development of downtown. So, we’re trying to come up with something that works there,” Deegan said.
There will be special meetings with the council slated for January. If the loan guarantee is approved, the developer told News4JAX the work on the sites would begin at the end of February with expectations of completing the project by 2026.