I need/want a quick (well I'd love details) lesson on developers in Jacksonville. I'll try to get the list started, but my main point here is to see what the city's currently got. I think we'll find a few things. One, I think we'll find nothing out of the ordinary. Two, I think history has shown that a few big names have invested interest in Jacksonville. Three, I think we'll find that some entities deemed evil also have hands in some of the best developments (from an urban perspective) in Jacksonville. Four, I think we'll find a lack of local developers in the mixed-use/urban development front (this is really the only difference between Jacksonville and say Charlotte or Nashville).
Industrial
1) Patillo Construction (based in Atlanta) - Westside and NorthPoint Industrial Park (perhaps largest industrial developer in town)
2) Jackson Shaw (based in Dallas) - Jacksonville International Tradeport
3) William Webb (b. Miami, deceased) - Imeson Industrial Park
4) Norfolk Southern (based in Norfolk) - Westlake Industrial Park
5) Prologis (based in Denver) - Westlake Industrial Park (spec) and Prologis 295 Park (just entered Jax market a few years ago)
6) Flagler Development (based in Miami) â€" Jacksonville International Tradeport and Flagler Center
7) Schafer Development (based in Detroit) â€" Pecan Park Distribution Center and New Berlin Commerce Center
8) Gate Petroleum (based in Jacksonville) â€" Blount Island (originally developed by Westinghouse)
Retail
1) Ben Carter Properties (based in Atlanta) - St. Johns Town Center, Village at Sawgrass
2) Martin Stein/Regency Centers â€" the Jacksonville hometown REIT that got a more local start with Regency Square Mall…owns and occasionally develops grocery-anchored neighborhood centers
3) Toney Sleiman (based in Jacksonville) â€" strip retail, Jacksonville Landing
4) Ramco-Gershenson (based in Detroit) â€" River City Marketplace
5) Sembler (based in St. Petersburg/Atlanta) â€" Riverside Square, Oakleaf Town Center
6) Equity One (based in Miami) â€" Regency Crossing, Pablo Plaza
7) John Dewberry (based in Atlanta) â€" Roosevelt Square
Office
1) Gate Petroleum (based in Jacksonville) â€" Southpoint Business Center
2) Flagler Development (based in Miami) â€" Deerwood Center, Gran Park, Flagler Center, duPont Center
3) Hallmark Partners (based in Jacksonville) â€" Everbank Plaza, 200 Riverside, Concourse, numerous large Southpoint properties
4) BCBS Florida (based in Jacksonville) â€" Riverside Ave campus and Southside campus (owner-operators are historically by far the largest developers in town)
Residential
1) All the former and still operating national homebuilders/local homebuilders
2) The Parc Group (based in Jacksonville) â€" Nocatee (though for instance my firm inherited a multifamily development site there from Broad Street Partners, now defunct)
3) Southstar Development (based in Miami) â€" Aberdeen and Durbin Crossing
4) St. Joe/Arvida (based in Jacksonville/Boca Raton) â€" Rivertown, 245 Riverside (office), Sawgrass
5) Jim Davidson (son of founder of Arvida) â€" World Golf Village
6) Hillman Properties (based in Pittsburgh) â€" World Golf Village
7) Landmar Group (based in Jacksonville) â€" all the Hampton communities (most have now been sold off), Osprey Cove
8) Crescent Resources (based in Charlotte) â€" see above
9) Gate Petroleum â€" Epping Forest, Ponte Vedra/Avondale (via Stocktown Whatley acquisition)
10) Paul/Jerry Fletcher (based in Jacksonville) â€" Marsh Landing, Oak Bridge, Baymeadows, Palencia
11) Hines (based in Houston) â€" Palencia
Multifamily/condos
1) John Rood/Vestcor (based in Jacksonville) â€" 11 E Forsyth, the Carling, Marina San Pablo, and too many garden style apartments to name, Mayport Village (dead)
2) Landmar Group (based in Jacksonville) â€" the Shipyards failure, Jax Beach condos
3) Crescent Resources (based in Charlotte)
4) Will Parham (based in Jacksonville, deceased) â€" 1661 Riverside
5) Harbor Cos. (based in Atlanta) â€" Berkman Plaza (for the record I do know Atlanta developers and I don’t know a thing about this group…never heard of them)
6) American Land Housing Group (based in Miami) â€" the Strand/Peninsula (I think the group is now defunct, and certainly Auchter is gone)
7) Delores Weaver (based in Jacksonville) â€" John Gorrie (had to throw her in the mix)
Mixed-Use
1) Gate Petroleum (based in Jacksonville) â€" Kendall Town
2) Joyce Development (based in Jacksonville) â€" Tapestry Park
Hospitality
1) Sea Pines Hospitality (based in Hilton Head, defunct) â€" Amelia Island Plantation land and master plan (also responsible for Kiawah and Wintergreen)
2) Cooper Family Trust (family from…?) â€" Amelia Island Plantation as we see it today, now majority owned by an Atlanta firm
3) Johnson Enterprises (based in Atlanta) â€" former founders/owners of Ritz Carlton developed Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island, later sold to Marriott International which developed Residences in tandem with another equity group
4) Ashford Hospitality Trust â€" One Ocean Resort (flagship for their luxury segment along with Ritz Carlton Atlanta…the original Ritz Carlton also developed by Johnson Enterprises)
Gate has certainly done its part, honestly, to make a positive mark on Jacksonville.
Vestcor has led the downtown rehabilitation front, but it is really the only player on a medium-large scale with 2 larger buildings.
Hallmark is basically the office developer in Jacksonville with Everbank Plaza and 200 Riverside its latest urban projects.
There is big money in resorts in NE FL, between the Ritz, the Plantation, One Ocean and Sawgrass Marriott.
Prestigious developers like Hines have pulled out of Jacksonville.
Sembler's FL office has led the firm's development in Jacksonville, resulting in a more suburban product.
Toney Sleiman is the biggest name attached to downtown development, and he hasn't done anything and is known more for building CVSs.
Jacksonville's history was one of local developers making their mark, whether it be downtown buildings or planned neighborhoods (Avondale, Ortega, San Marco, Ponte Vedra, San Jose). This tradition continues, but in the light of Marsh Landing, WGV, Palencia, Julington Creek, Eagle Harbor, and not to be missed Deerwood.
Finally on the office front, owner-operators have consistently led development throughout history. Most office space has been developed by an original owner-operator (BCBS, Independent Life, Prudential, Gulf Life, Atlantic Bank, etc etc). Hardly anything has been built to be managed or built spec, and this tradition continues. Even Bank of America Tower, which is now owned by Parmenter Fund IV or something or other was developed by Barnett Bank for Barnett Bank.
Here are the ingredients lacking in Jacksonville that would make the city ripe for infill development.
1) Quality (and quantity) job growth. Boston is all quality, with jobs paying more and more, but hardly any new jobs created. It still drives development. Dallas and Houston are almost all quantity, with a small percentage of "brain jobs" and a large amount of just above average jobs. That's driving a ton of stick infill development (whereas Austin gets higher paying brain jobs, driving very expensive downtown condo projects).
2) Lack of density. This combined with low job growth and a continual spread outward ensure that land prices are not high enough to justify concrete construction and higher density. Raleigh is seeing a ton of concrete infill mainly because land prices have soared due to a long period of insane job growth which has brought fierce competition for land to the city. Garden apts are still going up on the outskirts, but even in central Cary and of course closer to downtown/west/north of downtown it's all hybrid/concrete mid-rise.
3) Job classifications. In addition to there not being many high-paying jobs created, or that many period, the types of jobs coming to the city are not often class A office user jobs. Many are service related. Many are support related. Many are logistics related. You're not going to find big 50 law firms opening up offices in Jacksonville. You're not going to find offices for the top 5 architectural firms in Jacksonville. Despite what the papers say, there aren't tech jobs en masse in Jacksonville when you consider the types of tech firms/biomedical firms in other cities. There aren't a bevy of F500 corporate offices in Jacksonville, and we're lucky CSX's is even downtown. Don't expect Winn Dixie/Bi-Lo to put their name on a downtown building; it wouldn't happen in another city either.
4) Overall wealth. This comes mostly through quality job growth in a service economy (or in Miami's case a bunch of foreigners planting money and spending money because it's cheaper there than back home). We want urban apartments and condos and infill, but all of that is more expensive than garden style apartments or tract housing (in fact, most cities are at the point where they are considering garden apartments and tract housing affordable housing). Jacksonville lacks the population that a) desires to live an urban lifestyle...these are your young professionals who are still single at 32 and not looking to have kids/settle down, b) can afford the urban lifestyle (comes with the good jobs, which happen to attract the educated-single-working population in A).
5) Finally, largely driven by the above 4 as developers know their market, there is a complete LACK of VISION from local real estate guys in Jacksonville. The energy and pride to change the community is just not there. I think if local developers held city hall's feet to the fire and worked with each other/the chamber to create more proactive CIDs and to get on the jobs development front, we would be in a different situation.
It blows my mind that past gems of the city can just be let go, and I can't blame the city, per se, because in other cities these kinds of things are funded through private endowments, which are sources of local pride and a result of local pride.
I would not expect the city to do anything with the Emerald Necklace, but why can't a group of local CEOs and developers and philanthropists band together like they have for the Zoo and create an endowment to run the park?
Very interesting.
Sad but true.
Professor Simms (a compliment) I really appreciate your insight and your scope of knowledgee on the local scene is interesting.
Here is what I'm amazed at. Every day morning, noon, and night we watch the local news and they show our river with the panoramic shots and its empty.
In fact I just attempted to take someone kayaking earlier today and what should be access points are shut out. We were on the Northbank and ended up at the marina. I felt like a kid in the shallow end of a pool today. Once you leave that marina you are immediately battling wind, current, wakes from boats, distance because where are you going?
I'm surprised that American Land Housing Group is out of Business. I like the Peninsula and I met Granvil Tracy at some meetings before they broke ground. At the time he thought the Old Fuller Warren Bridge should have been saved and used.
But as this community moves forward what are things that you see (patterns, trends, givens, controls, Public, Private as it relates to our river Downtown?)