An Absentee Downtown

[Metro Jacksonville]

An Absentee Downtown



The Jacksonville Business Journal (http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/)  recent released their March edition of the Commercial Real Estate Journal.  For those that haven’t seen this before, it contains a breakdown of the commercial real estate, based on regions of town.  In the Downtown section, they show the details of many of the buildings available for lease.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/366

[gradco2004]

[sarcasm]The city should seize the buildings as eminent domain and turn them into pocket parks[/sarcasm]. I know it sounds horrible, but at least then, we'd have a chance of converting the pocket park and building something there that can be used.  This guy is the polar opposite of Kuhn and should get the hell out of town. Its people like him that hold up progress downtown.

[josh taylor]

that's just the tip of the iceberg... check out the main stretch of commercial space in springfield. i wonder why all those spaces sit vacant and decaying. maybe it's...

chris hionides.

and what about the ambassador hotel near the courthouse site. that property would make amazing lofts or a boutique hotel (both with ample-street level retail and connectivity beween the core and lavilla), if it weren't for...

chris hionides.

and remember that great record store, Moon Colony Razorblade? It could possibly still be alive and kicking downtown. too bad they decided to rent from...

chris hionides.

and the sad truth is, i could go on. chris hionides is sitting on these properties like the worthless, greedy slumlord the city government allows him to be. c'mon, jacksonville media (or what's left of it anyways...), let's break this story!

[downtownparks]

Lets not forget he owns about 40% of Main St too, with no real plans to do anything.

Can anyone build a map that will show what he owns downtown?

here is one for Main St, 1st-8th.

[Steve]

This above was just a sampling of his downtown properties.  There were a few buildings not mentioned, like the London Bridge Building and a couple of others downtown (don't even get me started on Springfield).  It's a sad shame

[vicupstate]

I admit that having so much property in so few hands is a deterent to redevelopment.  The whole monopoly is evil concept applies here.  

But let's look a little deeper.  The Holmes block building for example.  Is Mr Hionides asking market rent for those spaces conpared to what else is available?  If so, then  that property doesn't uphold the arguent becasue it is fully renovated and tenant-ready.  

What I'm getting at  is, is the problem the landlord or the environment (ie lacking of parking or reluctantance to 'walking' on the part of Jax residents, lack of supporting amenities,lack of residential base, etc).  If Hionides is the true culprit, then lay out the info. that backs that up.

Just because he owns so many of the buildings doesn't de facto mean he is holding back progress.  How do lease terms and rates compare to the norm, both in Jax and in DT.    Such details are beyond a layman's understanding, including myself, but no doubt someone in the industry can address the issue.  

[Steve]

This building was largely vacant suring the super bowl week.  The only reason that I can see is that he was charging an astronomical amount to rent.

[downtownparks]

isn't Market Rate the amount at which a space will rent? In which case, he is overcharging.

Wasn't the level of rent on of the complaints when Mooncolony closed its doors?

Frankly I am amazed he let Chamblins buy the building that they are moving into. Make no mistake about it, he made almost a million bucks on that nasty old building!

[Hionedis is scum.]

he's the main problem with Jacksonville.  A poster once said, "he buys property then sits on it until he can sell it for double".  The guy is a cancer on this city.  He really doesn't care about Jacksonville, only his wallet.  I for one am glad that this has come out on this forum.  Whats really interesting is that he and his corporate entities, Petra Management..etc..are practically bankrolling Martha Pellino's campaign.  Coincidence? I'm wondering......

[Lunican]

Didn't Hionedes just buy the old JEA tower as well? If his goal is to actually rent these properties, and most of them are unrented, why is he still buying them?

[Jeff]

It might be interesting to take a look at the property tax records for these properties, because it seems to me that the owners of these buildings would not want to be bleeding money on property taxes and have no tenants. Maybe they got a "special break"?

[downtownparks]

According to the Property Apprasers Database, the property located at 5 W forsyth (NW corner of Main and Forsyth)

Agriculture Land Value:   $0.00  
Land Value: $292,950.00    
Building Value: $554,591.00
Extra Features Value $23,263.00    
Total Improvement Value $577,854.00
Market Value: $870,804.00    
Assessed Value $870,804.00    
Exemptions Total $0.00    
Taxable Value $870,804.00

Total Taxes, plus DVI contribution $16,764.30

It sure seems like Land Value of $292,950.00  is awfully low.....  It is on Main St in the central business district. By comparison, the Ceserys bought the the lot they are going to build on at 3rd and Main in Springfield for $540K, with nothing but a tiny cinder block car sales building, and their taxes are $10,005.68

[Bill]

Hionedes has bought millions and millions in property that has no income. I don't know of anyone who can afford to do that. He also owns the cool building at Jefferson and Forsyth as well as half the property on Main St between 1st and 8th. The only building he's renovated is on Bay St and that hasn't rented. He is truly holding back redevelopment in downtown and Springfield.

[Jeff]

If anyone cared to do the homework, I'm pretty confident that there might be found to be some kind of symbiosis between the owner of these properties and the property appraisers office.

[JB]

I was able to do a little research on his property values and the surrounding values according to the property appraiser data.  The land values for all of the properties listed in this article are right in line with neighboring properties.  They seem to be fairly and equitably assessed.  All of downtown land values might be a little low, but you rarely hear of downtown property owners complaining of low assessments.  And I don't think anyone would suggest that any property be assessed unfairly.

While this guy and the others like him ARE part of the problem with downtown revitalization, I don't think the gripe here should be against the property appraiser or his office.  Good efforts, but they need to be refocused.