Mayor Brown to Invest $9 Million in Downtown

[FSBA]

Since the city tore down the Gator Bowl to make way for the Jaguars, the city has spent well over $1 billion on projects that have had "Revitalizing Downtown" as either a primary or secondary purpose. What has that gotten us? Mostly half baked ideas that results in lining the pockets of the politically connected and continued urban blight.

Pardon my cynicism and expectation this will go the way of the JEDC.

[JeffreyS]

Since the city tore down the Gator Bowl to make way for the Jaguars, the city has spent well over $1 billion on projects that have had "Revitalizing Downtown" as either a primary or secondary purpose. What has that gotten us? Mostly half baked ideas that results in lining the pockets of the politically connected and continued urban blight.

Pardon my cynicism and expectation this will go the way of the JEDC.

Or it has gotten us a growing Urban core that contributes more to the QOL in the area and to the tax base.

[PeeJayEss]

Darelys argument handbook. When you have a indefensible narrative

Step 1-pick strawmen

See children and senior citizens

Of course, this does not address tufsu's response, which roundly, accurately, and tactfully rejected your asinine post.

[bill]

Bill, certainly they do more than just iron the sheets at the places you hang out.

Dont they ever look up from the laundry and talk about 'facts'?

Maybe you could share a few that show how all these leeches you are surrounded by are stealing your hard earned money from you and spending it on projects that you never use.

Take your time.

Step 2-when you have no argument to stand on but it just "feels" right.

Attempt to belittle and insult because you are the smartest guy in the room.

[Mathew1056]

I would like to see the success of Laura Street expanded to Hogan or Julia Street. Reverting these roads back to two-way traffic will slows vehicles, increase safety, and reduce noise. The reconstruction of Laura street made it conducive to the type of urban development we want to see downtown. Doing this to Hogan and Julia would have little consequence to vehicle traffic. Neither street extends past the bounds of downtown, they are not part of any couplet system, and each carries only light traffic. I can't image this costing too much. Just leave out the multicolored lights and landscaping. Change around the stoplights and paint the line then get out of there.

[kreger]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_cCvDPQCdlE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[thelakelander]

I know Mallot may mean well but spending the $9 million or even a portion to demolish the old courthouse for a temporary greenspace would be a huge waste of money and lost opportunity, imo.  I'd rather see a vacant properly mothballed structure and the cash help push a variety of "low hanging fruit" projects forward.

The mayor declined to identify or prioritize specific Downtown projects that could benefit from the $9 million.
“The caution of mentioning specific projects is that you sort of take away the opportunity for the DIA to get in there,” Mallot said. “I think it’s better to say that there are four or five different project opportunities out there, and they need to be evaluated. The top priority may not be the first thing done if the timing isn’t right.

“I’d say there’s probably five or six that make sense. They include of course the [Laura Street] Trio, the [Hayden Burns] library, and the Jaguar [Bostwick] Building, as I like to call it. I would tell you that tearing down the old courthouse is a priority before it becomes an eyesore. Put it into a green space and prepare it for the potential of a convention center, and next would be the city hall [annex]. These are projects that need to get done, that I know the mayor tried to get done in his budget. But the order and priority, I think have to be determined in sync with the DIA but also in sync with private investment that’s prepared to move forward.”

full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/01/29/downtown-jacksonville-will-have-real.html

[Tacachale]

^Yeah, that's the least of our problems when we still have the Trio and the Hayden Burns to worry about. No way should they blow this $9 million bucks on that.

[thelakelander]

Some more information that may come into play for downtown over the next year...

Brown to stump for private investment: DIA to handle public funds

....As reported, Peter Rummell, immediate past chair of the Jacksonville Civic Council, said Tuesday evening some Jacksonville business leaders want to examine creating a private investment group that could pool funds to assist Downtown development and other efforts.

"The focus would be Downtown, but I wouldn't rule out something smart outside the core," Rummell told Daily Record Managing Editor Karen Mathis.

In a May 2012 meeting with members of the Urban Land Institute North Florida chapter, Brown discussed an idea to pitch the top 100 local successful "seasoned investors" to pool their money for a public-private partnership for three or four major projects. He didn't specify Downtown or any area.

He suggested $2 million each, which would create $200 million in private investment.

When asked Wednesday if there was a private group ready to step up, Brown was noncommittal.

"Everybody knows the players around here, it's not secret," he said.

He said has "planted the seed" for the business community to become involved.

full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=538659

[Cheshire Cat]

Update on funds for Downtown.

The Daily Record:

Brown announced in January that he wanted to allocate $11 million in funds to Downtown and Duval County development. The funds came from savings in refinancing the City's more than $1 billion in bonds.

Next year, an additional $9 million is scheduled to be available from the refinanced savings, with the returns diminishing in subsequent years.

During the Finance Committee meeting, several Council members said they wanted to see more of a plan from the authority before the money was turned over.

The plan would focus on the authority's priorities and mission but does not need to include specific projects.

"I would like the plan, the priorities, not what might be," said Finance Committee member Stephen Joost. "My sense of it is the committee is open-minded, we just want to know what it is.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=538912

[simms3]

If I were in charge of or had enough money to throw ~$2MM to a closed-end fund that "bought" assets in Jacksonville, I would not pick downtown as a place for investment.

As much of a proponent for downtown as I am, I know damn well that my money is but merely venture capital if thrown at downtown at this point (plus VC pooled funds are raised the same way and are about the same size and make like 100 investments, not just a few, most VC investors are individuals who form 2-5 person partnerships and don't form pooled funds).  As a "Limited Partner" I would be embarassed to tell you the returns I would need for such an investment.  Of course the whole theory of VC is that you throw money at a ton of varied risk, some panning out, some not...all at asset liquidation 1-3 years later, which is simply not a time frame acceptable for a "downtown" illiquid investment.  The other thing about VC is that these high risk investors all live in basically 5 cities in this country, and they make 10 investments at a time (or hundreds if they do managed pooled-funds), hoping that 1 pans out so it can cover for the sunken capital in the other 9 and provide that huge return.  There aren't such investors in Jacksonville, certainly not 100.

The next step up is the opportunistic investor looking for someone to add value to an asset over short term life...3-5 year horizon, IRR driven with all or bulk of return coming from liquidation, etc.  I'm sure there are plenty of these guys in Jax, but will they consider downtown an opportunistic play or an angel/seed/venture investment?

I mean you really have to wonder at this point why there haven't been any private sector saviors in DT Jax yet.  Many cities' or neighborhood rebirths came from an initial dose of high-risk private investment (we've seen it on King St in Jax!).  In Downtown Jacksonville, the other element present is that each one of the city's own investments actually makes downtown either worse or stagnant at best.  You have the added risk that public investment will deteriorate your private investment.  That must be the reason why nobody has entered DT yet (unless they receive the heftiest tax abatements and historic credits I have ever seen).

My own company raised two closed end opportunity funds at the height of the market, forcing us to deploy the equity at the worst possible time ('08-'10).  We did land deals, development deals in small cities in the South, we did all sorts of things.  We still didn't even look at Jacksonville...let alone DT Jax.

[thelakelander]

I mean you really have to wonder at this point why there haven't been any private sector saviors in DT Jax yet.

Cameron Kuhn was the last private sector "savior".  His brief downtown real estate acquisition boom ended with him filing for bankruptcy when the real estate market went south a few years back.

[Cheshire Cat]

Perhaps we should not be looking for a single "Downtown Savior".  Time to travel a different road to success perhaps.

[Tacachale]

In the 10 years before the collapse there was plenty of residential downtown, ending with Cameron Kuhn. These were largely helped along by incentives to level the playing field for downtown versus suburban greenfield development. The momentum was halted because Mayor Peyton didn't prioritize downtown development and then, of course, the downturn killed most of the rest of it, including the Kuhn projects.

One major reason we've struggled with residential on the Northbank in particular is because there was never a lot of residential there in the first place. Adding any requires either building from scratch (Berkman, the Southbank towers, etc.) or doing an expensive adaptation of a formerly non-residential building (11E, the Carling, Churchwell Lofts and others), just to get the population to a viable level. This is happening now, but slowly; going any faster will require the city making it a real priority again.

[thelakelander]

One major reason we've struggled with residential on the Northbank in particular is because there was never a lot of residential there in the first place.

Pretty much.  The Northbank has been primarily commercial and retail for nearly a century.  Neighborhoods like LaVilla, Brooklyn, Sugar Hill, Springfield, etc. were areas of dense residential concentration that was within walking distance of the Northbank. Here's a decent early 20th century aerial illustrating that old school density that we equate with cities like New Orleans, Savannah, and Charleston today: