City will seek Proposals for Shipyards + Met Park Combined Development

[Gators312]

The article says it was written 3 yrs ago? 

The student housing behind the Hilton ( Originally The Grove ) has been open for over a year now, and last time I was in Gainesville the land adjacent to the student housing was for sale. 

[Captain Zissou]

^My bad. I was reading another article that was more recent about the project at 13th and University.  It mentioned that project so I googled it and that was the first article I saw.  I didn't see the date.  Regardless, the amount of new infrastructure over there is really impressive and development in general in Gainesville has a lot of momentum.  I hope the new downtown hotel happens.

[thelakelander]

The Hyatt has 110,000 square feet of meeting space.  If this hotel is built, it's conference center would be much smaller than what the Prime Osborn and Hyatt offer.

[KenFSU]

Winning bid to be selected tomorrow.

[Papa33]

Will the 2019 NCAA Regional Basketball Tourney in Jacksonville affect decision making and time-line related to the Shipyards Development?  Or is 2019 too close for anything to be developed?

[JaxAvondale]

I don't think the basketball tournament will impact any decisions. I remember going to Nashville over 10 years ago for the NCAA tournament while their massive convention center was being built. Other than diverting traffic, I don't recall many issues.

[Jagsdrew]

Scoring documents from the DIA show Khan's plans ranked the highest

Iguana: 85.5
Presidium Group: 66.8
Wess Holdings: 52.0

[thelakelander]

Hmm.....so Jacksonville doesn't want a space needle or jobs factory....

[FlaBoy]

Let's get this going.

[RattlerGator]

Vicupstate -- my goodness. SMDH.

[vicupstate]

Vicupstate -- my goodness. SMDH.

You care to elaborate?

I said Khan had the inside track from day 1, which probably keep others out,  and that the other bids were not realistic. So far, I am batting 1000.   

[RattlerGator]

You care to elaborate?

This, below, is a laughably absurd take IMHO:

Unless the terms of Khan' s advance are VERY generous, the city would be better off to do the remediation, build a no frills basic 'replacement' for Met Park and then put out a new RFP.  There would be a lot less uncertainty and thus more interest.  The city could expect much better terms at that point. 

You keep insisting on pulling non-existent developers out of your ass and insisting they and the city would be better off if your prescription was followed rather than the City going with a billionaire who already has skin in the game. It is just ridiculous. Take a step back, please. Think.

[vicupstate]

You care to elaborate?

This, below, is a laughably absurd take IMHO:

Unless the terms of Khan' s advance are VERY generous, the city would be better off to do the remediation, build a no frills basic 'replacement' for Met Park and then put out a new RFP.  There would be a lot less uncertainty and thus more interest.  The city could expect much better terms at that point. 

You keep insisting on pulling non-existent developers out of your ass and insisting they and the city would be better off if your prescription was followed rather than the City going with a billionaire who already has skin in the game. It is just ridiculous. Take a step back, please. Think.

It not hard dude. If the city has to pay for remediation, before even Khan will touch it, they why not do that first.  Anybody knows a 'move in ready' house gets a LOT more buyers looking at it, than one that 'needs work'.  The more potential buyers that are kicking the tires, the better offers you will get.

I one of these bidders is willing to chip in on the remediation or take it 'as is', that is something different but that is not the case.   

Khan can't do anything with it until the remediation is done ANYWAY. So what would be lost?
   

[KenFSU]

^Not technically true.

Once terms are agreed upon and the land swap gets a green light, work could begin in Met Park almost immediately. There's no requirement in these cases that the new greenspace be move-in ready, or even remediated, prior to the closure and development of the existing Met Park.

[RattlerGator]

Even if vicupstate *was* technically accurate, vicupstate would still be wrong. Clearly wrong.

Even if he had to wait until the remediation was completed, another developer would not have the kind of skin in the game that Shad has and, very likely, wouldn't have the same resources either.

This Shipyards / Shad Khan thing isn't a close call, no matter how much some continue to cast aspersions. It's a no-brainer.