JWB/Alex Sifakis advocating for street-front activation along Laura Street (something that's been noted here many times over the years as an urgent need) and pulling in the DIA to help formalize an incentive package for doing so. Really great stuff, particularly as we start investing more heavily in park space at JWJ and Riverfront Plaza.
Efforts to activate downtown focus on Laura, Hogan streets
full story: https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2024/10/09/laura-street-activation.html
Sifakis is advocating for street-front activation along Laura Street by talking to office tower owners and bringing a restaurant to his own project at the Greenleaf Building.
Two of the prominent towers among Jacksonville’s skyline are 1 Independent Square, previously known as the Wells Fargo tower, and the Bank of America tower, both of which are on Laura Street. Both buildings have retail on their ground floors, but those retail spaces are internal — it’s not turned to the street.
“All of the towers that KBJ built, almost all the high rises, they all have ground floor retail,” Sifakis said, “but they did not turn the retail to the street; they turned it interior to the building, which is insane.”
But that could be an easy fix.
Sifakis proposes placing a couple exterior doors as an inexpensive way to activate Laura Street with ground-floor retail.
And the DIA agrees.
It has drafted a targeted Laura-Hogan focus area initiative to direct its staff to assign priority to public and private projects along Laura and Hogan streets to create a food and beverage district. This initiative will be discussed at the Strategic Implementation Committee Tuesday afternoon.
The focus area along Laura and Hogan streets stretches from Riverfront Plaza to City Hall. It includes 12 blocks with frontages on about 51 parcels. By prioritizing projects in this corridor, it can create a concentrated sense of activation, safety and vibrancy, according to the DIA staff report.
DIA staff listed a number of buildings that fall within the defined area and outlined potential improvement opportunities for each, prioritizing existing buildings first.
It also mentions a potential program to incentivize property owners to turn their buildings “inside out,” which could be used for those office towers to take their inward facing retail outside on Laura Street.
Also, the DIA has proposed a smaller scale incentive program to help rapidly build up additional residential within the CBD, with a focus on retail frontage, particularly along the Emerald Trail.
New residential-focused incentive program considered for downtown
full story: https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2024/10/11/dia-proposes-new-residential-core-incentive.html
The Downtown Investment Authority will consider implementing a new incentive program five months after the Special Committee on the Future of Downtown prompted efforts on how to best jumpstart downtown revitalization.
That new program takes aim at increasing both residential density and retail existence in downtown. The incentive is applicable to the “core” — a limited geographic area on the Northbank defined as Broad Street to the west, State Street to the north, Liberty Street to the east and the St. Johns River to the south. The program will be limited with a goal of 1,500 units in mixed-use developments in the next three years to activate downtown.
A residential program targeted at the urban core came at the request of City Council member Joe Carlucci, who sits on the special committee. The DIA has collaborated with stakeholders in the development community to create a program designed to generate rapid residential development.
The incentives would combine a completion grant, paid out at the issuance of a temporary certificate of occupancy, and a recapture enhanced value grant paid over a maximum of 20 years.
Developments under this program will not be subjected to the return on investment requirement of 1:1 and can’t be used in conjunction with the Downtown Preservation and Revitalization Program.
The maximum amount for a completion grant will depend on the number of residential units per acre. The staff report shows 16 to 40 units per acre earning $15,000 per unit up to 176 to 400 units per acre receiving a maximum of $35,000 per acre.
The incentive amount per unit increases in a tiered approach, in which each tier is additive to the previous. But developments that provide 176 units or greater per acre will be awarded a base rate of $35,000 per unit if it requires Type 1 or 2 construction, making it a high-rise requiring concrete and a different fire code.
Two- and three-bedroom apartments are scarce in downtown, DIA CEO Lori Boyer told the Business Journal. The staff report for the residential program includes a size bonus in which two-bedroom units receive a multiple of one-and-a-half times the base amount and three or more bedrooms receive two times the amount. Projects that provide 20% or more units of two- or more bedroom units are also eligible for an accelerated REV grant.
Besides density, workforce housing needs to be encouraged as well. The potential program would give a boost not to exceed more than 20% of total units to incentivize those with rents capped at the Florida Housing Finance Corporation limits for those making less than 80% or 120% of the area median income. For a single-bedroom unit, the program would provide $15,000 at the 80% AMI level and $12,500 at the 120% AMI; a two-bedroom apartment could receive $22,500 or $17,500 dependent on the AMI.
Riverfront, creekfront or developments adjacent to the Emerald Trail are not eligible for the affordable/workforce housing bonus. After a total of 400 workforce units have been awarded with this boost, it will no longer be available unless further approved by City Council.
To qualify for any of this funding, all developments must adhere to retail requirements, which include not decreasing or converting existing first-floor retail to a non-retail use, having 100% retail frontage for storefronts on the Emerald Trail, 80% for primary streets and 60% for secondary streets.
I really like both initiatives, and they're good examples of the types of fundamental blocking-and-tackling initiatives that will help the CBD much, much more over the long term than subsidizing a single "silver bullet" style project on the outskirts.