Its time for the Laura Street Trio owner to bow out

[heights unknown]

All I can say about all of this is.......WOW. Hope they do something soon before these 3 buildings disintegrate into dust and powder; LOL, they are over a hundred years old.

[CityLife]

Hats off to Weinstein and the Mayors Office for putting together an agreement that gives Live Oak a path to getting the liens reduced/removed, but also protects the City if they can't pull it off. That's good government.

[jaxlongtimer]

Interesting numbers re: City contribution to a Downtown historic preservation project - at 44% of project costs.  This seems to be in the ballpark of the % of assistance Adkins was requesting so I am wondering if that makes at least the subsidy ratio palatable. 

I gather this is more about the structure of the Trio deal (i.e. payouts before completion) and the developer's character than about the dollars.  Or, are all an issue?

I think most all here support historic preservation so hoping new players find a way to get this done.

DIA board endorses $2.56 million incentive package for Juliette Balcony

...The board voted 8-0 to recommend approval of a $2.56 million incentive package to redevelop the vacant three-story building at 225 N. Laura St. With the vote, the incentives advance to the Jacksonville City Council.

Alan and Ellen Cottrill, co-founders of Avant Construction Group, a Jacksonville-based company with years of experience in historic renovation and adaptive reuse projects, have taken an ownership stake in the building along with Rafael and Carmen Godwin, who bought the building in 2022.

Plans call for eight residential units on the upper floors and a restaurant on the ground floor. The residential units will be offered as short-term rentals through platforms such as Airbnb.

At a recent DIA committee meeting, Alan Cottrill said the owners hoped to select a restaurant tenant within six to eight months. 

Total development cost is listed at $5.8 million in DIA documents....

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/dec/18/dia-board-endorses-256-million-incentive-package-for-juliette-balcony/

[Ken_FSU]

Interesting numbers re: City contribution to a Downtown historic preservation project - at 44% of project costs.  This seems to be in the ballpark of the % of assistance Adkins was requesting so I am wondering if that makes at least the subsidy ratio palatable.

This is something I broke down last year here (https://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,37780.0.html).

Key thing to keep in mind, all other factors aside, is that the Laura Street Trio project, as proposed by Southeast, wasn't a $180 million historic rehab. Instead, it was a $62.5 million rehab, wrapped in a $113 million new construction project.



So, while it is accurate that the percentages of the city's contribution for the historic rehab are roughly the same (45% for the Trio vs. 44% for the Juliette Balcony), Southeast was ALSO asking the city to toss in over 30% (an extra $30 million BEFORE they increased their subsidy demands in 2024) for non-historic new construction.



In essence, Jacksonville's public contribution to the project ($63 million) would have been more than the actual stated cost to rehab the historic structures.