Berkman Getting Close....Again

[bl8jaxnative]

The city posted a new condemnation notice on Berkman II last week.

[thelakelander]

Downtown's half-built Berkman II tower could be sold, demolished

Downtown’s Berkman II property could soon be sold to a new ownership group that plans to tear down the half-built tower and build a mixed-use development that includes townhomes, retail space and possibly a hotel.

If the sale goes through, it would start a new chapter for the beleaguered property that has seen its waterfront potential squandered by tragedy, economic recession, legal battles, and most recently, its owners’ unexplained abandonment of their plans to build a family-focused urban resort.

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2020/09/16/downtown-jacksonvilles-half-built-berkman-ii-could-sold-razed/3471500001/

[thelakelander]

Reading this, this project is possibly reliant on a convention center. Don't get your hopes up high at seeing anything materialize any time soon.

[marcuscnelson]

It's strange, they're insisting that they'd move forward regardless of there being a convention center, but they really can't help but bring up a convention center.

[thelakelander]

That article made this thing sound like a pipe dream.

[marcuscnelson]

I'm being an idealist, but it's so crazy that in over a decade we haven't be able to find anyone to just top off the building where it is, build a new garage and put something in there. The insistence on a convention center implies the numbers don't really work for a site clearing and new vertical build.

[itsfantastic1]

There were some interesting quotes in the article.

However, Beeler said the group is keeping close tabs on the nearby Ford on Bay property, a vacant city-owned lot that was once the site of the old City Hall and county courthouse. He said their project would be greatly enhanced by the construction of a convention center.

Seems it isn't planning on a convention at the Shipyards but at Ford on Bay to help their development.

The DIA’s board rejected the firm’s unsolicited offer for a convention center last month but said they would reconsider it if their negotiations with Spandrel fall through.

Seems like Hyatt's first right of refusal is still holding. Either Spandrel needs to play ball with Hyatt and incorporate what they want to be able to develop the land or it sounds like the negotiations would fall through and then the DIA might be on board with a convention center (pending details probably)

[Steve]

Seems like Hyatt's first right of refusal is still holding. Either Spandrel needs to play ball with Hyatt and incorporate what they want to be able to develop the land or it sounds like the negotiations would fall through and then the DIA might be on board with a convention center (pending details probably)

This is one I really don't understand from Boyer's tenure with DIA. Did they not know about that first right when the issued the RFP?  If not then that's REALLY bad on someone. If so then why issue the RFP?

[thelakelander]

I can't remember but was that RFP issued before Boyer's tenure?

[Steve]

I can't remember but was that RFP issued before Boyer's tenure?

Well, the decision to issue was not. But yes, the RFP I believe WAS actually issued after Boyer started. So in fairness, Brian Hughes owns this too.

[Ken_FSU]

I can't remember but was that RFP issued before Boyer's tenure?

Nope, during her tenure.

Aundra Wallace's last act as DIA President was to help close out the original convention center RFP that Jacobs won.

Boyer was selected to lead the DIA in May 2019.

Her tenure started immediately after she left City Council in June 2019.

RFP was then scoped, developed, and voted on in mid-September 2019, for a late October 2019 release.

[thelakelander]

So it was during Hughes' stint that the actual decision to issue the RFP was made.

[Ken_FSU]

This is one I really don't understand from Boyer's tenure with DIA. Did they not know about that first right when the issued the RFP?  If not then that's REALLY bad on someone. If so then why issue the RFP?

The DIA/Lori Boyer did know.

It's why the RFP specifically gave developers the option of proposing development on either one, two, or three of the parcels included in the RFP (the Courthouse site owned by the city, the Annex site that Hyatt has claim to, and the now-submerged portion of the property).

From the way that the DIA describes it, there were over 130 interested parties that responded to the initial RFI.

When the formal RFP/Notice of Disposition went out - which did disclose the Hyatt's right of first refusal - the pool shrunk down to only the two developers who submitted responses.

Everyone else was scared off (if you take the DIA at face value here).

At some point after the RFP was released, Lori Boyer went to Texas to try to convince the Hyatt's owners to release their right of first refusal, but they refused.

[Ken_FSU]

So it was during Hughes' stint that the actual decision to issue the RFP was made.

Yep, correct.

It was around March or April that Brian Hughes specifically floated the idea of either an RFI, RFP, or finding a way to give the property outright to Rimrock Devlin for their counter-proposal for the site that dropped alongside Khan's Shipyards convention center proposal during the initial RFP for a convention center at the old Courthouse site.

[Steve]

Hmm....that's a take I didn't completely know. So it could be that Boyer thought the First Right didn't matter, OR she was in a position to try to keep the Mayor's office happy by doing it anyway because CurryHughes wanted to.

I'm remembering this now. There were only 2 participants and I remember that the first right was disclosed.

So basically, #BoyerKnew. But it's unclear if behind the scenes she objected and CurryHughes said, "Damn the Torpedoes". I'd believe it either way.