The DIA had their chance to provide their recommendation seven months ago, and instead chose not to do so, knowing full well that it was a bum deal with non-finalized commitments from the city that would require abnormally high levels of public subsidy to make work. You don’t get to come back the next year, derail the whole thing, undermine the work of a guy like Matt Carlucci who’s been fighting to restore the Trio for 30 years, and potentially set the decision back another six months after you already decided to “bunt.” Feels like the REV grant and historic preservation funding from the DIA won’t dramatically change, and the main difference here between what they saw last year and is now on the table is how the general fund will fill in the capital gap for Southeast.
The Trio in its current form is like the stadium deal. To a person, we all know it’s a shit deal for the city to have to pump so much public money into the project. But, the short-term cost of pinching our nose and doing something above beyond what’s “fair” might be cheaper than the long-term cost of letting our most strategically important urban corner be anchored by Chernobyl for another 30 years.
As someone who routinely has to walk out of town clients and visiting coworkers from other offices by it, the Trio is an insane black eye on the city that is contributing to blight in the CBD that is actively costing Jacksonville new and existing business. Look no further than those poor owners of Mag’s 2.0. Bobby invests his life savings into a restaurant on Laura Street based on all the big promises of revitalization and gaslighting about $4 billion pipelines by entities like the DVI, and ultimately ended up packing up shop when he learned the hard way that the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes.
I still think it makes more sense to phase construction and incentives between hotel/restaurant and multifamily, and to try to squeeze the Southeasts of the world with a vacancy tax, but it’s a new year, and we need to get this thing done one way or the other now, rather than holding out for the perfect deal five years down the road. Cost of doing nothing is too high when we’re putting so much investment in elsewhere to bring the CBD back to life. Give City Council the chance to vote it up or down in the next two weeks as planned, make sure we gain ownership of the Trio in the event of a default, and get dirt turning if it’s a yes.
Last thing I’ll say is that I’m hearing a lot of news commentators referring to the proposed $20 million subsidee/guarantee to Steve Atkins for the Trio as “unprecedented.” Quick reminder that we paid $23 million in cash when all was said and done to buy out Toney Sleiman and remove the perceived “blight” of the Jacksonville Landing. And when we talk about opportunity cost, the true cost there was probably much higher when you think of all the displaced businesses (and foot traffic) and consider how quickly proposed developments like the adjacent Hyatt Place hotel disappeared when the Landing was razed. And, when we talk about how there’s a cost associated with doing nothing, had we agreed to Alvin Brown’s $12 million renovation of the Landing in 2017, do we really think we’d be in this spot now where the Trio required this level of subsidy?
All that to say, if we can afford $100 million over the last 8 years to remove downtown malls, pedestrian ramps, restaurants, annexes, courthouses, and an entire city block, SURELY we can find $20 million - as bad of a deal as it might be - to solve a 50-year problem in an additive way. We don’t have to love it. It’s not an endorsement of Southeast. It can’t set a set a precedent for future deals. But the Trio HAS to get done for downtown to move forward.