The new L.A. Fitness Inc. at Atlantic and Kernan boulevards wouldn’t have been built if the city hadn’t imposed a moratorium on construction fees, developer Toney Sleiman said.....
....“I really think it worked — I know it worked for me,” Sleiman said of the moratorium. “I would have never built the L.A. Fitness at Atlantic and Kernan if I didn’t have that waived, because the numbers didn’t work out on the deal for the rent they wanted to pay.”
what is Toney's point....that the one LA Fitness wouldn't have been built? Because I think there are more than 10 being built all over town at Sleiman properties.
Since LA Fitness is very focused on securing the right locations for its chain, Horner gives the impression that the company won’t quibble over rent when it finds great sites. Plus, since grocers and many of the big-box tenants that served as anchors or junior anchors in their heyday typically drove aggressive deals, when LA Fitness takes over their locations it’s almost a given that it will be paying higher rents, adds Kinsella.
The chain makes up for the difference by asking landlords to contribute a substantial amount toward its build-out costs. When taking over existing buildings, the clubs need to have swimming pools installed, and remove columns from common areas. Former grocery stores, in particular, present challenges because their buildings often can’t support the kind of energy-efficient HVAC systems that LA Fitness employs. As a result, it costs on average $700,000 to retrofit an existing retail location into a club. Ground-up construction can cost as much as $3 million.
Btw, here is the list of projects that applied for fee waivers during the moratorium:
Great work 'Bridges' and 'Lake' but I don't think our City Council, with the exception perhaps of a few stars, is smart enough to figure out they've been duped by Toney.
^I know I sound cynical as hell so I'm sorry for that. It's just really disappointing that we have such a great plan that has been shelved due to the complaints of a few. I applaud your efforts though, Doug.
Yes, there are a few negative consequences to a few individuals in a few locations.
Why not get a meeting with him Captain and try to convince him?
So, you wanna build a commercial building? Have you priced your labor? Found your bricks? Estimated your other materials? Better hurry: Many development pros are worried about inflation.
A number of our execs raised the red flag on rising construction costs during Bisnow's third annual Atlanta Multifamily Summit last week. JLB Partners’ Hudson Hooks (above) started that ball rolling, saying “inflation was creeping” into materials costs. AMLI Residential’s Fred Schreiber says his firm is seeing a 10% hike in construction costs on its apartment developments. And at our recent San Antonio State of the Market Summit, Embrey Partners EVP of development Robert Hunt also rang the warning bells with an abnormally large spike in shell construction costs—15% in the past year. Drywall prices also have jumped 25% this year, he adds. All in, costs are outpacing rent growth and run a real risk of making planned projects unworkable.
But it’s more than just raw material costs. Many regions are reporting labor shortages, where subcontractors must lure workers back from other states to staff development projects, particularly among wood framers, Fred says. (You ever try transporting a wood framer across state lines? It's a mess. Lots of splinters.) “It’s even difficult to select brick you like that’s within 500 miles of your project,” Hudson says. Click the above video to hear Crescent Resources’ Benjamin Collins talk about how sub cost increases could threaten the pipeline of new development.
If there is any area of town that is underserved in terms of retail, its downtown and the urban core neighborhoods. The mobility plan puts the in town areas on equal footing with the 'burbs and essentially opens up a new and densly populated area to new development. This development may not be in the form or layout that Toney is used to, but if he was smart he would embrace the mobility plan and capitalize on growth opportunities in the urban core before other developers do. Like Simms has previously stated, if Sleiman moves quickly he can build out the downtown and urban core retail sector and create high barriers to entry for smaller developers. His time would be better spent fighting for the mobility plan than against it.
MJ's Doug Skiles made a great presentation to the Urban Core CPAC last night. The UC CPAC voted to recommend that the moratorium not be extended.
Tonight at the BPAC meeting we learned from Councilman Redman that a bill to extend the mobility plan moratorium has been filed. He did not discuss it any further with us.
The BPAC passed a resolution to support full implementation of the mobility plan including the fee and giving reasons regarding the implementation of bicycle and pedestrian facilities in Jacksonville. Attendance at the October 9 meeting is important to speak for the sunset of the moratorium and letters of support from organizations showing how the mobility plan will help them are also important.
RE: Saving One of Jacksonville's Most Competitive Edges
Mr. xxxx,
Hope you and your wife and kids are doing well! Glad for your decision on the one version of the human rights bill (real setback for the city that was, worsening the negative perception that already exists). Here is what I have sent your fellow city council members, speaking to an issue near and dear to my heart. I am honored to work for one of the most reputable and one of the largest private equity real estate shops in the world and through my job I get to travel to other cities and witness their amazing transitions. It makes me sad that Jacksonville has not joined the nearly nationwide fray of re-establishing real estate as a tool for economic development in the 21st century (2012 meet 1920, 1920 meet 2012).
QUOTE:
I am writing you as a former resident of Jacksonville to consider passing legislation that would ultimately prevent the needless destruction of significant buildings in Jacksonville and to sunset the Mobility Fee Moratorium in a related attempt to spur economic development in the heart of the city. How I or your or anybody else defines significant is a matter we could all debate until we are blue, but one thing remains true: Jacksonville is in danger of losing something very important that many other cities in the state of FL have never even had the opportunity of benefiting from. That is a rich tie to the past.
Speaking to a macro view of real estate nowadays, many development firms are migrating to older, crowded, dirty coastal gateway markets. There are many reasons for this, but perhaps the two most important reasons are for the educated and skilled workforce these “cool” cities seem to attract and for the impossibly high barriers to entry these dense markets offer, allowing for dividend like returns and safety from oversupply and treacherous cycles.
This is relevant to Jacksonville, being a somewhat older coastal port city very unique to the state of FL. That uniqueness is rapidly deteriorating. As evidenced by the sudden explosion of the Park and King district, the educated professionals in Jacksonville (and everywhere else) desire vibrant walkable communities with culture, CHARACTER, ties to the past, and convenience. Jacksonville once looked like a smaller San Francisco or smaller Boston. Now sadly, most of what was once a dense, vibrant city center is instead a moonscape surrounded by a very large overbuilt mess of strip centers and subdivisions with no end in sight to a lack of proper planning and a lack of adequate transportation to serve such unsustainable growth/development.
Every city has suburbs, but the suburbs are not what make a city attractive to the young, skilled, college-educated workers firms need in their ranks. Emphasizing new suburban development is a route contradictory to the route Jacksonville's most successful peers are taking. One need only to spend a few hours in Charlotte, Nashville, Austin, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City or Salt Lake City to see that development patterns of transit-served infill and adaptive re-use are creating a sense of place that in turn is creating a perpetual cycle of attracting the best and brightest young people and the firms that employ them.
I urge you to find a way to work with the rest of Council, the various development agencies and city planners, the Mayor, and the people of Jacksonville to allow the Mobility Fee Moratorium to sunset and to enact a citywide program to prevent needless destruction by incentivizing the private sector to create new uses for old buildings.
Warm regards,
(http://i50.tinypic.com/2583sxe.jpg)
Here you go:
http://www.coj.net/departments/planning-and-development/community-planning-division/plans-and-studies/vision-plans.aspx
You can use that link to access the six Vision Plan documents in the graphic.
I just sent my second round of emails. I have not heard anything yet from any of our leaders. I hope this is not a bad thing.
Great job tonight Doug.
Want to bet? It will be filed at 4:59 on Friday, and the City Council will take it up on Tuesday, 2 business days later.
Jacksonville’s one-year freeze on collecting “mobility fees” will expire Friday, ending a moratorium that has waived about $3.3 million in transportation fees for all kinds of new construction.
Some developers want the city to extend the moratorium, arguing the ability to waive the fee has been a make-or-break proposition for breaking ground on projects.
“It’s jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs,” said shopping center developer Toney Sleiman. “They need to get their heads out of the sand.”
But a host of neighborhood groups turned out at the Oct. 9 City Council meeting and urged the city to let the moratorium “die a peaceful death” in the words of one speaker. They said the city can use the money for needed transportation projects, the fees don’t halt projects that have a market demand, and the fees encourage development in existing neighborhoods.
But Trey Spivey, real estate manager of RaceTrac Petroleum, said moratoriums on development fees make a difference in tipping the scales for construction of new convenience stores in different parts of Florida.
“We’re really focused a lot of our resources on jurisdictions where we could get the most bang for our buck,” he said.
QuoteBut Trey Spivey, real estate manager of RaceTrac Petroleum, said moratoriums on development fees make a difference in tipping the scales for construction of new convenience stores in different parts of Florida.
“We’re really focused a lot of our resources on jurisdictions where we could get the most bang for our buck,” he said.
What RaceTrac typically puts up is exactly the type of development that needs to be discouraged from their current configuration. The point of the mobility fee and plan is to encourage development patterns that decrease automobile trips, and thus, decrease the amount of subsidies the city pays in expanding and maintaining the infrastructure needed to support it. They should take a page out of 7-Eleven's book with the design of the State & Main station.
Jamestown's New Colony: 799 Market
We'll see you at Bisnow's Multifamily Summit. Our all-star panel will break down current trends, capital markets and investment activity, and the effect of new requirements in sustainability and innovation on development. Tues, October 30 at the St. Regis.
Jamestown continues to settle the West Coast, with the Atlanta-based investment and management firm’s latest acquisition: 799 Market St. The Class-A creative office and retail building contains 143k SF at the intersection of Union Square and SoMA.
(http://www.bisnow.com/archives/sanfranre/2012/Q4/images/MICHAELPHILLIPSJAMESTOWNINOFFICE.jpg)
COO Michael Phillips tells us the company is looking to expand its Bay Area portfolio. (It also owns the neighboring 22 Fourth St and 801 Market buildings, as well as a 594k SF shopping center in Alameda.) He says Jamestown focuses on 24-hour gateway cities with barriers to entry, and “always places location first.” Case in point, 799 Market is located at one of the city’s most heavily trafficked pedestrian intersections. Michael says the building’s retail component will benefit long term from the continued strengthening of the Union Square district “and its movement southwards toward Market Street.” (Though seismically bolting the foundation may help stop some of that movement.)
(http://www.bisnow.com/archives/sanfranre/2012/Q4/images/799Market.jpg)
The building’s office and retail space together is 89% leased. The 55k SF of retail, comprising three floors plus the basement, is fully leased to Ross Dress For Less. The flagship store, one of the highest performers in the chain, has seven years left on its lease with extension options available. The building has five office floors, of which the top level is vacant. Michael says planned lobby upgrades will both reflect and attract the types of creative tenants that are prevalent in San Francisco. “We also plan to add bicycle access.” The building boasts creative office features such as high ceilings and open floor plans with large windows on three sides. The Powell Street BART/Muni Station is adjacent.
(http://www.bisnow.com/archives/sanfranre/2012/Q4/images/MICHAELPHILLIPSJAMESTOWN1.jpg)
Michael’s so fast with texting, his hands have become permanently blurred. Jamestown bought the building from a partnership between Urban Realty and Commonfund. The seller was repped by Eastdil, which also helped Jamestown secure financing. According to Michael, creative office buildings are nothing new for Jamestown, as evidenced by its investments in New York’s Chelsea Market and 111 Eighth Ave (the Google building). “Open and dynamic work environments” will remain an office sector trend for years to come.
QuoteBut Trey Spivey, real estate manager of RaceTrac Petroleum, said moratoriums on development fees make a difference in tipping the scales for construction of new convenience stores in different parts of Florida.
“We’re really focused a lot of our resources on jurisdictions where we could get the most bang for our buck,” he said.
What RaceTrac typically puts up is exactly the type of development that needs to be discouraged from their current configuration. The point of the mobility fee and plan is to encourage development patterns that decrease automobile trips, and thus, decrease the amount of subsidies the city pays in expanding and maintaining the infrastructure needed to support it. They should take a page out of 7-Eleven's book with the design of the State & Main station.
That does make sense in a way, Charles. Doug says it won't happen, but I'm not quite so trusting. But then, I'm older than he is and maybe more cynical. In keeping with Doug's idea, maybe as many of us as possible show up on Tuesday. We fill out speaker cards saying we are for the mobility fee and against any waiver of it, but say we don't need to speak. That way, we make our point, and the cards will be read aloud, without dragging out the meeting. My vote would be that Doug speak for us, since he has done so much research on it, make all our points, and then have him ask for a show of hands for how many in the room agree with him and are here to support the mobility fee, and against any extension of the moratorium.
What do you guys think? Doug, want to be the mouthpiece?
QuoteBut Trey Spivey, real estate manager of RaceTrac Petroleum, said moratoriums on development fees make a difference in tipping the scales for construction of new convenience stores in different parts of Florida.
“We’re really focused a lot of our resources on jurisdictions where we could get the most bang for our buck,” he said.
What RaceTrac typically puts up is exactly the type of development that needs to be discouraged from their current configuration. The point of the mobility fee and plan is to encourage development patterns that decrease automobile trips, and thus, decrease the amount of subsidies the city pays in expanding and maintaining the infrastructure needed to support it. They should take a page out of 7-Eleven's book with the design of the State & Main station.
The reconstruction of the RaceTrac at Atlantic and the Hart Bridge Expwy (across from Episcopal) was actually well done with dark red brick and more modern looking pump stations. They have a Hess on the other side that still looks like Hess circa 1983. That area around St Nicholas is definitely a urban infill space. So it appears they can use some thought in station design.
That does make sense in a way, Charles. Doug says it won't happen, but I'm not quite so trusting. But then, I'm older than he is and maybe more cynical. In keeping with Doug's idea, maybe as many of us as possible show up on Tuesday. We fill out speaker cards saying we are for the mobility fee and against any waiver of it, but say we don't need to speak. That way, we make our point, and the cards will be read aloud, without dragging out the meeting. My vote would be that Doug speak for us, since he has done so much research on it, make all our points, and then have him ask for a show of hands for how many in the room agree with him and are here to support the mobility fee, and against any extension of the moratorium.
What do you guys think? Doug, want to be the mouthpiece?
What is the problem with the city council?
Every developer who has a marginal plan to develop on the outer rim will make an attempt to get the mobility fee waived. Some may not want to deal with it, others will think its a waste of their time to design/build to it....
Cities and counties propose and the Legislature disposes
By Ron Cunningham
Special to The Sun
Published: Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 6:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 22, 2013 at 11:03 p.m.
If Gainesville is where innovation is born, Tallahassee is where it goes to die.
Case in point: Last year the 1,000 Friends of Florida — an organization dedicated to promoting smart growth planning and sustainable public policies — gave Alachua County its "Better Community Award" for the county's new mobility plan.
Long story short, the plan implements regulations and fees intended to encourage development patterns that will facilitate alternative modes of transportation — transit, biking, walking — with the goal of lessening the community's auto-dependency.
"Alachua County is using a comprehensive approach to promote compact, sustainable development that supports a wide range of transportation alternatives," Charles Pattison, president and CEO of 1000 Friends, said at the time. "With its mobility plan, urban services area and multimodal transportation mitigation ordinance, Alachua County has taken a significant step to promote smarter growth."
Translation: You did good, Alachua County.
Last week came another communication from 1,000 Friends of Florida. With the Legislature soon to convene its annual session, the advocacy group has been keeping track of legislation that might impact, for good or ill, the ability of communities to adopt innovative approaches to growth management, like Alachua County's award winning mobility plan.
Sure enough it came across House Bill 319, by state Rep. Lake Ray, R-Duval. It seems that builders are worried that other cities and counties might follow Alachua's lead and adopt mobility plans of their own; which might in turn lead to new fees on builders. So Ray's bill would nip that sort of thing in the bud.
Only two counties, Alachua and Pasco, have adopted mobility programs so far. And 1,000 Friends warns "if this bill were to pass, their innovative programs would be prohibited in the future."
This is par for the course. If local governments can be fairly described as laboratories for innovative ideas, state legislatures tend to be innovation killers.
Lobbyists know that the quickest way to stop cities and counties from adopting ordinances and policies that special interest groups find objectionable is to get the Legislature to prohibit them.
That's why city and county commissions are forbidden by state law from adopting local gun control ordinances.
Ray's bill isn't the only innovation-killing legislation awaiting the 2013 session. This week the Florida Conservation Coalition — a statewide environmental watchdog group founded by former Gov. Bob Graham — put out an alert about Senate Bill 584, by Sen. Alan Hays, R-Umatilla.
Hays' bill would forbid any state agency, city or county from purchasing land for conservation purposes unless "an equal amount of public property not being held in conservation is returned or sold at fair market value to the private sector."
Voters in Alachua County, of course, have on two occasions agreed to tax themselves in order to buy conservation lands. If enacted, Hays' bill would impose some sort of weird buy-an-acre, sell-an-acre balancing act on any such future initiatives.
"The bill would end Florida Forever and curtail conservation land acquisition in Florida," warns the coalition.
Want more? The Alachua County Commission has been considering following the lead of Miami-Dade and Broward County in adopting a "wage theft" ordinance intended to protect workers from being short-changed by their employers.
Last year a bill prohibiting local governments from passing wage theft ordinances failed to pass. But lawmakers will certainly take another run at that prohibition again this year.
Because that's what they do in Tallahassee.
Cities and counties propose.
And the Legislature disposes.
Ron Cunningham is the former editorial page editor of The Sun.
And we keep forgetting: There is already a waiver to the mobility fee. Build within the guidelines.
TUFSU, have you seen all of the available land downtown?
Are you under the impression that only a handful of developers, working within the design guidelines of commercial and residential development could create mobility fee free projects that would keep them busy for the next ten years?
You seem to be arguing that downtown is somehow exempt from development.
Are you?
DT is the only mobility zone where no mobility fee is charged. DT has its own TCEA.
There is a new store going up right now next to Academy.
Tony was complaining that if he had to pay the entire mobility fee for the entire development with just two tenants (Academy and LA Fitness) he would have to charge them huge rents to recover the expense because it wasn't fully leased.
Sorry for asking what's probably a dumb question, but I can't find info on COJ site and my searches on MetroJax are coming up with older info... What's the current status of the mobility fee? Was the sliding scale waiver extended or is it a full funding level now? Are any developments on the outskirts of Jax (still within Duval) being held accountable to pay for a full mobility fee? How does a community member find out how much mobility fee funds have been collected (and for which developments) within a specific mobility zone and what funds from it have been expended towards zone capital improvements?