It’s tiresome for sure, this yearslong Laura Street Trio restoration project conversation.

Negotiations reach dead end

On Tuesday, April 9, Downtown Investment Authority’s Strategic Investment Committee (DIA-SIC) posted an agenda for its meeting scheduled for today, April 12, at 2 p.m.

Agenda packet materials include resolution 2024-04-10, which recommends that, having reached no “tenable” financing deal between DIA and the Laura Street Trio developer SouthEast Development Group, DIA reject developer’s latest proposal and withdraw previously approved financing offers pending before City Council (resolution 2023-876), essentially ending any financial support from the city of Jacksonville.

Last we mentioned it, SouthEast’s Principal & Managing Director Stephen Atkins and DIA CEO Lori Boyer were headed back into negotiations, directed by City Council to “get to yes” and bring a deal to City Council for final approval.

That was in early January.

Sticking points

According to SIC’s resolution, DIA staff proposed three separate financing options
that “fully funded the construction cost” of historic renovation of the three Laura Street Trio buildings, but not the proposed new construction, which includes multifamily housing and a hotel.

The developer rejected each option, the resolution states, presumably because two of the options required SouthEast Group to sell the buildings to the city, and none allowed for “the larger new construction projects,” the multifamily and hotel structures.

Why the city needs or wants to purchase the three architecturally significant, historic buildings is not explained in the resolution. Nor does the resolution explain why the planned Marriott Autograph Hotel and the multifamily building are off the table, puzzling at best because DIA’s Downtown goals include additional housing and more visitors, some of whom no doubt would be out-of-towners wishing to stay in the historic district.

That said, the resolution mentions that DIA cannot consider SouthEast’s latest proposal, the details of which we have not seen, “based on the advice” from the city’s Office of General Counsel and the city’s chief financial officer. The resolution does not articulate that advice.

SouthEast Group responds

The day after DIA posted the “we’ve reached a dead end” resolution, Trio owner-developer Stephen Atkins issued a statement in which he says that “our team presented multiple term sheets from several institutional lenders” to DIA CEO Lori Boyer, but “to-date, we have not been given the opportunity to engage with the board or further discuss and negotiate the available options.”

He further states that the DIA resolution “to terminate the negotiations” is “seemingly reflective of most of development projects proposed by private interests for Downtown Jacksonville.”

Your guess is as good as mine.

Geez louise

All of which leaves us wondering:

Will we, or won’t we, eventually reach a financial agreement between the city of Jacksonville and Laura Street Trio’s owner-developer to restore Jacksonville’s unique architectural gems, the three buildings that represent our city’s renaissance following the 1901 Great Fire and whose restoration, arguably, is the key to a vibrant historic Downtown?

And if we do not, what is Plan B?

Do the properties collapse under their own weight and our collective inability to reach agreement? Will the city attempt to seize the properties, having once upon a time owned them with absolutely no result? And if the city owns these buildings again, to what purpose?

Also, what specific terms did DIA propose, did the developer propose, and why did the city’s general counsel and finance officer advise against the developer’s proposal?

If the developer did not meet with DIA’s board, why not? And if not, do SIC and DIA board members clearly understand the sticking points, what is and is not feasible? And will they have a robust debate about how, pray tell, we “get to yes”?

How in the world have we found ourselves at this dead end? No doubt the relationship between DIA and SouthEast Group is not a match made in heaven, but even adversaries sometimes find a way to get along.

Who knows what happens next, though the SIC resolution encourages DIA’s CEO “to investigate further all possible opportunities to save and restore The Laura Trio.” Whatever that means.

Governance

DIA-SIC will meet, Friday, April 12, at 2 p.m. to vote on the resolution, which, if approved, will be forwarded to DIA’s board for consideration at its April 17 meeting. Upon board approval, DIA will forward the resolution to City Council and the mayor, and upon their approval, this chapter closes.

Just so you know: If SIC approves the resolution by unanimous vote, it will appear on DIA’s consent agenda, prohibiting a rigorous board member discussion and depriving citizens of any meaningful input. However, the chair may remove the resolution from the consent agenda.

Furthermore, the proposed resolution appeared on Tuesday of this week, with the expectation that SIC must decide its disposition Friday. Which, of course, raises the question: Have committee members, and board members for that matter, been briefed on negotiations, and if so, by whom? Without a robust debate held in the sunshine, how can board members make fully informed decisions? And how will the engaged public ever know the truth?

You may attend the meeting in person today at 2 p.m., Jacksonville Main Library Downtown, 303 North Laura St., Multipurpose Room. Or Zoom in.

SIC hears public comments at the beginning, so ask your questions. Don’t expect an answer, but maybe participating citizens will give SIC members something to think about.

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Sources:

https://sherrymagill.substack.com/p/no-white-smoke
https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2024/04/09/laura-street-trio-untenable.htmlhttps://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2024/03/05/steve-atkins-q-a.htmlhttps://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2024/04/10/atkins-responds-trio-resolution.html

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This column appears in partnership with the JaxLookout.