Video: Karen Brune Mathis - First Business Report
Sally Bennett can't wait to move into her new Springfield home.
"If I could move in today, I would," said Bennett.
The move is on hold until Bennett and her husband, Mike, sell their existing
home in Bryceville. They expect the sale of their Nassau County home to be
completed by the end of this month.
For the Bennetts, the move to downtown will represent a lifestyle change --
from a rural area to the city -- that includes being closer to family members.
"I am looking forward to being around people again," she said.
"I cannot think of one negative thing about living downtown."
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Work continues on the Villas of St. Johns apartments being built by Lincoln
Property Company on the banks of the St. Johns River in Riverside.
-- Bob Self/staff--------------------------------------------------
Like never before, downtown housing options will increase and vary to include
single-family homes, townhouses, apartments and condominiums.
The prices for the residential units will run the gamut, from $85,000 for a
condominium to $495,000 for riverfront townhouse.
The developments will take place on vacant property, as well as in old vacant
buildings that have historical significance.
The developers of the projects are large companies, joint partnerships and
upstart developers. Some of them will use financial assistance from the city to
develop the projects.
They foresee a demand from people like the Bennetts who want to live
downtown.
The Bennetts are moving into one of the five new houses located along Pearl
Street in Springfield that were recently built under a joint partnership between
Bank of America Corp. and the city of Jacksonville.
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The Bennetts, son Gary (left), Sally (center) and John, on the front porch of
the house they will buy in Springfield.
-- Crista Jeremiason/Staff--------------------------------------------------
Last week, construction started on seven additional new houses on lots
scattered throughout Springfield, which is located just north of the core of
downtown.
The houses are expected to be completed in about six months.
Over the next two years, 50 new houses will emerge in Springfield.
In that time, other residential developments are scheduled to emerge, such as
Berkman Plaza, The Parks at the Cathedral, the Villas of St. Johns, 11 East
Forsyth Street, The Carlington and Lytle Place Condominiums.
The planned projects will total 853 new residential units. Collectively,
developers plan to invest about $134 million in the various projects.
Life in the city
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A view of the ground work for the construction of the Berkman Plaza, a luxury
housing tower on the edge of downtown Jacksonville.
-- Bob Self/staff--------------------------------------------------
For the past 10 years, the Bennetts have lived in the rural area of Nassau
County.
They moved there from Arlington.
"We wanted our kids to grow up in a rural area," said Mike Bennett. "But for
20 years, we have always looked to live in this area. But we could not find
anything that we liked."
When the couple discovered that new Victorian-style houses were being built
in Springfield, they pursued the opportunity to finally live downtown.
After all, the Bennetts were looking to downsize because their three children
are grown.
The opportunity to buy a new house in a historical neighborhood served as a
happy medium for the couple, both of whom are retired.
Sally wanted to live in a historic neighborhood, and her husband did not want
to undergo the trials and tribulations of rehabilitating an old house. Some
residents who moved to Springfield have chosen to rehab an existing house rather
than build a new one.
"I told her that 'I'll build you a new one, but I am not going to rehab an
old one,' " Mike Bennett said. "This way she gets what she wants, and I get what
I want."
Sally Bennett says the best reason for living downtown will be the
opportunity to live closer to her grandchildren, whom she expects to see on a
more frequent basis.
The old becoming new
John Rood sees the old Lynch and Roosevelt buildings as they will be, not in
the run down condition they are in now.
During a recent unveiling of his plans to redevelop the two downtown
historical buildings, Rood stood on the sidewalk in front of the Lynch building
located at 11 E. Forsyth St. and explained his project to anyone who would
listen.
Rood walked swiftly through the building, which bore a musty smell and was
partially lit by sunlight from its front windows.
"This area will likely become a restaurant," Rood said.
The intensity of his eyes seemed to glare past the darkness and into a
brighter future for the building, which was built in the early 1900s and has
been neglected.
Rood and other developers have a lot in common. They have the ability to
visualize what old buildings or vacant land can be used for.
Rood plans to take the Lynch Building and the old Roosevelt Hotel, located
just around the corner at 33 W. Adams St. and convert them into loft-style
apartments.
The old Lynch Building will undergo a name change, becoming 11 East Forsyth
Street, which is the building's official address.
And the old Roosevelt Hotel building will become The Carlington. The name is
a spin-off of the hotel's first name, which was the Carling Hotel when itd
in 1926. The hotel's name was changed in 1936 to the Roosevelt Hotel.
Old structures, such as abandoned buildings, are prime targets for
residential developments.
It is taking place in cities such as Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Miami, Orlando
and Tampa. Many larger metropolitan areas in the Northeast have traditionally
attracted residential development to downtown areas. Over the past decade the
phenomenon has taken off in Southern cities.
Now, the phenomenon is beginning to take place in Jacksonville.
"The renovation of older buildings is popular," said Mark Vitner, an
economist at First Union National Bank in Charlotte. "Developers are finding
that there is good value in the purchase of property. That kind of space is
trendy and some times there are tax credits that are available."
Because many older buildings are historical landmarks, they are prohibited
from being demolished, and those who renovate them may qualify for tax credits.
For developers, it is cheaper to gut a vacant building than to tear it down
and build a new one from the ground up.
That is the case with the Lytle Place Condominiums. It will cost about $3
million to redevelop the school building.
The Annie Lytle School, which will become Lytle Place, was built in 1917. It
was originally known as Riverside Park School and Public School Number Four.
It was the first public grammar school constructed to serve the Riverside
area in the early 1900s.
The school was one of a dozen schools that were built as result of a $1
million construction bond issued approved in 1915.
The building is one of five buildings standing that is documented to have
been designed by deceased architect Rutledge Holmes, one among a group of
architects who were attracted to Jacksonville in the 1900s.
One of the early noted commissions of Holmes was the redesign of the
fire-damaged ruins of the Duval County Courthouse in 1903 for use as the Duval
County Armory.
Also, Holmes designed many of the homes and carriage houses along Riverside
Avenue, as well as the six-story Southern Drug Company building located at 20 W.
Adams St., designed in 1911, and the Professional Building at 126 W. Adams St.,
designed in 1914.
A downtown pioneer
It will take money and guts to develop in the downtown area where no one else
wants to.
The developers of the projects include large companies, joint ventures and
small development entities.
Developer Jerry Guy, the developer of Lytle Place Condominiums, says his eyes
have been on the Annie Lytle Elementary School building for quite some time.
"For 15 years I have been driving by and saying to myself, 'It is a shame
that building is just standing there vacant'," Guy said.
It is located in close proximity to downtown, at the entrance of the
historical neighborhood of Riverside and Brooklyn.
Guy thought the school building might be a good structure to convert into an
office space.
But the limited space for parking changed his mind about that.
Also, the area bore a reputation of being crime-ridden.
That was five years ago.
Over the time frame, the crime element is no longer a hold-up for
redevelopment.
"Now, that old crack houses have been torn down, all of a sudden it makes
sense to do the project," Guy said. "We have been piddling with the plans for
about a year and a half, and now we are convinced that it will work."
Hecredits city officials for creating a plan to redevelop the neighboring
areas of LaVilla and Brooklyn.
"Five years ago, you could not have done this because the city had not done
anything that would have made it attractive to do such a project."
Guy is not seeking city incentives to develop the condo project, however,
other developers who are attempting to build residential developments in the
downtown have done so.
About $19 million in city incentives are tied to the downtown projects that
are emerging.
Guy, the lead developer for the Lytle Place Condominiums, is a general
contractor with background in industrial projects. He is a part of a team of
developers that will revive the old school building.
Guy, who has done the contracting work in most development projects, says he
has built and renovated many churches in the community.
His development work with churches was an offshoot of the involvement his
brother had as a mortgage broker dealing with churches.
"And that just snowballed," Guy said. "But I took a sabbatical from all of
that to be a developer. I don't think that anybody can do it as good as I can."
Pricing the market
For downtown home buyers, prices will start from $89,000 for a loft condo at
the Lytle Place to $495,000 for a townhouse located along the Northbank at the
Berkman Plaza, a low-rise, high-rise townhouse and apartment development.
For renters, monthly prices will range from about $700 for a one-bedroom
apartment at 11 East Forsyth Street and The Carlington, to a high of about
$4,000 for a penthouse unit facing the St. Johns River.
There are prices between the lows and highs at the project, as well as at
other developments.
For instance, rent prices at the Berkman Plaza, which is located at 400 E.
Bay St., is expected to start at $850 a month for a one-bedroom apartment.
At the Villas of St. Johns, located at 2041 Riverside Ave., rent prices are
expected to start at $785 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,250 for a two-bedroom
unit.
The price of a townhouse at The Parks at the Cathedral, at 256 E. Church St.,
ranges from $136,000 to $164,000.
So far, developers are pleased by the interest in downtown housing.
For instance, at the Lytle Place, where there has been no marketing for the
sale of its 31units, seven reservations have been made by prospective owners.
Eric Miller says the response has been better than he expected.
"We have done pretty well," said Miller, a Realtor at Realty Management Group
located in Jacksonville Beach.
"We figured that we would get a pretty good response, but we got a better one
than we expected," he said.
Miller, who has sold condos at the Beaches, said he was unsure of the demand
when he started selling downtown-area condos.
Since the word has spread about the project, the real estate company has
received about 60 telephone calls from prospective buyers.
"And we have sent packages to each one of those people," Miller said.
Because of the response, Miller says there has not been a significant amount
of marketing.
Miller said officials of nearby corporations have been informed about the
opportunity for the Lytle Place to offer corporate housing.
He said the expectation is for the condos to be occupied by young
professionals or retirees looking to downsize from larger homes located other
parts of the city.
"We may be a little bit ahead of the game, but when time passes, everyone
will see what is going on," Miller said.
