What’s being built at Community Maritime Park explained in two minutes
Any proposal on new shops and restaurants at Community Maritime Park will live or die by how the parking garage will be financed.
- Developers have proposed an entertainment, retail, office and residential development in the space currently used as the Blue Wahoos Parking lot
- Previous proposals for the lot have fallen apart over the issue of paying for a parking garage that could serve the rest of Maritime Park
- One option on the table is the creation of a special district called a community development district with power to tax and issue bonds based on those taxes to fund infrastructure within the district
While there is a lot of excitement about the potential of an entertainment and shopping development at Community Maritime Park that could attract outlets like Cheesecake Factory, Alamo Drafthouse and Trader Joe’s, there is a is “$20+ million elephant in the room” that needs to be figured out before it can move forward.
That issue hanging over the proposal is how the public parking garage will be funded. One possible answer may be a new special government district that would be essentially be its own small government within the city.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said he’ll likely meet later this month with the developers of the Reverb by Hard Rock Hotel, who are also proposing the entertainment, retail, office and residential development right next door at Lot No. 4.
“We’ve got a $20+ million elephant in the room that needs to be figured out right now before we can say that (Lot No.) 4 is going to fly or it’s not going to fly,” Reeves said.
Whatever emerges from that meeting, the City Council may decide as soon as November whether it wants to move forward with the idea, as the construction logistics for the Reverb by Hard Rock Hotel will force a new arrangement for leases on other properties at Maritime Park before construction begins next year.
What’s being proposed at Community Maritime Park?
Inspired Communities of Florida, also known as The Dawson Company, is partnering with Corporate Contractors Inc., owned by Wisconsin billionaire businesswoman Diane Hendricks, and E Smith Advisors, the real estate development company owned by Emmitt Smith, and proposing a seven-floor entertainment and shopping Lot No. 4 at Maritime Park.
Right now, Lot No. 4 is the main parking lot for the Blue Wahoos Stadium.
The group is already developing the Reverb by Hard Rock Hotel and Rythm Lofts at Lot No. 5, and that project is scheduled to begin construction next year. That development will be built on Lot No. 5, which is currently a green space between the Blue Wahoos Stadium and the parking lot.
Overall, the entire complex would be a seven-floor building that would have 190,100 square feet of retail space, 119 residential units, 39,100 square feet of office space, and a 1,300-space parking garage, according to the presentation. Nearly half of the building would be dedicated to a parking garage, featuring two floors of underground parking.
Previous proposals for Lot No. 4 have fallen apart over the issue of paying for a parking garage that could serve the rest of Maritime Park.
A community development district could be an option
One option on the table is the creation of a special district called a community development district (CDD), where the district funds infrastructure for development through a bond that would be repaid with the property taxes generated from the development.
Florida law allows for the creation of these special districts, which have the power to tax and issue bonds based on those taxes to fund infrastructure within the district.
Reeves said he’s aware that it’s one idea that the developers are considering, but he hasn’t seen the details on what it would mean for this specific proposal.
“All I can tell you right now is the city’s position is the same with every developer,” Reeves said. “Which is, we do the same math you do. I’ve got to go to our citizens and our Council, and defend why this is a value to the city.”
Reeves said that with any complex development that requires partnership with the city, the small details could make or break the proposal.
“If they were to draw one just on their own property, then that would be taxing themselves or their leaseholders, for example, can they charge an extra percentage on every food item?” Reeves said. “Those are all of the things, the intricacies of the CDD, that I’m not aware of—including whether we would have to literally sell the property or convey the property over.”
Reeves said that if the city can help create a $250 million development without costing the city any money today, but which may require future tax revenue from that property that would not otherwise exist, he would consider that a fair investment for the city.
“We can clearly use those dollars to help fund the ability to make it exist, right?” Reeves said. “But we don’t want to do that for 80 years. Remember when I walked in to this office, the conversation we were having about (Lot No. 5 where the Reverb Hard Rock will be built) was abating 75% of the taxes for 10 years and 25% of the taxes for the next 10 years. We abated zero taxes on (Lot) 5 — zero. So all of that tax revenue for 5 is going back to the citizens.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.floridatoday.com ’
