Panhandle Development News

[ChuckScraperMiami#1]

Florida Future,
Our Tampa Bay Master and update friend,
it's ashame it's got to be demolished,
built in 1885 , you'll think they , the City would save it and rebuild it to it's natural finished ..
another piece of history going , going, Gone !!!

great updates again Florida Future,
I read these all the time,
your like the Florida Herald, but better to read , lol.

[fvcrew22]

Good to see that this project has begun.

Airport expansion plan takes off
Pensacola Regional undergoing major expansion
Carlton Proctor • cproctor@pnj.com • March 30, 2008




Pensacola Regional Airport is embarking on a landmark $100 million expansion, and director Frank Miller is hoping the traveling public won't even take notice. Of the construction, that is.

What Miller does want everyone to notice eventually is the end result: a greatly expanded airport with state-of-the-art in-line baggage screening, four more passenger loading gates, an enlarged ticketing area and a 1,300-space addition to its covered parking garage.

Three phases

The work will be done in three parts:

Phase one — relocation of the rental-car concession area — got under way last month on airport property adjacent to 12th Avenue.

Phase two is the main terminal expansion which Miller said likely will start this summer, as early as June and no later than August. That phase is expected to take 18 months to complete.

Phase three, with a tentative start-date late this year, is the addition of a 1,300-space parking garage adjacent to the existing covered parking structure.

When all work is completed sometime in late 2010 or early 2011, the project will constitute the most expensive single public works project ever undertaken by the City of Pensacola, which owns and operates the airport.

"I don't think the construction will impact the day-to-day traveler that much," Miller said. "That's because we're adding on to the existing airport, and we can do much, if not all, of the construction behind temporary walls, especially in the ticket counter and concourse areas."

Miller said he expects minimal impact on the passenger security screening areas as well.

His only major concern is there may be some temporary traffic congestion caused by construction vehicles.

"But we also plan on doing a lot of the construction at night after the airport has closed," he said.

The expansion project, which follows a $50 million runway improvement project completed late last year, is coming in the nick of time for Robert de Varona, whose Varona Enterprises currently has the concession contract at the airport.

"With the growth of the airport and increase in traffic over the past several years, as far as the retail and food facilities are concerned, we definitely need more space," he said.

De Varona said the expansion plans include additional retail news and gift space on the concourse past the security gates. However, that space will have to be shared with another retailer.

"I do have a difference of opinion with the airport about the expansion plans because I think there is a desperate need for more food and beverage space," he said. "The amount of space they've allotted should be tripled or quadrupled."

Traffic means growth. For Miller, who recently celebrated his 20th year as airport director, the expansion is the result of year-over-year record passenger growth.

In fact, Pensacola's airport has been so successful in recent years that it consistently has had more annual passenger traffic — more than 1.6 million — than Mobile and Fort Walton Beach's airports combined.

In that respect, Pensacola's airport has become the regional hub for the central Gulf Coast, said Charles Wood, Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce vice president for economic development.

"The airport for us is really a key factor in both our recruiting of businesses and maintaining the businesses we already have here," Wood said. "We have five or six major air carriers that fly nonstop to cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Houston and Dallas, and this allows businesses here to play at a very high level and connect with almost any major city in the world."

The expansion also bodes well for Pensacola Aviation, the airport's fixed base operator for private aircraft and fuel supplier for commercial aircraft.

Bruce Bennett, who manages Pensacola Aviation, said the terminal expansion and addition of four new passenger loading gates will allow more commercial aircraft in and out of Pensacola.

Bennett gives high marks to Miller and his staff for shepherding the expansion to this point.

Keeping up appearances. Much of the task of keeping the traveling public as happy and safe as possible will fall to Dave Mathais, the program manager the city hired to oversee the construction.

To that end, Mathais will be working closely with Tim O'Toole, project manager for Greenhut Construction Co., the general contractor.

"Our biggest challenge is to not impede the traveling public, to maintain the safety, efficiency and efficacy of the airport at high levels throughout the construction," said Mathais, a retired Naval officer, now with DMJM Aviation of Tampa.

Mathais said orchestrating the construction while keeping all the various functions of the airport — security screening, inbound and outbound flights, baggage claim, ticketing — running smoothly and safely will require constant planning and coordination.

One of the biggest challenges of the terminal expansion will be installation of the $6 million Siemens in-line baggage screening system.

That system will allow passengers' bags checked at the ticket counter to be routed through the security screening system, to loading docks and then onto waiting planes in one continuous, seamless operation.

The current security screening devices at Pensacola Regional are located in what is already a crowded ticket lobby area.

For Mathais it will be the first time he has supervised installation of a sophisticated in-line baggage screen system.

He and Greenhut will be getting plenty of expert assistance from the system's manufacturer.

"We all have a very high degree of confidence that we're installing the best in-line baggage screening system there is," Mathais said.

Financing for the expansion will come from a series of airport revenue bonds.

No local tax dollars will be used to pay for the $100 million in costs and fees.

Miller said the airport expansion is primarily to increase air travelers' convenience and to improve airlines' operational efficiencies.

But it also is a long-term investment in the community.

As a city's airport and air service grows, so does its economy.

"We're spending $100 million so the airport can position itself to absorb market increases and add more flights, bring in more carriers," Miller said. "And we can provide more services to our passengers, the ability to fly to more places."

The airport's expansion is also necessary to keep per passenger costs — currently $5.25 — to airlines low and competitive with other regional airports.

Miller said about 72 percent of all airport revenues come from non-airline concessions, such as rental cars, parking fees and sales at gift stores and restaurants.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...803300318/1003

[TampaMike]

Site work and new construction of a community complex in Niceville. Completed working drawings call for the construction of a 120,000-square-foot complex to house a sports arena, emergency services and communities activities.

General contractor bids are due no later than April 24, 2008.

http://www.bidclerk.com/project.758164.html

[FloridaFuture]

Upscale hotel proposed for Pensacola Beach
Jamie Page • jepage@pnj.com • April 4, 2008

A Destin company wants to build an 18- to 20-story, upscale hotel on Pensacola Beach where The Palace beach souvenir shop once was.

Hurricane Ivan in 2004 destroyed The Palace, at 701 Pensacola Beach Blvd., now a vacant lot owned by A&CH Properties, LLC, in Destin, doing business as The Palace.

"It's about time we get some more upscale facilities out here on the beach, then maybe we can draw a broader group of tourists than we are now," said Lamarie Gonzalez, 43, of Pensacola Beach.

The owner has the approval of the Santa Rosa Island Authority to rezone the lot to allow 32 units to be built on the 1.1-acre lot. However, on Wednesday, The Palace will ask the Island Authority for a special exception to instead build 56 units, said Buck Lee, SRIA executive director.

Frank Daughtry, the Pensacola-based architect for the project, said whether the hotel is feasible to build likely will hinge on whether the owner gets to build the additional units.

"They're looking at doing an independent modern, upscale hotel, not a Howard Johnson or anything like that," Daughtry said. "At this point it's a vacant lot not earning income, so the intention is to build as quickly as possible."

Pensacola Beach has seven functioning hotels, and five other hotel properties that plan to rebuild since being destroyed by Ivan. There are no hotels on Navarre Beach or Perdido Key.

If the project gets the special exception from the SRIA to build 56 units, it then will go to the Escambia County Commission to have rezoning approved.

As proposed, the 61,894-square-foot hotel would include parking on the bottom two floors, a bar/lounge, restaurant and 10,550 square feet of retail space.

The 56 modern boutique-style suites would have 600- to 650-square-foot rooms, according to preliminary plans submitted to the Island Authority. The hotel would have about 60 employees.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...33/1052/NEWS09

[FloridaFuture]

Panama City CRA expands
By Ryan Burr
PANAMA CITY

The Downtown North Community Redevelopment Area in Panama City almost doubled in size this week.

By unanimous vote, the City Commission approved expanding the Downtown North CRA from 12th Street north to U.S. 231 between McKenzie and Mercedes avenues.

Commissioners based their votes on the findings of a consulting group the city hired to study the new area. Kurt Easton of the IBI Group Inc. told the commission on Tuesday that numerous examples of blight were found in the study area, including faulty lot layout, abandoned commercial and residential structures, and multiple owners of individual properties.

CRAs collect money through yearly incremental increases in property taxes, generally for 30 years, to improve blight.

Easton said all the issues deter development. Lot layout can be “faulty,” for example, just by being too small to support new development on it.

Toni Shamplain, program manager of the Downtown North CRA, said Friday the Glenwood Working Partnership has been working for about three years to push the boundaries of the CRA northward, believing blight existed there as well.

Aside from new business, Shamplain said, “We want to encourage private-public partnerships in our CRA expansion, such as the city working with investors to bring affordable housing here.”

Cynthia Godbey, executive director of the Panama City’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which oversees all of the city’s CRAs, said that until recently, many basic services were lacking in the original Downtown North CRA.

Godbey said the agency soon will update plans for the original Downtown North CRA and the expansion area.

“We want to attract vibrant commerce to serve our citizens,” she said, citing a grocery store as an example. “In the planning for our Downtown North CRA, we will talk to property owners and business owners to see what is needed.”

That updated plan should be finished by July, she said.

Bay County has objected to tax-increment financing, or TIF, without a referendum.

The county is involved in two lawsuits over CRAs in Cedar Grove and Parker, both which have been argued before Florida Supreme Court. Joining those cases is one from Escambia County, where the court will decide whether a voter referendum should be required for tax-increment financing.

Bay County Attorney Terrell Arline wrote in an April 4 letter to Panama City Attorney Rowlett Bryant that the county is against the use of TIFs in paying for redevelopment in the CRA expansion. Arline said the county does not “contend the area in question fails to meet the definition of blight.”

http://www.newsherald.com/headlines/...id=1523&page=2

[FloridaFuture]

Beach candidates address CRA, taxes (see SPECIAL SECTION)
By Ed Offley
BAY POINT

Candidates for Panama City Beach mayor and two City Council seats generally agreed Friday that the local government should strongly support the ongoing Front Beach Road Community Redevelopment Area project as one of its top priorities over the next decade.

However, clear disagreement emerged among several contenders over a controversial proposal for the city to organize and operate a municipal tram system along the Thomas Drive-Front Beach Road corridor.

The two mayoral candidates, four contenders for the Ward 2 seat and two Ward 4 candidates met before about 140 residents at a candidate forum at Marriott Bay Point Resort sponsored by the Beach Chamber of Commerce.

During the hour-long forum hosted by Tom Lewis of News Herald media partner WJHG-TV News Channel 7, the CRA redevelopment of downtown streets was one of a half-dozen topics the candidates discussed relating to the city’s future as both a major tourist destination and a place to live.

Other topics that drew candidate reactions and comments included the city’s response to reduced tax revenues, the city’s role in diversifying the local economy, whether or not to raise bed taxes charged on visitor accommodations, building affordable housing and demolishing derelict properties.

Most candidates agreed with the position of Mayor Gayle Oberst, who is running against Ed Benjamin for the citywide post, that the Front Beach Road CRA will be the “economic engine” for future growth along the beachfront and is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the city.

Benjamin, while acknowledging the CRA’s importance, became the first of several candidates to question the proposed mass-transit tram system the City Council has considered for several years. The city last year spent $5.25 million for a tract of land near the Front Beach-Middle Beach Road intersection that will serve as one of two transit and parking centers for the tram.

“I question the tram project,” Benjamin said. “I don’t know where the money is coming from” to operate such a system, he added.

Ward 2 candidates Steve “Coach” Chamblee and Donald S. Williams also questioned whether the tram system merited a high priority given other capital improvement requirements. Ward 4 incumbent Ken Nelson likewise has strongly criticized the tram.

On the issue of raising the bed tax, currently at 3 percent of nightly tourist accommodation charges, Nelson and Keith W. Curry disagreed. Nelson supports raising the tax as an essential tool to generate marketing funds the Tourist Development Council needs to compete with other Florida destinations.

“We are currently the city with the lowest percentage” bed tax charge, Nelson said.

Curry disagreed.

“I’m not in favor of a new tax” level, he said. “I’m concerned with the way the TDC is operating today.”

He suggested the tourism panel could get by with current revenues if it operated more efficiently.

When asked how the Beach government could work to diversify its economy, most candidates agreed that bringing new industry within the city limits is unlikely given the small amount of available land. Most saw opportunities for new jobs and affordable housing coming in the West Bay corridor north of the city as the new airport begins operations in two years.

Candidates offered a diverse priority list for capital improvement projects within the Beach.

Chamblee has called for the city to build a new public safety center for the city fire and police departments, and said a new youth center at Frank Brown Park and highway safety improvements on Back Beach Road are critically needed.

Benjamin said the city has lagged in developing a comprehensive stormwater management plan and would give that top ranking.

Curry said among other projects he would continue to push for is development of a planned new city library.

Asked what council members should do to clean up abandoned and derelict properties, Ward 2 Councilman Rick Russell said this is one problem the government already has addressed. The message to property owners, he added, is straightforward: “We will tear it down for them and put a lien on their properties.”

Voters go to the polls April 22, although early voting begins Monday.

http://www.newsherald.com/headlines/...id=1524&page=3

[FloridaFuture]

Judge to speak about Maritime Park
From staff reports • April 11, 2008

Judge Lacey Collier will speak about the progress of the Maritime Park at a meeting of the Panhandle Tiger Bay Club on April 18.

The event will begin at 11:30 a.m. at the New World Landing in downtown Pensacola.

The public is invited to hear Judge Collier speak, and the cost of event is $40 per person.

The Panhandle Tiger Bay Club is a non-partisan group of men and women who are interested in issues of public policy and politics.

Call Rosanne Williams at 497-1684 to make reservations.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../1131/NEWS0803

[FloridaFuture]

More restaurants coming to Pier Park
By Daniel Carson Florida Freedom Newspapers
2008-04-16 10:17:00

PANAMA CITY BEACH - It's not hard to find a place to eat at Pier Park, with new restaurants like Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, Hofbrau Beer Garden, and Bootleg Barbeque opening this spring at the Panama City Beach development.

Indianapolis-based developer Simon Property Group on Tuesday announced four more new eateries coming to Pier Park this year, including the Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. Also coming are Tootsies Orchid Lounge, Baja Café and Guy Harvey's Island Grill.

Simon also announced beach and resort-wear shop Paradise Found would be opening its doors this spring in Pier Park's Boardwalk section.

Of the newly announced restaurants, the Olive Garden is scheduled to open in the fall and will be located off Back Beach Road. Owned by Darden Restaurants, the Italian restaurant chain operates 628 location in the United States and Canada, including a State 77 location in Panama City.

Baja Café, with its mix of Cajun, Caribbean, Southwestern and American cuisine, will be located in the Town Center area with a planned summer opening.

Morris said Tootsies was scheduled for a July opening in the Boardwalk section. The restaurant is known as a Nashville, Tenn., mecca for country music artists, and Tootsies' Web site says early customers included Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Patsy Cline and Mel Tillis.

Guy Harvey's also will open in the Boardwalk section this fall and will be a combination of restaurant, outdoor boat bar and retail store. It will serve a variety of American foods, with a percentage of all its proceeds going to the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, which is dedicated to ocean preservation.

There are now more than 40 stores open at Pier Park.

Simon Property Group spokesman Les Morris said Payless Shoes and Zales opened earlier this month. Old Navy, Solace Day Spa & Salon and A.M. Café and Accessories on the Boardwalk were scheduled to open this week.

There may be more restaurant opening announcements in the future, Morris said. Restaurant leasing is important to a property, particularly an outdoor center such as Pier Park, he said.

"I think we've seen it with Hofbrau, Margaritaville and Five Guys Burgers & Fries," Morris said.

He pointed out that Simon's restaurant leasing department is the only one companywide dedicated to a specific leasing area.

"So we're talking to restaurants often," Morris said.

http://community.emeraldcoast.com/on...e=article.html

[fvcrew22]

Looks like a good project for Pensacola Beach..

Santa Rosa Island Authority OKs Palace hotel concept
BY LISA NEWELL Gulf Breeze News lisa@gulfbreezenews.com



At the April board meeting, members of the Santa Rosa Island Authority gave the go ahead to A&CH Properties for a 20-story hotel with restaurant and retail space and two stories of parking on the site of the former Palace retail shop.
"It fits all the criteria that we spend eight months doing," said John Peacock of the plan. "I couldn't endorse staff's recommendation (to approve the plan) any more."

Each hotel room will have 612-640 square feet. "This is a true hotel room," Matt Mooneyham, SRIA staffer, told the board. Currently, the project doesn't have a hotel chain flag associated with it.

Additionally, the board discussed issuing a nationwide request for proposals for developing the land where the Santa Rosa Island Authority office sits, on the condition the proposal includes a parking garage and new accommodations for the SRIA. Dave Hemphill showed a proposal that included a hotel on the site.

http://www.gulfbreezenews.com/news/2..._news/057.html

[FloridaFuture]

Very nice. I really don't know that area well. Would this be, or have the possibliltiy of being, the tallest building in the immediate area?

[Mobil1]

I don't know how tall the Portofino condos are (4 of them). This probably is the tallest on Pensa Beach (and downtown considering downtown's tallest is a whole whopping 15 floors). Perdido Key might have some 20-something floor buildings. There's a wall of tall ones out there, but I've never stopped to count the floors.

[FloridaFuture]

Developers to present Pensacola Maritime park plans

The two master developer candidates vying to oversee the Community Maritime Park project will present their final proposals to the board on May 30.

The developers were set to give their presentations to the Community Maritime Park Associates board on May 9. However, one of the developers, Land Capital Group, recently requested a 30-day extension.

CMPA board chairman Lacey Collier has granted the extension for now, and will ask the board to approve it at the May 9 meeting.

Trinity Capital Advisors, the other competing developer, had prepared to make its presentation next week but has agreed to the extension, Collier said in a Wednesday e-mail to board members.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../1135/NEWS0807

[FloridaFuture]

Developer discusses $20M project
Carlton Proctor • cproctor@pnj.com • May 5, 2008

A $20 million-plus development by Pensacola-based Hawkshaw Eastside Inc., in partnership with Moulton Properties, is on track to start construction by year's end.

The project site is a 4-acre parcel of city-owned land adjacent to and west of Gulf Power Co.'s Bayfront Parkway headquarters.

Pensacola Community Redevelopment Agency Director Thaddeus Cohen and his staff are guiding the project toward a July 1 closing on the sale of the property to developers.

Cohen, former director of the Florida Department of Community Affairs, recently talked about the project, its time lines and economic impact on downtown.

Q: Where do things stand with the Hawkshaw Eastside project at this point?

A: They are moving forward on the process. They are working on the civil engineering of the proposed stormwater retention pond in Admiral Mason Park. They are also working on a master plan that will incorporate a larger stormwater drainage area able to handle both the Hawkshaw project and the proposed Technology Park planned for a site across Ninth Avenue and south of the Civic Center.

Q: What will have to happen between now and July 1 for the project to proceed on schedule?

A: The project will go to the Gateway Review Board in mid-May so the site plan can be reviewed at that level. It will then be submitted to the Community Redevelopment Agency and the city's Planning Board in June.

Q: What will the first phase include?

A: Fronting Ninth Avenue, it will be 30,000 square feet of mixed-use space that will include 30 work force housing units. Once the property sale is completed, they have to begin construction within six months, and will have 24 months to complete the first phase.

Q: What will the other phases be?

A: The entire project, once built out, will have 110,000 square feet of mixed-use office, retail and work force housing space, parking and the stormwater retention pond.

Q: Once the property is sold to Hawkshaw Eastside, how much control will the city have over the pace of construction?

A: There are performance milestones called for in the contract that the developers will have to meet.

Q: Doesn't the Hawkshaw project tie in very well with the proposed Technology Park south of the Civic Center?

A: Yes, it does. The Pensacola-Escambia Development Commission is moving forward for development of the tech park. Together, Hawkshaw Eastside and the Technology Park will transform downtown Pensacola.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../1131/NEWS0803

[FloridaFuture]

City leader shares vision for downtown's future
Jamie Page • jepage@pnj.com • May 19, 2008

Thaddeus Cohen has a vision for downtown Pensacola that's getting noticed after only four months at his new city job.

Cohen was hired in January to manage Community Development and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), now a combined office. The CRA guides downtown Pensacola's redevelopment efforts.

Soon after taking the job, one of the first things Cohen and his staff suggested to City Manager Tom Bonfield was to use $50,000 in CRA funds set aside for downtown events to create a downtown entertainment scene.

"I told him to go for it," said Bonfield, whose goal is to have at least 200 events a year in downtown Pensacola.

The CRA also is partnering with the Downtown Improvement Board to bring people downtown.

The Pensacola News Journal recently interviewed Cohen about his vision for the CRA that includes downtown.

Question: How did the city's promotion of watching the sunset on Thursdays at Palafox Pier come about?

Answer: I moved here on a Friday night. I was staying near Plaza de Luna, and I'm watching the sunset. I look around and there's five folks. Well, I think there must be something going on tonight. I come down on Saturday and watch the sunset, and there's five folks again. I thought this is just as cool of a place to watch the sunset as Mallory Square at Key West. So I say to the city manager, we need to do a sunset attraction at Plaza de Luna, with artists, clowns, musicians, the whole thing, just like Mallory Square.

By March, we got something going there on Thursday night, and now people are showing up to see the sunset over the bay. I think we have had up to 135 to 140 folks. They come and eat at restaurants and patronize downtown stores. It's working.

Q: What other things are you doing with CRA funds to bring people downtown?

A: With Live After Five, we block off the street and have a live band once a month. A property owner there said their retail business has experienced higher sales both times we've held it. At the first one, we had about 225 people show up. The last one was a little windy outside. It had about 150.

With the Friday Family Flick, you can bring your kids, sit back and watch a movie by the bay. What can be better than that? We are calling it part of our "Meet Me" campaign, as in meet me downtown, or meet me for Gallery Night. We hear people saying it.

In June, hopefully, they will be saying meet me at the Palafox Farmer's Market where local farmers can bring their produce. All of these things will enliven downtown.

Q: If successful in drawing a crowd to downtown, what is your ultimate goal for these events?

A: The ultimate goal is to get people seeing downtown as a place to go for a good retail and entertainment experience, and globally the demographics are moving toward folks looking for an urban lifestyle. But to do that you have to be able to capture the amenities they expect.

With these events, when they increase in size, what you can show is that you have an audience looking for these kinds of things.

That's when you are able to move toward folks wanting to live downtown because you have sparked something that is attracting people. Like a movie theater could then happen downtown because you have demonstrated that through the Friday Family Flick that you don't have to drive (uptown) to go to a movie. Then you start to grow your city core.

Q: Outside of downtown, what is your vision for the rest of the city?

A: When we are successful downtown, we will need to think beyond the CRA boundaries. I can envision, around Joe Patti's Seafood, a seafood district — if you think of that area as a mall, with Maritime Park on one end and a seafood district on the other. That not only creates commerce but a tourist destination.

Farther west, across Bayou Chico, to the current marina, I envision it being a Marina District, with boat captains, tour guides, charters. As these things happen, people will start to look positively about the kinds of things that create character where they live.

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../1131/NEWS0803

Community Redevelopment Agency
The Community Redevelopment Agency was created in 1980 to revitalize the historic waterfront and inner-city neighborhoods.

Taxes generated within the district are reinvested into public projects to foster private development and renovations.

The CRA extends south from Cervantes Street to the waterfront and is bounded by A Street on the west and 17th Avenue on the east.

Places to be
Here are four venues the CRA recently created to draw people downtown.

n Sunset over the bay: Meet downtown after work at 5:30 p.m. every Thursday for a few hours, and then watch the sunset at Plaza de Luna.

n Friday Family Flick: At 8 p.m., on the third Friday of each month throughout the summer. A movie suitable for families is shown on a 30-foot inflatable screen by the bay at Plaza de Luna.

n Live After Five: From 6 to 8 p.m., on the first Friday of each month, a section of Romana Street is blocked off to host a live band in the street.

n Palafox Farmer's Market: Starting June 7, a Saturday morning produce, floral and artisans market will be held at Martin Luther King Plaza.

Thaddeus Cohen
-- POSITION: Director of the City of Pensacola's Community Redevelopment Agency.

-- AGE: 57

-- PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: Served as secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs from 2004-07, and previously owned an architectural firm for 20 years in Delray Beach.

Cohen is a registered architect in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey and has more than 30 years of private and local government experience in Florida, and experience in urban planning and growth management.

-- ANNUAL SALARY: $105,000

[fvcrew22]

Originally Posted by FloridaFuture

Very nice. I really don't know that area well. Would this be, or have the possibliltiy of being, the tallest building in the immediate area?

I doubt this would be the tallest in that area, there is the Veranda's condo almost directly next door which is 21 stories tall. Down the beach a little there is also The Beach Club which is 21 stories and Portofino which has 5, 21 story buildings, although Portofino is not close to where this one is going to be.
This will be the first large condo when you first come over the bridge onto the beach though.

[FloridaFuture]

City devises new strategy to pay for Maritime Park
Court ruling has held up $40 million
Michael Stewart • mstewart@pnj.com • May 23, 2008

Pensacola city staff may have found a way to sidestep a Florida Supreme Court ruling that jeopardizes funding for the Community Maritime Park.

The fate of a plan by the city to finance $40 million in bonds to help build the park has been in limbo since September.

That's when the Supreme Court ruled that voters must approve bond issues when there is a pledge to repay the money from property taxes or special tax-increment finance, or TIF, districts such as the city's Community Redevelopment Agency.

The city had planned to use money from the Redevelopment Agency — a special taxing district that uses property taxes paid by downtown residents to address slum and blight — to repay the proposed $40 million bond issue.

What the city is proposing as an alternative seems simple enough: Pledge money other than Redevelopment Agency funds to repay the bond loan.

"We don't know what that is yet," City Manager Tom Bonfield said. "It could be utility taxes or public service taxes."

But, in a memo to Bonfield, City Attorney John Fleming stated that money from the Redevelopment Agency, even with other funds pledged, still could be used to retire the bond.

The court's ruling has raised questions not only about the future of the Maritime Park project but also about public funding for other projects from Perdido Key to Miami.

Hopes that the Supreme Court will either clarify its ruling or reverse its decision have not materialized.

No new taxes

Bonfield said the proposal would not require an increase in taxes.

Any bond-issuing company would require proof of sufficient revenues to retire the debt from the pledged funding source, whether it is utilities taxes or some other revenue stream.

Despite the tight economic times, Bonfield said there's sufficient revenue to cover bond repayments from an alternative funding source.

Fleming said he has reviewed the financial plan with the city's bond counsel, and both are confident the plan will withstand any legal challenge if the new financing proposal is challenged in court.

Council members were presented with information packets on the finance proposal Thursday night and are expected to discuss the matter at a June 16 meeting.

Unless a special meeting is called beforehand, a vote to approve or reject the proposal is likely later that month.

Work permits needed

Of more concern, Bonfield said, is obtaining the necessary permits to actually begin work.

The city is awaiting word on permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Although site work can begin, no structural work will start until all the necessary permits are in hand, said Edward Spears, acting executive director for the project.

How long that will take is anybody's guess.

"They have no deadlines," Spears said of the permitting agencies.

Meanwhile, two companies vying to build the Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park have until May 30 to turn in their construction proposals. They will make a presentation to the park's board of trustees on June 13.

The project is a joint public-private venture with the city's $40 million to fund public portions of the park that would include a baseball/multiuse stadium, University of West Florida classrooms, a conference center and surface parking.

Private and state money totaling $30 million would be used to build a maritime museum, a band shell and amphitheater area, and office, retail, restaurant and residential components of the development.

With a downturn in the economy, it could take longer than originally expected to build out the private portions of the park, but the project is moving forward, Spears said.

"Financing was a major issue that will be taken off the table," Spears said. "We are soon going to select a master developer, and once we get a permit, we are ready to go."

http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...WS01/805230331

[FloridaFuture]

Historic Pensacola building faces demolition
If not restored or sold, 'eyesore' on Alcaniz Street could come down
Jamie Page • jepage@pnj.com • May 26, 2008

An 80-year-old building in Old East Hill is in danger of being demolished — unless someone commits to restoring it soon.

The two-story building at 415 N. Alcaniz St. was built in 1928 as Mount Olive Baptist Church. It last was used as the home of the gay and lesbian Holy Cross Metropolitan Community Church — since relocated — until Hurricane Ivan badly damaged it in 2004.

A large hole in the roof and broken windows have caused serious water damage to the inside, and vagrants sometimes use it as shelter. The building's deterioration has caused neighbors to complain that something needs to be done with it.

Jarquita Lindsey, 24, has lived all of her life across the street from the church.

"It's becoming an eyesore to this neighborhood," Lindsey said. "It's a historic building. They could fix it up. When it was a gay and lesbian church, they were nice people, and they always kept it nice and had something going on."

City of Pensacola officials have sent numerous certified letters to the New York owner, known as DKINV2, LLC, with no response until last week, said city building official Bill Weeks.

A representative of the company wanted to know what he could do to address it.

"I told him you need to fix it; he said he couldn't afford it," Weeks said. "Unfortunately, the people who live around there have to look at that thing daily.

"The last thing the city wants to do is demolish it because it is a historic building."

After not hearing from the owner after repeated attempts, the city went to the Code Enforcement Board, which began imposing a $250-a-day fine, now totaling about $125,000, Weeks said.

A representative of the owner company couldn't be reached for comment.

Jeremy Hamilton, 26, lives on Alcaniz Street near the building.

"When people were going to that church, they had it looking nice. I do think somebody needs to come fix it up," Hamilton said. "The blue tarp on the roof and the windows being out, I see people going around to the back of it, and they may be staying in there. It just needs to be cleaned up."

The owner bought it in 2005, hoping to turn it into condominiums, said Realtor John Fifer of Coldwell Banker Commercial, which is selling the building for the owner. But as of about two weeks ago, the building has been up for sale for $465,000, Fifer said.

Demolition a last resort

The city plans to file a lien on the property for the amount of the fines at the June 3 Code Enforcement Board meeting.

The owner will have time to show signs of restoration, or the city could put the property up for sale, Weeks said.

"(The owner) has said he wants to fix the situation, to fix the property to satisfy the city," Fifer said. "He is looking for a long-term tenant. So he will either have it restored or sell it to someone who will."

In recent years, the City of Pensacola has pushed owners of dilapidated historic buildings to get them renovated, with demolition as a last resort.

If it's not purchased or restored, the city could foreclose on it, then bid it out for the best use. If none of those things works, the building likely will be demolished, Weeks said.

"It would make a great office property, like a high-end law firm," Fifer said. "That's a very common use of historic buildings in downtown Pensacola."

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[FloridaFuture]

[FloridaFuture]

Maritime troubles mount
Developers' proposals up cost, time to build long-awaited park
Michael Stewart • mstewart@pnj.com • June 8, 2008

Pensacola's proposed Community Maritime Park waterfront complex could cost millions of dollars more and take years longer to build than originally expected, according to proposals submitted last week by two competing "master developer'' groups.

Developer candidate Land Capital Group's estimated cost to build public portions of the park, including contingency fees and inflation, is about $54 million. That's a 35 percent increase over the $40 million committed by the City of Pensacola.

Trinity Capital Advisors submitted a $247 million proposal, one a city consultant on the project called "confusing." It mixes private and public costs, so it's difficult to determine exactly how much would be billed to public portions of the park.

What is known is Trinity Capital Advisors' cost estimates include $25 million for site work, $17.8 million for landscaping and $14.2 million for the multiuse facility, or about $57 million.

That's an increase of more than 42 percent above the $40 million target for those elements alone. About $30 million in private investment is expected to go with the $40 million in public funds for the complex.

"The city will commit $40 million, period," said Lacey Collier, chairman of the Community Maritime Park Associates, which heads the park project. "If it costs $100 million, we (the CMPA) will have to come up with it or the developers will have to come up with it."

Pensacola City Council member P.C. Wu agreed.

"My understanding was the $40 million pledged by the city was a promise as to what we would do," he said. "If we increase it, it seems to me, we would have to have another vote on it."

Equally troubling for some is the time it could take to complete the project.

Trinity Capital Advisors' plans call for a March 2013 completion, 6½ years after the Sept. 5, 2006, referendum to approve the project.

Even Land Capital Group's projected 2010 completion date is based on "best-case assumptions," according to information in that company's proposal.

Wu said financing and the sluggish environmental process held the project up.

"It's frustrating," he said. "By now you would hope to see a half a building down there."

A Florida Supreme Court ruling on municipal financing has delayed funding. The court's ruling called into question city plans to issue bonds against future Community Redevelopment Agency funds.

Council members could vote later this month to pledge other funds to back the bonds and still use CRA money to retire the debt — an alternative City Attorney John Fleming believes won't violate the Supreme Court ruling.

Trinity Capital Advisors is a full-service commercial real-estate firm headquartered in Philadelphia. Pensacola native and former Dallas Cowboys legend Emmitt Smith is president of SmithCypress Partners, which is a partner on Trinity Capital's team. Other partners include Weston Solutions, Inc., HKS Architects, and Pensacola-based Greenhut Construction Co.

Land Capital Group is based in Park City, Utah, and is a full-service development firm. Partners include Brass Real Estate Funds, Magi Real Estate and HOK Sport, a leading sports architecture firm. Pensacola-based partners include Spencer Maxwell Bullock Architects, Bullock Tice Associates and Baskerville-Donovan Inc.

The Community Maritime Park board has retained Orlando-based real estate consultant Owen Beitsch to study the two companies' proposals. Among the issues Beitsch will research is if the proposals are financially sound.

Beitsch is expected to review the plans and make a recommendation to the board of trustees in July. Trustees could choose the developer at that time or wait until an August meeting.

Once a master developer is chosen, negotiations will begin to determine what costs will be paid by the developer and what costs will be paid by the city. Developers could agree to pick up the additional costs.

The city's $40 million is earmarked for public components of the park, which will include residential park areas, a multiuse stadium for the Pensacola Pelicans independent league baseball team, a maritime museum and University of West Florida classroom space.

Quint Studer, a Pensacola businessman and owner of the Pensacola Pelicans, said given the sluggish economy, the park is needed more than ever.

"There are 1,500 jobs and $51 million in salaries that will be tied up on this job," Studer said. "Jacksonville and Orlando have big public projects going, and they are not feeling the heat from the economy like other parts of the state."

Surprising to some, there were no concrete plans in the master developers' proposals to indicate what private development they would contribute to the project.

"I expected there would be," City Manager Tom Bonfield said.

Wu said he wants to see the project get off the ground even if some elements have to be scaled back for now to keep the budget in line.

"I am still committed to the project," Wu said. "I think it would be an economic engine that would do a lot of good for Pensacola."

Charles Fairchild, who successfully led a 2006 citizen initiative to force a referendum vote on the park project, said the project already has been scaled back.

Some public portions of the park, such as a marina, water gardens, great lawn and lower west-side promenade, won't be built until a later date and are not included in the current proposals. Voters were mislead into believing they would get all elements in the public park, Fairchild said,.

"They basically didn't tell voters the truth," Fairchild said. "That project was sold as a complete package."

He believes the city should use the $40 million to build a public park and sell the rest of the property to private developers to build a baseball park or whatever else they want on the remaining property.

"We need to get the city out of the development business," he said.

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[FloridaFuture]

Developers: Public park comes first
Candidates say they will look to plug likely budget shortfall
Michael Stewart • mstewart@pnj.com • June 14, 2008

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Officials with two master developer companies competing to build the Community Maritime Park in downtown Pensacola pledged Friday to build public facilities at the park first.


In addition, officials with Park City, Utah-based Land Capital Group and Philadelphia-based Trinity Capital Advisors promised to seek outside funding to make up for an anticipated shortfall in public funds.

"We want to jump on the ballpark as fast as possible, get the ballpark up and the public portion of the park built," Land Capital Group CEO and founder Scott Davison said.

Ken Kearns, vice president of Trinity Capital Advisors, agreed.

"The faster we can deliver the public portions of this project, the faster we can deliver the infrastructure for the private portions of the park," Kearns said.

The companies' comments were made at a Friday afternoon meeting of trustees for the Community Maritime Park Associates.

Finding the funds

The two competitors presented written proposals last week, and Friday's meeting at Pensacola City Hall was the first time trustees had a chance to hear from the developers.

The companies' proposals caused some concern after their release.

Both came in over the $40 million the City of Pensacola has pledged to build public portions of the park that include a multi-use stadium, conference center and public park areas.

Land Capital's estimate of $54 million would build about 80 percent of the public park and excludes public amenities such as a great lawn, formal gardens and wharfs and piers in the city's original plans.

Davison said he was confident the additional money could be found.

Stan Skocki, a Washington-based lobbyist with The Normandy Group, which is a partner with Land Capital Group, said his company focuses on finding money for projects like this one.

"That's why we were brought in ... to look at federal funding to address that shortfall," Skocki said. "Actually, it's not a shortfall. It's a gap, and it's not uncommon to have gaps in projects like this. There are a lot of federal funding opportunities out there to more than make up for a gap like this."

Large estimate

Trinity Capital Advisors' $247 million estimate prompted several questions by trustees.

Kearns said that estimate was for complete build-out of the project for public and private portions of the park.

Trinity Capital's anticipated cost for landscaping, a conference center and a stadium is $40.8 million, Kearns said. A $25 million estimate for utilities and other site work, Kearns said, includes both public and private portions of the park and can be scaled back.

Like Land Capital Group, Kearns said his company would find other sources of income to complete the public portions of the park.

"That's part of our job," he said.

While officials with both companies were confident the additional money could be found, neither made a firm commitment that would happen.

Trustees have retained Orlando-based real estate consultant Owen Beitsch to study the two companies' proposals. Among the issues Beitsch will research is if the proposals are financially sound.

Beitsch is expected to review the plans and make a recommendation to the board of trustees in July. Trustees could choose the developer at that time or wait until an August meeting.

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