More parking for Jacksonville Landing moves a step forward

The decades-long quest to provide more parking for The Jacksonville Landing got a nudge forward on Thursday when a city board gave a preliminary go-ahead to a 600-space parking garage right across the street.

But the Landing's owner isn't impressed.

The proposed garage would go in next to the SunTrust Tower. The sticking point up to now has been whether the garage would include street-level retail for the building.

The developer, who owns SunTrust Tower, has agreed to construct retail space next to the garage after the occupancy rate of the building breaks past 65 percent. Until then, the property set aside for the retail along Hogan Street would be a 38-foot-wide landscaped plaza with benches, shade trees and room for street vendors.

On a 3-1 vote, the Downtown Development Review Board supported that phased-in concept. That board's role is to make zoning decisions and evaluate the visual appeal of downtown projects.

The city agreed in 2011 to earmark $3.5 million to help Parador Partners of Atlanta build the garage. In return, Parador Partners would set aside 200 spaces on weekdays and 375 spaces on nights and weekends for public use. That falls short of the city's contractual obligation to Toney Sleiman, which is to provide 375 night and weekend spaces and 300 weekday spaces for the Landing.

The parking garage could also fulfill the city's long-standing obligation to provide parking for the Landing, if the mall's owner, Sleiman, agreed. In that case, the city would earmark up to $132,500 per year to Parador for a maximum payout of almost $1.6 million for a parking validation program that would give discounted parking to Landing patrons.

'Not what I need'

But Sleiman doesn't see this garage as the answer.

"It's too small. It's not what I need," he said. "If I have a major tenant that needs exclusive parking, that can't provide it."

Even if it doesn't fulfill its obligation to Sleiman, some city officials say this garage will nonetheless help relieve downtown parking woes.

But board member Chris Flagg, Thursday's lone "no" vote, said it is not the best use of the land at the corner of Bay and Hogan streets.

"It's a round peg in a square hole," he said. "It just doesn't seem to fit."

Parador originally proposed building the garage without street-level retail space because of the added cost. But the city requires retail space be included in all new downtown parking garages and balked in June at waiving the requirement.

Paul Crawford, acting executive director of the Office of Economic Development, said phasing in construction of retail is a "meet in the middle" compromise. He said it maintains the city's requirement while giving the developer financial flexibility.

Ashish Bahl, a Parador principal, said the 65 percent occupancy rate is not an arbitrary number.

"That's the point when we make money, and we're more than happy to funnel it back into Jacksonville," he said.

The project must still go back to the board for another vote on the finer architectural details of the garage.

david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581