REVITALIZING, REBUILDING & REPURPOSING

THE BENEFITS AND TECHNIQUES TO MAKE IT HAPPEN

Stephen L. Atkins, principal & managing director of SouthEast Development Group, said the pro forma calculated $1.75 per square foot to make the deal work and new leases are going at $3 per square foot — an endorsement for urban living in Jacksonville. Twenty percent of the Residences at Barnett rent as workforce housing.

“We didn’t receive any incentives, other than financing. We financed under the new market tax credit structure. 

Also, my company has a subsidiary certified to do tax credits, so we used federal historic tax credits.”

He noted that occupying the Barnett building helped spur his more than $70 million mixed-use project across the street, featuring an Autograph Collection hotel, 170 multifamily units and commercial developed out of a trio of historic buildings plus an infill new build.

“Jacksonville, like a lot of cities, was not the greatest steward of the golden age of buildings,” Atkins said.

“A lot of great buildings were torn down and replaced with postmodern stuff. The thing about adaptive reuse is if you don’t make it work and support it, once the great buildings are gone, they’re gone. 

No amount of subsidy can take you back in time to preserve a razed building. 

People want to be in a vibrant downtown environment and converting old office buildings to residential creates that.”