It looks like anyone with a plan for Snyder Memorial will have the chance to show it to the Downtown Investment Authority.
The authority’s Strategic Implementation Committee directed staff Wednesday to draft a request for proposals for the historic former Methodist church at Laura and Monroe streets near Hemming Park.
The intent is to identify people with a business plan, one of which could eventually be approved by the authority’s board of directors.
The committee hopes to renew the conversation about how to turn the building the city purchased in the mid-1970s, after the church’s congregation dwindled, into an asset.
“Snyder is a key property,” said Brenna Durden, one of two DIA members on the committee. “We won’t know if there’s somebody out there until we put it out on the street.”
The city’s investment over the years — combining acquisition from United Methodist Church, re-acquisition and maintenance and repair costs — is nearly $2 million.
That includes bailing out the St. Johns River City Band, which occupied the building beginning in 2000, but left after a few years behind on payments for a $650,000 city Community Development Block Grant.
There also was $800,000 of unfinished planned renovations and $250,000 in contractor liens when the musicians left the stage.
In November 2004, City Council authorized spending $1 million in historic preservation trust funds to pay off the creditors and tax liens and again took ownership of Snyder.
The city in 2006 repaired the roof for $385,000 and in 2014 made structural repairs totaling $432,000.
The assessed value of the 13,000-square-foot Gothic-style, granite and limestone building is barely over $600,000.
Vice Chair Jack Meeks, the other member on the committee, said he’s concerned some who respond might want the building “for little or nothing” and might ask the city for money to help develop the property.
It might be the right time to get the maximum value for the building, notwithstanding the city’s investment to date, said Oliver Barakat, a commercial real estate broker and past chair of the authority.
He also cited the ongoing expenses even though Snyder has been empty for years.
“There is a cost to own it and it won’t get cheaper,” Barakat said before posing a question: “What are we going to get out of it?”
Durden agreed.
“I’d like to hear about all potential development opportunities. Then we can make a decision how to proceed,” she said.
Future evaluations of stagnant Downtown real estate assets will be conducted for the Sax restaurant project, which the city constructed in LaVilla but was never leased; Brewster Hospital; Genovar’s Hall and three nearby “shotgun” houses, as well as vacant lots in LaVilla and Brooklyn.
Meeks said he will schedule the next meeting for within three weeks, at which time the committee will review the first draft of the request for proposals and hear reports on the other properties.
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