By Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Developer Peter Rummell bought out business partner Mike Balanky’s share of the limited liability company created to develop The District mixed-use healthy-lifestyle community on Jacksonville’s Southbank.
Terms weren’t disclosed.
That leaves Rummell as sole owner of Elements Development of Jacksonville LLC, which expects to buy the nearly 30-acre site from JEA by Dec. 31. The contract price is $18.5 million.
“It’s a good day. It’s a happy day,” Balanky said Thursday afternoon. “Everybody got what they wanted.”
Balanky said he, Rummell and Michael Munz, a business partner with Rummell, have been talking about the buyout for a little while.
He said the move was one of efficiency because he was working on other deals. He also said The District would require a lot of debt and his model is to exit a project before that stage.
Balanky is working on developing an active-adult community in St. Augustine and a townhome project on Amelia Island, but was not ready to disclose details.
In a news release Thursday, Rummell called Balanky “a valuable participant” in the vision for The District.
“His energy and enthusiasm for this unique place-making project, in an urban setting along the banks of the St. Johns River, has been tremendously helpful,” Rummell said in the release.
Balanky said Rummell and Munz will “do a great job.”
Munz, president of the Dalton Agency PR Group, is a partner with Rummell in RummellMunz Partners LLC and RummellMunz Equity LLC.
Munz said Thursday he is an equity partner with Rummell in RummellMunz and that RummellMunz is the managing partner of Elements Development.
Elements Development has a contract to buy the Southbank riverfront land, which is the former site of the Southside Generating Station.
The proposed residential, hotel, commercial, retail and marina project is estimated at a $400 million to $500 million build-out.
In November, the Downtown Investment Authority allocated development rights for The District to include 1,170 residential units, 200 hotel rooms, 288,500 square feet of commercial and retail space and 200,000 square feet of office space to be developed over three phases.
Rummell envisions a concept in which people of all ages live in an environment with the facilities, amenities and resources that would promote optimal health.
Balanky said he had fun working with Rummell taking the early-stage idea for The District to its current status.
“At the end of the day, it’s a beautiful thing when people get what they want,” Balanky said.
@MathisKb
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