The Downtown Investment Authority has completed negotiations with a riverfront landowner to buy property to replace a marine fire station being demolished at the former Kids Kampus as part of Shad Khan’s Four Seasons hotel project.
The DIA board voted 6-0 on Dec. 21 to approve a deal that would give AR Polar Jacksonville LLC a five-year option to acquire a 4.75-acre portion of an existing retention pond adjacent to public media WJCT Inc.’s headquarters and south of the Hart Bridge ramp.
In exchange, the company will provide the city with 1.2 acres of its 20.37-acre property that has access to the St. Johns River to build the new marine fire station.
AR Polar’s land is next to WJCT, Metropolitan Park and the St. Johns River.
The station will service the Downtown riverfront, but the DIA noted that it had to begin work in support of the Jacksonville Jaguars owner’s estimated $387.6 million Four Seasons hotel and residences and office building.
Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration budgeted $14 million for the relocation of the marine fire station and dock. The money is included as a public investment line item in a revised $129.75 million incentive package for the Four Seasons project before City Council.
The city approved a demolition permit Nov. 30 for PCL Construction to remove the 3,040-square-foot Marine Fire Station and restrooms building at 1406 Gator Bowl Blvd. at a cost of $40,000.
Council previously approved a $114 million incentive package for the project that will be replaced with the new deal, if approved in January by City Council.
According to the DIA resolution, AR Polar “is unwilling to sell a riverfront parcel of their property to the City without securing a right to purchase a portion of the retention pond parcel.”
The term sheet says the city could fill the land before handing it off to AR Polar.
DIA board Chair Carol Worsham acknowledged Dec. 14 that filling in the pond increases the value of that land and AR Polar’s property, and makes it more attractive for private development.
The agreement also commits the city to extend Festival Park Drive to provide better access to AR Polar’s property.
That will affect WJCT’s parking lot and require the DIA board to take a separate vote to amend the city’s ground lease with the nonprofit and replace any parking spots removed.
WJCT 89.9 FM is a news partner of the Daily Record.
The cost of both construction projects is an estimated $1.772 million, according to the DIA staff report.
The DIA deal term sheet says if AR Polar does not acquire the option parcel, the city will pay the company $3.055 million for the land — the appraised value minus the $886,000 cost of the access road.
Khan’s development company, Iguana Investments Florida LLC, has started site work for the Four Seasons.
Council will have to approve the AR Polar land deal before it takes effect.
According to DIA CEO Lori Boyer, the retention pond is meant for water runoff filtration and not flood/stormwater capture.
She said the city Department of Public Works told DIA staff that there is enough water filtration capacity elsewhere in Downtown to not require replacement of the pond.
The board also approved an access agreement 6-0 that will allow AR Polar to conduct surveying and soil and other testing on the option parcel.
AR Polar is an affiliate of Uniondale, New York-based multifamily loan and commercial mortgage company Arbor Realty Trust, Boyer said.
During a Dec. 14 committee meeting, Boyer said that AR Polar would likely not build on the site but would sell the land to a buyer/developer.
“I have certainly seen conceptual ideas of a mixed-use development on the site. But I do not believe the current owner intends to develop the site themselves,” Boyer said.
“Essentially, what that (the five-year option) gives them is the ability as they are talking to a prospective buyer to add additional property or not,” she said. “And we’ve already established the price on it based on the current appraised value.”
This was the DIA’s second attempt to swap land with AR Polar.
A deal the board considered in April would have swapped the retention pond site with other property owned by AR Polar where the city would build a new retention pond.
The staff report says title information and land surveys conducted by the city showed that encroachments, unknown contaminants and “visible improvements that imply underground utilities and installations” would have made that site too expensive to develop.
