The Mayor’s Budget Review Committee voted July 22 to advance legislation to the Jacksonville City Council for $15.45 million in incentives to rebuild the Rise Doro apartments.
The vote authorized the city’s Downtown Investment Authority to file legislation for the incentives package for the project.
It comes about five months after a Jan. 28 fire destroyed the wood-framed portions of the structure at 960 E. Adams St. just days before it was scheduled to open for tenants.
Under the proposed agreement with project developer Rise: A Real Estate Co., the city would provide a 20-year, 75% Recapture Enhanced Value grant of $11.45 million and a $3 million workforce housing completion grant because the developer agreed to include 85 affordable housing units in the project.
The developer also would receive a $1 million emergency rapid response grant for the $79.1 million project as an acknowledgment of its quick demolition and cleanup of the project that allowed area businesses to remain open, DIA CEO Lori Boyer told the MBRC on July 22.
A REV grant is a refund on ad valorem tax revenue generated by a new development. The grant for Rise would come through the DIA Multifamily Housing REV Grant program.
According to the resolution, the rebuilt project would include 247 residential units and 7,400 square feet of retail space.
The project also will include a seven-story parking garage with 300 spaces, a rooftop swimming pool and fitness center, a DIA term sheet says. Of the retail space, 4,700 square feet will be on the ground floor and will be open to the public during normal business hours.
The cost of the original project, including the concrete pedestal and parking garage, was $65 million. In 2020, the DIA board approved a 15-year, 65% REV grant of $5.75 million for the project.
A staff report on the resurrected project says the 360,000-square-foot structure will include 15 954-square-foot one-bedroom town home units, 173 one-bedroom units of 625 to 750 square feet and 61 two-bedroom units of 1,025 square feet. The 85 workforce units will be restricted to tenants making up to 120% of the area median income.
Rise plans to retain the existing concrete portions of the building, which were determined sound by engineering inspectors.
The resolution attributed the higher cost of the new project to increases in construction costs.