The Downtown Investment Authority board has voted in support of a new program designed to generate residential development in the heart of Downtown, which has lagged areas like Brooklyn and the Southbank in adding apartments and condos.
The board voted 9-0 on Nov. 20 to recommend that the Jacksonville City Council consider the Northbank Downtown Core Residential Program, a suite of incentives and bonuses applying to the area bordered by Broad, State and Liberty Streets and the St. Johns River.
Initiated by Council member Joe Carlucci, the program sets goals of inducing construction of 425 multifamily dwelling units per year.
If approved by Council, the program would provide completion grants of $20,000 to $50,000 per unit depending on the density and type of construction, with bonuses for parking garage spaces, affordable/workforce units and size bonuses that multiply the base incentives by 1.5 times for two-bedroom units and two times for three-bedroom units or larger.
According to a staff report on the program, the incentives could be coupled with public funding through Recapture Enhanced Value grants and other DIA programs for historic preservation and revitalization, retail enhancement and other purposes.
A REV grant is a refund on ad valorem tax revenue generated by a new development.
Another size bonus offers accelerated payouts of up to 125% for REV grants for two- and three-bedroom units or larger.
Among underwriting criteria, completion grants cannot exceed 25% of hard costs plus outlays for architecture and engineering. Completion grants cannot include acquisition costs nor exceed 65% of a developer’s equity.
In addition, properties adjacent to the river must provide a minimum of 3,000 square feet of restaurant or retail space accessible to the public from the Riverwalk, at the street level or on a rooftop.