TU: Jacksonville projects sit idle after being infused with city taxpayer money

[Patricia M. McBride]

In his own words, Mayor Brown said, when he was running for office that the downtown used to supply about 17% of the tax receipts and now supplies only 3% of the tax receipts.  The reason for this is that the city has bought up very nearly all the buildings and land in the downtown which takes them off the tax rolls, and now, they are trying to get people interested in leasing the land while they manage everything.  Is that something that sounds like something any business would want to do?  Does it even sound like anything our city officials should be doing or anything that is part of their responsibilities as elected city officials?   If it doesn't, then, maybe folks should write and hound these people to start selling all that property to folks who are interesting in developing the land and certainly they need to get their noses out of the business of trying to micro manage other people's business.  They can't even run the city or negotiate union contracts well enough to save us from bankruptcy and ALWAYS seem to spend more money than they have, so they are the last people I would want trying to tell someone how to run a business!  When you read this article, you will get a pretty good feel for why these building and this land sits empty or at mid point in construction...............who needs the city micro managing their business for them after they invest their money in it?

 

By David Bauerlein, Drew Dixon 

March 8, 2012 - 05:06pm

Jacksonville projects sit idle after being infused with city taxpayer money

A year after Jacksonville City Hall yanked a contract for building a restaurant at Palms Fish Camp off ..., Northside residents are still wondering when someone — anyone — will finish construction and start serving fish platters.

In the downtown area, the restored Brewster Hospital building and partly completed Sax Seafood & Grill restaurant are likewise waiting for city action to get them ready for tenants and customers.

At the junction of Moncrief Road and Myrtle Avenue, the North Point Town Center, financed partly by city grants and loans, opened in January and does have the lights on. But the building’s owner, nonprofit Northwest Jacksonville Community Development Corp., is still seeking tenants to fill up the two-story building.

Though the buildings are in different stages of completion, they all represent failed attempts by the city to spark neighborhood-based economic activity through land donations and millions of dollars in grants and loans.

The freeze at the Palms Fish Camp could be thawing. The city, which owns the property, has talked with the original investment group about restarting construction. But the long layoff in work at the restaurant, off Heckscher Drive beside Clapboard Creek, has puzzled and galled Northside residents.

Heckscher Drive Community Club President Bobby Taylor said action can’t come soon enough.

“It was a very integral part of the fabric of the community,” he said. “The city needs to do something.

“At a time when we’re trying to maximize revenue for the city, to have a brand-new building sitting there unoccupied and not generating any kind of contribution to the community is just a waste of resources. It just looks bad,” Taylor said. “We got enough empty structures on this road now, and the city doesn’t need to be contributing to the decline of our retail.”

Former City Council member Glorious Johnson has similar thoughts when she drives by the Brewster Hospital, which sits vacant even though the city paid to restore it in the La....

“I’m a little, let’s say, concerned that nobody seems to care,” she said.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-03-08/story/jacksonville-pr...

 

[Patricia M. McBride]

And thank goodness for Glorious Johnson.  There are some on the blogs that don't like that she is involved, but I am greatful, because she has the experience of being a city council member and she is a taxpayer in Duval County and has every right to voice her very knowledgeable opinion.