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The proposed $24.67 million taxpayer-backed deal to partially finance SouthEast Development Group LLC’s planned historic Laura Street Trio renovation Downtown cleared its first hurdle March 15.
The Downtown Investment Authority’s Strategic Implementation Committee voted 3-0 to advanced the deferred and forgivable loan package for the full board’s consideration March 17.
If approved, City Council could take the final vote on the incentive agreement by the end of June for SouthEast’s $70.48 million proposal to adapt the vacant structures into a 145-room Marriott Autograph Hotel with a restaurant, lounge and ground-floor retail.
SouthEast Managing Director Steve Atkins said March 15 that the 4,401-square-foot, ground-floor bodega grocery store that will be in the Trio’s Bisbee Building has been leased to a retired Winn-Dixie employee. He did not release any additional information about the operator at the meeting.
SouthEast Development Group LLC’s plans to renovate the historic Laura Street Trio Downtown could receive $24.67 million in city-backed incentives under a proposed deal with the Downtown Investment Authority.
The pending agreement negotiated by DIA staff includes forgivable and deferred loans for SouthEast’s $70.48 million project.
The project will adapt the vacant historic structures into a Marriott Autograph Hotel with a restaurant, lounge and ground-floor retail, according to documents submitted for the DIA Strategic Implementation Committee’s March 15 meeting.
If approved, the nearly $25 million package would be the largest awarded from the DIA’s Downtown Preservation and Revitalization Program authorized by City Council in October.
06:10 PM EST Share The Vestcor Companies Chairman John Rood said the Curry administration plans to implement the panel’s recommendations within two years.
A working group of Downtown CEOs and business leaders formed by Mayor Lenny Curry met Feb. 23 to draft recommendations to the city to improve the urban core.
The group’s lead member, The Vestcor Companies Chairman John Rood, said the panel will meet at least twice more by the end of March to meet Curry’s charge of recommending Downtown improvements that can be funded and implemented in the next two years.
“I care about it because I think if you don’t have an urban core you’re going to lose our young people,” Rood said in an interview after the meeting.