Palafox leads downtown's renaissance
- August 24, 2014
- / Carlton Proctor
- / dashboard
When restaurant entrepreneur Joe Abston opened Hopjacks on Palafox Place in 2008, he said his goal was to help revive downtown Pensacola and restore its “beating heart.” Today, thanks to investors like Abston, and creators of new hot spots like Al Fresco, O’Riley’s Irish Pub and Picasso’s Jazz Club, along with mainstays like Seville Quarter, Jackson’s, New York Nick’s, Vinyl and Global Grill, downtown has revived in a big way. “When Hopjacks first opened more than six years ago there were five restaurants and one bar on Palafox Place,” said Abston. “Today there are 29 restaurants and five bars.” The lively new downtown scene is having a positive effect well beyond Palafox Place, Abston said. “Now, because we have a vibrant downtown, I truly think people like AppRiver and IHMC (Institute for Human and Machine Cognition) can use what we have going on here to attract young talent,” he said. “We’re not just some sleepy town on the Gulf Coast with nothing for young people to do.” Visible signs of this downtown renaissance are easy to spot these days. They include:
- Quint and Rishy Studer’s $16 million, 60,000-square-foot office building under construction at the Community Maritime Park.
- Construction of a new multimillion dollar Bank of Pensacola on the corner of Palafox and Main is well along and moving toward a grand opening later this year.
- Beck Property Co. recently broke ground for a three-story office building on a one-acre site within the Maritime Park.
- Three credit unions -— Gulf Winds, Members First and Pen Air — have renovated existing buildings in the downtown core, bringing scores of new jobs with them.
Outside the core
To anyone visiting downtown these days, it’s abundantly clear Palafox Place’s heart is beating loud and strong. But what is the pulse like beyond the city’s retail and entertainment core in those neighborhoods to the east, north and west? Some would say it’s weak; there’s not much happening in either the residential or commercial sectors. Scores of commercial properties in the downtown area are in substandard condition or sit empty and for sale, and have remained that way for years. This surplus commercial floorspace has all but halted new construction in the Community Redevelopment Agency’s district, bounded on the west by A Street, on the north by Cervantes St., and on the east by 17th Avenue. Founded in 1980, the CRA District was created by the City of Pensacola to fund public infrastructure improvements and stimulate private investment. New construction permits over the past eight years have been scant, according to data provided by Sherry Morris, planning services director for the city. In 2013, for example, just three permits were issued for new commercial construction in the district; two in 2012; none in 2011; one in 2010; one in 2009; seven in 2008; three in 2007 and three in 2006. “When you keep your eyes open as you drive around, it’s obvious there’s abundance of commercial office space vacant in downtown Pensacola,” said advertising executive Ellis Bullock. “Even though we are creating a vibrant downtown, it’s more centric to a local entertainment center, and it’s not attracting the kind of commerce to go along with it.” Bullock and others point to large tracts of land — the 19-acre ECUA property on Main Street, the 9-acre Pensacola Technology Park and the 4-acre site of the former Seville Inn — as key parcels that need to be filled for the prosperity of Palafox’s entertainment core to spread. Bullock is trying to sell a commercial office property on Bayfront Parkway; it has been vacant for three years without an offer. Infilling those vacant properties and rehabilitating existing commercial structures were two key issues identified in the mayor’s Urban Redevelopment Advisory Committee report issued in 2013. Another issue holding back downtown growth is that some investors paid too much for commercial land prior to the Great Recession and are holding on, hoping the market strengthens and land prices move back to previous levels. “I know I’ve sold and bought property for people who are speculators down along the Government Street stretch,” said John Griffing, CEO of NAI Halford, a Pensacola-based commercial land broker. “And so far they’ve been pretty disappointed with investments they’ve made. I think it’s just going to take some time for downtown commercial property prices to recover.”Give it time, some say
Despite what many see as a sluggish local economy, some observers say downtown’s next wave of capital investment is not a matter of “if” but “when.” “I think we’re on the cusp of seeing that recovery,” said Butlin. “Our goal at the DIB is to create an interesting place and let the market respond.” To that end the DIB’s board has crafted a game plan called “HEAART,” an acronym for Housing, Economic Development, Aesthetics, Arts and Culture, Retail and Transportation. Among HEAART’s goals to accomplish by 2016 are:- Attracting more quality retail establishments;
- Increasing the number of affordable residential units;
- Increasing visitation downtown;
- Improving community awareness about the economic importance of a vibrant downtown.