Studer proposal takes Maritime Park back to its roots
- June 19, 2015
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / government
Nearly nine years after voters approved the concept of a downtown waterfront redevelopment project, the Community Maritime Park could be returning to its roots.
On Thursday Entrepreneur Quint Studer pitched the Pensacola City Council on his plans for developing three parcels of the site. As drawn, the plans represent a $20 million investment.
Plans for one of those parcels include a School of Entrepreneurship that would focus on community building, research and supporting small-business development. It would restore the educational and community building components missing from the project since the University of West Florida withdrew from the original plans for the park that included research space, classrooms and a maritime museum.
[caption id="attachment_25013" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Plans for a School of Entrepreneurship on the Community Maritime Park site.[/caption]
“We want to make Pensacola the place for entrepreneurs to be trained, to be taught and to get degrees” Studer said.
Studer said that an education partner could be named soon in development of the school, which is designed as an open concept building meant to reflect a campus feeling.
Architects Caldwell and Associates crafted renderings of the buildings.
In his presentation, Studer tied his plans for the three parcels back to the master plan that noted urban developer Ray Gindroz created for the entire downtown area.
“Ray Gindroz’s master plan was for more than just the Community Maritime Park,” Studer said. “A developer just looks at the piece of property he is developing.”
The school would sit in the southwest corner of the Maritime Park, across the street from the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority property the Studers bought for $5.2 million cash. On Thursday Studer noted that the development of that property would complement the School of Entrepreneurship.
“It is vital that DeVilliers Street gets developed,” Studer said, something that would help move economic energy west into areas of the city that have yet to see the promises of the original concept of the park fulfilled.
Offer details
Quint and Rishy Studer first responded to requests for proposal in December with plans for parcels 3 and 9 that carry over into this proposal. In addition to the school planned on Parcel 6:
— Parcel 3 abuts the front of the stadium just across Cedar Street from where the Studer Group office building now stands. Parcel 3 could be the site of a first-floor child care center with the possibility of a sports museum, and office space possible on the top two floors.
[caption id="attachment_25012" align="aligncenter" width="864"]
Plans for Parcel 3 on the Community Maritime Park site.[/caption]
— Parcel 9 abuts the stadium on its west side. It would house a 9,000 square foot convention space, breakout rooms and areas for educational events. It also will include expanded training facilities for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos that would bolster the team's attractiveness for affiliation with Major League Baseball teams. The team currently is an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.
[caption id="attachment_25015" align="aligncenter" width="864"]
Plans for Parcel 9 on the Community Maritime Park site.[/caption]
Other key points:
— The Studers would begin paying rent on the parcels July 1, if all the parties can agree, and would continue to do so for 54 years.
— Rental amounts would follow the formula used for the Studers lease of the Maritime Place office building and the Beck property that will be home to the One51 Main development of 7.25 percent for ground rent and 0.75 percent for common area maintenance fees.
— CMPA gave Parcel 3 a value of $285,000; Parcel 6, $786,000; Parcel 9, $436,000. Rent for all three parcels would total $109,258 annually with an increase of 5 percent every seven years. Common area maintenance fees would total $11,302.50 annually, with an increase of 5 percent every seven years.
Common area maintenance fees go directly to CMPA. Rent goes to city and by agreement the city returns approximately 75 percent of that to the CMPA.
— The proposal seeks the nonexclusive use of 95 parking spaces at the park site for all three parcels. Those spaces would be among the 200 spaces already dedicated on site for the Wahoos use on game days.
MCM-BAP’s pitch
Also pitching to City Council were representatives from MCM-BAP, a Miami-based developer that in January, presented their vision for developing the downtown waterfront redevelopment project. It includes plans for a hotel and boutique apartments, an investment then said to total $65 million.
MCM-BAP now proposes a $43 million project that includes a Hilton hotel on Parcel 4, parking on parcel 5, and 200 rental or condo units on parcels 7 and 8.
The company proposed 99-year leases for the parcels with rent totaling $150,000 for the hotel and the housing parcels, including common area maintenance fees.
It offers no rent on Parcel 5 and covers none of the property tax that would be due.
[caption id="attachment_15906" align="aligncenter" width="905"]
This rendering outlines MCM-BAP's plans to develop the Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park.[/caption]
Applying the rent and common area maintenance fee formula used on the Maritime Place and One51 Main parcels, (rent at 7.25 percent, fees at 0.75 percent of the 2012 appraised values of the property), rent and fees on Parcels 4, 7 and 8 should total $514,400 a year.
Property taxes due on those would total some $800,000.
On Wednesday Community Maritime Park Board members voted to send a letter to City Council expressing their disappointment with the offer ultimately brought to the table by MCM-BAP. Tamara Fountain, the city’s chief operating officer, said the mayor’s office would not move that proposal to council for a vote.
Clearly aware of that feedback, Mike McShae of real estate firm CBRE, who sat with Erik Valderrama, principal for MCM-BAP for the presentation, said MCM-BAP is willing to discuss modifying its proposal for rent, common area maintenance fees and taxes to be paid on the sites.
No specifics, however, were given.
City Council President Andy Terhaar said that his greatest concern about the MCM-BAP proposal is their offer of rental payments that as presented do not match the formula used on the two other signed ground leases at the site.
“It sounds like they will come back with something different than what they have here at some future date,” Terhaar said.
Moving forward
That sense of paralysis by analysis that has haunted the park project was palpable Thursday.
Valderrama said a new rent proposal could be back to the city in three weeks. He also noted that once they have a memorandum of understanding in principle, MCM-BAP would conduct a study of what kind of parking garage facility could work as an “aggregate solution” on the site.
The study too would contain suggestions to “mitigate the cost” of building such a facility.
Revisions to their original housing proposal, Valderrama said, reflected further investigation in Pensacola area’s market conditions. He left the door open to future modifications to MCM-BAP plans in asking for a development window of 36 months to account for things in the market that could happen that are beyond the company’s control.
But Valderrma stressed, “We are ready to build in the timelines in the MOU.”
Studer said that he and Rishy Studer are ready to begin paying rent on July 1. Work could begin shortly as well on at least two of the three parcels they want to lease, something that would pump jobs and money almost immediately into the community.
“Empty lots don’t employ people,” he said.
Plans for a School of Entrepreneurship on the Community Maritime Park site.[/caption]
“We want to make Pensacola the place for entrepreneurs to be trained, to be taught and to get degrees” Studer said.
Studer said that an education partner could be named soon in development of the school, which is designed as an open concept building meant to reflect a campus feeling.
Architects Caldwell and Associates crafted renderings of the buildings.
In his presentation, Studer tied his plans for the three parcels back to the master plan that noted urban developer Ray Gindroz created for the entire downtown area.
“Ray Gindroz’s master plan was for more than just the Community Maritime Park,” Studer said. “A developer just looks at the piece of property he is developing.”
The school would sit in the southwest corner of the Maritime Park, across the street from the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority property the Studers bought for $5.2 million cash. On Thursday Studer noted that the development of that property would complement the School of Entrepreneurship.
“It is vital that DeVilliers Street gets developed,” Studer said, something that would help move economic energy west into areas of the city that have yet to see the promises of the original concept of the park fulfilled.
Offer details
Quint and Rishy Studer first responded to requests for proposal in December with plans for parcels 3 and 9 that carry over into this proposal. In addition to the school planned on Parcel 6:
— Parcel 3 abuts the front of the stadium just across Cedar Street from where the Studer Group office building now stands. Parcel 3 could be the site of a first-floor child care center with the possibility of a sports museum, and office space possible on the top two floors.
[caption id="attachment_25012" align="aligncenter" width="864"] Plans for Parcel 3 on the Community Maritime Park site.[/caption]
— Parcel 9 abuts the stadium on its west side. It would house a 9,000 square foot convention space, breakout rooms and areas for educational events. It also will include expanded training facilities for the Pensacola Blue Wahoos that would bolster the team's attractiveness for affiliation with Major League Baseball teams. The team currently is an affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.
[caption id="attachment_25015" align="aligncenter" width="864"] Plans for Parcel 9 on the Community Maritime Park site.[/caption]
Other key points:
— The Studers would begin paying rent on the parcels July 1, if all the parties can agree, and would continue to do so for 54 years.
— Rental amounts would follow the formula used for the Studers lease of the Maritime Place office building and the Beck property that will be home to the One51 Main development of 7.25 percent for ground rent and 0.75 percent for common area maintenance fees.
— CMPA gave Parcel 3 a value of $285,000; Parcel 6, $786,000; Parcel 9, $436,000. Rent for all three parcels would total $109,258 annually with an increase of 5 percent every seven years. Common area maintenance fees would total $11,302.50 annually, with an increase of 5 percent every seven years.
Common area maintenance fees go directly to CMPA. Rent goes to city and by agreement the city returns approximately 75 percent of that to the CMPA.
— The proposal seeks the nonexclusive use of 95 parking spaces at the park site for all three parcels. Those spaces would be among the 200 spaces already dedicated on site for the Wahoos use on game days.
MCM-BAP’s pitch
Also pitching to City Council were representatives from MCM-BAP, a Miami-based developer that in January, presented their vision for developing the downtown waterfront redevelopment project. It includes plans for a hotel and boutique apartments, an investment then said to total $65 million.
MCM-BAP now proposes a $43 million project that includes a Hilton hotel on Parcel 4, parking on parcel 5, and 200 rental or condo units on parcels 7 and 8.
The company proposed 99-year leases for the parcels with rent totaling $150,000 for the hotel and the housing parcels, including common area maintenance fees.
It offers no rent on Parcel 5 and covers none of the property tax that would be due.
[caption id="attachment_15906" align="aligncenter" width="905"]
This rendering outlines MCM-BAP's plans to develop the Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park.[/caption]
Applying the rent and common area maintenance fee formula used on the Maritime Place and One51 Main parcels, (rent at 7.25 percent, fees at 0.75 percent of the 2012 appraised values of the property), rent and fees on Parcels 4, 7 and 8 should total $514,400 a year.
Property taxes due on those would total some $800,000.
On Wednesday Community Maritime Park Board members voted to send a letter to City Council expressing their disappointment with the offer ultimately brought to the table by MCM-BAP. Tamara Fountain, the city’s chief operating officer, said the mayor’s office would not move that proposal to council for a vote.
Clearly aware of that feedback, Mike McShae of real estate firm CBRE, who sat with Erik Valderrama, principal for MCM-BAP for the presentation, said MCM-BAP is willing to discuss modifying its proposal for rent, common area maintenance fees and taxes to be paid on the sites.
No specifics, however, were given.
City Council President Andy Terhaar said that his greatest concern about the MCM-BAP proposal is their offer of rental payments that as presented do not match the formula used on the two other signed ground leases at the site.
“It sounds like they will come back with something different than what they have here at some future date,” Terhaar said.
Moving forward
That sense of paralysis by analysis that has haunted the park project was palpable Thursday.
Valderrama said a new rent proposal could be back to the city in three weeks. He also noted that once they have a memorandum of understanding in principle, MCM-BAP would conduct a study of what kind of parking garage facility could work as an “aggregate solution” on the site.
The study too would contain suggestions to “mitigate the cost” of building such a facility.
Revisions to their original housing proposal, Valderrama said, reflected further investigation in Pensacola area’s market conditions. He left the door open to future modifications to MCM-BAP plans in asking for a development window of 36 months to account for things in the market that could happen that are beyond the company’s control.
But Valderrma stressed, “We are ready to build in the timelines in the MOU.”
Studer said that he and Rishy Studer are ready to begin paying rent on July 1. Work could begin shortly as well on at least two of the three parcels they want to lease, something that would pump jobs and money almost immediately into the community.
“Empty lots don’t employ people,” he said.
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