In the contract negotiations with Laura Street Trio, the stadium format of the Jaguars is imitated

The effort to reach an agreement on the restoration of the historic Laura Street Trio by December will use the same negotiating model that Mayor Donna Deegan and the City Council successfully used with the Jaguars to renovate the football stadium.

The city's negotiating team for a Laura Street Trio deal will include the Downtown Investment Authority and Mike Weinstein, the veteran city manager who was Deegan's point person in talks with the Jaguars.

Weinstein will provide City Council members with regular updates, as he did during the stadium negotiations, to keep them informed.

Deegan and the trio's development team want negotiations to progress at a pace that will allow an agreement to be presented to the city council for a vote in December.

“We believe this is a realistic timeline given the process envisaged and the parties involved,” said city spokesman Phillip Perry.

Representatives of SouthEast Development Group and Live Oak Contracting worked with the city on the negotiating format. The development partnership said in a statement that the involvement of leadership from the Downtown Investment Authority, administration and the City Council was the basis for an agreement.

“This gives us the confidence to deliver on a project we have always believed was viable and for which SouthEast Development Group is uniquely qualified,” the development team said in a statement. “This coalition of support from the city is a prerequisite for such a complicated public-private partnership as this.”

Perry said the DIA will conduct term sheet negotiations by “going through its normal process,” and Weinstein will keep communication channels open with the City Council, including with Kevin Carrico, the City Council vice president who chairs a special council committee looking into the future of downtown.

“While Mike undoubtedly has experience negotiating agreements and will participate in the trio's negotiating process, his role will be to keep Vice President Carrico and the City Council informed of progress,” Perry said.

Carrico said last week he was willing to work with an outside law firm to draft his own bill with the terms of a development agreement. Carrico said his goal is to get the bill on the City Council's ballot by December. At his request, the City Council's Human Resources Committee voted Sept. 17 to hire Ballard Spahr as his assistant.

Last week, discussions also took place between the Mayor's office and the Trio's development team on how to proceed with the negotiations.

Jason Gabriel, an attorney representing the developers, wrote an email last Thursday to Darnell Smith, Deegan's chief of staff, and Weinstein, who served as legal counsel to Deegan during the stadium negotiations, outlining the steps for negotiating “in a consistent and effective manner with a set of efficient negotiations.”

The email said the Trio project team will negotiate with Downtown Investment Authority administration officials and staff, as well as their attorneys, to obtain a term sheet that will then be presented to the DIA board for approval. This term sheet will form the basis of an economic development agreement that the City Council will vote on by the end of December to give Deegan the opportunity to sign an approved economic development agreement.

Gabriel wrote that the process would be similar to Weinstein's negotiations on the stadium deal and that he would also keep the city council “fully informed throughout the process.”

“We believe this will ensure that both branches of government, the executive and the legislative, act in their designated roles while working together as required by the (city) charter,” Gabriel wrote.

The total value of the stadium contract was $1.4 billion, plus an additional $300 million for an accompanying community benefits agreement. The Laura Street Trio development partners have estimated the cost of their project at around $190 million.

The cost of the Trio would be less than that of a stadium, but would still require significant tax incentives. And unlike the stadium, the Trio has been empty for more than 25 years. Various attempts to restore the historic buildings have repeatedly failed in a dead end, despite their highly visible location in the heart of the city center.

More: The city's dismissal of the Laura Street Trio's lawsuit brings negotiations back to the forefront

The Downtown Investment Authority board voted on June 28 to end negotiations with SouthEast until the company can put more of its own money into the redevelopment or find a partner who can bring in additional funding. Since then, SouthEast has brought in Live Oak Contracting as a co-general partner for the Laura Street Trio redevelopment.

The city filed a foreclosure suit for building code violations, but then dropped the case to clear the way for an attempt to reach an agreement with the newly expanded development partnership.

The redevelopment plan calls for the restoration of the three buildings and the construction of two new eleven-story buildings next to them, which would accommodate a total of 169 apartments, 143 hotel rooms, as well as restaurants and bars on the site.

In the contract negotiations with Laura Street Trio, the stadium format of the Jaguars is imitated

ByVanessa

By Vanessa

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