J Magazine Winter 2017

“(Mayor Lenny Curry) instilled that
business-friendly environment,
so therefore, it trickles down.”
Aundra Wallace, CEO of Downtown Investment Authority
were necessary before permits could be issued or the grant
could be awarded.
She said the DIA was helpful in the process, as was City Planner
Lisa Sheppard and the historic preservation staff.
While that process was positive, others were frustrating, particularly
when dealing with the Florida Department of Transportation,
the Klempfs said.
They had to get a couple of permits from the department to
do work in the right of way on Ocean Street, which is a state road.
It took about six months to get the full permit for the site work,
Alex Klempf said.
Then things got worse.
The day before the restaurant was scheduled to open on the
Thursday of the Florida-Georgia weekend, a DOT employee
shut down asphalt work being done on Ocean Street.
“She flashed the badge and said she was going to call the Florida
Highway Patrol if we didn’t demobilize and quit doing what
we were doing,” Jacques Klempf said.
Ultimately, Mayor Lenny Curry’s office called Tallahassee officials,
and the work got back on track.
“They basically told us, you go ahead and proceed. We’ve
got your back here, and we’ll make sure you get open,” Jacques
Klempf said.
Curry’s office also stepped in when there was an issue with
JEA about whether the utility’s underground equipment posed a
risk to the Chophouse building, the Times-Union reported. The
problem was a communication issue, Jacques Klempf said.
“As soon as we sat down and we all figured it out, they responded
to our requests within 12 hours,” Alex Klempf added.
The DIA also was helpful to the Klempfs when it came to basic,
but critical, issues such as how trash pickup is handled Downtown
and by helping the restaurant work out parking options.
“We are there with projects every step of the way,” Wallace
said.
Saving time, saving money
The development boom underway in Downtown had to have
been the goal when the Northbank Redevelopment Task Force
was formed in 2010 to examine the stagnant urban core.
The group was the result of former Mayor John Peyton and the
Jacksonville Civic Council agreeing the deterioration of Downtown
was “a matter of urgent civic priority” that needed to be
addressed.
One of the task force’s ideas in its 2011 report was to create an
agency dedicated to redeveloping and reinvigorating the urban
core.
The city once had a Downtown Development Authority,
which was abolished in 2005 and its duties absorbed by the
Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. That left the
urban core without an agency whose sole mission would be to
champion Downtown. And that lack of attention became painfully
obvious over the years.
The report said one of the new agency’s responsibilities would
be to offer clarity — the same clarity Wallace is now focusing on
providing.
Ultimately, former Mayor Alvin Brown created the Downtown
Investment Authority in 2012. Wallace was hired the next year
and quickly earned the trust of political and business leaders.
Wallace’s push for the DIA to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with
developers through the process has proven effective and is appreciated.
“Aundra and I have been engaged on this project from almost
the first day that he got into town,” said Steve Atkins, who
is developing the Barnett building and Laura Street Trio with The
Molasky Group of Companies at a cost of $104 million. “It’s been
a long effort and I’m very appreciative of all the hard work that
Aundra has put into it.
“It’s a win for Aundra,” Atkins said, “just as it is for us.”
Another win comes through Wallace’s working relationship
with Curry’s staff.
“That is the epitome of everything,” Wallace said. “The mayor
says he wants a business-friendly environment, and it starts with
him. And he’s instilled that business-friendly environment, so
therefore, it trickles down.”
Because of that open-door policy, Wallace doesn’t hesitate to
call Curry’s team, particularly Chief Administrative Officer Sam
Mousa.
“He’s a morning guy. I’m the late guy. But either way it goes,
he’s available for the question and to provide guidance, if needed,”
he said.
Wallace looks for ways to streamline the process, to save time
along the way. And saving time, he said, is saving money.
If developers do what the DIA asks, Wallace said a project can
make it through the DDRB process within 120 days, perhaps 90.
He would like to be able to save time in other areas, too, including
having a more automated system where developers can
file plans and other documents online.
It would allow the authority to begin writing reports when the
documents are filed instead of having to wait 24-48 hours for the
applicant to make copies and bring them to the DIA’s office at
City Hall.
Wallace was among the officials who went to Toronto in November
on the annual JAX Chamber leadership trip. He came
back feeling pretty good about the DIA’s proficiency.
“I listened to a major international city talk about their whole
entitlement process, etc., and was floored with how long it took
them to get things done,” he said.
How would he compare it to Jacksonville’s?
“We’re easily 365 days less,” Wallace said. “Easily. Easily.”
Marilyn Young was an editor at The Florida Times-Union in
1998-2013 and was editor of the Financial News & Daily Record
in Downtown in 2013-2017.
WINTER 2017-18 | J MAGAZINE 21