J Magazine Winter 2017

But Molasky was interested in a historic-preservation project and
could provide the investment capital that Atkins needed. He and Molasky
Chief Financial Officer Brad Sher met in 2015 through mutual
industry contacts, and the two hit it off.
“It was a great marriage … of a local group with expertise with a
large group that was from out of town that could help bridge some of
that financial divide,” Atkins said.
INSIDE STEVE ATKINS’
DOWNTOWN PROJECTS
Barnett National
Bank building
About the building: 18
stories built in 1926
Total project cost: $46
million
Expected time to complete:
14 months
Taxpayer incentives: $4
million grant from the city to be
paid upon the release of the final
certificate of occupancy.
Highlights:
n Two floors of banking and retail.
Developer Steve Atkins wouldn’t
identify the bank, but JP Morgan
Chase Bank was listed as a tenant
in Downtown Investment Authority
paperwork, according to The Florida
Times-Union.
n 36,000 square feet of office
space on five floors. The University
of North Florida is negotiating to
lease the fourth floor for its Center
for Entrepreneurship and the fifth
floor for classrooms for the Coggin
College of Business’ MBA and Master
of Science in Management graduate
programs, as well as possibly programs
in other UNF academic colleges.
n 108 apartments, with rents ranging
from $750 to $1,350, on 11 floors.
LAURA STREET TRIO
Comprised of:
n Marble Bank Building (two stories)
n Bisbee Building (10 stories)
n Florida Life (12 stories)
Total project cost: $45 million
Expected time to complete: 20 to 22
months
Taxpayer incentives: $4 million grant from the
city to be paid upon the release of the final certificate
of occupancy and $1.8 million Recaptured Enhanced
Value grant that is a rebate of 50 percent of the ad
valorem taxes generated by the completed project for
20 years.
Highlights:
n 145-room boutique Courtyard by Marriott in the
Bisbee and Florida Life buildings.
n The Bullbriar restaurant by 20 South chef Scott
Schwartz in the Marble Bank Building.
n Bodega grocery store operated by a former Winn-
Dixie executive.
n Constructing addition to Florida Life Building that
will increase the 2,000-square-foot floor plates to
about 7,000 square feet.
n Rooftop bar.
PARKING GARAGE
Expected time to complete: End of 2018
Total project cost: $13 million
Highlights:
n The developers will build a 550-space structure at
Forsyth and Main street. For 20 years, the DIA will
make annual master lease payments of $660,000. The
developer will then lease 250 spaces for 20 years for
an estimated cost of $300,000. The DIA will lease the
rest of the spaces to other customers.
n 5,500 square feet of retail space.
He and his SouthEast partner, Andrew Ham, had already established
a Community Development Entity that was certified in 2013.
Since then, Atkins said, it has quietly secured $36 million in federal tax
credits being capitalized as equity invested in various projects, including
the Downtown venture.
Molasky was the partner Aundra Wallace felt Atkins needed for
the project to work. From the first day Wallace started as CEO of the
DIA in August 2013, he was adamant that any city
funding for the project would not be at-risk.
The $9.8 million in public incentives won’t be
paid until the work is finished, which Atkins understands.
“The city had already been at risk with the previous
developer,” Wallace said of Cameron Kuhn.
The flashy Orlando developer made a grand entrance
into Jacksonville via helicopter, ultimately
buying several buildings, including the Barnett
building and the Laura Street Trio. Eventually, reality
replaced his bloated promises, and the buildings
fell into foreclosure.
Molasky, though, brought a reputation of success
and credibility along with the financial means
to pull off the Downtown project.
“That’s what I give Steve credit for. He brought
Molasky in,” Wallace said.
Bailey called the Las Vegas company “the perfect
match” to partner with Atkins, whom he initially
thought “was in over his head for a development
like this.”
Seeing Atkins go through the many starts-andstops
over the years was “hard to watch,” Bailey
said.
“It looked like it was going to fall apart numerous
times. When other people would bail and walk
away, Steve found another way. He kept coming
back,” said Bailey, a Downtown businessman for
more than four decades.
“He always found light around every corner,”
Bailey said. “It might not have been much, but
he’d grab it and go.”
Even the optimistic Atkins admitted he had
down times. “I mean, there were days when I
thought people might be right. Maybe this isn’t
going to work,” Atkins said.
But nothing is dead unless you allow it to die,
he said, and Atkins was committed to keeping the
project alive.
Finally, Atkins made it to the final leg in his
years-long quest, one he wanted to share with his
biggest supporters.
A big idea person
with patience
Getting to the City Council vote in June wasn’t a
long process for just Atkins but his family, as well.
For years, his wife, Angela, had heard rumblings
about the project’s delays from coworkers
and acquaintances. People saying, “This is taking
too long or whatever,” she recalled.
But those remarks didn’t concern her. She
knows her husband — a man she called a “big
FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (2)
26 J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2017-18