Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 148 • Two Sections
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
‘It was going to take Bill’ Gulliford pushes reform through
Empty dreams
Why Barnett Bank building facing foreclosure
Photo courtesy of WJCT
By David Chapman Staff Writer
By Marilyn Young Editor
Public
Hertz looking at two towers Khan inspired by the building’s deep roots in Jacksonville’s banking community. There also would be 40 apartments. The Trio would have 98 loftstyle apartments and 17,000 square feet of retail. It was the first in a series of announcements Atkins would make over the years about progress of projects that never materialized. In 2013, Khan and Atkins were tied together in the Barnett project when Stache Investments loaned $3 million to Barnett Tower LLC, led by Atkins, to buy the building. A second promissory note for Barnett Tower LLC for $165,764 followed in June 2014. Barnett continued on Page A-3
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Steve Atkins, managing partner of SouthEast Holdings, has pursued renovations to the Barnett Bank building and Laura Street Trio since 2010.
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Shortly after Shad Khan came to Jacksonville in early 2012, he took a tour of the historic Barnett Bank building in Downtown. The tour guide was Don Shea, executive director of the Jacksonville Civic Council at the time. Shea said Khan saw beyond the deterioration caused by years of neglect in the building that had been vacant since 1991. He saw beyond the hypodermic needles strewn around the floor by drug users who trespassed there. Despite a “good poker face,” the Jacksonville Jaguars owner smiled a couple of times, Shea recalled Tuesday. “This has got potential,” Khan said. Shea said conversations with a representative from Khan’s Stache Investments continued until shortly before he took a job in Louisiana in January 2013. Developer Steve Atkins, managing partner of SouthEast Holdings, also saw the potential in the building. He had been talking about the structure at Laura and Adams streets for a couple of years by then. Atkins first announced plans in 2010 to renovate the Barnett Bank building and the nearby Laura Street Trio. The Barnett building would become the 120-room Bank Hotel,
A tie vote in late March left supporters of pension reform deflated. A resounding victory Tuesday had them elated. Time was ticking down. A little more than two months after that March vote, a new mayor and City Council would take the reins. That’s when the deal so many current leaders had worked on the past several years might finally fall apart. The deal Mayor Alvin Brown and Pension Gulliford Fund Administrator John Keane negotiated had almost passed. It just took a veteran council leader to help drive it over the finish line. “We had gotten so close,” said Bill Gulliford. “Maybe one last time we could get it through.” It was Gulliford’s effort and results that swayed enough of his colleagues to pass the deal Tuesday by a 14-4 margin. Richard Clark was one of those members who voted against the deal in March. Tuesday, he was on the other side, afterward saying the compromise Gulliford struck Pension continued on Page A-2
Hertz Investment Group, the owner of Jacksonville’s tallest office tower, is considering a few more acquisitions on the Downtown Northbank. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based group bought the 42-floor Bank of America Tower in July and now is considering a purchase of the 22-story One Enterprise Center and the 18-floor BB&T Tower. “We are looking at Enterprise Center and BB&T through their respective special servicers,” said James Ingram, the company’s executive vice president and chief information officer. Hertz has not made an offer on either building, he said. The significance of Hertz’s interest is that those two structures are the only Class A Northbank Downtown high-rises that haven’t been sold since mid-2014.
26,675
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