Daily Record Financial News &
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2016
Vol. 104, No. 008 • oNe SectioN
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Agencies tag-team on homeless issue
Effort combines affordable housing, case management
Ability Housing Executive Director Shannon Nazworth, left, and Cindy Funkhouser, president and CEO of the Sulzbacher Center.
Stores and restaurants coming to Collins Plaza
Special to the Daily record
By Max Marbut Staff Writer It’s one thing to provide a homeless person a place to live. It’s another to keep them in their new home. That’s why Ability Housing and the Sulzbacher Center have forged a partnership to combine the strengths of each organization to maximize positive outcomes for people who have experienced chronic homelessness. Sulzbacher Center is now the primary case management service provider for people who have found homes through Abil-
ity Housing and need help adjusting to their new, more stable life. Medical, mental health and employment issues can create situations for people who have been homeless for an extended period that can lead to them returning to the street. “We can’t predict who is going to need help,” said Shannon Nazworth, Ability Housing executive director. “Some people do well on their own, some people don’t.” Ability Housing owns four apartment communities and 29 single-family homes in Northeast Florida, providing 298 afford-
able residences. The nonprofit also provides supportive housing for an additional 65 households through Homeless Assistance Grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The federal program is expected to increase to about 140 households in 2017. Sulzbacher Center has been providing case management services to homeless people in Jacksonville for 21 years. For the past 15 years, the nonprofit has been managing through HUD programs 120 units HOMELESS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Cops union not happy with offer from Curry FOP mirrors fire union with wage and pension concerns
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Ready to be lit for 30th time
The finishing touches are being put on the courtyard at the Jacksonville Landing in preparation for the 30th annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at Downtown’s riverfront mall. Arthur Crofton from The Morning Show on 96.1 WEJZ-FM will host the lineup of musical performances that begin at 6 p.m. Friday. The program will be capped by illuminating the 78,000 lights on the 56-foot tree and fireworks above the St. Johns River. For those who can’t attend, the ceremony will be streamed live at firstcoastnews.com.
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Photo by Max Marbut
Gatlin Development Co. expects to complete Collins Plaza in Southwest Jacksonville by summer 2017, adding almost 40,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space to the existing businesses. Jacksonville-based Gatlin Development bought the nearly 44-acre Collins Plaza site at Collins Road and Interstate 295 in December 2014 and sold about 16 acres for development of a Wal-Mart Supercenter. That opened in the spring. Jacksonville-based Gate Petroleum Co. bought property for a Gate store that opened in the summer and land next to it where it will build a new Express Car Wash expected to be ready for business in the summer. Gatlin is moving ahead on plans to build four more buildings. “It’s all happening now,” said CEO Frank Gatlin III. Gatlin Development expects to complete two of those buildings, totaling 20,600 square feet, in the spring. Their addresses are 7083 and 7091 Collins Road. The city is reviewing permits for tenant work in 11,600 square feet of space at a cost of $465,000. Those tenants are China Kitchen, Coco’s Beauty Supply, Great Clips, Fancy Sushi, MetroPCS and Le Nails & Spa. They will submit separate permits for their final build-out, according to the permit applications. Gatlin said his group was working with prospects to take the remaining 9,000 square feet in those buildings, but could not disclose names. He expects to break ground in the first quarter on another multitenant 8,600-square-foot building, which will include an end-unit drive-thru, for completion in the summer. And behind that, he is designing a 10,000-square-foot building for two tenants — a 3,500-square-foot restaurant and a 6,500-square-foot retailer. That, too, will open by summer, he said.
By David Chapman Staff Writer Like the firefighters union the day before, the police union offered Mayor Lenny Curry’s team a counter proposal on wages and pension that greatly differed from what was initially offered. On one key point, the police union received the same resounding answer as its public safety brethren: A “no thanks” to putting new employees into the Florida Retirement System. Curry and the city, said lead negotiator Michael Mattimore, are committed to a definedcontribution plan for new hires. There is “no interest” in the FRS, which would take control of the plan from the city and place it in the hands of the Zona Legislature, he said. Steve Zona, head of the local Fraternal Order of Police chapter, said the state system was a “way forward” for the city and the union. One that would take the two sides away from the bargaining table and negotiating benefits every few years — another point the union advocates — and instead place employees into one of the better-run systems in the country. It also would keep police officers in a defined-benefit pension plan, which Zona throughout Wednesday’s discussions said was still the market for public safety officials. “Pensions for officers are not dinosaurs,” said Zona. “They are not archaic.” The “dinosaur” language has been used by Curry several times to describe definedbenefit plans he said are not sustainable and the need for plans that resemble 401(k)-style contribution plans. There were no further discussions on PENSION CONTINUED ON PAGE A-3
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