Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2016
Fish camp, TaxSlayer seats also approved By David Chapman Staff Writer City Council wrapped its last meeting of the calendar year Tuesday by finally coming to terms on legislation that will bring council-organized community events to neighborhoods throughout the city. Council member Reggie Brown in July introduced the bill that would set aside $70,000 for council members to host events meant to strengthen areas and inform residents of government initiatives. Brown said he introduced the measure after finding out there was no policy in place on how to attain services for the events. He said his goal was “basically cleaning up the process we should have done a long time ago.” However, there were plenty of bumps along the way before the final product was approved Tuesday. The use of the funding was made more concise, as spending can only be on the city’s internal services like renting the space or bleachers or hiring security. Spending on food isn’t allowed, but third-party donations can be made to the city. Brown The events themselves are prohibited from being political in nature but could be recreational or educational. The review process was locked in and requires several city departments and the city’s ethics office to sign off on before the council president ultimately OKs the event and spending. That spending has been another concern for council members, which also was hammered out Tuesday. While the pot remains $70,000 for events, council members are restricted individually to $3,500. Before an amendment Tuesday, it was more of a first-come, firstserved basis. Several members took issue with not COUNCIL
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Mother’ s journey of love and loss
Amy Vazquez playing peekaboo with her baby son, Joshua Watkins.
Remembering son killed in Iraq by helping others By Karen Brune Mathis, Managing Editor
Vazquez and Watkins, about 6 years old, dressed for church.
Watkins in his Humvee. The photo is from his first deployment, which was April-October 2005. His second was April-October 2006. He was trained as a TOW gunner.
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Rules set for events hosted by council
ord Special to the Daily Rec
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Vazquez wears her son’s dog tags to keep him close to her heart.
Ten years ago, life pivoted for Amy Vazquez. The Jacksonville native’s 25-year-old son, Marine Cpl. Joshua Watkins, was killed in action in Iraq. In his second tour, he was nine days from returning to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. “When I lost Joshua, a lot changed. I changed,” said Vazquez, who “after a lot of crying” had fully supported her only child when he decided to enlist in the infantry. “I’m different,” she said. The mortgage-industry veteran, now 61, lost the drive that had propelled her from her initial college interest in Broadway stardom to a degree in criminal justice and then to a financial career that she found by chance but kept by choice. Through the years she worked at several mortgage companies in myriad roles and had closed out an office for one in Watkins June 2006. On Oct. 21 that year, Watkins died. He was caught in an enemy ambush and “went down firing,” she said. “It took my breath away for a couple of months,” Vazquez said. Soon after, as she was arranging a reverse mortgage for her mother, the broker asked her to join his business. In January 2007, she began there as a loan officer. “That was a place God wanted me to be for a while,” Vazquez said, realizing that “people come into your life for a reason.” Her boss told her he didn’t know how she got up in the morning every day, “but WORKSPACE
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Tossgreen to open Downtown in SunTrust Tower Tossgreen, the fast-casual restaurant that focuses on salads and other healthy food, has signed a lease for ground-floor space in the SunTrust Tower Downtown. Traci Jenks, senior director of office brokerage for Cushman & Wakefield, said the restaurant plans to open in the spring and will offer breakfast and lunch. Tossgreen will lease 1,500 square feet on the first floor facing Laura Street, Jenks said, and would add outside seating along Laura Street. The 23-story tower is at 76 S. Laura St. Jenks, who represents the high-
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rise’s ownership, said having the healthy food option will help leasing efforts at the tower. The Jacksonville-based restaurant sells salads, wraps, pitas, bowls and burritos featuring organic, local and seasonal ingredients. It offers signature selections or customers can build their own. It also has locations at St. Johns Town Center and off Southside Boulevard in the Tinseltown area. Matthew Clark, vice president of retail property brokerage with Prime Realty, put the deal together, she said. Jenks is the leasing agent for the tower.
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She said owners recently remodeled the building and completed the new parking garage. She said the owner, Mainstreet Capital Partners Inc., has “done exactly as they said they would and turned the building around. I like to say they put Humpty Dumpty back together again.” Jenks said when Fort Lauder-
dale-based Mainstreet Capital Markets bought the building for $31.1 million in April 2015, the structure had six owners and what she said was a lot of deferred maintenance. Mainstreet Capital Partners said it bought the SunTrust Tower along with the adjacent 602-space parking garage that was under construction. After the purchase, the company said it would spend $1 million to upgrade the tower. Mainstreet Capital Markets said then it bought the structure in a joint venture with Minneap-
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olis-based CarVal Investors LLC. It said the transaction was challenging because the building was split into office condominiums by Florida investor Cameron Kuhn in 2005. His remaining piece went through foreclosure and was purchased in 2009 by Parador Partners of Atlanta. Mainstreet said its goal was to buy all the pieces and put them back together. kmathis@jaxdailyrecord.com @MathisKb (904) 356-2466
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