Daily Record Financial News &
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 153 • Two Sections
Dots show Landing’s good, bad, potential
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Labor love OF
Workshop focuses on venue’s future By David Chapman Staff Writer
Landing
cont inued on
Chris Ware
75-year-old showroom joins Brooklyn renaissance By Karen Brune Mathis, Managing Editor
C
hris Ware strides swiftly around the Brooklyn showroom and warehouse, conferring with the construction foreman about the heart pine tongue-and-groove ceiling, the brick walls and the glass-block above the large display windows. Those are just a few of the many details in renovating the 75-year-old building. “There’s a lot of family history involved in the property,” said Ware, whose late father previously owned the vintage 1940 building at 500 Park St. that first housed an A&P grocery store and then a tire company. The elder Ware moved a Johnstone Supply city sales branch to the site in the 1990s. Ware bought Johnstone Supply from his father in 2004 and acquired the 500 and 522 Park St. properties, on 1.49 acres, from the family trust this year. He had promised his father, who died two years ago at the age of 88, he would keep the refrigeration, heating and air conditioning supply business on the block. It’s a convenient location, just off Interstate 95, for contractors around Northeast Florida. That promise is one of the primary reasons Ware is investing at least $2 million into renovating the structure, which Ware
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Photos by Karen Brune Mathis
One woman didn’t like the turnabout in front of the Jacksonville Landing. The cobblestoned circle that boasts the iconic statue of Andrew Jackson wasn’t pedestrian friendly, she said. She plopped down a red dot on a map of Downtown, directly over the part where the turnabout was printed. Red is bad. It means something that isn’t working. Something that should be changed. A couple of her tablemates nodded in agreement. The room of about 100 people was filled with muffled suggestions and conversations like the one taking place. “The signage in Downtown is terrible,” one man said. Another red dot. Several feet over, another group was hunched over a map. Alike in many ways but the colors. More greens, more reds, more blues. Dots meticulously placed across the map. “I think Laura Street has to be a nice corridor,” one of the women said. “And it all needs to be connected.” Down went several green dots along the corresponding thoroughfare and the Northbank riverwalk. Green’s good. It means something that’s working. As for blue dots? Potential. One group had several blue dots along the Southbank Riverwalk. The greens, reds and blues served as a sounding board of sorts. It was a chance Tuesday for the public to weigh in on what they thought the Landing — and by extension, Downtown — should and shouldn’t be. It was part of a public workshop hosted by the Downtown Investment Authority and the Landing design and redevelopment team. The dotted maps, followed by five-minute group breakdowns, all will be collected and incorporated as possible points for the design and development team going forward.
Glass-block windows were restored above the display windows at 500 Park St. for Johnstone Supply.
City’s ‘credit card’ might be on the way out By David Chapman Staff Writer
Boyer
Public
It’s been called a city credit card. A bane to those who prefer paying as they go. And a way the city has too easily accumulated debt. Soon, though, the banking fund might be called history. In its last meeting of the fiscal year, the City Council Finance Committee might have saved one of its bigger decisions for last. Members asked city attorneys to draft a bill that effectively will eliminate the banking fund.
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The system was created about a decade ago and was meant to borrow money outside the city to lend within, mainly for infrastructure projects. Before that external debt was paid, council member Lori Boyer told the group, the amounts would be repaid and re-loaned internally. But, she said, the economic positives — flexibility and cost savings from more quickly repaying debt — never really happened. There wasn’t sufficient revenue to pay items back early, which meant debt accumulated
and impacted future budgets. “The perception is it’s too easy to borrow and increase city debt,” she told the committee Tuesday. To date, banking fund bonds have about $269 million in outstanding debt. There’s about $105 million not yet issued, but the bill that could be introduced this week would curb that by about half. There are still projects being completed that would need to be paid from the fund, meaning completely cutting it off now isn’t financially viable. Outgoing council member
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Richard Clark said he had “a lot of opinions” on the banking fund. He was in office when it was created and has long been against the idea. When it was pitched, he said, “no one imagined it would get this big.” Yet, it hasn’t been the size or scope of the fund that scares him the most — it’s been the ease with which it can be accessed. Without giving names, Clark said “some people” didn’t like using cash to pay for items and instead liked debt. Banking continued on Page A-4
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