Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2015
Vol. 103, No. 025 • oNe SectioN
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Potential IRS rule concerns charities Some would have to give Social Security numbers
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Portrait ceremony marks Cooper’s retirement Retiring Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper’s son and daughter-in-law, Collins and Amanda Cooper, unveil the judge’s official portrait during a ceremony Thursday. Amanda Cooper is holding the couple’s 14-month-old daughter, Hannah Mallory. Judge Cooper, seated at right, was elected to County Court in 1986 and appointed a circuit judge by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2006. See more photos from the ceremony in Monday’s Daily Record.
Summit Tower gains GHG HQ By Karen Brune Mathis Managing Editor In October 2014, Marc and Nicole Padgett bought 1000 Riverside Ave. for $3 million, intending to restore the structure to Class A status. They have invested more than $2 million into upgrading three floors for their corporate and business offices, renovating other levels, adding new windows and repainting the building. They now call it the Summit Tower and put their corporate business name, Summit Contracting Group Inc., on the top of the nine-story building in lights. “We bought this for our business. That was the motivation,”
said Marc Padgett. Formerly based in Southside, they looked at sites in Downtown, San Marco and Riverside, he said. “We love it,” he said of the tower. And being in Riverside near Downtown works well. “It’s great to be a part of it.” It’s filling up, too. On Wednesday, the city issued a permit for Summit Contracting Group to renovate part of the fifth floor for the headquarters of GHG MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
How eager would you be to provide your Social Security number along with your donation to your favorite charity? That’s the question donors and nonprofits could face if the IRS adopts a rule requiring that for donations of $250 or more. In an effort to head off implementation of the “Gift Substantiation Regulation,” the Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida has joined more than 200 national, regional and local organizations in petitioning the IRS to withdraw the proposal, based on its anticipated effect on the nonprofit community. “It could increase administrative costs and bring a lot of confusion in terms of how to explain it to donors,” said Rena Coughlin, CEO of the Nonprofit Center. A petition submitted Wednesday by the National Council of Nonprofits points out requiring charities to collect sensitive personal information, such as Social Security numbers, would require the organizations to divert resources from their core missions to purchase and maintain costly data security systems. That would be a particular burden to the majority of nonprofits, which operate with small staffs and limited resources. Among the nearly 300 North Florida nonprofits that are members of the center, 67 percent have annual budgets less than $500,000 and 77 percent have budgets less than $1 million, Coughlin said. Requiring submission of Social Security numbers could greatly impact donations from people who make small annual gifts. Major donors with planned philanthropy typically set up foundations through which to give. But many people write their donation check from the same account
Photo by Fran Ruchalski
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Marc and Nicole Padgett bought 1000 Riverside Ave. in late 2014 and have invested more than $2 million in renovations.
‘It kills the viability of the neighborhood’ Why some oppose Springfield veterans housing plan
Jack Meeks and Joanne Tredennick, center, own a Springfield home and business. The two and Charlotte Cudd, left, are among many in the historic neighborhood who are against more “special uses” like treatment homes and boarding rooms moving to the neighborhood.
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Photo by David Chapman
By David Chapman Staff Writer A unique housing stock, easy Downtown access, accessible schools. High crime rate, general impoverishment, an inordinate number of congregate housing. Some might think those words were written to describe Springfield today. They weren’t, though. That’s how the neighborhood was viewed 30 years ago by a committee of the National American Institute of Architects, a group that provided a play-byplay on how to effectively revitalize the historic neighborhood.
It needed some help from residents and city officials to reach its potential. A lot of help, actually. Among the many suggestions was to reach agreements through state and local Housing and Urban Development officials to discontinue placing those congregate programs in Springfield. It took 15 years, but the city approved a special zoning overlay prohibiting more “special uses” like residential treatment facilities, rooming and group care homes and emergency shelters from coming to the area. That zoning overlay is now the subject of a federal lawsuit filed by Ability Housing of Northeast Florida, which claims the overlay
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violates the Fair Housing Act and Americans with Disabilities Act. Disability Rights Florida jumped in the legal fray five days later with a federal lawsuit citing similar concerns. Jack Meeks and Joanne Tredennick look around their neighborhood. The husband and wife see problems they say come with a glut of social services concentrated in the neighborhood. It’s one of the reasons they, and many in the historic neighborhood, have pushed back so angrily against Ability Housing’s plans. The nonprofit last April SPRINGFIELD CONTINUED ON PAGE A-4
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