A Palm Plan

A Palm Plan

commerical real estate by Roger Drouin | Contributing Writer

The Leiter Group and John Buck Co. score high for lower density, parking plan, affordable housing units and promise to minimize construction impacts for a downtown Sarasota project.

Thrice a failure, Sarasota may finally have a workable development for its famed Palm Avenue site.

Developer Matt Leiter got the attention of the City Commission when he argued that his lower density development would fit best onto a city-owned parcel fronting Palm.

"Our project is half the size of the other projects presented," Leiter told commissioners. "It is the least dense and has the least overall height."

At the end of the meeting, the commission gave the project, to be built by the development partnership of The Leiter Group and John Buck Co., the highest ranking out of four developers vying for rights to build on the 2.25-acre parcel of city-owned land at the corner of Palm Avenue and Cocoanut Avenue.

For vice-mayor Danny Bilyeu, it was the size and scale in design plans that made all the difference. Leiter says the project is 11 stories for about one-third of the site, and six stories for the rest.

"I liked the density and scale," Bilyeu says. "With all the hoopla over size and scale of buildings downtown, that was a plus."

The project differed from the three other proposals in other aspects, such as a ready-to-go financing plan designed to allow the developer to build 400 public spaces within 18 months after a building permit is issued.

The Leiter/Buck plan also scored high for the project's inclusion of 22 attainable housing units and its construction management plan. Lengthy, poorly managed downtown construction projects have been a bane for local merchants.

The proposal calls for 150 condominium units, a 140-room hotel, 16,000 square feet of retail, 400 public parking spaces and 22 attainable units. The hotel is a new branch of the Starwood line of hotels.

Parking and housing

The decision clears the way for one of the most anticipated developments downtown. The city tried three times over the last seven years to entice a developer to build a parking garage and affordable housing units in exchange for rights to build condominiums and retail on the same site. Each time the project fell through last minute.

As part of the fourth request for proposals, the city stipulated that prospective developers create a minimum of 400 public parking spaces, while keeping the project below an 11-story ceiling.

As redevelopment spread downtown and more and more people gone to Main Street, parking has become one of the city's biggest issues.

"We all need this parking desperately," says Andrew Foley, co-owner of Sarasota News & Books, located directly in front of the project site.

The Leiter Group/John Buck development partnership promised to get the parking phase finished first and reassured the City Commission that funding was already in place to begin construction of the first phase of the project.

The first phase includes the construction of the hotel and the parking structure. Jack Buck, vice president of Chicago-based John Buck Co., said construction of the first phase would commence as soon as a building permit is issued and would take about 18 months to complete.

Financing is already in place for this phase of construction because the development firm has secured financing for the hotel that will allow the developer to also build the parking structure, Buck said.

"We wanted to drive home the economics (to commissioners)," Buck said. "We do not need to rely on condo pre-sales at all."

The Buck/Leiter proposal details plans for 400 public parking spaces to be located on the first four floors of the parking garage, with a visible entrance and exit off Palm.

In contrast, the Benderson Development proposal, which was ranked as the top choice by the Community Redevelopment Area Advisory Board, scored low with the City Commission for it's parking entrance off Cocoanut and upper-deck public parking.

The second phase of the project includes the construction of 150 condos, of which 22 will be affordable units.

Commissioners gave the project 47 out of 50 possible points for its attainable housing plan. Commissioners in particular liked how the developer planned to built 15% of the units as attainable - the highest ratio of all four proposals.

Local developer and philanthropist Bob Roskamp proposed giving the city $3.5 million in lieu of building attainable units in his project. Commissioners gave the Roskamp proposal a score of 10 out of 50.

Modern architecture

The project is to be designed by the architecture firm Goettsch Partners, which is internationally known for designs such as the 65-story Cityfront Center Plaza in Chicago and the 300,000-square-foot Charles Square Center in Prague.

The Leiter/Buck project features sharp lines and the use of metal and glass for a modern architecture appearance.

Vice-mayor Bilyeu said he liked the look of Leiter/Buck project because he wanted to see some modern architecture come to Sarasota. But Commissioner Mary Anne Servian said it looked too commercial. And Commissioner Lou Ann Palmer said the hotel's architecture was generic to the Starwood brand of hotels, and was not unique to Sarasota.

Although Bilyeu and Mayor Fredd Atkins gave the project perfect scores for architecture, overall the project scored the lowest in this category.

Resident Diana Hamilton, a big supporter of the Leiter/Buck proposal praised the architecture of the project.

"Scale is an incredibly important issue for our citizens," Hamilton said. "As I look at this project, I see a project that is in scale and that is quite lovely. It does not overpower the street. It is a building I would feel welcome walking in front of and feel welcome walking into. This is a great gift of architecture to the city."

Four of five commissioners gave the project a high score for a construction plan that they say exceeds objectives set by the city.

Buck points to the company's experience building towers in Chicago, including construction of the North Bridge Complex, a nine-block mixed-use project off Michigan Avenue, with minimal impact.

"We built that project with minimal disruption to traffic," Buck said.

This statement was reassuring to commissioners, who fielded dozens of complaints from merchants on South Palm Avenue about the impact of the recent construction at the 1350 Main condominium project.