On Tuesday, the city must choose Unicorp National Developments' experience or JES Properties' vision.
By RICHARD DANIELSON, Times Staff Writer
Published July 3, 2005
OLDSMAR - Two developers are vying for the chance to build Olds Square, a project designed to transform old downtown Oldsmar from a place where you go to pay your water bill to a lively urban gathering spot.
One developer has more experience doing big mixed-use projects.
The other seems to have come up with a development concept that some city officials have found more in tune with their aspirations for State Street.
Each proposes to build a combination of housing, offices and stores, mostly on the former site of SouthTrust Bank next to City Hall on State Street. The city bought the now-vacant 5.45 acres in 2002 for $660,000.
Each proposal includes more than 500,000 square feet of development, including construction of a big parking garage. Cost estimates range from $50-million to $64-million.
On Tuesday night, City Council members are scheduled to choose one development team and tell City Manager Bruce Haddock to begin negotiating a development agreement for Olds Square.
Under either scenario, it would be an ambitious undertaking.
"This is certainly the most significant development agreement we've done in quite a few years," Haddock told council members last week.
If successful, however, the Olds Square project could help foster further redevelopment of downtown, attract new residents to the city and add millions of dollars to the city's property tax rolls.
"If it works, it's going to be an incredible project," Mayor Jerry Beverland said.
The developers are the Tampa office of Unicorp National Developments and JES Properties of Clearwater. Both emerged after the city put out a request asking developers to outline their qualifications for becoming the city's partner and developing the vacant block. Last week, representatives of both companies pitched their ideas to the City Council during a special work session.
The men heading Unicorp's project team are two former Eckerd executives, T. Austin Simmons and Tom Nash. Among other things, they touted their company's experience doing or bidding to do similar projects with other Florida communities, including Altamonte Springs, Casselberry and Temple Terrace.
"We have the ability to do these type of developments," Simmons told council members.
Unicorp's design, company executives say, is not static. If selected, the company has said it would invite suggestions on its architectural design to promote the city's goals.
The other developer is JES Properties, based in Clearwater and run by Dr. Douglas J. Weiland, the surgeon who founded and later sold the Florida Spine Institute in Clearwater.
The JES project Oldsmar officials are most familiar with is the Oldsmar Galleria, planned to be built just down State Street at St. Petersburg Drive. The company intends to begin construction on the 59,000-square-foot project in the fall, with occupancy of the buildings expected by fall 2006. The $10-million project includes retail and residential space, with buildings ranging from three to four stories.
For Olds Square, JES' plans include wider sidewalks and several new plazas to create a focal point for outdoor activity.
Weiland told city officials he saw the Olds Square development as an extension of what his company plans to do in the Oldsmar Galleria.
"It is in our view ... to make a project that ends up being the most ideal location for someone who wants to move into a location where they can live, work and play," he said.
Members of a city committee that reviewed the projects generally acknowledged that Unicorp had the edge when it came to experience doing this type of project. But several committee members told the City Council last week that the JES executives seemed to have listened to the city better in coming up with their plan, especially when it comes to creating spaces for public events.
Once the City Council chooses a development team, there will be many more questions, large and small, to be worked out. At the top of the list are who pays for the parking garage, which could cost from about $7-million to more than $8-million, and can the developers buy several privately owned smaller parcels around the former SouthTrust property. Each developer has penciled more than $2-million into their plans for land acquisition costs.
Answering those questions, Haddock said, will take time.
"Assuming the council makes a selection next Tuesday as to the preferred firm, we won't be back with a development agreement in two weeks," he told council members. "It's going to take quite a bit longer than that."
