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Barnett Bank Bldg on Adams Sold to Orlando's Kuhn


vicupstate

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Ex-Barnett Bank building sold for $4.95 million

Orlando developer Cameron Kuhn bought the former Barnett Bank building, 112 W. Adams St., Friday from 112 West Adams LP for $4.95 million, according to a news release.

The purchase is part of a larger downtown development plan that Kuhn is expected to present to city planners later this month.

Kuhn, who bought the SunTrust Tower at 76 S. Laura St. in late September for $37.5 million, said he plans to renovate the historic 18-story office building into a mix of residential and business uses. The building has been vacant for almost two years, he said. Details about the project are unclear, but Kuhn said the renovation will need financial help from the city.

In 2003, LB Jax Development LLC proposed to convert the building into hotel rooms, loft apartments, a bank branch office and a five-star restaurant. That project, then estimated to cost $25 million, has fallen through. Representatives from LB Jax could not be reached Friday evening for comment.

WOW !! This sounds big. Let's hope the incentives request is reasonable and that the city will step up to the plate.

:D

Barnett Listing

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Vlad ... your confusion is understandable. Multiple buidlings have been called multiple bank names over the years.

The SunTrust (5th tallest in city) used to be called "Jacksonville Center" and "Humana" before that. There's a shorter black & white building from the 70s next door to BofA that used to be called SunTrust. That's not what we're talking about (I think).

The Old Barnett is the historic skyscraper with the large green box that used to be a digital clock. It's on the right in the pic below ...

DSCN3522.jpg

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This guy definately has something big instore for downtown. I just ran a Google search on him and found this quote, from an Orlando Sentinel article published on September 28th.

Developer Cameron Kuhn, whose downtown Orlando projects include the giant Premiere Trade Plaza, has bought the 23-story SunTrust Tower in downtown Jacksonville for $37 million as part of an expansion move.

"This is the first one,'' Kuhn said Tuesday. "I have several others under contract."

The developer said he may buy as many as nine buildings in downtown Jacksonville for office and residential condos and retail development.

He has renamed the property River Watch at City Centre. Capital Partners Inc., an Orlando-based investment company, sold the tower.

Kuhn said downtown Jacksonville, like Orlando, is undergoing great change. "We want to be part of that," he said.

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:tkM1J...eron+kuhn&hl=en

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Fair warning from an Orlandoan: he ain't going to do this (or anything else) without incentives.

Then he might be in for a rude surprise. I can't imagine that he wouldn't know how relatively stingy the current Jax administration is with incentives.

If you aren't a relocating business bringing in high-paying jobs, I just can't imagine incentives being offered. Maybe, maybe, targeted tax-breaks for building non-luxury "middle class" residential units. But grants and low interest loans seem out of the question for this administration.

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I can't imagine anyone officially closing on this many large contracts without knowing he would have a good chance to get what he wants. I'm pretty sure he's already had discussions with city officials on his intended plans. Plopping millions down, without doing this would be....foolish. With that said, imo, the only way he gets any form of incentives is if he introduces true "affordable" market rate housing and not the $300k & up type stuff thats normally proposed.

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Kuhn has a long history of projects in Orlando, conversion projects mostly, without incentives. In fact, his Plaza project was the only one receiving incentives, and more than likely anyone who developed that block would have received them. It was, at that time, the most important and most blighted block in downtown Orlando. No one would touch it.

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WOW !! As many as nine buildings!

It will be very interesting to see what gets proposed. Peyton is more stingy and stringent on incentives, no question there, but he never said incentives were completely out of the picture. If the developer's plan is bold and he is REASONABLE, then hopefully an agreement can be worked out.

Peyton's new guy at JEDC (Barton from St. Pete) should like this proposal too, that can't hurt.

If Peyton really wants something (Cecil Field) he has shown that he will find the money. Opportunities like this don't come by every day. All the cranes from this construction would certainly take attention off of the courthouse dilema. Not a bad thing when his next election is not far off.

I also agree with Lakelander, that he would not be buying properties without some kind of assurances from somewhere.

If he is looking at nine buildings, what is everyone's guess for what the others might be...

Here are some of mine:

*The Marble Trio(3) [ Pension Fund has stabilized the buildings but has stated incentives are required]

*The recently vacated Building across from the Barnett building (NW corner Laura & Adams). I can't remember the name but it just recently sold.

* The historic building across Bay St from the Modis building.

* The building at Bay and Main that has the Jaguar painted on the plywood window coverings

* The OLD Sun Trust building - 200 W. Forsyth

* 20 W Adams -- Lerner building. [All construction has stopped for months now]

* The 2 story Wachovia building that is across from the Ed Ball building. (SW corner Hogan and Adams)

Anyway, very exciting turn of events.

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Wow!! This guy doesnt mess around. I have been in Gainesville all day and just heard about all this. This is great news. Any activity on historic structures downtown is a positive in my opinion. It sounds like Kuhn recognizes their value and wont tear them down as has (depressingly) happened all too often in the past in Jacksonville. The main thing I wish he would do is put a boutique hotel in the Barnett Building like LB Jax had proposed and make most of the rest residential. I loved the hotel idea and we need an historic hotel in downtown. I am looking forward to more information from him.

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You don't give him enough credit. He continually takes on projects that no one else will.

Is Kuhn a very personal friend of yours, praha ?

In any case, doesn't it stand to reason that lots of other developers would take on onerous tasks IF WE PAID THEM TO DO IT ?!

Sorry, I snapped. ;)

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JBJ article on Barnett purchase

What does it say about the business media in Jax when the Orlando Sentinel broke the story on 10/7, the T-U barely even mentions it at the end of a tidbits column a day later, and the Business Journal 'breaks' the story on the 12th (with no new info)?

Dale, I don't know anything about this Kuhn guy, but he is a long ways from being the only party to request incentives for projects. In Jax, you can get city money to open a kid's lemonade stand. At least that is the way is has been in the recent past.

Without incentives, it is very difficult to do a historic rehab. The only question is, what is reasonable.

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JBJ article on Barnett purchase

What does it say about the business media in Jax when the Orlando Sentinel broke the story on 10/7, the T-U barely even mentions it at the end of a tidbits column a day later, and the Business Journal 'breaks' the story on the 12th (with no new info)?

Dale, I don't know anything about this Kuhn guy, but he is a long ways from being the only party to request incentives for projects. In Jax, you can get city money to open a kid's lemonade stand. At least that is the way is has been in the recent past.

Without incentives, it is very difficult to do a historic rehab. The only question is, what is reasonable.

I'm not sure it is that easy any more. Maybe better to say "until the recent past".

The coverage of these things is very much a problem. There was no report from the Times Union about DVI's annual meeting before or after. This is the year they changed the name (to downtown improvement district), they were extended for another 7 years, and the new head of the economic development commision spoke about his vision for downtown.

Downtown is like your teeth. Ignore them and they'll go away.

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JBJ article on Barnett purchase

What does it say about the business media in Jax when the Orlando Sentinel broke the story on 10/7, the T-U barely even mentions it at the end of a tidbits column a day later, and the Business Journal 'breaks' the story on the 12th (with no new info)?

Pretty poor, considering the Orlando paper also had the news of Kuhn possibly buying up to 9 buildings, in downtown Jax. That piece of info, still hasn't been announced by our media.

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