State Street garage developer seeks more land

The future of a commercial property at the State Street parking garage may be decided Tuesday, as a developer seeks permission from the City Commission to revise its agreement with the city.

The purchaser of the garage’s pad property — a liner building in front of the garage at State Street and Lemon Avenue — hopes to buy an additional parcel from the city to expand the scope of the planned development. In November, Joe Hembree appeared before the City Commission to make the request for additional land.

Hembree is the president of commercial real estate firm Hembree and Associates, the high bidder for the 5,041-square-foot site. The group’s bid of $688,000 is more than $300,000 higher than the next closest price submitted for the land. Hembree’s vision for the property includes a six-story building with retail on the first floor, office space on the second story and 18 residential units on the remaining four levels.

Hembree is seeking permission to purchase city-owned land on the western end of the Northern Trust bank parking garage, fronting nearby Pineapple Park. Hembree said plans for that land would include a two-story mezzanine structure, acting as a liner building for the private parking garage and drawing pedestrians to the park. Without that land, Hembree said the pad parcel would not be viable for his project.

At the time, the City Commission was skeptical of Hembree’s request. The board voted 3-2 to allow staff to renegotiate an agreement with Hembree, but some commissioners feared legal repercussions from altering the deal, which originally arose from an open bidding process. Those commissioners were also concerned that the sale could represent an intrusion on the public space at Pineapple Park.

“It looks like it’s not just the liner of the garage,” Vice Mayor Susan Chapman said in November. “It looks like it goes into the dolphin fountain park.”

If the commission approves the sale, Hembree would purchase the additional land for $250,000. According to city staff, the appraised value of the land is $460,000. 

The full agenda for Tuesday’s meeting can be found on the city website.

Contact David Conway at [email protected].