City to revisit State Street garage sale

The intended site of a liner building in front of the State Street parking garage has been the target of criticism from developers and real estate agents, who believed the dimensions of the property were limiting.

Now, the high bidder for that land is echoing those concerns — and is seeking to negotiate the purchase of more city property.

Although the City Commission ultimately voted to allow staff to negotiate with real estate broker Joe Hembree, commissioners expressed a hesitance to change the terms of the sale. Prior to the 3-2 vote that authorized staff to reexamine terms with Hembree, the dissenting commissioners signaled even stronger emotions about the continued negotiations.

“I’m sure we’re going to get sued somewhere down the line,” Commissioner Shannon Snyder said.

“I predict this will blow up in our face,” Vice Mayor Susan Chapman added.

Hembree, president of commercial real estate firm Hembree and Associates, bid $688,000 for the 5,041-square-foot pad property at the garage. The winning bid for the liner site was more than $300,000 higher than the next closest price submitted.

His proposed vision includes a six-story structure including retail on the first story, office space on the second floor and about 18 600- to 800-square-foot residential units on levels three through six. The garage will also contain 13,885 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, sold separately from the pad site.

As it stands, Hembree says, his project isn’t economically feasible. He made a number of requests to help facilitate his plans, including the shared use of an exit stairwell in the garage and the use of parking spaces at the garage for residential tenants of the pad site. The most significant request, however, is Hembree’s interest in incorporating more city-owned land into his project.

That land is located on the western end of the existing Northern Trust bank parking garage, fronting against nearby Pineapple Park. Hembree said he currently visualizes this as a two-story mezzanine structure, which would act as a liner building for the garage and add activity to the park.

This element of the proposal struck a nerve with Snyder and Chapman. Although city staff said the land requested was separate from Pineapple Park, those commissioners viewed it as an intrusion into city parkland.

There were also concerns that other bidders on the pad parcel would object to the sale of additional land, potentially by taking legal action. City Attorney Robert Fournier said he didn’t believe the separate sale of adjacent land would raise any legal issues, but that failed to soothe Snyder’s concerns.

“If I was bidding on one contract and realized it opened the door to another property, and I didn’t get the opportunity to bid on that — oh yeah, I'd be (taking legal action) in a heartbeat,” Snyder said.

Hembree would pay for the modifications to the garage stairwell and for the additional land, he said. Although he did say the project was not guaranteed to go through even if the changes were made, he said his goal was for the development to mesh with the adjoining park property.

Commissioner Paul Caragiulo said permitting staff to bring back a renegotiated contract would give the commission — and citizens — a better opportunity to weigh in on the proposal.

“I agree this is really dicey territory,” Caragiulo said. “This probably would at least allow us the time to look at this process and look at what is developable and what isn't developable.”

For more information on the proposed changes to the State Street garage site, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Sarasota Observer.

Contact David Conway at [email protected].