June 27, 2012
The Hinds County Economic Development Authority soured the previously ecstatic attitude of developers at Full Spectrum South last week with news that it will not recommend the county move forward with helping fund the Old Capitol Green project.
Full Spectrum South asked the Hinds County Board of Supervisors in May to request a $17 million bond from the Mississippi Development Authority to fund a 480-space parking garage.
Full Spectrum South plans for the parking garage to be the first phase of an $83.7-million mixed-used development called 1822 Square on the Old Capitol Green on Commerce Street.
Blake Wallace, HCEDA executive director, said June 22 that he sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors in which he recommended that the county not request the funds for the garage because the project lacks financial strength.
A day earlier, District 1 Supervisor Robert Graham said he had not received a recommendation from Wallace, but that he planned to go along with Wallace’s recommendation when it came. Graham said he didn’t think Full Spectrum South had provided the financial information the county requested. While that was the case at one point in May, Wallace said the county has now received the requested information.
“I think we got more than enough to make the determination that we made,” Wallace said.
District 4 Supervisor Phil Fisher said he will side with Wallace’s recommendation. He said he is not happy with how long it took Full Spectrum South to respond to the board’s requests for information.
“I’ve been having doubts about this project for months,” Fisher said. “(We’ve) given them what I thought was every opportunity, what I hope will be opportunity to do the things that they needed to do. To date, (I) haven’t been pleased with their lack of response, and I haven’t been pleased with the information that they’re providing.
“This is a huge project. For us to have this much trouble getting the very basic of information from them is not a good sign.”
Malcolm Shepherd, development director for Full Spectrum South, said Monday that he had heard that Wallace recommended the county not go forward, but had not seen a copy of the letter.
“It’s very strange to me that (Wallace) would send the recommendation after we met (his) deadline with the documents, then (he sent his) letter to Robert Graham,” Shepherd said. “Then, after the fact, (he) called me to say the board wants to meet with me. Well, (they) should have met with me before (they) made that decision.”
Shepherd said he and other Full Spectrum South representatives will meet with the Hinds County Economic Development Authority at its monthly meeting July 25.
He said if the Board of Supervisors sides with Wallace’s recommendation, Full Spectrum will talk with its investors, who have funded parking garages for the company in the past.
In March, Full Spectrum’s Chief Operating Officer Carlton Brown said tenants had signed letters of intent to fill about 80 percent of the development’s office building 70 percent of the proposed retail space. It appeared the project only needed garage funding to get started. Full Spectrum representatives seemed confident they would get the funding until the latest development with the county.
Wallace couldn’t further divulge his reasons for not recommending the project because of a confidentiality agreement with Full Spectrum South. The JFP has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Hinds County for a copy of Wallace’s letter to the board of supervisors.
The parking garage, if built, will be the city’s first automated, robot-controlled parking garage. Patrons would be able to drop their automobile off in the lobby of the garage, where a laser-guided robotic platform would take their vehicle to a parking space inside the garage.
Shepherd said this type of garage saves money by not requiring energy to power lights and air conditioning. It also reduces crime, because no one would actually enter the garage.
Full Spectrum reduced the size of their original plans for 1822 Square earlier this year, after investors expressed concerns with the feasibility of such a large project. The original plan for the parking garage included more than 800 spaces.
The plans for 1822 Square include Terre Verte, a 169,500-square-foot building with 129 residential units and more than 20,000 square feet of retail space; The Legacy, a 128,000-square-foot office building that will include another 37,350 square feet of retail space; and the parking garage.
The funds for the buildings’ construction are already in hand, Shepherd said, so if the county approves the bond issue, construction will quickly commence. With Wallace, Graham and Fisher opposed to funding the garage, though, approval does not seem likely.
Construction crews will build the underground parking garage first, which should take about 12 months. Full Spectrum estimates the Terre Verte residential building will take between nine and 12 months to complete, and The Legacy office building will take between 14 and 16 months. If construction begins in August, as planned, 1822 Square should be a reality by summer 2014.
To comment on this story, email Jacob Fuller at jacob@jacksonfreepress.com.
Old Capitol Green hit a major roadblock last week.
Courtesy Full Spectrum NY
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