Jacksonville Landing owner Toney Sleiman is convinced the struggling riverfront mall can attract nationally known restaurants - and boost downtown nightlife - if the city helps him buy a nearby parking lot with room for 300 spaces.

Give him more parking, Sleiman says, and he'll be able to answer one of the first questions posed by prospective big-name tenants: Where will the customers park?

"The time is now," he said Thursday.

His appeal is getting a mixed reception at City Hall, which has been obligated to provide parking for the Landing since the festival marketplace opened in 1987.

In 2006, the city reached a settlement with the Landing, agreeing to pay $3.5 million toward the cost of building a parking garage across the street. In exchange for the city's payment, the mall would get 300 spaces during the day and 375 at night.

Proposals for building that garage have fallen through, but it's still the right approach because it would add parking to downtown, said city spokeswoman Misty Skipper.

Skipper, an aide to Mayor John Peyton, said Sleiman's proposal wouldn't boost parking availability because he's looking to buy an existing lot that's already open to the public.

"Our position is that we continue with the contract and if a garage is completed, then at that point we have an obligation to provide the money," she said.

City Council President Richard Clark, who favors Sleiman's request, said the type of parking facility doesn't matter, so long as it meets the Landing's needs.

"They're talking semantics," Clark said of the mayor's office. "The goal isn't a parking garage. The goal isn't a floating barge with cars on it. The goal is dedicated parking for the Landing."

The mall, he said, "is dying a slow and painful death" but more parking would clear the way for attracting restaurants that would re-energize it.

Clark said he's asked the council auditor to scour the budget for the $3.5 million. The city didn't earmark money in the current budget for the parking obligation because no one was building a garage, or even planning to, Skipper said.

Sleiman said the future of the Landing lies with restaurants and entertainment venues. When he contacts national chains, such as Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang's, he said, a conversation-ending question is whether he can dedicate 150 spaces for the restaurant's use.

He said he can't make that commitment now because the mall's existing lot has 240 spaces, so the Landing's other restaurants and stores would get squeezed on parking needs for their customers.

Construction of a parking garage would be fine with him.
"I'm always open to that, but I don't have more time," he said. "Twenty-three years is long enough."

Sleiman said he has signed a letter of intent to buy the parking lot from Faison, a commercial real estate firm, for $5 million - roughly what it cost the company when it bought the lot in the 1980s.

The lot already is open to the public for parking, but Sleiman said Landing customers don't view it as an option because it's not designed with the Landing in mind.

Sleiman is asking the city to let him cut an entrance to the parking lot from Hogan Street, within clear view of the Landing. He said signs and other features would link the lot to the mall. One possibility would be an orange-colored brick path, matching the Landing's orange roof.

The parking lot, he said, would not be restricted to Landing customers, but they would be able to get a discount by validating parking stubs at the mall's businesses.

Sleiman also wants to redo the grassy area of the Landing now occupied by a large statue of Andrew Jackson. The city will relocate the statue to a roundabout being built in front of the mall as part of a Laura Street makeover.

Sleiman said the move will open up space for outdoor cafes. He said he would renovate the Landing so it has storefront entrances, rather than the solid wall that now faces the area with the statue.

He doesn't have an estimate for what that work would cost and said it's all contingent on getting more parking.

"For this to be successful, I've got to get the parking," he said. "If we go like we're going now, it's not going to be good."

david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4581

link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-04-08/story/mayor%E2%80%99s...