A new vision for the former post office on Reynolds Street has come to light after city commissioners listened to a presentation by Plant City Development Group, LLC to transform the space into a mixed use residential/commercial development.
The plan — if the city agrees to the negotiations — is to take the property and build a five-story building with commercial on the ground floor, residential above it, an on-site parking facility and a rooftop element. The proposal is to have 123 units featuring one, two and three-bedroom facilities with square footage ranging from 720 to 1440 square feet.
There will be 5,000 square feet in total of amenities for the property including a fitness center, conference center, outdoor terraces and pet play area. Those spaces will all include high-speed WiFi and the terraces could include amenities like a pool and lounge chairs or other items that create gathering spaces for residents.
On the ground floor of the building the group is proposing a 9,000 square foot commercial space that would more than likely entail some type of restaurant, a cigar or cocktail bar and other tenants. The rooftop element will be 6,000 square feet in total and though this is not set in stone, the goal is to have some type of indoor restaurant and bar and pair it with an outdoor terrace to have sunset views.
Parking was the biggest question from commissioners to Plant City Development Group. On site the goal is to have 96 parking spots camouflaged within the bottom of the building. The group already has an agreement with First Presbyterian Church at 205 and 207 N. Walker St. to ground lease a section of their parking lot. It would be a 15-year lease with six five-year options to extend. This would not be the church’s main parking lot, but rather an adjacent lot. They said they are also in discussions with other property owners to lease parking.
Get to know the team
Plant City Development Group’s development team is Sandy Marks, Stephen Katz and Mitchell Marks. Sandy Marks is the co-founder of Clearnote Capital, a real estate advisory firm that started in 2013, through which he has financed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate and developed several high-profile properties in NYC, including a high-end condo on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. Prior to founding Clearnote Capital, he was a senior client manager at J.P Morgan Chase where he managed and maintained a portfolio of over $300M.
Stephen Katz is the founder of SMK Development, a real estate development consulting firm started in 2017. Clients include Banyan Cay, for whom he redeveloped a 250-acre, two 18-hole decommissioned golf course into a Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, with a 150-room hotel and 150 single family homes. SMK Development facilitated day to day operations, including running weekly development meetings, liaising between design professionals, general contractors, permitting officials, and owners.
Mitchell Marks is the president and founder of First New York Realty, a real estate development, commercial brokerage, and consulting firm founded in 1986. He employs 40 staff in their NY office, with notable clients including NYU, Kmart, The New York Times and the FBI. He has successfully acquired, subdivided and developed land in Bedford NY, converted the former YMCA in NYC into luxury residential condominiums, and developed commercial space at 213 West 23rd Street. He owns and manages his own personal investment properties.
John Haney, a fourth-generation Plant City native, is the group’s real estate advisor. Haney, president and managing broker of Ace Realty & Auction LLC, has been in the real estate business for nearly 20 years and is well known throughout the community. During his career, he has sold everything from high-rise office buildings to luxury homes and industrial facilities.
The group is partnering with BDG Architects, a 130+ person full service Architectural, Space Planning, Interior Design and Program Management team. Recently BDG Architects formed a partnership with FleischmanGarcia, a firm based in Tampa. Bohler Engineering was also presented as part of this project. While partnering with the broader team, Bohler will help to bring the vision of building residences and commercial space that attract tenants, while contributing to community growth.
Innovations Design Group is a landscaping architecture and master planning company based in Orlando that was presented as being a part of this vision. Plant City Development Group said landscaping was a top priority for the vision of making sure the new building blended seamlessly with the rest of the downtown community. Suffolk Construction, which was founded in 1982 and in the last five years has built more than $1.7 billion in the multi-family sector in Florida, will be joining the project as well. Mayor Rick Lott commented how interesting and well-planned it was for the group to have already decided on their contractor when doing the initial pitch to commissioners.
The vision
The unique character of downtown Plant City was a talking point Plant City Development Group returned to time and again in their presentation to commissioners Monday. Much of historic downtown is comprised of red brick buildings and, though a recent vote by commissioners technically removed the former post office property from the historic district, the group wanted to make the building feel like it was part of that historic construction.
They said they wanted it to feel like this modern building had been in the community for 100 years, that creating a building that shares in the city’s history and depth and nods toward the architecture of its neighboring buildings was a top priority for them.
Though it will be five stories high the company proposed it will have a red brick exterior that matches the rest of downtown, including City Hall, which will be directly across the street. The retail on the bottom would be sleek and match the historic look of the rest of the building, as would the rooftop amenities.
“We hear this from everybody, all the time, individuals that are currently in our city and the individuals that are moving to our city are looking for that downtown character, that charm and that history and our city has that,” Lott said. “A lot of cities don’t have that downtown character.”
Commissioners, though concerned about parking, liked the proposal and agreed unanimously to allow City Manager Bill McDaniel to proceed in negotiations with the group. This was just the initial project presentation and more will follow before this is set in stone. However, the group said in a perfect world if everything is streamlined and goes smoothly they would love to break ground by the end of 2021 or very start of 2022.