Pensacola looks for more potential buyers for former Pensacola Sports HQ

Posted by Admin November 26, 2024 Sports

Pensacola is still looking for potential buyers for the former Pensacola Sports headquarters in downtown Pensacola.

Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said Tuesday that the city would launch another request for interest in the properties, which is basically a “more formalized” version of putting a for sale sign on the property.

Earlier this year, the city received four letters of interest, all with different levels of details and requests from the city that included proposals to build a hotel or a mixed-used condo or apartments.

Reeves said the proposals carried “big caveats” that called for requests from the city for tax credits or some other type of subsidy.

“We are not in love enough with any particular project,” Reeves said.

Pensacola Sports moved out of the property at 101 W. Main St. in 2023 and Reeves said the city was looking to have the property redeveloped as its located in a key part of the Hashtag Project aimed at reconnecting the city’s waterfront with a more walkable environment.

While the city is working to bring more affordable housing to the city, its goals with this property have been to put it into the “highest and best use” for the city – which means a project that will bring in the maximum amount of taxable value possible.

It’d be a tough sell to subsidize a non-affordable housing project, but Reeves said that doesn’t rule out the companies that have already expressed interest.

“When we put the sign in the yard, this does not eliminate these developers, these ideas, in any way, but we want to kind of get it out in the open,” Reeves said.

Reeves said the city has had talks with the new owners of the Harbourview on the Bay, who also own the parking deck next to the property. Reeves said there is a chance of striking an agreement to create a shared parking use of the parking deck for whatever project is built at the location.

“I think that makes a lot of sense. Whoever builds something there would at least have an agreement with that lot across the street to see if you can make something work,” Reeves said. “Just to help to bring as much density to that lot as possible.”