Ready to turn dirt
FORT WALTON BEACH - Ted Corcoran with the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce calls the proposed Landmark Center "the biggest thing to come to downtown Fort Walton in the last 50 years."
And according to its developers, the $27 million, four-story residential and retail project is finally ready to start.
"Being located at Highway 98 and Perry Avenue, so close to the Brooks Bridge, it's a welcome to the downtown area to those traveling west," Corcoran said. "It continues the resurgence of the past several years and it accomplishes so many things."
Sperry Van Ness, one of the nation's largest commercial real estate brokerage firms, has just taken the leasing assignment for the retail and office space.
Site work could begin on the center's parking deck in the next few weeks, according to Bruce Houle of Emerald Coast Partners, the project's developer.
"We hope to start on the parking deck by the end of August and have it completed by May 2009," he said last week.
The five-level parking deck is projected to cost about $4.6 million. If it goes well, construction of the Landmark Center itself will follow within several months. The center will boast 123,000 square feet.
That's where an investment of about $23 million comes in. Last year, the Fort Walton Beach City Council voted 6-1 to approve the 343-space parking garage partly on private property and partly on city-owned land. When the garage is finished, the city will buy 107 spaces for $1.5 million. Each year after that, the city has the option to buy an additional 40 spaces for about $555,000. Thirtyeight spaces will be reserved for Landmark Center residents.
Sperry Van Ness will lease the space on the first two floors, with Gordon MacLean and Terry McDevitt acting as agents.
As designed by DAG Architects in Destin, the first floor will have 34,000 square feet of retail space. Emerald Coast Coffee, whose local success could one day lead to a regional concept, has signed a letter of intent for 1,800 square feet.
Plans call for 29,000 square feet of office space on the second floor. Leasing rates will be about $25 per square foot, MacLean said, and a minimum contract of three years will be the normal arrangement. The cost per square foot could be less if the business coming in does its own "build out."
An ideal mix of tenants would include two or three eateries and several specialty shops, said MacLean, who added that his company is seeking tenants from local, regional and national markets.
"We had been watching the downtown market for quite a while," he said. "It really came down to a lot of competing interests and obviously the best project has won.
"The public-private partnership to get the parking garage done was a big key of it," MacLean added. "We think this project is going to transform the look and feel of downtown ... make it more of a tourist destination."
Sperry Van Ness recently has opened an office in Landmark Office Center. The building once was a small supermarket and is adjacent to where the new building will take shape.
Platinum Real Estate Associates of RE/ MAX Southern Realty will handle the sales for 38 loft condominiums ranging from 1,000 to 1,800 square feet on the third and fourth floors. Lofts will be priced from $288,000 to $600,000.
There will be a garden terrace with cabanas on the roof.
Ken Wright, a 1978 graduate of Niceville High School, is the agent with Platinum Real Estate Associates of RE/MAX Southern Realty. He's also a partner in the development.