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Editor's note: The following story was submitted by contributing writer Dale Smith:
Photos by Henry Frederick
Entrepreneur Ernie Johnson has big plans for the Badcock building at Canal and U.S. 1, including high-end shoppes, but in order to make it happen, he needs $750,000 from the CRA. Johnson is tiny in this long-shot view from inside.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH – Plans to revitalize the entryway to historic Canal Street at U.S. 1 is picking up steam now that a sales agreement has been finalized for the purchase of the former Badcock building.
Two investor groups have a contract on the 16,000-square foot building for $750,000. The building has sat empty for the past five years and investors hope to sign off on the paperwork by the first of the year.
The first group of investors is made up of brothers Zack and Kevin McDonald, owners of TUI Printing & Promotions, Beachside Pak & Ship, both in New Smyrna Beach, and TUI Total Solutions in Edgewater.
Joining the McDonald brothers is Ernie Johnson, a real estate broker in New Smyrna Beach. The second group comprises the owners of the Total Vision eyeglass stores in Central Florida, including Phil Stevens, owner of the New Smyrna Beach storefront on Canal Street.
“The site is ideal and we all believe it will be successful,” Zack McDonald said. “The building is at the most visible and busiest intersection in the city.”
Local architect Kevin Schweizer has drawn up a design of what the new building could look like. It shows an outdoor café, atrium, interior window shopping and various enhancements to the alley walk, parking lot and streetscape on U.S. 1 and on Canal Street.
To renovate the building, including new mechanicals, air conditioning, sprinkler system, landscaping and parking areas, Johnson said it will take another $750,000 to do the job right.
“The building will be move-in condition, but that price will not include specific tenant improvements,” Johnson said. The broker said he was confident they can find the right tenants, especially when the cost per square foot is lower compared to other cities the size of New Smyrna Beach. Johnson said the going rate downtown currently is from $8 to $12 a square foot.
“This may sound a bit ironic, but the bad economy today actually may facilitate this project in a positive manner,” Johnson said. “People want to expand their business or start one but they can’t afford the rates or find a building large enough for their needs. This project allows them to do so with a lot less per square foot cost.”
The investors have approached the Community Redevelopment Agency (the building is in the CRA district) with their plans and asked the CRA to consider the full amount needed to renovate the building.
However, McDonald said they were open to any amount offered.
“We know it’s a lot of money, but I’d rather have them (CRA board) know what it will cost to fix up the building than to run back several more times later to ask for more,” McDonald said.
Johnson said they were open to phasing in the project over time which would be more financially feasible for all concerned. “Instead of doing everything at once we could fix the building and build out space necessary for the two tenants who have already committed to relocating there,” he said.
Those two tenants are the McDonald’s own TUI printing entities and Mr. Stevens’ Total Vision store. Community Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Tony Otte has been supportive of the project from the start and believes his board realizes the benefits of having a new business presence at the west end of Canal Street.
But the request from the investors for $750,000 was the highest amount the CRA had been confronted with.
Otte said at the CRA meeting in September that there wasn’t an existing program to cover this level of expenditure.
Mayor Adam Barringer, who chairs the city’s Economic Development Advisory Board, praised the idea of creating a new entity and said he would like to see it happen.
“It certainly is an ambitious plan for that building. Barringer said. “The amount of money they’ve asked the CRA for ($750,000) is a lot of money, though. I’m not sure the city should pay that much for something like that.”
However, the mayor said CRA money should be used for what it is intended for — redevelopment and cleaning up blighted areas, like the old Badcock building.
“That’s what is should be used for,” Barringer said. “But it’s another thing to subsidize an entrepreneur’s dreams.”
About the contributing writer:
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Dale Smith is a resident of New Smyrna Beach, who has reported on local news in Volusia County since October 2009. His writing background includes a mix of journalism and public relations in several community newspapers and a p.r. firm in northern Virginia. He attended Barton Academy in Barton, Vt., and the Cambridge (Mass.) School of Broadcasting for radio & TV broadcasting.