This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition – Private equity firm launches fund for city projects

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville’s transformation looks to advance with the investment of $40 million toward four key projects.

William Studebaker joins This Week in Jacksonville: Business Edition to talk about the first fund closed from First Coast Real Estate Partners (FCREP) and the impact on development.

The private equity firm launched the fund with Jacksonville’s Corner Lot to underwrite four projects:

• The Avion

• Corner on Main

• Artea at Southbank

• Flagler Crossing Phase II

PREVIOUS EPISODE: Downtown Jacksonville is ‘under construction’

“It was a pretty big stepping stone for Corner Lot to branch out and create FCREP,” Studebaker said, “Which is really the financing arm to help take advantage of the opportunities that are coming out of the pipeline and core a lot.”

Studebaker said without a dedicated fund, developers “have to kind of judiciously go out and raise money on a project-by-project basis, which can work out fine. But there actually is not a lot of scale benefits in doing this. So by coming in and creating a fund, you’re providing a more ubiquitous access to capital in a much more efficient way.”

We’re diving into the specifics of the fund’s purpose, the projects underway, and how Jacksonville’s consolidation factors into the ease with which developers can move.