The Savannah City Council meets again on Thursday, March 28 at City Hall on Bay Street the agenda for the regular meeting (2pm) has been posted on the city’s website and it includes several items of note.

The headliner is likely item No. 16, a development agreement between the City of Savannah, Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA), and Forsyth Commons, LLC for the building of “an underground public parking structure and two or more office buildings” near the southwest portion of Forsyth Park and “fronting” Whitaker Street.

City council’s vote on Thursday will be to approve the agreement or not. The meeting will be live streamed on the city’s Facebook page and on SGTV.

You can watch it by clicking here.

“Forsyth Commons, LLC is planning to build an office building on parcels to the southwest of Forsyth Park fronting Whitaker Street,” says the agenda item description dated March 28, 2024. “The developer would build Class A offices with a number of local firms looking to stay or relocate to the downtown area.”

“The city would issue bonds through the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) to fund a two-level underground ground garage with 450 spaces. Three hundred fifty of those spaces would be allocated to the office building during business daytime hours and 100 would be allocated for public use. All of the spaces would be publicly available after business hours and on the weekend.”

Savannah’s City Manager, Jay Melder, wrote to SEDA CEO Trip Tollison requesting the PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) arrangement approval while explaining the reasoning for the agreement and the need for the project.

“This Project will help solve a long-standing parking problem in and around Forsyth Park as well as help maintain jobs in downtown Savannah,” he wrote. “As you know, downtown Savannah is losing approximately 250,000 SF of commercial office space with the sale of two office building towers on Johnson Square as well as the Hunter Maclean building on Reynolds Square, each of which is being converted to either hospitality or residential use.”
“Adding office space downtown, with adequate parking, is certainly a win for the city and SEDA alike.”

Jeff Jepson is the COO of Evans General Contractors and Jepson’s company submitted its cost estimate and preliminary designs to Melder in November of 2023. It estimates the project would cost $28,446,610.12.

“I think we’re at the point now where everyone can get behind this,” Jepson told Connect Savannah on March 25. “It’s an exceptionally fair deal and it’s of benefit to the community.”

Melder, in his letter to SEDA, also stresses the developer’s ambition is not one of profit.

“It is important to note that the developer is not receiving any public incentives or tax abatements related to this project,” he wrote. “Rather, the developer will make PILOT payments comparable to what its normally assessed ad valorem taxes would be.”

“Thus, in effect the developer is paying for a new parking garage and public restrooms for city.”

This article appears in Connect Savannah I March 2024.