Architects share design ideas for Studers’ downtown development

  • February 6, 2015
  • /   Randy Hammer
  • /   studer-community-institute
Architects working on transforming the old Pensacola News Journal site into an apartment and retail complex shared proposed designs Friday morning with Quint and Rishy Studer and a small group of people who huddled in the third-floor conference room of the Studer Group. “This is about our 11th meeting where we’ve reviewed proposed site designs for this project,” said Andrew Rothfeder, who heads Studer Properties. “And I promise there will be more proposals and more meetings to come.” The Studers purchased the former 5.85-acre PNJ property for $3.4 million a little more than a year ago. Jeff Smith with Niles Bolton Associates in Atlanta, Ga., led Friday’s presentation of proposed site designs. Some highlights of the presentation:
  • The four-story complex will feature about 20,000 square feet of retail space on the first floor.
  • The proposal right now calls for 251 apartments.
  • The majority of apartments will be one bedroom and priced under $1,000.
  • Studio apartments will run about $750 a month.
  • A dozen of the units will be three-bedrooms and run $2,100 a month.
  • A parking garage will be tucked inside the complex.
  • A rooftop deck will have “great views” of the city and Pensacola Bay.
  • Some residents will be able to walk out of their living room onto a swimming-pool deck.
“We’ve had market studies and held numerous focus groups to make sure we understand what the community wants,” said Quint Studer. “This is a $50 million project and we don’t want to make a mistake.” Rothfeder pointed out at the beginning of the meeting that downtown has a lot in its favor right now … a great entertainment district, waterfront views, office buildings, a minor-league baseball stadium, a historical district and a growing retail segment. “But if we don’t get more people living downtown, we aren’t going to grow the way we could,” he said. “That’s what this project is about.” City of Pensacola Chief Operations Manager Tamara Fountain, who attended Friday’s presentation, was thrilled by what she saw. “To get that much opportunity on Intendencia and Jefferson streets is so exciting to me,” said. “We can work for years and we can work tirelessly for years and not get that much interaction with our community or with our citizens. They have activated a whole corridor of our community that is completely dead that a lot of people have worked on for years. This is truly exciting.”
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