The Pensacola City Council has been notified that the developers of Hawkshaw East will not close on their purchase of the city property located adjacent Gulf Power’s headquarters on Bayfront Parkway.
The project, which at one time was called Hawkshaw Village, was a much touted $20 million-plus joint venture by Hawkshaw Eastside Inc. (Jim Reeves, Jim Cronley, Bill Whitesell and Paul Snider) and Moulton Properties. The proposed first phase of the new four-acre development was to have:
· Thirty units of affordable housing with a price range of $125,000 to $250,000.
· Some 110,000 square feet of mixed-use space for offices, retail shops and restaurants.
· Construction of a $1 million retention pond/lake on a portion of Admiral Mason Park.
The CRA/City Council awarded the purchase of the land to Hawkshaw Eastside in August 2006. Later Hawkshaw Eastside joined forces with the Moultons (who had bid on the original land) to increase the size of the development. The CRA/City Council approved the project plans in October 2007. However, the city and the developers never executed the sales agreement.
So nearly two and half years after the council votes to sell the land, the project fails through. The City needs to have a tighter timetables for executing its agreements.