Jeffrey A. Collier

Notable Experience

• Lead environmental counsel for large affordable housing developer in a partnership with both the Tampa Housing Authority and the City of Tampa, where our client was the winning bidder to rehabilitate a vacant, environmentally impacted property owned by the City. The 18-acre approximately $300MM mixed-use redevelopment project will include 17,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, a job-training center, over 30,000 sq. ft. of amenity spaces, and approximately 1,000 residences.
• Represented client on the development of a hotel project covering two contaminated parcels in Tallahassee. Both of the parcels are designated brownfields and one of the parcels is currently in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (“FDEP”) Petroleum Clean-up Program. This is a multi-million dollar redevelopment project adjacent to FAMU and FSU that will turn environmentally impacted vacant land into much-needed hotel space.
• Represented client in obtaining a variety of environmental permit approvals for a new mixed-use waterfront development located along the Gandy causeway which is a key corridor connecting the City of Tampa to the City of St. Petersburg. The development includes a mix of multi-family, townhome and commercial uses including a dry storage marina and accessory wet slips. In total, the project will include 150 boat slips (wet and dry).
• Represented the first and leading medical cannabis company in the state of Florida in obtaining an Environmental Resource Permit in one week from initial contact using the Suwanee River Water Management District accelerated permit program. The permit was obtained for a 1,000,000 square foot automated growing facility (the largest, known cannabis growing facility in the world), and twelve 24,000 square foot grow facilities housed on a 93-acre property in Madison County, Florida.
• Prevailed in state administrative proceeding (Florida Division of Administrative Hearings). Collier represented All Aboard Florida in an administrative hearing challenging an Environmental Resource Permit Modification issued by the South Florida Water Management District. Following a lengthy proceeding, including a two-week hearing, the presiding Administrative Law Judge issued a Recommended Order which found for All Aboard Florida on all issues and endorsed the permit under review. The permit was for a portion of the aforementioned express passenger rail system which will soon connect the four largest urban population centers in Southern and Central Florida. The Recommended Order, which was adopted by the South Florida Water Management District in its Final Order, contains the most thorough analysis to date on the issue of whether the first element of the public interest test permits consideration of non-environmental factors and provides more predictability and clarity as to the application of the public interest criteria.
• Represented an affordable housing developer in obtaining a brownfield area designation for an affordable housing project in the City of Tallahassee during the COVID-19 pandemic. The team coordinated an in-person and virtual community meeting that included a team of consultants and members of the public as well as two virtual public hearings to obtain the brownfield area designation. The designation allowed the developer to take advantage of both state environmental clean-up programs and financial incentives.
• Counsel in resolving an annexation challenge and an administrative challenge to a comprehensive plan amendment for a coalition of developer clients with projects at risk due to a long-running dispute between Alachua County and the City of Gainesville. Successfully negotiated with the County and the City for a global settlement allowing clients to move forward with projects that had been stalled for over six months and which were at risk of being delayed for another year or more.

Credentials

Professional & Community Involvement

• American Bar Association
• Association of Florida Community Developers (AFCD)
• Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce
• Habitat for Humanity Site Selection and Property Committees, 2005-2008
• Hillsborough County Bar Association
• Leadership Tallahassee Class XXXIV
• Leadership Tampa Bay Class of 2018
• Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, 2007-2011
• Palm Beach County Bar Association, Chair, Environmental & Land Use Law Committee, 2008-2012
• Palm Beach County Planning Congress, 2010-2013
• Real Estate Investment Council, Inc. (REIC), Tampa Bay
• Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals
• Tampa Bay Builders Association
• The Florida Bar, Environmental and Land Use Section Executive Council
• The Florida Bar’s ELULS Reporter, Co-Editor, 2010-2013
• U.S. Green Building Council LEED AP, 2008-2011
• Urban Land Institute, Tampa Bay
  • Leaders Council
  • Urban Plan Volunteer

Recognition

• Chambers USA, Environment (Florida), 2021-Present
• The Best Lawyers in America®, 2023
• AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell