Inside the Park View Inn

[Paradox]

Try this: http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Urban-Issues/Inside-the-Park-View-Inn/7080953_FiPCN

Sweet thanks! It looks so much different after just 2 years.

[BridgeTroll]

Just found this...

Hogan’s Creek project could be ‘Hold on Creek’
   

by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer

In a 2002 Army Corps of Engineers report on the status of Hogan’s Creek and the plan to restore the waterway that bisects Downtown, project manager Steven Robinson concluded the then-$4.9 million was absolutely necessary.

“Without the project, Hogan’s Creek would continue to degrade in environmental quality and contribute to pollution and sediment loadings of the St. Johns River,” he wrote.

Robinson is no longer in the Corps’ Jacksonville District office, but Hogan’s Creek is still polluted and there are still plans to improve the waterway from both an aesthetic and environmental perspective. When those plans go into motion isn’t clear, either.

According to John Pappas, deputy director of Public Works, the State Department of Transportation has set aside $1 million to build a 12-foot wide concrete pathway along a portion of east and north sides of the creek. However, since the 2002 study, new environmental concerns have cropped up, namely an ash remediation effort that hasn’t started and doesn’t have a price tag.

“We are waiting before we can move forward,” said Pappas. “We are waiting to hear from the ash remediation group.”

Dubbed the “Hogan’s Creek Greenway Project,” the $1 million plan involves a walkway, concrete edging and monument of some kind, said Pappas.

According to Tom Heal, an engineer with Public Works, part of the clean up will involve the removal of trash that’s in the creek and on the creek banks. Because the creek flows from Springfield southeast to the St. Johns River, much of that trash gets caught in a net in the water just before the mouth of the creek. The banks of the creek in that area are littered with fast food cups, beer cans, a bicycle rim, police tape and other garbage — all evidence of homeless people sleeping under and near the various bridges that cross the creek.

While the creek’s water may appear filthy, Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi, director of the City’s Environmental Compliance Department, said until the water and the sediment are tested, there’s no way to determine exactly what contaminates are in the water and to what levels. He said the Corps and the State Department of Environmental Protection will deal with the creek itself while the City will concentrate on the Greenway project and the area outside of the water’s edge.

“The State has determined that over 85 percent of the contamination is from fecal matter from pets, geese and other animals,” he said. “Most of the contamination is around Confederate Park. We are looking at what’s in the ground.”

What’s near Confederate Park is the Park View Inn, a long vacant hotel at the corner of State Street and Newnan Street. Gujjarlapudi said the Park View is condemned and slated for demolition within the next couple of months. After that, he said, the State DEP will work with the property owner to begin remediation. At that time, he added, the City will be able to better gauge the environmental issues at Confederate Park.

“Once they clear that up, we will put our plan together to clean up our property,” said Gujjarlapudi.

Heal said the project could go to bid, but since only about one-half to two-thirds of it could be placed on a request for proposal due to the ash issues, the project is “in the middle of nowhere” and it wouldn’t make sense to put out an RFP.

Jim Manning, an engineer in the Environmental Compliance Department, said some of the contamination is from an early 1900s gas manufacturing plant that sat where the Park View Inn is today.

“It’s like tar and it’s deep underground,” he said. “It’s not in the creek, but it’s deep underground and it’s sinking.”

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=52772

[Paradox]

Anything new happening with it?

[Timkin]

Hopefully the building will get demolished soon. If nothing else , turn it into surface parking. would be a huge improvement to what we have to look at presently. it looks worse than ever at this point.

[reednavy]

I understand that this building has asbestos and other issues, but it shouldn't take this long.

A large warehouse severly damaged by the Murfreesboro EF4 tornado is almost gone, and it had asbestos and structural issues. Tornado was April 10th, almost 6 months later, it is a broken slab as it is nearly done being dismantled.

[stephendare]

The building, which is owned by Robert Van Winkel, is being demolished down to a two level parking garage.

They are working out the schematics now.

[reednavy]

Oh good God already!

A freckin arsonist would do the job quicker.

[Overstreet]

...............If it were made of wood.

[Ocklawaha]

While the Creeks water may appear filthy, Ebenezer Gujjarlapudi, director of the City’s Environmental Compliance Department, said until the water and the sediment are tested, there’s no way to determine exactly what contaminates are in the water and to what levels. He said the Corps and the State Department of Environmental Protection will deal with the creek itself while the City will concentrate on the Greenway project and the area outside of the water’s edge.

What a crock of crap, I could go down there any day with a dip net and bring this guy all the sludge muffins he wants... With or without the toilet paper!

Maybe upstream toward 8th we should build a Giant Monument to the toilet bowl as a great achievement, and rename the whole thing CRAPER CREEK!

OCKLAWAHA

[Paradox]

The building, which is owned by Robert Van Winkel, is being demolished down to a two level parking garage.

They are working out the schematics now.

That sucks.

[Captain Zissou]

What is the feasibility, possibility, cost...etc of building a garage capable of supporting future garage floors or a mixed use/office building on top?  I would have no complaint (well...fewer) with everything DT becoming a parking garage if they were built capable of supporting future development.  Kind of a giant Lego set waiting for real development to come along.

[jason_contentdg]

The building, which is owned by Robert Van Winkel, is being demolished down to a two level parking garage.

They are working out the schematics now.

Parking for what exactly?

[hanjin1]

Parking for what exactly?

You know, for all the people visiting, shopping and eating downtown.

[fsu813]

i don't think the plans are set in stone....

[JeffreyS]

Any ideas put forth so far.