Inside the Park View Inn

[stephendare]

So was Stephen Dare right about recent tests showing the ground underneath it not being contaminated?

To be accurate, I have relayed the statements of the owner, Robert Van Winkel regarding this property.  I would assume that the city cannot just simply demolish a brownsfield property with the contamination which has been alleged over the years.

A phone call with Mr. Van Winkel verified the owners claims that the contamination is non significant.

[downtownparks]

The contamination I have always been talking about is oil contamination and it is at the bedrock level and slowly migrating downhill (The creek, park and moving ever so slowly to the SE under the creek). This is documented with several environmental agencies and the city. Soil contamination may ALSO be an issue, but its not the issue that held up site development so far as I understood it.

This demolition will be good for Springfield as it tears down what is basically a big overgrown, dilapitated wall to our community. It will also be good for the creek/parks/St Johns, because the site can be properly remediated.

I agree, it would have been great if rather than sit on the property, it were developed starting soon after it was condemned in 1999, but the owner chose to let it sit and countless fires (and a couple of career ending injuries) later, it is nothing but an eye sore with no end in site.

If almost 10 years isnt enough to come up with a plan, I think the city is justified in tearing down this non-historic, non-contributing strucutre.

Good riddance.

[stephendare]

Its actually just dilapidated because of the crappy exterior.  Ennis the bones looked pretty decent when we went through it, didnt they?

there was a bit of a structural problem due to water damage on the roof, but it could be easily rehabbed.

I agree that the outside is just horrid, but thats just a facade.

[thelakelander]

Structurally, that thing is a solid as a rock.  It needs a new everything else, but if a hurricane hit this town, it would be one of the last spots fo fall down.  Unfortunately, its just not feasible to invest in a structure that size with the environmental questions surrounding the immediate area.  Your money would be better served on a site elsewhere.  In any event, it coming down does present a unique opportunity for a full block development from scratch on of the inner city's busiest intersections, especially if the city foots the bill for demolition and site clean up.

[stephendare]

The city never foots the bill.

They attach the cost to the property owner and the property cannot be developed until the lein is satisfied.

[heights unknown]

Memories, Memories, memories; stayed there quite a few times during my naval career in Jacksonville (which spanned over 20 years at certain times from 1974 to 1994), but I best know it as the heart of Jacksonville.  Remember seeing Larry Holmes the Boxer (when he was at his prime) there at the desk around 1991 (I wonder if he owned it; it was the Parkview Inn then).

It's a shame that the Owner just let it go and didn't invest some money into razing it, cleaning up the contamination, and then putting it up for sale (for commercial or residential); it probably would have sold much faster and for a lot of money had he did this; I guess that was too hard of a feat.

Now the City takes over, will clean it up, bill the Owner (who I bet doesn't have the money because why did he not take it upon himself to do this earlier?), and now the property will probably sit forever and ever amen.

Anyhoo, end of another era for another historic property/building in "Big Jax."

Heights Unknown

[I-10east]

Yeah, the city should hold on to this crappy run-down building for the sake that it's a mid-rise. I guess people would be happy if I made an eight-story edifice outta cow dung; Yeah, that adds to the skyline. The Byrds made a song called "Turn, Turn, Turn" They said in that oldies classic "A time to build up, and a time to break down" and this is clearly a case to break down that old raggedy hotel. This does not have anything to do with razing buildings with potential for a parking lot. This building is long overdue to be torn down.   

[Jason]

^ Well then leave it up to a developer to tear down when the option to replace it comes along.  Razing the building now just continues the nasty cycle of demolition that has run rampant in our core for decades.  It has to stop somewere.

[heights unknown]

I say either reconstruct and convert what currently exists on these properties, or if you tear them down, ensure you have something to build and replace immediately.

Heights Unknown

[downtownparks]

Ok Jason, lets stop it with Annie Lytle. The ParkView is a non-contributing structure with an owner who doest seem to care about downtown or its continued redevelopment.

[RiversideGator]

Best case scenario:  Someone comes in and either rehabs the old hotel into apartments or tears it down and builds new residential.  This aint happening though as we all know.

Next best scenario:  The City comes in and tears this colossal eyesore down.  If this is what is actually going to happen, I am happy.  Personally, I think a grass lot would be far preferable to that hulking bum magnet.

[Jason]

Ok Jason, lets stop it with Annie Lytle. The ParkView is a non-contributing structure with an owner who doest seem to care about downtown or its continued redevelopment.

Is the Annie Lyttle contributing anything?  Are any of the delipidated, decaying structures around town contributing anything?  Just because the ParkView is a less appealing structure doesn't warrant its demolition.  We all saw the images of a proposed renovation and many have vouched for the structures apparently sound construction, so why not force the non-existant owner to give it up and then issue an RFP to see what may become of it?  Because there seems to be no problem with contamination, there should be no problem completing a renovation.  If nobody wants it then bring in the wrecking ball.  But don't tear it down before giving it a chance.

[downtownparks]

When/where has anyone, aside from the absentee owner and Stephen, said there wasn't contamination?

[stephendare]

Um. Im still relating the position of the Landowner, which is called 'reporting'.

I have not tested the ground myself, and have no degree in this field, and neither do you.  I cannot speak authoritatively as to what levels of contamination there are or have been.  And neither can you.  I can however, ask instead of implicate which is what I have done and reported what has been said.

Robert Van Winkel is hardly an 'absentee' landlord, just for clarity.

I like him, just out of respect for his age, experience and an appreciation of his type of person, but I have no reason to take up for him or even to like him all that much as he did not show great sympathy when it came to our interests vs the dalton agency in the building he owned on Hemming Plaza.

However, he has not been 'absentee' on that property.

Unless by 'absentee' you mean that you havent bothered contacting him.

He has instead had a series of plans for that structure that have fallen through specifically because people who don't have environmental engineering credentials repeating unverified stories about contamination.

He has shown 8 fully rendered plans to convert the building to everything from luxury housing to workforce structures and great expense to pay the various architects, engineers, etc to prepare those plans.

THIS is not how an 'absentee' landlord conducts his affairs.

Perhaps if you bothered calling him and finding out for sure before you started speaking authoritatively on the subject, you could help create a positive future for the property as well as its impact on the neighborhood.

The phone number is still prominently posted on the building.

Try it sometime.

[downtownparks]

I have spoken to him several times, yet when I drive by I see over gown weeds, broken windows, and people sleeping. I call, and the bare minimum is done. For 9 years now, it has stayed dilapidated and un-addressed in anyway except replacing the plywood when the city deems it too thin.

As far as what I have and haven't done, Doug and I have met with DEP, DCHD, the ACoE, and the COJ in regards to this parcel. So my foot work, while perhaps shy of taking soil samples myself, has been pretty thorough, including looking at historical data. The facts are, it was a coal gasification plant, it was also later used for Auto upkeep and repair. It is proven to have petroleum contamination, and that contamination is now polluting the creek and the park, and slowly working its way down hill.

Regardless, at the end of it The Park View is an albatross, and it needs to be fixed now, or it needs to be gone now. As a Springfield resident, I am tired of waiting, and watching, and catching people breaking in, and seeing news reports about the latest fire or city "action" against it.