Patty..... For the night club proposal, were you looking to purchase this property? If so, you may or may not know that One Entity owns the School building and the land directly below the building. ( Tarpon Holdings, LLC) Another (Foundation Holdings IV ) has retained ownership of all adjacent and surrounding land, up to FDOT Right of way in the front, back to Hughes Automotive, and own either 2 or 3 lots on College , ending at Roselle St .. ( They own the corner lot)
My point is , the renovation costs you are speaking of , may or may not be accurate. I do not know for sure.. but.. then there is the purchase of the building and the adjacent land, since I seriously doubt Foundation Holdings IV will ever be open or consenting to a nightclub being there ( At this stage in the game I think it is a better idea, than the building continuing to deteriorate) and Tarpon ,who bought the school from a tax sale last March,obviously did so ,intending to flip it. I have no idea what kind of a purchase price these two agencies would be willing to give this place up for ,but my BET is NOT A PENNY LESS than 2MM. so factor that into your business plan. As Tarpon bought the building, but never does any kind of maintenance to it, the City then stepped in and hired an outside contractor to secure the building , fence, etc. and the last I knew, liened not just the school, but all of Tarpon's Duval County properties ( some one please correct me if I am wrong)
Archipfreak.....I completely concur with the first part of your statement. the City absolutely has had no interest in saving this building... but at least since the time I have been involved in it , beginning late 2005, There have been no proposals set forth that were declined, other than demoltion requests. Feb 2007 LUZ Meeting concerned Bill #2006-0024 (application by Foundation and the developer to demolish the building) At the land , use and zoning meeting , that was initially APPROVED but with condition. Then public outcry came in large numbers.. I personally contacted the Florida Trust and the National Trust for Historic Preservation and got them involved.
Long story short.. Initially approved by LUZ , referred to full council who deferred the bill for better than a year and last year the bill was kicked out of council and re referred to HPC. Since the building earned Landmark status in 2000 ( Placed in this status , hoping to help with getting some assistance from the Florida/National Trust) I firmly believe now that is the sole factor which has spared it from demolition. What you are correct about is , that many proposals have been made, mostly with the idea of housing and have never come to pass for various reasons.
I have intently been involved with trying to protect the School from any fate which involved removing any part or all of it . It is and will always be my sincere desire to see it spared. From a practical standpoint, I believe Ock's proposal to Utilize the building as a Transportation center/ Mall is the most practical idea EVER EVER proposed, however ,sadly I do not think JTA and/or the City is going to be having any part of that. So the night club idea is totally fine with me... but I think even in that plan you are looking at SIGNIFICANTLY more than you think for renovation costs and then you have the purchase of the property. It would seem to me that LUZ would be reasonable for any proposed use which would finally make this old building viable, as clearly housing never would have and likely never will happen there . I wish you luck with your endeavor. If there is any way AT ALL POSSIBLE that I can help , please do not hesitate to contact me. I wish you luck in finding funding.. If you pull that off, you will have succeeded, where many have failed.
