Another Historic Downtown Demolition In The Works?

[Metro Jacksonville]

Another Historic Downtown Demolition In The Works?



The Downtown Investment Authority is considering making a portion of downtown a national historic district.  Unfortunately, if one property owner has his way, a 105-year-old building will become a vacant lot despite possibly being one of the last vestiges of a turn-of-the-century downtown rooming house district.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jan-another-historic-downtown-demolition-in-the-works

[Noone]

Ennis, You are so talented. Do you also have your real estate license? That is a neat building. I like the double steps. We have a surplus JEA house on the river we can sell. Palms Fish Camp- No fines but just cash that bad boy in for a million plus. Sweet Pete's II. LIke the double steps.

[vicupstate]

Excellent example of how the left hand undermines the right.  The city on one hand is trying to preserve it's historic structures but at the same time a wrong-headed code enforcement dept. is doing everything it can to tear down anything that is old/unoccupied.  The LAST thing the city needs is another vacant lot.  The building appears to be in excellent condition on the exterior. What exactly is the structural or other 'problem' with it.  Me thinks it is in Kim Scott's imagination, whatever it is.

The building appears to be on the market, what is the asking price?
 

[Jumpinjack]

Why do we keep running our mouths about how terrible this is? When are we going to get a land trust in place to secure and market these buildings into a new life? Come on Jacksonville!

[tufsu1]

Ugh...I love that building...there's another awesome one adjacent to it (corner of Duval and Newnan)....have thought about purchasing each at various times.

[JECJAX]

I agree - we have to stop the bleeding ! There has to be a solution to save this building.  I'd love to see the inside architecture !

[aubureck]

I've always thought that this would be a great restoration effort that could bring a few more people living downtown and it's a small enough scale of a project that more people should be able to potentially do it without having to have super deep pockets.

[strider]

Municipal Code Compliance can and does condemn buildings for relatively minor issues and once in their system, the edict is it must be brought to full current code.  Read their reports on these condemned houses and you will see a very vague write up that states everything is bad and everything must be done. What this does is takes a somewhat affordable repair at the time of condemnation and makes it financially unsound to repair at all.   So the building sits, the fines start and MCCD starts telling the owner he can save money by doing the demolition himself to stop the fines.

The only thing that will save this building is the landmark designation.  That changes everything from what MCCD can do, what the owner can do and what repairs must be done to the building.  Few in this city, including within the building department, fully understand the Historic Building Codes (found within the Existing Building Codes) but they give great latitudes to repairing buildings such as this.  Add to that the possible tax credits and a project like this can become very viable financially.

I also found it interesting that this was built as a rooming house.  While very maligned today, the rooming house was once much preferred.  Today, the old rooming house has been replaced by the extended stay inn or perhaps Bed and Breakfasts (though the latter may be closer to the Boarding House of old) though neither, even when adjusted for today's dollars, are as affordable as the rooming houses were.

It would be advantageous financially to keep the original interior layout when this building is restored. Plus, while it is great to save the exterior of old buildings, it often happens that to repurpose a building like this, the interior historic features are lost.  Of course, one can not legally have a rooming house today so an alternative use that works for the interior plan would need to be found. Perhaps small mixed use suites could be developed for a live-work situation?   It certainly would be nice to have a residential component. Of course, if the interior is gutted already, then repurposing is easier as the interior features would be gone already.

In any case, please e-mail the Historic Staff at mceachin@coj.net and amartina@coj.net in support of Landmarking this building.

[Gunnar]

Checked the realtor's site (Colliers Dickinson) but could not find anything.

What I could find was that the property was apparently sold for $150k in 2000 and for $100k in 2002.

[Wacca Pilatka]

I loved that Warrock's jelly factory building shown in the photos

[JaxUnicorn]

I spoke with the broker who had the listing and it is sort of in limbo.  The FOR SALE sign is no longer at the property.  According to him, the roof needs some immediate attention.  This building must NOT be destroyed!!! 

The demolition request is being heard by the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission on January 28th at the Ed Ball Building, 8th floor at 3:00 pm.  Please, attend to speak in favor of saving this structure if you can.

[Springfielder]

So now Jax wants a historic district downtown...really? Um, don't you need historic buildings in order to have that? They've leveled just about everything of historical value, and if they allow this to come down, what's left? This needs to be stopped.

[mbwright]

historic districts and various designations do not always have teeth in them to prevent demo.  Too much red tape, and conflicting info to understand.

[uga_jax]

The liability may be too much to assume, but it would be nice if a large downtown-based corporation (i.e. Everbank) would buy, rehab it and make into housing for their interns to reside while working locally.  Just an idea...

[strider]

historic districts and various designations do not always have teeth in them to prevent demo.  Too much red tape, and conflicting info to understand.

In a way, you are right.  If the Historic Preservation Commission does not stand up against demolitions, and the organizations like SPAR Council and city departments like MCCD want those demolitions, the Historic Designation becomes meaningless.  It was exactly that way for about a decade.  Thankfully that has changed in Jacksonville in the last couple of years and while it could change back, by standing up and yelling loudly, the preservation folks can and will stop it.

I believe the current HPC will not accept demolitions like this lightly. The more people who speak against the demolition and speak for Landmarking the property, the better chance it will not only get saved but also rehabbed back into usefulness.