Luxury hotel, 200 apartments and retail coming to site of former Ambassador Hote

[acme54321]

You can see a picture of it here: https://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Architecture/Ambassador-Hotel/i-zVmGhxF/A

Wow, that's a shame.

Much less of a shame when you see the way it looks now. I'm all for saving our historic building stock from the wrecking ball, and I'd stand in front of the ball myself if they tried to tear down the Ambassador, but what's left of the neighboring building is neither attractive nor interesting. If knocking it down means adding 200-300 new residents downtown and making the Ambassador project viable, it's a small price to pay for the greater good.

I know, I meant the alterations were a shame.  Usually when they do stuff like that you can tell that the bones are probably still there.  I would never have guessed that building and what's there now are one and the same.

[thelakelander]

They're there. Click on this link and scroll down. There's an image showing it on the side with bricked in windows.

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-ambassador-hotel-coming-back-to-life/

With that said, yeah you can't save everything. You'd basically be rebuilding the thing to get back what was lost.

[jaxnyc79]

They're there. Click on this link and scroll down. There's an image showing it on the side with bricked in windows.

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-ambassador-hotel-coming-back-to-life/

With that said, yeah you can't save everything. You'd basically be rebuilding the thing to get back what was lost.

All great news and things moving in the right direction (even if not at an ideal pace), but by God, there's just so much work to do downtown.  The neglect that's happened over time should never be allowed again.  I wish the city could amend its charter to identify and forbid various forms of neglect in the future. 

Having said that, where do we stand now on the revitalization of old building stock in the urban core?  It would be interesting to see a block-by-block heat map of downtown based on a given block's current progress toward full revitalization, which would include dense building stock, and street-level activation (either commercial or residential).  Based on such a color-coded heat map, would we find that we're starting to see certain "district" clustering? 

[thelakelander]

I actually set one up in GIS a few years ago. There wasn't much going on back then. One of these days, I'll dig it up and update.

[Steve]

The only thing I'll say about this plan is that in looking up the developer, I'm trying to find examples of his work. This is a REALLY ambitious project for a new developer.

He's doing some work in St Augustine - he's supposed to be building the Lotus Inn and Suites at King and Prawn Sts. It's not open yet - trying to figure out what stage this is in. He's also renovating the La Quinta on Anastasia Island. Not sure what stage this is in either.

Neither of them are bookable anytime I can see.

They are also developing Cortez on the Water in St Augustine, and not sure what state this is in either. Next time I get down there I'd like to see if there's even active construction going on at any of these sites (there may not be).

Not that this isn't a cool project, but the last thing we need to do is issue a demo permit for the old Chamber of Commerce building before they see something other than this guy's word.

Like I said, this is a really ambitious project for Downtown Jacksonville. It seems like a tough project for anyone, even for a developer with a lot of experience. Not sure what experience this guy has.

[DrQue]

Like I said, this is a really ambitious project for Downtown Jacksonville. It seems like a tough project for anyone, even for a developer with a lot of experience. Not sure what experience this guy has.

It is starting to feel like 2006 again...

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Like I said, this is a really ambitious project for Downtown Jacksonville. It seems like a tough project for anyone, even for a developer with a lot of experience. Not sure what experience this guy has.

It is starting to feel like 2006 again...

Please no.

Can it at least feel like 2004 - before we knew some shit was going to hit the fan?

I'd rather feel optimistic rather than anxious.

[Kiva]

It is starting to feel like 2006 again...

Please no.

Can it at least feel like 2004 - before we knew some shit was going to hit the fan?

I'd rather feel optimistic rather than anxious.

+1

[heights unknown]

Some feel the economy will soon crash into a depression type mode, similar to the 1930's or worse; Trump tinkering with trade won't help matters either. I hope THEY are wrong and I am wrong.

[thelakelander]

More info. They hope to be underway within the next 90 days. LaQuinta is one of the chains they're negotiating with:

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/ambassador-hotel-downtown-was-sold-last-week

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Some feel the economy will soon crash into a depression type mode, similar to the 1930's or worse; Trump tinkering with trade won't help matters either. I hope THEY are wrong and I am wrong.

There is always a crash, and I was honestly caught completely off-guard when the housing bubble hit in 06-07 and being in the residential housing industry when it happened, I was hit doubly hard.

I've moved over to the commercial side of things since, and now I see commercial construction hitting levels that I've heard people refer to as 'like it was back in the day', so now I'm a bit more cautious.

The whole trade thing has been a good thing from my POV.  Many of the GCs have instructed us to use domestic product as our base price with the import as an alternate - a complete 180 from where I was not even a year ago.  The 20-40% increase in product hasn't slowed anything down - and that money can now recirculate in our economy. 

That's why I can't understand DIA & COJ caving to developers....  If the project will make money, they will develop.

[JeffreyS]

There is not always a crash strong financial regulation prevented a crash from the la 1930s until Reagan’s deregulation caused one in 1987. A solid 50 + years.

[Tacachale]

There is not always a crash strong financial regulation prevented a crash from the la 1930s until Reagan’s deregulation caused one in 1987. A solid 50 + years.

There’s not always a crash but there are always recessions. It’s part of the business cycle and not necessarily a bad thing. And it’s been 9 years so we’re about due.

[Steve]

More info. They hope to be underway within the next 90 days. LaQuinta is one of the chains they're negotiating with:

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/ambassador-hotel-downtown-was-sold-last-week

The Business Journal Article mentioned a 4 or 5 star hotel. That doesn't exactly line up with La Quinta!

[Steve]

Also, I love how the first plan is to demolish the old building without a true timetable to build the new one.

Again, I'd love to be wrong but I'm a little skeptical here.