Preserving ‘Authentic’ Downtown Jacksonville
Downtown Jacksonville is looking to the past to help shape and revitalize its future via the Downtown Preservation and Revitalization Program (DPRP). Due to some ambitious plans for growth and revitalization, those programs are being put to the test and should spell progress for Downtown in the months ahead.
Launched by the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA), the program’s mission is to facilitate adaptive reuse projects within downtown Jacksonville through increased funding.
According to the DIA’s program guideline, the new program will apply to historic preservation projects seeking more than $100,000 in city funding. It also removes the $1 million maximum in city funding that had previously applied to historic preservation projects.
SouthEast Development Group, LLC plans to use incentives approved through the program to renovate the Laura Street Trio. Built between 1902 and 1912, the Trio buildings are The Florida Life Insurance, Bisbee and Marble Bank buildings at Forsyth and Laura streets. The nearly $25 million incentives package plans to convert the structures into a 145-room Marriott Autograph Hotel with a restaurant, lounge, boutique grocery store and a ground floor retail space.
The package is headed to the City Council for final approval and SouthEast Development Group, LLC Managing Director, Steve Atkins, says it will likely receive approval in August. The project is slated to close on financing in September and have construction underway by October, Atkins aims to debut the renovations in mid-2023.
Atkins is experienced in renovating and preserving historical buildings. He successfully completed the restoration of the Barnett National Bank Building, which was originally built in 1926. It is now home to the University of North Florida Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, commercial offices, 107 apartment units, Vagabond Coffee, and a Chase Bank branch location. He also has a proposal to revamp the Riverfront with residential units, hotels and retail, including a two-story dining and entertainment destination.
Having grown up in San Marco, Atkins is excited to see the changes coming to the downtown area. “When I was a kid, downtown was still thriving and was the city center and everything was happening there. I remember it from that perspective. Construction, design, and preservation have been somethings that I’ve been interested in most of my career. I really thrive on the challenge that these things present. Anybody can build a box, but I like to be challenged.”
JWB Real Estate Capital President Alex Sifakis also welcomes the difficult and painstaking renovations that these structures require. “That’s one of the main reasons we do the work on historic buildings. It’s interesting and it’s a challenge. We feel that that it’s a place where we can contribute.”
JWB Real Estate Capital received an incentive package of $8,706,356 through the DPRP for the Florida Baptist Convention Building and the Federal Reserve Bank building. JWB Real Estate Capital was the first to receive incentives through the DPRP. JWB, led by Sifakis, plans to turn the Baptist Convention property into a mixed-use space with the lower floors dedicated to restaurant and mercantile use and the upper floors offering 24 studio and one-bedroom apartments. The Federal Reserve building will consist of restaurant and event space. Sifakis says the company has the permits and will start renovations early next month.
Sifakis is also seeking incentives for the Thomas V. Porter House on Julia Street and plans to turn the mansion into office space and develop a restaurant in the basement.
AXIS Hotels LLC is also utilizing an incentive package to start the renovation of the Ambassador Hotel, built in 1923, into a TRYP by Wyndham.
Due to the high costs of renovating older buildings, Sifakis says that before the DPRP, the city struggled to attract developers. “Incentives are critical because developers need to be able to make at least some money or they’re not going to do a deal. That’s why all these properties have sat vacant, blighted and unused for years because the numbers don’t work.”
The costs of renovating historical structures can be extreme and, in many cases, it would be cheaper to demolish them. But for some, the preservation of history is more important than repair costs. DIA CEO Lori Boyer explains, “There is a value, a cultural value in preserving the history and the character of various building styles. It certainly adds to the character and the uniqueness of downtown.”
Boyer also feels that while there is a significant cost associated with renovating these buildings, in the end it will economically benefit the area.
“The vacant and abandoned structures that are just sitting on the landscape and being allowed to deteriorate, drag down the economic value and potential of all the surrounding property. It has a negative impact on adjacent property values and a negative impact on the vitality of downtown.”
Money aside, community members in the area do support this new program and the changes it will bring. Dr. Wayne Wood, a resident of Riverside and widely-known historian of Jacksonville, sees it as vital for the downtown area. “These funds are specifically designated for this. They have been derived, just for saving old buildings. The downtown of every city in America is the heart of the city. And as former mayor Jake Godbold once said, ‘Downtown is the heart of Jacksonville. And if we don’t have a healthy heart, all of the city suffers.’”
Alan Bliss, CEO of the Jacksonville Historical Society, loves the rich history of the city and believes that many of these historical structures deserve preservation not only for current residents and tourists but also for future generations. “When you visit a city and you go to its downtown and you see the old buildings that have stood there for decades, or in some cases centuries, you become present in the inherited sort of legacies of the people who came before everyone there. That is what gives people a sense that they are in the authentic Jacksonville. People do not travel to Jacksonville because they want to see what shopping center developers have been doing at St. Johns Town Center or the Orange Park Mall, they look to the evidence of the past to really get a sense of what Jacksonville is authentically.”
Atkins also recognizes the uniqueness of these places and says they won’t stand the test of time unless we as a city work to maintain them. “Buildings have lifespans just like everything else. But for the most important historic buildings, I personally think it’s very important for us to do what we can to preserve and keep those in service. They add a certain fabric to the downtown community that is irreplaceable. Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good, and you can’t recreate that.”
By Susannah Parmenter
Resident Community News
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