By Michele Leivas
The Downtown Development Review Board unanimously granted conceptual approval with conditions for a hotel and associated parking deck in Brooklyn on the site of the current Liddy’s Machine Shop.
The project includes a six-story AC Hotel with a two-story parking structure at 800 and 825 Dora St. and would require the demolition of the existing machine shop to make way for the parking structure.
AC Hotel falls under the Marriott International umbrella.
The specified conditions include a request for additional detail surrounding the wall surfaces for the solid portions of Oak and Magnolia street frontages, along with a request for transparency calculations to ensure a “pleasant experience for pedestrians” on the hotel’s ground-floor level along Oak Street.
The project spurred a big-picture look at development in the area, which includes the Block Nine – the mixed-use development by the Trevato Group that was green lighted for conceptual approval last year – and the pedestrian and retail corridors in the area on Oak and Park streets, respectively.
“Our primary concern at this point is making sure that any developers that come in are giving us enough sidewalk width so we have a pedestrian corridor if not a retail corridor,” said DIA Director of Operations Guy Parola.
To that end, the staff report reflected that the developer will complete the sidewalks surrounding both properties, which are currently not up to code.
During public comment, Scenic Jacksonville Executive Director Nancy Powell called the standalone parking structure a lost opportunity in a neighborhood that continues to see new development.
“We want to see Brooklyn develop into a pedestrian-friendly, distinctive, urban neighborhood,” she said. “…It looks like we have about maybe half of Brooklyn left, there’s a lot of open space, there’s development coming – that’s good news. But Brooklyn should be an urban neighborhood and should be treated as such in the planning and design.”
When board members questioned the reasoning behind the standalone parking structure for the hotel, architect Chris Allred said site limitations precluded the possibility of creating an attached parking structure with the necessary number of parking spaces.
“The amount of spaces that would be available on this site would not meet the minimum requirements for Marriott for us to provide,” he said.
The proposed hotel would include a ground-floor bar that would be open to hotel guests and the public.
This is not the first project intended for this location. Last year, the DDRB granted conceptual approval for the Daedalus Wine Bar and Shop at that address. County records show Daedalus Re Jax LLC purchased the parcel for $440,000 in August 2022. In April 2024, the parcel again traded hands – this time to Jax Lifestyle Hospitality LLC for $1.9 million.
The proposed hotel would be located down the street from the Residence Inn Jacksonville Downtown on Oak Street.
The AC Hotel brand opened its first Northeast Florida location in March at St. Johns Town Center. The Brooklyn location would be the brand’s 19th in Florida.
