Two years after Reddi-Arts relocated to its new location in Springfield, the Southbank community is still waiting to see new life at its former home on Hendricks Avenue.
Property owner Allen Stevens said he has been inching his way through the permitting process to bring his vision to life. His plans call for the demolition of portions of the former Reddi-Arts building and the conversion of the remaining structure into four standalone buildings for retail, office or restaurant use.
“I’m hoping by the end of the year to have it leasable,” Stevens said.
Jax EPICS, the city’s permitting system, reflects several permits issued for the project dating back to 2022. The work that’s been completed thus far has been exterior improvements on the buildings. While a permit issued in June for site work was for the new parking lot, Stevens said that phase of the project has been held up while he awaits utilities permits.
According to JEA, the review process was prolonged by a special estimate for a larger service connection off of Kings Avenue. Ultimately, however, the developer chose to use the existing service connection, thus rendering the special estimate unnecessary. JEA stated it has completed the estimates on this project.
The Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB) granted unanimous final approval for the project in January 2022. Stevens said the project designs have not changed from the renderings reviewed by DDRB.
County records reflect ownership of the Hendricks Avenue property changed hands to Chase Properties, Inc. in 2020, and then a year later to Kings Ave Properties, LLC.
The city launched the Jax EPICS permitting system in January of this year to respond to complaints Mayor Donna Deegan said she consistently heard from the community about the permitting process.
