The parking structure at the edge of Springfield could once again be moving toward redevelopment.
Robert Van Winkel of Jacksonville Hospitality Holdings LP is asking the city to rezone the former Park View Inn site at 901 N. Main St. to planned use development, or PUD, in advance of a four-story, 82-unit multifamily housing development.
A description of the project, in ordinance 2017-484 filed last week, said the project would be accomplished in two phases, with phase one including the housing and a parking garage on about 0.72 acres.
Phase two is yet to be determined, however the PUD zoning allows for retail, offices, hotel, restaurant and other uses.
England, Thims & Miller Inc. is listed as the project engineer, with Tampa-based Southport Development Inc. listed as the developer.
They could not be reached for comment Monday.
The property is listed by NAI Hallmark Partners LLC for $2.75 million.
Bryan Mickler, vice president of retail brokerage for NAI Hallmark, said the property is under contract, but he could not disclose the purchaser.
Another ordinance, 2017-483, also filed last week, would change the future land use designation of the property from community/general commercial to high density residential.
Originally the Heart of Jacksonville Motor Hotel, the property was at one time one of the city’s premier lodging destinations.
It then operated as the Park View Inn, a less-than-desirable property until it closed in 2003.
In 2006, Van Winkel presented plans to the city that would have included housing for students and staff at Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Downtown campus, located on the other side of Main Street.
That plan fell apart following the Great Recession.
In 2010, Van Winkel proposed an estimated $2 million project that would have seen the construction of a 400-car, two-story parking deck, and about 20,000 square feet of retail space with a grocer or pharmacy chain as the anchor.
By 2011, most of the site was demolished with the help of a $300,000 Community Development Block grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Only a shell of the former parking structure remains.
Since 2012, the site, and properties around it, have been the subject of a pending federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
The city is suing the land owners, including Jacksonville Hospitality Holdings, over the environmental cleanup because there was a manufactured gas plant on the site in the 1800s.
Mickler said development efforts won’t move forward until the lawsuit is resolved.
The rezoning and future land use amendment bills will be up for debate before the Land Use and Zoning Committee, with public hearings scheduled for August and September.