There it was on City Council Vice President Aaron Bowman’s PowerPoint:
“Courthouse implosion.”
That commanded the attention of the Southside Business Men’s Club members last week as Bowman listed the action in his Downtown wrap-up for “2018 Economic Development.”
“I think we will, sometime, maybe this year, maybe next year, we will watch a building come down,” said Bowman, also senior vice president of business development for JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development division of JAX Chamber.
It’s been a while since an implosion Downtown. Some of us recall June 26, 2003, when the 43-year-old Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum collapsed in 10 seconds with the help of 275 pounds of explosives — 410 sticks of dynamite, according to an Associated Press report. It cost an estimated $1.1 million.
In fact, I attended the final concert there the previous April with my then 13-year-old son and his friends. Godsmack, if you must know. I listened to a Jimi Hendrix CD on the way home to mellow out.
The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena was built nearby.
In another plan to raise progress from the ashes, the city wants to demolish the former Duval County Courthouse along with the old City Hall Annex and parking lot to make way for a convention center, hotel and parking garage.
Mayor Lenny Curry earmarked $8 million for the demolition. A spokeswoman said Tuesday that the city still is pursuing the demolition and the work product — the Request for Proposals — has not been finalized.
The convention center document is just a Notice of Disposition for now as the Downtown Investment Authority seeks proposals from developers for the center.
No price is attached, but a consultant’s study shows it could cost $284 million to $481 million for a 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall and parking garage. That doesn’t count the hotel and other amenities.
An implosion will signal much more than a potential convention center, though. It is an explosive step toward Downtown revitalization.
There are more than a dozen large — and small — projects underway or proposed on the Northbank and in the core of Downtown, including LaVilla.
Of course, there’s also what’s not happening, namely activity and development at the waterfront Jacksonville Landing marketplace on the Northbank. That’s tied up in litigation between the city and owner Toney Sleiman and his partners.
That, too, might break loose this year.
The visible and expected activity also is attracting investment on a smaller scale.
In December, auto dealership owner Jack Hanania bought the historic Dyal-Upchurch Building at 6 E. Bay St. for $2.8 million as an investment.
“It is a great location and with all the activity that is going on and the development that is taking place, I want to go Downtown and help be a part of it,” Hanania said upon the purchase.
He continues to look Downtown for an office building for his headquarters and needs 25,000 to 30,000 square feet.
“It’s good to show and help support the Downtown,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do. You can’t have a strong city without a strong Downtown.”
This week, Prime Realty announced that Live Oak Contracting moved into the ninth floor at the 10-story 100 North Laura office building.
“The bottom line is everyone wants to be part of a vibrant, successful community,” said LiveOak Managing Partner Paul Bertozzi in a statement.
That said, there’s much more to do. It will take years, perhaps a decade or more, for some of the big proposed projects to open for business, and that’s assuming they go forward.
For example, the Shipyards has been proposed by one developer or another since at least 1995, although Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, who is working to develop the property, seems to have the resolve to get it done. The property closed as a working shipyard in 1992.
Then there’s the Southbank, already lined with office towers, hotels, restaurants, apartments and, developers hope, The District.
The District has been Peter Rummell’s dream since he brought up the words “Healthy Town” in a Daily Record interview published in March 2014.
While the courthouse implosion won’t be the big bang of Downtown Northbank development, it does show the city hopes for a boom in business.
Let’s hope it’s more than just smoke on the water.