More details are emerging about the proposed apartments at the former FBI Building in Arlington.
Halff Associates Inc. applied to the St. Johns River Water Management District for a permit exemption that involves redeveloping the commercial office building at 7820 Arlington Expressway into low-income housing.
For that exemption, it said site work will be limited to introducing landscape islands in the existing parking lot, which now is complete pavement.
In addition, Halff applied to the city to rezone the property for redevelopment into apartments.
It also requests a land-use amendment for the 4.79-acre site.
Developer Marc Kozman with Kozman Realty Inc., with a Ponte Vedra Beach address, is listed as the property owner. Kozman said in an email June 18 that he didn’t have much more to share than what has been reported. He has not responded to additional questions.
The Halff Associates engineering and architecture consulting firm, represented by Joe Loretta, describes the project.
It says it is a redevelopment of a 90,000-square-foot office building along with 5,675 square feet of storage and maintenance buildings into a maximum 120 residential units with ancillary amenities.
The minimum 17,700 square feet of nonresidential floor area, including amenities and storage, would be for resident use only.
The Feb. 19 written description says the project would be 118 multifamily units. The project architect is Fisher Koppenhafer.
The description said the project is expected to be completed in one phase in 12-15 months.
Kozman wants to rezone the property from community commercial/general-2 and community, residential and office to a planned unit development.
The land use would change from commercial and office categories to high-density residential.
Ordinances 2020-0295 for rezoning and 2020-0294 for the land use change are in the City Council Land Use & Zoning Committee.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation leased the six-story, 94,000-square-foot building for the Jacksonville field office until the bureau moved in 2009 to a government-owned structure at 6061 Gate Parkway.
Developers built the structure in 1975. It sat largely vacant after the FBI relocated.
The LoopNet.com commercial real estate site said previously the Class C office building has been vandalized and without power, “adding to the demise of its visible condition.”
The site said the building could be useful to “a savvy value-add investor” who would recognize it has a better use or could be held for development.
Previously filed plans show conversion into 70 one-bedroom and 48 two-bedroom units.
Plans show a gym, recreation areas, amenities and a courtyard.
Kozman Realty Inc. paid $1.2 million for the vacant building, according to a deed executed Sept. 26. The city approved interior demolition of the building in November.