The city of Jacksonville paid $6 million for 4.95 acres at 1 Riverside Ave. for its part of the redevelopment of the former Florida Times-Union site along the Northbank Riverfront next to the Acosta Bridge.
The city bought 3.45 acres of the upland part of the property and 1.5 acres of submerged land. It intends to develop a park and restore McCoys Creek, which runs through the property from the St. Johns River.
Atlanta-based Fuqua Development bought the property Feb. 4 for redevelopment into apartments and retail and restaurant use.
Principal Jeff Fuqua declined to disclose the purchase price.
“We did buy the whole thing and parceled off pieces to the city,” he said.
There is a separate sale to TriBridge Residential, Fuqua’s partner in the apartment development.
Fuqua said demolition of the structures will start quickly for what he estimated will be a $250 million project called One Riverside.
He said demolition will be completed by June.
The city said Feb. 7 that it paid $6,040,680 for its portion of the 18.84-acre site.
The city said it will pay a supplemental purchase price of $1,719,320 subject to Fuqua Development clearing certain encumbrances on the city’s parcel and upon substantial completion of the demolition of the structures on the city’s parcel.
The city previously approved an agreement to purchase the proposed parkland from the developer for $6.04 million.
The appraised value of the park land is $7.76 million assuming a clear title and the ability to develop.
The agreement said that if Fuqua is able to clear a title issue, the city will pay the developer a completion grant in the amount of the difference between the amount previously paid and full appraised value, shown at $1.7 million on the term sheet with the agreement.
The parkland price reflects the cost savings to the McCoys Creek project.
Fuqua said the city was a party to the deal and will relocate and restore McCoys Creek that runs through the property and develop a park. He said work will start immediately on the creek.
1 Riverside Property LLC, owned by the Morris family of Augusta, Georgia, sold the property. The Times-Union campus was built in 1967. The Morris family bought the property and the newspaper in 1982. It sold the paper in 2017. The paper moved to Wells Fargo Center.
The property comprises 11.9 acres of dry land and the rest is submerged.
One Riverside is designed in two phases.
The first phase comprises 270 apartments, a grocery store, retail space, a riverfront restaurant and an eight-level parking garage.
The second phase adds residential and retail space.
Fuqua said the first phase should open in summer 2024. The second phase could start at the end of 2023 or early 2024.
He said Feb. 4 work will start “almost immediately” on demolition of the five-story, 55,500-square-foot office building and three-level, 223,000-square-foot production building.
Fuqua said the retail portion of One Riverside will include a 40,000-square-foot grocery store that will be announced soon.
The retail space – the grocer and an additional 7,000 square feet – will be developed on the site of the office building. The park will go where the production building is.
The residential development and the restaurant will be along the river.
A second phase will provide 115 more apartment units and 15,000 square feet of retail space fronting the restored McCoys Creek.
Fuqua said he also bought submerged land for possible development of a dock.
The site, which fronts the Riverwalk, also will be accessible to pedestrians from Riverside Avenue.
Fuqua said the property was put under contract in late March. It went through city and Downtown Investment Authority approvals.
City Council approved a $31.59 million incentives package Nov. 23 for the redevelopment.
