A day after releasing a recommendation to deny a rezoning request for a maligned Downtown mixed-use development that includes self-storage, staff of the Downtown Development Review Board also gave a thumbs-down to conceptual design of the project.
The negative recommendation on design is included in an agenda packet released April 4 for the DDRB’s next regularly scheduled monthly meeting, set for 2 p.m. April 11. That meeting will follow an April 9 special meeting in which the board will consider the rezoning request for the project, called the Lofts at Southbank.
According to the DDRB application, the project is being developed by Jacksonville-based Vestcor through Lofts at Southbank Ltd.
The architect is Group 4 Design Inc. The contractor is Summit Contracting Group.
The developer is represented by Steve Diebenow, a partner with Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow.
A staff report on the project describes it as a 10-story building with ground floor retail, office, restaurant or other commercial space, self-storage on the third through sixth floors and multifamily residential units on the top four floors.
The site is at 1004 Hendricks Ave., on the southwest corner of Prudential Drive and Hendricks Avenue.
Similar to its recommendation on the rezoning, the staff states that self-storage does not advance the objectives of the Business Investment and Development Plan, a governing document for development and redevelopment in Downtown. The report says self-storage is not permitted within the Southbank overlay zoning district.
As for the conceptual design, the staff report notes that there are no height restrictions for buildings in the Southbank but describes the 110-foot-tall building as being substantially taller than the one- to three-story buildings surrounding it.
The report says the building should be shaped in a way that would “bridge the height and scale difference from the surrounding lower-storied buildings to the ultimate height of the proposed structure.”
The report also finds fault with the facade, saying one of its three tiers is “somewhat brutal and could use some softening.” The report further says the tiers “do not have a clear, architectural relationship with one another.”
The project has drawn opposition during City Council meetings from dozens of residents in San Marco and the Southbank, who say it’s out of character with the neighborhood and that self-storage isn’t needed at the site because other storage facilities are located nearby.
The DDRB, which essentially serves as the Downtown planning commission, recommended denial of a previous version of the development in 2023. After the City Council voted 9-9 on the project, the developer returned with the current version.
The DDRB meets at the Main Library Downtown.
