The former Berkman II condominium site at 500 E. Bay St. Downtown will be auctioned at 11 a.m. June 17 by the Duval County Clerk of Courts.
Originally scheduled March 25, the foreclosure auction was postponed after PB Riverfront Revitalization of Jacksonville LLC petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida, three days before the sale was to be conducted.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jacob Brown dismissed the bankruptcy petition April 17.
The 4th Judicial Circuit Court ordered the March 25 auction in favor of Choate Construction Co., the creditor in the $5,125,739 judgment and lien on the property.
The auction will be conducted online at https://www.duval.realforeclose.com.
This is not the first time Choate, the general contractor on the Berkman II project, foreclosed on the property.
Choate was the lone bidder in a foreclosure auction and secured the property for $100 in April 2014 after securing a $10.2 million judgment and lien.
In April 2021, with the concrete shell sitting as it had since late 2007, PB Riverfront representative Park Beeler Beeler announced his plan to demolish the unfinished structure and build a $135 million mixed-use project in its place.
That didn’t happen, so after months of delays, the city condemned the property and took over the demolition preparation from PB Riverfront in January 2022.
Jacksonville City Council approved a $1.2 million emergency appropriation to pay PB Riverfront’s demolition contractor, Pece of Mind, to finish its work.
The concrete shell was imploded March 6, 2022, after being abandoned nearly 15 years earlier.
The original project was stopped in December 2007 after the parking garage for the building collapsed during construction, killing one worker and injuring others.