The foreclosure auction of the Berkman II property at 500 E. Bay St. Downtown scheduled June 17 was postponed again because of a discrepancy with the public notice process related to the auction.
According to the motion filed June 18 by the plaintiff’s attorney to request the court to reschedule the auction, “The sale was cancelled by the clerk of court because although the notice of sale was published in the Florida Times-Union as required by law, the Times-Union failed to file a proof of publication before the sale date.”
The auction has not yet been rescheduled.
Originally scheduled March 25, the auction was previously postponed June 6 after PB Riverfront Revitalization of Jacksonville LLC, the defendant in the foreclosure action, petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection 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 because PB Riverfront failed to meet the requirements to qualify for protection.
This is not the first time Atlanta-based Choate Construction Co., 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 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.
Work on the original project stopped in December 2007 after the parking garage for the building collapsed during construction, killing one worker and injuring others.