The riverfront Downtown site of the imploded Berkman II condominium project is scheduled to be auctioned March 25 following a court-ordered foreclosure of the property.
Choate Construction Co. was granted a final judgment of foreclosure on the Berkman II property Downtown at 500 E. Bay St. on Feb. 27 in the 4th Circuit Court.
The order directs that if the defendants, PB Riverfront Revitalization of Jacksonville LLC, 500 East Bay LLC, James Bergman, the City of Jacksonville, Pece of Mind Environmental Inc. and Arwood Site Services LLC, do not pay Choate principal, interest, late fees, property tax advanced and attorney fees totaling $5,125,739, the property will be sold at public auction March 25 by the Duval County Clerk of Courts.
This is not the first time Choate, the Georgia-based general contractor on the project, has foreclosed on the property.
After being granted a $10.2 million judgment and lien, Choate was the lone bidder in a foreclosure auction and secured the property for $100 in April 2014.
At the time, Choate Chief Financial Officer Michael Hampton said the company would seek to partner with a new developer to finish the project.
In April 2021, developer Park Beeler announced plans 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 owner PB Riverfront Revitalization in January 2022.
City Council approved a $1.2 million emergency appropriation to pay PB Riverfront’s demolition contractor, Pece of Mind, to finish its work.
Pece of Mind told city officials that it stopped tearing down the building conventionally because structural concerns made the Berkman a public safety risk.
The structure was imploded March 6, 2022, after being abandoned nearly 15 years earlier.
Construction stopped in December 2007 after the parking garage for the building collapsed, killing one worker and injuring others.