The city is reviewing a permit application for the city make site improvements for Fire Station 39 and parking improvements for WJCT Inc. at 115 Festival Park Ave. Downtown at an estimated project cost of $4.133 million.
Jacksonville-based Auld & White Constructors LLC is the contractor for the project, which is a 1.22-acre site along the Northbank St. Johns River waterfront, east of the Shipyards project.
Goodson, Bergen and Associates is the project civil engineer and LS3P is the architect. Both are based in Jacksonville.
The site plan shows a proposed three-bay Fire Station 39.
Property records show the site is on the west side of property owned by AR Polar Jacksonville LLC.
In December 2022, the Downtown Investment Authority completed negotiations with AR Polar to buy property to replace a marine fire station that was being demolished at the former Kids Kampus as part of Shad Khan’s Four Seasons hotel project.
The DIA board approved a deal that would give AR Polar Jacksonville LLC a five-year option to acquire a 4.75-acre portion of an existing retention pond adjacent to public media WJCT Inc.’s headquarters and south of the Hart Bridge ramp.
In exchange, the company would provide the city with 1.2 acres of its 20.37-acre property that has access to the St. Johns River to build the new marine fire station.
An April 28, 2023, warranty deed shows that AR Polar Jacksonville LLC conveyed the land to the city reflecting a value of $3.055 million. The city is required to build a fire station on the land the deed limits the use to a marine fire station and fire vessel mooring facility.
AR Polar’s land is next to WJCT, Metropolitan Park and the St. Johns River.
The station will service the Downtown riverfront, but the DIA noted that it had to begin work in support of the Jacksonville Jaguars owner’s Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences and office building.
Former Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration budgeted $14 million for the relocation of the marine fire station and dock. The money was included as a public investment line item in the incentive package for the Four Seasons project.
The city approved a demolition permit Nov. 30, 2022, for PCL Construction to remove the 3,040-square-foot Marine Fire Station and restrooms building at 1406 Gator Bowl Blvd. at a cost of $40,000.