By Karen Brune Mathis& Mike Mendenhall
Staff Writers
Downtown investors Jim and Ellen Wiss paid $145,000 on April 3 for another property Downtown toward developing a city block of First Baptist Church's Downtown campus.
Through EJPC LLC, they bought about 0.11 acres at 225 W. Ashley St. The two-story, 6,070-square-foot office-medical building on the site was built in 1948.
They bought the property from Josefa Del Rosario, Leonardo Del Rosario and the Josefa A. Rosario Revocable Trust.
Ellen Wiss said April 7 that EJPC now owns the block except for the First Coast Barber Academy property.
“We've started the design process and are in early discussions with the city about design and incentives,” Wiss said by email.
She said the project will offer about 170 to 200 market-rate apartments with some commercial space.
Wiss said they anticipate a potential $40 million or more investment for a mixed-use development of the 1.4-acre site.
She said because they are in the design stage, the COVID-19 pandemic has not caused any significant delays. “assuming it ends relatively soon.”
Jim and Ellen Wiss said previously they saw Downtown Jacksonville “at the edge of a resurgence” and they’re not done acquiring property in the urban core.
EJPC LLC paid $1.13 million Feb. 10 to buy a portion of the church’s land bounded by Beaver, Julia, Ashley and Hogan streets.
They bought two buildings — a four-story, about 20,000-square-foot structure built in 1954 at 211 W. Ashley St. and a two-story, 10,000-square-foot building built in 1947 at 604 Hogan St., as well as surface lots.
The 225 W. Ashley St. property completes the block other than the barber academy. Ellen Wiss said they have not had discussion with the owner of the academy land.
EJPC is researching potential adaptive reuse for the buildings.
The purchase is a result of First Baptist’s decision in September to downsize its 13.7-acre Downtown campus in response to declining church attendance and a growing multimillion-dollar maintenance bill on its aging 1.5 million-square-foot property.
Jim Wiss said in February they plan to move quickly to plan and build 200 apartments on the site “with the full amenity package” and retail space.
Nearby, Jim and Ellen Wiss bought the historic Federal Reserve Bank Building at 424 N. Hogan St. in September through TBSOP LLC for $714,000.
Jim Wiss said the First Baptist Church property is in the same neighborhood but not connected to the project.
Jim Wiss is the president and founder of Homkor Companies and Ellen Wiss is vice president of Homkor Companies and president of Homkor of Florida Inc. The couple has experience with historic renovations in Kansas City, Missouri, and in Colorado.
Jim Wiss said in February the city block purchase will not include First Coast Barber Academy, which sits on a 0.21-acre parcel owned by Phoenix Industries of Jacksonville LLC.
Whoever buys First Baptist’s Downtown properties will be near other buildings set for private redevelopment and near the Downtown Investment Authority’s targeted retail incentive district.
“But we believe there is a big enough pent-up demand for urban core apartments that has not been filled to move forward,” Wiss said.
CBRE Senior Vice President Oliver Barakat told the Daily Record in December the church had some parcels under contract with an unnamed prospective buyer. First Baptist hired the commercial real estate company to market the property.
Barakat said the parcels purchased by EJPC were not included in CBRE’s property listing or its marketing strategy for the remainder of the First Baptist site. He said the approach remains selling the property to a buyer who envisions a single master-planned development.
Wiss said the couple approached First Baptist and secured a contract for the 1.38 acres 30 to 60 days before CBRE posted its listing for the remainder of the campus.
First Baptist leaders hope to complete the Downtown consolidation in the first half of 2021.
The church will keep a 182,000-square-foot building on 1.53 acres in the core called The Hobson Block to be the center of the church’s Downtown ministry.
