by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Ocean Blvd. Development, Inc. plans to build Home Street Lofts, a 12-unit project, at the former Luther Rice Seminary site in San Marco.
According to the developers, the project will be the city’s first lofts that are available for sale, not lease. Construction is expected to begin this spring.
“We feel that the San Marco area is primed for that sort of project right now,” said Michael Sones, president of Ocean Blvd., a commercial and multi-family development company headquartered in Atlantic Beach. “There are people that are willing to move in that area that aren’t ready to move downtown yet.”
The lofts are located across the street from bb’s restaurant, a block from Morton’s Steakhouse and two and a half blocks from the Southbank Riverwalk.
“People will be able to walk to restaurants, shopping and the Southbank,” said Sones. “All of the action is right there now. It’s a very safe and a cosmopolitan area.”
Sones said the decision to sell the lofts was based on a marketplace where all the other developers were leasing their properties.
“There are a lot of young professionals with no children in Jacksonville and they will be our market,” said Sones, adding that like people who live in town but have condominiums at the beach, he thinks professionals who live at the beach might want to have a place in town.
And that’s part of the marketing strategy, according to Sones.
“We are not marketing on the basis of square footage, we are marketing a lifestyle,” said Sones. “It is a whole different lifestyle living in a loft. Jacksonville is becoming a very forward thinking city so lofts are just a natural progression.”
Home Street Lofts will have brick walls, granite counter tops, scored concrete floors, exposed eight foot natural wood beams, sliding dividers, stainless steel appliances and ceiling heights ranging from 12 to 19 feet. Prices will start in the low $200,000’s.
Lifestyles Realtors® is the exclusive marketing agent for the project and Kathleen Hines of KMH Design will be the interior designer.
Construction on another project, The Lofts of San Marco, which will be located in the old Southside Elementary School, is also scheduled to begin this spring.