by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
In the case of the disappearing developers, the City has few leads.
Both the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and the City’s Building Inspection Division said they haven’t seen or heard from the Kimmik Corporation since the calendar turned to 2005. The developer has an agreement with the City to turn the vacant Lerner Building at 20 West Adams St. into seven floors of apartments and retail space, but neighbors said the construction workers haven’t been seen in months.
Kimmik’s redevelopment agreement calls for the developer to receive a $400,000 grant from the City’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund once construction in finished. The developer hasn’t received any City money so far, according to the JEDC.
Despite its absence, Kimmik is still the talk of the neighborhood. The Lerner Building’s neighbors want to know if the project is still on schedule and how long the left lane of Adams Street will remain closed for construction.
Kimmik General Manager Marion Graham said he expects to resume construction in 10 to 15 days. Kimmik has changed its plans for the building and now needs new permits, said Graham.
The developer has dropped plans to build a seventh-floor penthouse on top of the six-story building. The change has simplified the project and should enable Kimmik to finish the building by October, said Graham. Construction was originally scheduled to finish in June 2006.
“That’s just my prognostication, it’s only an estimate,” said Graham. “But the bulk of the work was tied up in adding the seventh floor. By eliminating that from the plans, we’ve knocked at least four to five months off the schedule.”
City building inspectors said Kimmik’s permits were approved in January but the developer hasn’t yet picked them up.
Graham said the street and the adjoining sidewalk should be open in about two months if work proceeds according to schedule. When open, the lane is used for parking during the work day but opens for traffic during morning and afternoon rush hours.
Several Adams Street proprietors have complained about that section the street, which is pinched to one lane by development on both sides. Across from the Lerner Building, Vestcor is renovating the old Roosevelt Hotel for conversion into apartments to be called The Carlington.
City officials enthusiastically supported Kimmik’s plans when construction began, but some have been frustrated by the halting progress since then. Construction was shut down in October when City inspectors received a phone tip about unpermitted demolition inside the building.
City Council member Suzanne Jenkins, whose district includes the budding residential corridor, said in December that she empathized with her constituents frustrated by the traffic snags.
“I’m tired of that street being only one lane,” she said.
It’s unclear whether the design change will affect Kimmik’s eligibility for the City incentives. There’s no mention of a seventh-floor addition in any of the City’s paperwork on the project. However, any material change to the agreement could prompt a City review, said JEDC spokesperson Jean Moyer.
The deal could be particularly open for review because nobody from Kimmik signed the redevelopment agreement. Graham said that was an oversight that he had already corrected.
“We have executed the agreement and it is on file with the mayor’s office,” he said.
But the mayor’s office didn’t have any paperwork from Kimmik on file Tuesday, said spokesperson Susan Pelter.
Kimmik has had other run-ins with its neighbors. In December, representatives from the Police and Fire Pension Fund met with Kimmik to ask the developer to remove stacks of debris, including scrap metal and old tires, that had been piled up on Pension Fund property.