by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Decorative palms and brick pavers have been in place along a stretch of East Bay Street for months. Part of the Bay Street Town Center, the City said this week that steps are being taken to move into Phase 2 of the downtown beautification project.
“We’re still in the fairly early stages right now, but those discussions have been taking place,” said Marcy Cook, a spokesperson in the City’s Public Works Department. “There will be a Phase 2, but at this time we are still working to determine the exact scope of it.”
Phase 2 originally called for palms and pavers to be installed on Bay Street’s southern side between Ocean and Liberty streets and up Market and Newnan. But Cook said the City was now unsure if the large parcels occupied by the Duval County Courthouse and City Hall Annex would undergo those treatments.
“The issue we’ve been having is that no one really knows what’s going to be happening there,” Cook said.
In January, the City announced plans to transfer offices out of the Annex and into the Edward Ball and Haverty’s Buildings near Hemming Plaza. The courthouse will eventually be vacated after work resumes to build a new facility near downtown’s west edge.
“We don’t want to go in and make improvements if we don’t know the fate of the property,” Cook said.
And though not the result of any funding shortfall, Cook said costs could be cut by not doing work there.
“Years ago we determined that Phase 2 would cost about $2.1 million with respect to design and constructions,” she said. “We have about $1.5 million devoted to the project right now.”
About $1.2 million of that figure is being allocated from a recently passed bond proposal. The remainder comes from dollars that were left over from Phase 1 of the project.
“But I want to stress that we absolutely have no time line in place right now with respect to getting started on it,” Cook said. “Phase 1 set a very high standard and we have no reason to believe we won’t have a similar success with Phase 2. We just want to be sure we do the most with the dollars we have.”
Cook said a Phase 2 budget had not yet been established, but that work had begun to make that determination. HDR, who oversaw Phase 1’s design elements, should have an estimate before the end of the year.