by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Work to renovate one of downtown’s last remaining historic commercial buildings has been so slow to start that some with the City are starting to doubt it will ever happen.
In October 2004 the City Council authorized a $400,000 Historic Preservation Trust Fund Grant that was expected to fast track renovation efforts inside the building that housed the Lerner Shops for 40 years on West Adams Street. Project developer, The Kimmick Corp., promised a mixed-use development complete with luxury loft apartments and commercial space.
However, aside from the signs and fences rerouting pedestrian traffic that were erected shortly after that “gap financing” grant was awarded, little else has happened at the site.
City Council member Suzanne Jenkins, who represents much of the urban core downtown, is among those who want to know what’s going on.
“Are they ever planning on getting started?” Jenkins said of the apparent lack of progress. “The rest of the block is really coming around and they’re the only holdouts. They’ve had a lane of traffic blocked for a year and it doesn’t look like anything is even happening there.”
Jenkins said recently completed developments on the block of Adams Street between Main and Laura streets, including The Carling, have “added to the downtown aesthetic,” but that Kimmick may be holding it back by failing to move forward.
“If they’re having problems I’d like to get to the bottom of it,” she said.
Kimmick may have had some trouble from the start.
In December 2004 workers abruptly disappeared from the Lerner site leaving behind piles of debris, construction equipment and a fence limiting automobile and foot traffic.
Shortly after, when the City began grumbling about the delay, Kimmick General Manager Marion Graham said he expected to resume progress two weeks later at the most.
That never happened though and John Alderson, a project manager with the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission who worked with Kimmick to secure the City incentives, said he recently spoke to the developer who said work should ramp up soon.
That’s good news for restaurant chain The Loop Pizza Grill.
In August entrepreneurs Jon Insetta and Jason Parry said they were planning to operate the restaurant out of the building’s first-floor, 5,025-square-foot space.
They said they expected to open in 2006 to coincide with the restaurant’s 25th anniversary.
According to Kimmick’s agreement, the developer won’t see a dime of that $400,000 grant before the project is completed and reviewed by the JEDC.
Construction estimates for the entire project are said to be approximately $6.8 million. Kimmick is required to be finished before June 30, 2006.
“But I’d still like to know if there is any kind of penalty for just up and abandoning the project,” Jenkins said. “It hurts the rest of the downtown community if we allow the building to sit there all torn up when there may have been other parties who could have done something all this time. That’s really disappointing.”
Calls to Kimmick were not returned.