by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The answer to the headline question is, not much.
Almost 10 months after the early morning collapse of the parking garage attached to the second phase of the Berkman Plaza condominium tower which resulted in one death and several injuries — and a few months since the clean up of the debris was complete — a lone guard is just about the only person you’ll find on the property. Much of the scaffolding is still in place as are the construction elevators and a lone crane.
Aside from that, nothing’s going on and the developer isn’t very willing to discuss what’s next. The family of the man killed — Willie Edwards III — suggested a lawsuit. However, according to the Clerk of the Courts office, the only thing filed so far on Edwards’ behalf is a petition of administration.
The project is being built by Atlanta-based Harbor Companies. A call to company executive Alan Travis was referred to company spokesperson Evin Willman, who has an office in Jacksonville. According to Willman, the clean up is complete and an inspection of the residential tower has been done.
“The last information provided to me indicated that the tower is sound,” said Willman, in an e-mail response.
Willman said she didn’t know how much it cost to clean up the debris — a project that took a few months — and hasn’t been told by the developer when construction may begin again.
While the first phase of the project contained some cash incentives from the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, any incentives attached to the second phase will come after completion. According to JEDC project coordinator Jorina Jolly, those incentives are based on property taxes. Jolly also said the agreement with the developer contained language pertaining only to a start date.
“There is nothing in the agreement that gave a completion date,” she said. “They met the start date. We can’t force them to finish.”
Once completed, the tower will have 222 units. According to Willman, over 70 were pre-sold and the delay has not deterred the buyers.
“To my knowledge, all buyers are still intact,” she said.
The project is on East Bay Street on the river, just east of Berkman Plaza I and just west of the Shipyards projects.
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