by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
When the Universal-Marion Building at Church and Ashley streets was built about 50 years ago, it was an example of the latest trend in urban real estate development.
That’s because the building was part of a complex that included a 14-story office building and a five-story medical building with a restaurant and cocktail lounge on the first floor.
Also part of the campus was a six-level, 400-space parking garage across the street that would also be the location for Purcell’s, a women’s clothing and accessories store.
JEA purchased the complex more than 10 years ago for its Downtown headquarters.
The parking garage was an agenda item at Thursday’s meeting of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission’s Downtown Development Review Board.
JEA Project Manager Steve Wiggins told the board the exterior wall of the garage above the sidewalk on the east side of Laura Street “has seen its useful life.”
Wiggins said JEA has been monitoring the situation since 2006 and has determined that water intrusion over the years has degraded the “curtain wall” on the outside of the building.
Plans are being developed to demolish the existing concrete surface and repair any damage to the garage structure, then replace the failing section of the wall while preserving the original marble panels, providing they, too, are not past their useful life.
He estimated the demolition and repair could begin as soon as June.
Wiggins said the wall is “beginning to shift” and “could potentially fall.” He brought to the meeting a piece of material that had fallen off the building.
“I won’t say the wall is going to fall tomorrow, but I won’t walk on that side of the street,” he said.
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