Eleven months after the Jacksonville Transportation Authority board approved negotiations to buy a building in Gateway Town Center for a workforce training site, JTA has purchased property at the mall.
JTA bought the building north of Downtown on Dec. 1 from California-based Global Building LLC for $2.11 million. Global sold it through Global Jacksonville I LLC.
In January, the JTA board voted 5-0 to authorize CEO Nat Ford to negotiate and execute a purchase and sale agreement for a 2.03-acre site at 910 W. 44th St. at the mall, near Brentwood Avenue and Interstate 95. JTA documents showed that the property includes a 7,900-square-foot building.
A site map shows the property at the southwest corner of the property.
According to the proposal, the JTA searched for alternative sites to its training facility for new bus operators for about a year. The training facility is at Cecil Field, 19 miles from JTA’s Myrtle Avenue Operations Campus, and includes no buildings or restrooms.
The Gateway Town Center facility would replace it and become the home for all JTA training.
The JTA proposal says that a staff study identified the mall, along JTA’s First Coast Flyer Green Line, as a prime location for transit-oriented development.
“This new workforce training facility would serve as the beginning of the Green Line TOD implementation in the Gateway area,” the proposal states.
“JTA will also engage with the new owner throughout Phase II of the Green Line Study to identify additional TOD opportunities in the area.”
Global Building bought 10.7 acres of the mall property in July for $6 million.
The company said in August it planned to add retail, apartments and self-storage to the site.