Fire Station 39 is in development at 115 Festival Park Ave. Downtown with a permit issued Nov. 3 for its construction at a project cost of $7 million.
The site is along the Northbank St. Johns River waterfront, east of the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences and One Shipyards Place office building.
The project is a two-story, 12,806-square-foot fire station on 1.22 acres for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department with a three-bay drive-thru, apparatus bay and sleeping/living accommodations.
It will service the Downtown riverfront.
A year ago – Nov. 5, 2024 – the city issued a permit at a project cost of $4.13 million for site improvements for Fire Station 39 and parking improvements for WJCT Inc. on 5.05 acres. A segmented retaining wall was approved March 26, 2025, at $34,900.
Auld & White Constructors LLC of Jacksonville is the contractor.
Two more permits remain in review for a dumpster enclosure and generator pad at a combined cost of $35,000.
Property records show the site is on the west side of property owned by AR Polar Jacksonville LLC.
The land
To compensate WJCT Public Media for accessing its property to build the new marine fire station and reconfiguring its parking lot for an accompanying street extension, the Jacksonville City Council voted May 13, 2025, to add 10 years to an agreement providing the nonprofit organization with $30,000 per year in city funding.
The vote was on Ordinance 2025-0256, which contained the extension.
The issue around the extension regarded agreements involving the WJCT property, the city, the federal and state governments and AR Polar, which owns property directly east of WJCT.
In December 2022, the DIA completed negotiations with AR Polar to buy property to replace a marine fire station that was being razed at the former Kids Kampus to make way for Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s Four Seasons Hotel and Residences, WJCT’s western neighbor.
The city approved a demolition permit Nov. 30, 2022, for PCL Construction to remove the 3,040-square-foot Marine Fire Station and restrooms building at 1406 Gator Bowl Blvd. at a cost of $40,000.
To access the new station, the city needed to extend Festival Park Avenue, which connects WJCT’s parking lot with Gator Bowl Boulevard. The city also needed to convert part of WJCT’s lot to the extension and to access the station’s property to build the station.
Former Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration budgeted $14 million for the relocation of the marine fire station and dock. The money was included as a public investment line item in the incentive package for the Four Seasons project.
The DIA’s deal in December 2022 gave AR Polar Jacksonville LLC a five-year option to acquire a 4.75-acre portion of an existing retention pond adjacent to WJCT Inc.’s headquarters and south of the Hart Bridge ramp.
In exchange, the company would provide the city with 1.2 acres of its 20.37-acre property that has access to the St. Johns River to build the new marine fire station.
An April 28, 2023, warranty deed shows that AR Polar Jacksonville LLC conveyed the land to the city reflecting a value of $3.055 million. The city was required to build a fire station on the property. The deed limits the use to a marine fire station and fire vessel mooring facility.
AR Polar’s land is next to WJCT, Metropolitan Park and the St. Johns River.