About a year after rejecting a disputed plan to redevelop the former Allstate Campus office park, the Jacksonville City Council approved a new version that drew little opposition.
On Oct. 28, Council voted 18-0, with member Ju’Coby Pittman absent, in favor of a rezoning request to allow retail and residential construction and a hotel on the property, now called The Pondry, south of Butler Boulevard at San Pablo Road South.
The vote came on Ordinance 2025-0673, which rezones the 29.77-acre property from commercial office to Planned Unit Development.
Trevato Development Group bought the site from Allstate for $20 million in May 2024. The property includes two office buildings that will remain.
The proposal approved by Council includes retail space, a hotel with up to 200 keys, and town homes and row houses with no more than 180 units.
A PUD is a special zoning district that allows for a mix of residential, commercial and industrial uses within a single district.
Of the residential units, 150 units will be south of the middle entry drive, splitting them off from the retail space and hotel. Thirty units will be north of the middle entry drive, separated from the hotel and retail spaces by a driveway.
An earlier proposal with 250 residential units and retail space met with opposition from neighbors and was voted down by Council in December 2024.
After the failed vote, Trevato submitted plans for a 470-unit apartment community that included affordable units. Those plans, under the state of Florida’s Live Local Act, did not need Council approval. The 2023 state law supports multifamily housing projects on commercially zoned land.
The plan approved by Council has 70 fewer homes than the first, but it does have a hotel. While the original plan also had a hotel, Trevato eliminated that part of the development after meeting with neighbors before it failed to pass Council.
The Planning Department said the separation of residential units from the rest of the property ensures “compatibility without adverse impacts.” It recommended the developer undertake a traffic study, which the Planning Commission approved.
With a 7-0 vote, the Land Use and Zoning Committee approved redevelopment with the recommended amendment.
When Trevato presented its first plan, neighbors appeared before Council with concerns that the development would create heavy traffic congestion and that the density of its residential component was incompatible with its surroundings.
Attorney Paul Harden, who previously represented the opposition to the development, appeared before the Land Use and Zoning Committee on Oct. 21 to affirm that his clients approved a compromise with Trevato. Among the opponents of earlier plan were residents of the affluent Pablo Creek Reserve neighborhood.
Developed by The PARC Group on land owned by the Davis family, the neighborhood comprises 270 home sites on more than 400 acres.
The ParcGroup.net site says that “The Pablo Creek Reserve is an exclusive, gated residential community, comprising an enclave of inspired homes in a sanctuary-like woodland environment located in Jacksonville, Florida.”