Six years in the making, Miami-based The Related Group’s South Bank Residences project is in city permitting review at an estimated project cost of $150 million.
The two residential towers of 25 and eight stories with an attached parking garage are planned at 835 Museum Circle on the Downtown Jacksonville Southbank where the River City Brewery restaurant closed five years ago and was demolished.
No contractor is identified.
At $150 million, the development investment is lower than the more than $200 million projected in 2024 as Jacksonville City Council approved incentives, but the construction estimate does not include all of the costs involved and such estimates typically are adjusted as reviews progress.
RD River City Brewery LLC of Miami is the owner and developer. GAI Consultants of Jacksonville is the civil engineer. MSA Architects Inc. of Miami is the architect. Universal Engineering Sciences is the private plan review provider.
The property comprises 394 or 396 units within the project on 3.02 acres between the Acosta Bridge and St. Johns River Park and Friendship Fountain. The city says 396 units while plans count 394.
Plans show the part of the property facing the Jacksonville Riverwalk includes an outdoor covered area, restaurant, bar and a speakeasy.
Those plans show a first-floor main lobby and leasing area, clubhouse, game simulator, sundry area, small movie theater with seating for 15, sport lounge and an outdoor pool, deck, courtyard and fire pit.
An attached eight-story building includes a marina office, kayak area, courtyard and apartment units. It wraps around an eight-level parking garage with a ninth-floor deck.
The second floor has a spa, fitness area, lounge and dining and more apartments, again wrapping around the garage.
The 25th-floor roof level of the high-rise has a sundeck, sky lounge and sky bar.
The unit mix is shown as 16 studios; 208 one-bedrooms; 127 two-bedrooms; and 43 three-bedrooms.
Plans show that the units are labeled either as Icon or Manor units, which are Related’s brands of luxury apartments.
Plans also refer to the project as Icon South Bank.
It would be the second project for The Related Group in Northeast Florida. It developed Azure Oceanfront Residences in Jacksonville Beach. That condominium project was completed in 2024 and is sold out.
Project history
The project surfaced in late 2020 as a $92 million, eight-story apartment community.
In June 2021, Council unanimously approved a redevelopment agreement and $18.27 million in taxpayer incentives for the eight-story, $92 million version of the project.
In April 2023, Related dropped those plans in favor of a project that added a 24-story tower to the mid-rise apartment building, along with other new elements.
That proposal stalled when projected construction costs came in $30 million higher than Related originally calculated.
In 2024, a new version was poised to move forward after Council approved a revised incentive package for the expected $202.75 million project.
On a 17-0 vote, Council gave final approval Oct. 8, 2024, to a redevelopment agreement and $58.79 million in public funding for the 25-story tower.
The incentives, contained in Ordinance 2024-0748, comprise a $39 million completion grant and a $19.79 million Recapture Enhanced Value Grant.
A REV grant is a refund on ad valorem tax revenue generated by a new development. The grant for Related is based on 75% of the increased real and personal property taxes generated at the project site over 15 years.
The new version included changes in the Downtown Investment Authority’s methodology for evaluating the cost benefit of high-rise developments for the city. Instead of basing the city’s return on investment of incentives over 20 years, the DIA extended the calculation period to 30 years.
In a DIA board meeting, then-CEO Lori Boyer said the changes reflect the higher durability of tower construction and higher cost construction for high-rises as opposed to so-called podium construction comprising wood framing over a concrete base.
Related’s latest project would include an additional eight-story apartment building, a nine-story parking garage, a 4,000-square-foot riverfront restaurant and a 1,000-square-foot ship store selling beverages, ice, snacks and other items to users of the nearby boat ramp.
In addition, Related would contribute a parcel of about 4,200 square feet for an expansion of the St. Johns Park space and would provide $3.98 million over 30 years for park maintenance.
A DIA staff report calculated the city’s return on investment at $1.13 for every $1 of public funding.
Ode to Lobster House
RD River City Brewery LLC paid $10 million for the property Aug. 2, 2021, when it bought the restaurant’s leasehold from the city.
It bought the property from the restaurant’s parent company, Maritime Concepts L.C. in care of Jersey Mortgage Co. Inc. of Cranford, New Jersey.
The city issued a quit claim deed.
River City Brewing Co. co-owners Anthony Candelino and Eugene Van Note closed the restaurant July 18, 2021, after operating the business for 27 years.
Maritime closed the restaurant’s marina July 15, 2021. It rented slips month-to-month and gave tenants a 30-day notice to vacate in late June 2021.
Related Group contracted Jacksonville-based ELEV8 to demolish the two-story River City Brewing Co. restaurant building for $110,000. Demolition was completed in late 2022.
The property had been home to restaurants for decades.
It housed the Lobster House restaurant for nearly 50 years before it was destroyed by fire in 1962. It was the backdrop for some scenes in the 1954 film “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
In the 1970s, Diamondhead restaurant and then the Someplace Else disco club operated there. That structure was demolished and replaced by Harbormasters.
The restaurant was renamed River City Brewing Co. in November 1994 after Van Note and his then-business partners took over the venue.
Van Note brought Candelino to River City in July 1996 as vice president and restaurant manager.
“We want to thank all of our employees that have worked for us throughout all these years. Good, bad and indifferent. But that’s what made River City,” Candelino said when closing the restaurant.
“(The customers) welcomed us with open arms to where now I’m staying in Jacksonville. I don’t want to leave.”