The developer of the Rise Doro apartments in Downtown Jacksonville signaled that the resurrected project is nearing completion after being destroyed by fire in January 2024.
On May 1, Rise: A Real Estate Co. sent invitations for a private opening scheduled for June 4 at the project at 960 E. Adams St.
The company could not immediately be reached to determine whether an official opening day has been set. If the opening comes in early June, it would be just shy of 2½ years after fire swept through the building days before it was scheduled for its first move-ins.
In September 2024, Jacksonville City Council approved a $15.45 million incentive package to rebuild the apartments, which comprise five stories of wood framing built over a two-story concrete pedestal and wrapped around a concrete parking garage.
Officials determined that the concrete portions remained structurally sound after the fire, and they were retained. The wooden portions of the structure were demolished.
The cause of the fire was not determined, with a report from the Florida Division of State Fire Marshal saying it likely was sparked by “irregular electrical activity.”
The 166-page report said portions of the building where the fire may have started were either destroyed by flames or had been destabilized by fire or water damage and were not accessible to investigators.
The report states there was “no conclusive evidence to indicate a specific cause of the fire.”
Officials said the fire broke out on the sixth floor. Firefighters attempted to enter the building to battle the blaze from the interior but were impeded by obstacles such as uncompleted stairwells. They poured water into the building from ladder trucks, but it burned for more than 24 hours.
After it was extinguished, the city ordered wood-framed portions of the building demolished out of concern that they could collapse and damage adjacent structures.
According to Downtown Investment Authority records, the rebuilt project will include 247 residential units and 7,400 square feet of retail space. Those records show that Rise intends to incorporate 85 units of workforce housing. Previously, all the units were to be leased at market rate.
With the inclusion of workforce housing, the city approved a $3 million workforce housing completion grant as part of the new incentive package.
The total incentive amount was nearly three times more than the $5.75 million in incentives the city approved in 2020 for the project.
Lori Boyer, then CEO of the DIA, said the increased amount reflected a rise in construction costs.
Boyer said that in 2020, when Rise received incentives for the first time, the company had locked in construction costs at a prepandemic rate. Those costs had increased substantially over the four years between the incentive deals.
The initial incentives were in the form of a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant and were not paid out. A REV Grant is a refund on ad valorem tax revenue generated by a new development or property enhancement.
