Jones Bros. building to be restored!

Downtown Investment Authority APPROVES support for restoration. Voted on 3/26/2018. Downtown Jacksonville is growing!

Jacksonville, FL: The Downtown Investment Authority board will vote Wednesday on providing almost $2.4 million in support for restoration of the Jones Brothers Furniture Building. An $11 million restoration project would bring 28 apartments plus retail and office space to a block of Hogan Street near City Hall.

The old Jones Brothers Furniture Building, considered by the Jacksonville Historical Society as one of the city’s most endangered structures, could get almost $2.4 million in city assistance to turn the abandoned building into 28 apartments near City Hall.

The Downtown Investment Authority is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a resolution of support for the city to assist in the $11.1 million renovation of the Jones building at 520 Hogan St. and a next-door building at 502 Hogan.

Along with 28 apartments, the developer plans 10,247 square feet of retail space and 1,040 square feet of office space.

Growing retail and residential in Downtown Jacksonville

If the restoration occurs, it would fuel the movement to bring more residents and retail into vacant, historic buildings in the center of downtown’s Northbank.

“There are a number of them right around City Hall that are prime locations to get redeveloped, and the Jones Brothers Building is ideal to add more residential units,” said Kay Ehas, who recently did a comprehensive survey of vacant buildings in downtown.

The report, which Ehas did for the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, found that in a 631-acre area of downtown stretching from LaVilla to the sports complex, one in seven buildings is vacant.

Ninety-three percent of the buildings are more than 50 years old, and most vacancies are in the central area of downtown’s Northbank.

Jones Brothers Building Rich History

The Jones Furniture Building, built in 1926, is one of those buildings. It once was part of downtown’s thriving retail scene, selling upscale furniture in a seven-story building that featured an Otis elevator with an accordion cage door run by an operator. The collapse of downtown as a retail hub left the building vacant since 1987.

The Jacksonville Historical Society considers it among the buildings most in danger because of neglect or threat of demolition.

The city’s financial package would consist of $1.5 million from the Downtown Historic Preservation and Revitalization Trust Fund and a $750,000 loan from the Downtown Economic Development Trust Fund. The developer would repay the loan over 20 years at a 1.5 percent interest rate.

The City has tried to develop areas around Union and State Street and failed in the past. There is an empty BBQ shop that sits empty along Union Street. The eyesore that is Berkman II is a constant reminder of bad development. Thankfully the Laura Trio project is moving forward.

The city also would sell the parking lot located behind the Jones building to the developer. The lot is worth about $120,000 and would be sold by the city for $1, according to the proposed terms of the deal.

The “developer/agent” identified in Downtown Investment Authority documents is Ace Jax LLC, which shares the Atlantic Beach address of Petra Management, a real estate brokerage firm. Elias Hionides, an executive with Petra, has said in the past the company was working with potential partners to redevelop the building.

The city has been seeking for years to breathe life into old downtown buildings. Along Laura Street, restoration is under way on the old Barnett Bank building with plans to do the same for the Laura Street Trio, a set of buildings that Jacksonville Historical Society has long considered the most important candidates for restoration.

The Jones Bros. Furniture Building is a block from the vacant Florida Baptist Convention Building, which also is on the Jacksonville Historical Society’s list of endangered buildings.

All of our toes and fingers are crossed that this project will survive and succeed. There are many other buildings in need of renovation and no thriving town can do so without a thriving downtown.

Funding was JUST approved by the Downtown Investment Authority, this project is moving forward as is all of Jacksonville on new development. Our unemployment at 3.1% is less than the national average.