When restoring and preserving an historic building, don’t be surprised if the project turns out to be more involved and costly than first expected.
That’s the case with the Florida Theatre facade improvements project that was finished in January.
Originally budgeted at $334,000, a bill is moving through City Council committees to appropriate an additional $150,000 for work that included cleaning and restoring the exterior terracotta, caulking and grouting, as well as replacing some of the architectural elements on the seven-story, 90-year-old building, which is owned by the city and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Council approved the project in May 2015, along with a $75,000 grant from the Capital Improvement Program.
The state Division of Historical Resources contributed a $150,000 grant, $50,000 was drawn from the Downtown Historic Preservation and Revitalization Fund and the Downtown Investment Authority voted to contribute up to $75,000 from its economic development fund.
The appropriation currently being considered would come from the city’s Facilities Capital Maintenance account.
“There were no surprises with patching, repairing and restoring the terracotta,” said Mitchell McDaniel, president of McDaniel Contractors, which handled the project.
The company also worked with the city on the renovation of the former Western Union Building Downtown into the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville and the conversion of the former federal courthouse in LaVilla into the State Attorney’s Office building.
What wasn’t known when the Florida Theatre project began was the extent of water intrusion in some areas near the top of the building that caused stress cracks and fissures.
That had to be repaired to get the maximum life out of the restoration project, he said.
It also was discovered that some of the brick and terracotta on the building weren't fastened to the structure as securely as it should be.
Making those improvements extended the scope of the project beyond just cleaning and sealing and into rehabilitation.
McDaniel said 100 years ago, when terracotta was a popular veneer material for buildings, it usually was fastened to the frame of the structure. But that didn’t happen when the theater and office building was constructed.
“There wasn’t really anything to anchor the terracotta,” he said.
And about 200 bricks on the northeast and northwest corners of the building had to be replaced, McDaniel said.
“There was no reason to throw a lot of money at the building and not do it right,” he added.
The Florida Theatre Performing Arts Center Inc., the nonprofit contracted by the city to manage the building and book entertainment in the theater, is preparing for its “Speakeasy Party” on March 4 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the venue.
Having the building’s exterior restored to its original 1927 glory “is just the best birthday present we could have gotten,” said theater spokeswoman Kathryn Wills.
(904) 356-2466