PB Riverfront Revitalization of Jacksonville LLC Managing member Park Beeler shows a rendering of the planned development at the former Berkman II site.
The $170 million project would have 250 apartments, about 219 condos for sale and about 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
The proposed 40-story, 550-foot-tall condominium and apartment at the former site of the Berkman II in Downtown Jacksonville.
PB Riverfront’s latest plans would create the city’s second-tallest building.
The $170 million project would have 250 apartments, about 219 condos for sale and about 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
PB Riverfront’s latest plans would create the city’s second-tallest building.
PB Riverfront Revitalization of Jacksonville LLC released renderings March 6 for a proposed 40-story, 550-foot-tall condominium and apartment replacement for the demolished Berkman Plaza II on the Downtown Northbank.
PB Riverfront owns the property at 500 E. Bay Street. Managing member Park Beeler said the design by KBJ Architects Inc. would be a $170 million project with 250 apartments, about 219 condos for sale and about 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
The company released the latest images during a watch party on the sixth-floor pool deck of The Strand apartments on the Southbank as the city imploded the unfinished 15-year-old Berkman II structure across the river.
Beeler said cost estimates and the condo density in the proposal are not finalized.
“We’re getting some new cost estimates from concrete and steel people and all the other elements of cost. They’re changing hourly almost,” he said.
PB Riverfront’s latest plans would create the city’s second-tallest building.
The Bank of America Tower at 50 N. Laura St. holds the record height in Jacksonville at 42 stories and 617 feet.
KBJ President Tom Rensing said March 6 that the group plans for the tower to be 550 feet “but it could be taller.”
The company paid $5.503 million for the property April 21. Plans at the time called for a $135 million, 26-story tower and mid-rise component totaling 293 residential units and a 537-space parking garage.
The previous proposal also called for more retail, including 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail with a 20,000-square-foot grocery store and pharmacy facing Bay Street.
On March 2, Beeler said PB Riverfront did not intend to change the amount of retail in the proposal.
Beeler said he wants to take the new design to the city Downtown Development Review Board for conceptual review by next month.
He said PB Riverfront also plans a news conference within the month to announce the engineer and contractor and possibly a joint-venture partner with a new financing structure.
Before PB Riverfront can move forward, it will have to satisfy an up to $2 million city lien on the property to pay for the cost of the implosion.
The company is disputing a construction lien filed against the property Jan. 10 by Pece of Mind Environmental Inc. The contractor claims the building owner has failed to pay $1,574,560.22 of a $1,923,650 bill.
The city took over the demolition preparation in January after months of delays by PB Riverfront to implode the structure and public safety concerns caused by an attempt in June 2021 to tear down the building conventionally.
