City utility JEA intends to demolish a one-story brick building, at one time used as a public health clinic, at 962 N. Main St. along the proposed Emerald Trail.
The city is reviewing a permit to demolish the 5,850-square-foot building at a project cost of $166,275.
Michael Lloyd Hauling Inc. is the contractor.
The site is at southwest Main Street and West First Street within the JEA Main Street Laboratory complex.
Duval County Property Appraiser records show the building was developed in 1940. It also is addressed as 1002 N. Main St.
The 30-mile Emerald Trail is designed to comprise pathways, green ways and parks to connect Downtown Jacksonville with businesses, schools and transit and to connect 14 historical neighborhoods.
The first phase of the Emerald Trail opened May 6 with completion of network expected by 2030.
JEA Public Information Officer Karen McAllister said Aug. 14 that the utility bought the property, which is 6.5 acres, in 1998 and has its Main Street laboratory on the site.
JEA has not used the smaller building set for demolition.
McAllister said an initial estimate to rehabilitate the building came in at $4.7 million in June 2022. That did not include interior build-out, technology or security infrastructure.
“It would have been a significant investment to bring it up to safety standards,” she said.
JEA provided photos from the 1990s that include a building plaque, which has since been removed, showing the structure was the Jacksonville Public Health Clinic erected by the W.P.A. in 1940. Fred W. Buck Jr. was the architect.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration in 1935 as a New Deal agency to provide jobs after the Great Depression.
After demolition, JEA intends to develop the site with more landscaping “for more beautification of the property adjacent to the Emerald Trail,” McAllister said.
Demolition is expected by the end of September. Permit documents show the procedure would be a track-mounted excavator with hydraulic grapple.
The Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission reviewed and approved the demolition request. The 84-year-old structure is in the Springfield historic overlay.
The commission voted to grant the certificate of appropriateness for the demolition and executed it July 3.
“A structural engineer report found the structure to be unsafe and beyond repair,” said a Jacksonville Planning and Development Department staff report that recommended approval of the demolition order.
The report said that while the building is listed as a noncontributing structure within the nationally designated Springfield Historic District, staff found it “unable to properly convey the architectural significance and importance of the historic district.”
During a May 8 inspection, staff found that inside, there were "substantial areas of water damage, extensive mold and mildew damage, and wood rot on the framing pieces of the structure.”
There also were threats of flooding from Hogans Creek, which is on the south side of the building.
“Hogans Street has been identified as a high risk area for flooding and storm surge,” the report said.
