What was once a parking lot Downtown is planned to become high-rise condos, a Jacksonville developer said July 24.
Meetings between Cross Regions Group and the Downtown Investment Authority on the project began about a year ago and are ongoing.
The developer said the high-rise, planned at a parking lot between the former Jacksonville Landing and the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront garage, would be the tallest building between Atlanta and Miami at 720 feet. The Bank of America Tower about three blocks away is 617 feet tall.
The plan includes 320 residential units and 35,000 square feet of restaurant/retail space, the developer told the Daily Record. The city owns the 1.6-acre land.
Cross Regions told the DIA board July 24 at a public workshop regarding waterfront properties that it hopes to avoid the request for proposal process and work directly with the DIA on a deal for the site. It plans to request a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant of an unspecified amount to help fund the project but does not intend to pursue a completion grant.
A project cost is not specified.
Attorney Thomas Ingram of Sodl & Ingram, who represents Cross Regions, said the developer hasn’t decided whether to request the land at no cost.
Ingram said Cross Regions selected the site because of its “iconic” status.
“There is much work to be done” to move forward on the project based on site constraints, including the removal of the easternmost Main Street Bridge ramp leading to Newnan Street because of the Florida Department of Transportation 50-foot setback requirements, said Doug Smith, Cross Regions chief operating officer.
The FDOT estimated the cost to remove the ramp was $3.3 million in 2020. The DIA estimates it could cost $5 million and said it is unclear who is responsible for paying.
There is also a large JEA sewer line running parallel to the St. Johns River that might need to be relocated. DIA is working to determine how long that could take and for how much.
Smith said other partners will be involved as the project unfolds.
KBJ Architects Inc. of Jacksonville is the architect. Raleigh, North Carolina-based Kimley-Horn is the engineer.
DIA board Chair Patrick Krechowski directed DIA CEO Lori Boyer to schedule a special workshop on Cross Regions’ plans in August.
Cross Regions is the developer of the Fountains at St. Johns, a 100-acre, mixed-use development anchored by Ascension St. Vincent’s Health Center.
It is also the site of several restaurants, a 247-unit apartment community, a Jacksonville University campus and planned developments including a Home2 Suites by Hilton and the TyMe Cancer Research Institute. The 30,000-square-foot institute was awarded about $600,000 in St. Johns County incentives on July 16.
The Cross Regions site Downtown is east of another property for which the DIA is trying to find a developer. That site in Riverfront Plaza, the former Jacksonville Landing, includes a city park now under construction.
Boyer said a plan by American Lions to build an apartment tower there was found to be financially not feasible.