Plans to transform the vacant J. Allen Axson Elementary School into a boutique hotel and mixed-use development will go before the Jacksonville Planning Commission on Jan. 9.
Developers of the project at 1221 E. 16th St. are seeking a land use amendment and rezoning of the property for the project, which would include the hotel, a restaurant/bar and self-storage units, according to documents from the city Planning and Development Department.
Ordinance 2024-0902 would provide a Small-Scale Future Land Use Map Amendment from Public Buildings and Facilities to Community/General Commercial. A companion ordinance, 2024-0903, would change the zoning from Public Buildings and Facilities to Planned Unit Development.
The 2.4-acre property site comprises two parcels bordered by 16th and 17th streets, Franklin Street to the west and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway to the east.
City planners recommended approval of the rezoning request on condition that the height of the self-storage structure be limited to 45 feet, that renovation of the school building commence before the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for the storage units and that no parking be permitted in the public right of way.
The planning staff also recommended approval of the land use amendment.
The owner of the properties is listed as Jax Sun Villas LLC. State records list the managers of the LLC as Roberto R. Alegre, Samantha K. Alegre and Isabel Mills-Alegre, all of Jacksonville. The Jacksonville law firm of Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow is representing the applicants.
The developers are planning an adaptive reuse of the school building as the hotel and restaurant/bar. The self-storage would be new construction.
Duval County Property Appraiser records show that Duval Schools sold the building in 2015 and that it has changed hands three times since. According to the records, Jax Sun Villas purchased it in 2023 for $700,000.
Its assessed value in 2024 was $1.46 million. The total heated area of the building is listed at 48,736 square feet.
According to the planning staff, the building is “abandoned and in poor repair.”
“Some windows are boarded, and vines are growing over the windows as well as to the roof of the two-story building,” the staff report states.
Legislation to designate the school as a city of Jacksonville historic landmark also is advancing in City Hall. According to a staff report attached to the legislation for the proposed designation, Ordinance 2024-0880, the original portion of the school was built in 1910. Additions were built in 1915 and 1926.
The staff report states that the school was named for Axson, a former principal, in 1956. Today, Duval Schools operates J. Allen Axson Montessori School at 4763 Sutton Park Court in Southeast Jacksonville.
The staff report says the school was a product of Jacksonville’s rapid expansion after the Great Fire of 1901 destroyed much of the city.
The Planning Commission meets at 1 p.m. in the first-floor hearing room of the Edward Ball Building, 214 N. Hogan St.