Cost to study JEA's crumbling downtown headquarters could reach $3 million

[The_Choose_1]

Who pays for this 3 million dollar study? The taxpayers of Jacksonville Florida. God what a waste of money.

[thelakelander]

Evidently having a basement and underground parking is a hazard as well! Is it not common for buildings such as this to have basements in major cities across the country? Please sell the building and move on!

The basement in the tower also represents a safety hazard because of its underground parking area with limited security in place, making the building a possible target for a bomb in a vehicle.

In addition, the plumbing is difficult to maintain. Dykes said when a drain must be cleared using mechanical means, the process often destroys the pipe due to the age and condition of the plumbing.

Another factor to be studied is which departments and how many staff should be located Downtown. Currently, more than 800 employees work in the tower and service center in electric and water systems operations, customer relationships, financial and technology services, human resources and public affairs.

Committee Chair Peter Bower said many years ago, Barnett Banks evaluated its Downtown presence and determined it would be more cost-effective to move the "back office" functions to suburban offices and retain the executive and some management operations in the urban core.

Dykes said JEA could operate with no loss of efficiency or customer service with fewer square feet of space whether the decision is made to renovate the current building or replace it.

The study will be conducted primarily by JEA staff. The utility also plans to issue a Request for Proposals seeking a consultant to assist with development of the plan, which is expected to take three to six months to complete.

Full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=545934

[simms3]

This all reeks of dead fish.  Every building in NYC, SF, and DC (and now Seattle) has a basement and underground garage.  SF is in a highly active seismic zone (with tremors constantly and decent sized tremors and/or quakes every year or two), and basements for large buildings are often 50-100 ft deep and bedrock is often another 200-300 ft below that (one caisson alone could be 300+ ft deep and cost over $1M in concrete/steel).  What is the big concern in Jax?  Modis has a subterranean garage.

Bomb threat in Jax?  WTF these people are giving themselves way too much credit.  Nobody gives two iodas about Jacksonville or its utility company.  At most there is another Timothy McVeigh out there who could go crazy anywhere, from Waycross to Jacksonville to NYC.  Can't stop all those people or really worry about them.  ISIS?  Organized terror looking to bring down the country?  If people in major cities aren't worried about this stuff, why are these overpaid, unrealistic, super corrupt JEA officials worried about this?

An underground garage is going to be far safer for controlling who goes in and who comes out than any other type of garage.

OMG these people...

And ok, so they want to move their lower ranks to the burbs to a cheap back office and keep their execs downtown.  Kind of makes sense, but this whole thing sounds like a few rich, worthless executives at one of the worst run utility companies in America trying to pat themselves on the back, protect themselves from imaginary assassins out to get them, and build themselves a monument and a mansion.  I mean this process is almost like what you watch on American Greed.  Just unreal.

[Captain Zissou]

The study will be conducted primarily by JEA staff. The utility also plans to issue a Request for Proposals seeking a consultant to assist with development of the plan, which is expected to take three to six months to complete.

If the study is being conducted by current employees, shouldn't the cost be nearly zero unless these people are conducting the study purely on overtime hours?? If the consultant is expected to make up most of the cost, that would be 15,000 hours at $200 per hour.  If the work was done over 3 months, that would be 30 consultants working 500 hours at $200 per hour (or half that plus travel if we use a "prestigious" out of town firm). 

I'm thinking they'll hire someone who says JEA needs 20 floors of class A space and then 6 months later we'll find out he recently wrote a book with racist remarks or something like that....

[simms3]

^^^lol

Can we spend $3M on an investigation into potential corruption at JEA?  that might be money more wisely spent.

[Chris Hand]

From a pop culture perspective, I'm just impressed that Nate Monroe worked in a reference to "The Jetsons" in his story.

Here's a fun fact: the JEA building and that futuristic Hanna-Barbera cartoon both debuted in 1962. The show was taken off the air in 1963, but then was renovated with new episodes in 1985 and 1987, and a film in 1990. Apparently Warner Brothers soon plans to assemble a brand new animated feature film. 

[Jumpinjack]

And another mid-century modern building bites the dust!

[Ocklawaha]

Well Simms, you're actually safer in a subway tunnel during a quake then on the surface... Maybe Jacksonville needs another earthquake since our last big one (by more recent Florida standards) was January 12, 1879. Two severe shocks of about 30 sec each occurred from an area from Ft. Myers to Daytona and from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, and from all areas in between. The epicenter was located at 29°30'N, 82°00'W (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1938). The shock was reported by hundreds of residents over a 25,000 square mile area of the Florida peninsula, and ranged from MMVIII to MMIX.

At St. Augustine, articles were thrown from shelves. In other locations, windows rattled violently and walls cracked. Rockwood (1880) indicated that the tremor progressed from the NW toward the SE between Gulf Hammock and Okahumpa. In the Tampa Bay area, Campbell (1943) states that the shock seemed to move from the SW to NE and was preceded by a rumbling sound ". . . as of a distant railroad train." MMVI was reported near Gainesville (Lane, 1976).

On August 31, 1886, there were a series of strong shocks in Charleston, South Carolina on this date. The tremors in Charleston began at 21:51. In Tampa, residents reported 2 shocks, the first at 21:51, the second at 22:00. The first appeared to move NE to SW, while the second seemed to travel SW to NE.

In St. Augustine, church bells tolled as the tremor passed, while near Tallahassee, the water in Lake Jackson disappeared. A well near Graceville began to flow (Campbell, 1943).

Jacksonville felt these for about 2 months. Our worst quake was probably the October 12, 1727, "Severe" tremors were reported and mentioned by Campbell (1943) and Lane (1976). However, the original record of these quakes has been lost. A severe shock was reported in New England on this date at 10:40. Reports of another shock came from Martinique on the same day. The relationship of either of these to the St. Augustine tremor was not established.

Another severe quake knocked down buildings in Pensacola on May 8, 1781, but it didn't effect Jacksonville. Oddly as it might seem, San Francisco builds for this activity and we don't. Earthquakes while very rare here could present a real deathtrap situation in an urban area such as Jacksonville's CBD.

[Kay]

It is ridiculous that JEA plans to spend $3 million to determine a location.  The Mayor's Office and City Council should say NO to this expenditure.  Additionally, the City has a major interest in and is presently trying  to revitalize downtown.  As a city-owned utility, JEA needs to keep with the program.  Will City leaders continue to pretend to be powerless when it comes to JEA? 

[jaxlore]

It is ridiculous that JEA plans to spend $3 million to determine a location.  The Mayor's Office and City Council should say NO to this expenditure.  Additionally, the City has a major interest in and is presently trying  to revitalize downtown.  As a city-owned utility, JEA needs to keep with the program.  Will City leaders continue to pretend to be powerless when it comes to JEA?

Bingo!

[ChriswUfGator]

For $3M wouldn't it be possible to fix the plumbing, evelvators, and the fire systems and then pay for the use of 200 parking spaces for years in a separate garage?  Then they could receive accolades for being responsible stewards of all of our money.  However, it seems like they're heading as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

Because makes too much sense.

I agree with Simms, somebody's brother in law or nephew or friend is getting an inside handjob on this one. Either they're the consultant who will be picked, or they're the guy who wants to buy the building once JEA moves, and this is paving the way for a give-away of the property, probably with development incentives from the city or JEA. For $3mm you could replace the elevators and plumbing that seem to be their main complaint, spending that just to have people talk about fixing it instead makes clear that they've made up their mind, they want a shiny new building, and we're all going to pay for it.

[edjax]

Per Stepahnie Brown Twitter the JEA Board just approved the money to hire a consultant for the review.  But the amount was lowered to $1 million.

[mbwright]

I'd be willing to do it for half that. 

[edjax]

I'd be willing to do it for half that.

Well cool, put your bid in.

[thelakelander]

This JEA situation will be addressed in tomorrow's featured article. We'll provide you with a no-frills logical path to move forward for far less than $2 million!