New life for Berkman II? Owners seeking Commercial CBD Rezone

[thelakelander]

I don't mind incentives. There's been demand for housing in downtown for well over a decade. However, the numbers don't always work, which is incentives are still needed.

[heekgator]

https://www.500eastbay.com/

Discuss.

[thelakelander]

So is this a condo development or a hotel? Also these guys are supposed to build a Dave & Busters on steroids? Also, what's up the decade old dead shipyards project renderings? Is this website a joke?

[acme54321]

Did they build that website on Angelfire?

[Jax-Nole]

There is a lot of information on that website. First is that they will have 10 floors for the hotel, the rest will be condos. They will finish the construction up to at least 22 floors. There will be 41 condos spread out across floors 2 through 22. Prices for the condos will range from a low of $175,000 for a studio on the 6th floor, up to $1,005,000 for a penthouse on floor 22. The person that bought it seems to be a musician who was with the band "Airkraft" until they broke up, and now tours with "Johnny and the Motones" while also doing real estate. There are no renderings, but there are a lot of pictures of the Shipyards, and it seems that the plans for that were at least part of the inspiration for this project.

From the website: "Considering the current rents for office and apartment properties, historical sale prices for residential units, the recent announcement of the City of Jacksonville's selection of Shad Khan & Iguana15 to redevelop the Shipyard site (next to the subject), and future expected completions (Broadstone River House (263 units) along Southbank, Bishop Gate (125 units) within the Riverside, and The St. Johns (300 units) along the Southbank) in the subject area, (see Marketability Section), it is not only financially feasible but also, maximally productive to not only complete but also expand the subject's existing unfinished building for commercial and residential"

[thelakelander]

The St. John? That project died over a decade ago.

[KenFSU]

https://www.500eastbay.com/

Discuss.

This website is absolutely atrocious.

It's almost like a parody.

I don't even know what their big line at the end is trying to say.



In less than a week, I've gone from excited about this project to having zero faith in even the hotel portion.

Can't see a universe where Delta is involved.

Facts are scarce, but this is what we do know:

1) Choate has been trying without success to rid themselves of this property for years.
2) Mayor Curry gave Choate an August deadline to sell the property, or else he'd take action against them.
3) Choate finally sold, perhaps out of desperation, with the project to be completed by a yet unknown developer.
4) To even close the $4.6 million sale, Choate had to lend the buyer $3.5 million dollars through a mortgage.
5) Curry has largely discussed the deal through his spokesperson, not directly, and none of the mayoral and DIA back-patting we would expect to see for a "$150 million" riverfront development has taken place.
6) The buyer has conducted zero due diligence on the condition of the existing structure, instead trusting Choate's assurances that everything is just fine and dandy with the abandoned shell
7) The buyer of the property used the phrase "Dave & Busters on steroids" in a real-life interview with the press
8 ) The website reflects a complete lack of understanding about the market, from the misspelling of the St. Johns River, to the referencing of the AAA Suns, to the renders of three different iterations of the Shipyards project as if they are all separate ongoing projects.

Hope I'm wrong, but as each day goes by, I've got a worse feeling about this one.

[Jax-Nole]

This is the building experience from the website for the general contractor, Ohde Construction. Only 3 projects of 100 or more units, and there doesn't appear to be any hotel experience.

[JBTripper]

Horrible grammar. No attention to detail. Bring in the Noah's Ark people.

[thelakelander]

Yeah, I wouldn't get my hopes up on this one.

[duvaltilidie]

Funny enough, before this structure popped up into the news again, I came to this website to see if anything new was in the works, with it. I researched all the posts, instead of creating a new one, since there seemed to be several threads. I won't get my hopes up until we see crews on site.

[Gators312]

Go ahead and google map the global headquarters of Ohnde Construction.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/11761+Co+Rd+A,+Wausau,+WI+54401/@45.0470295,-89.7847979,3a,75y,179.32h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sIk9fy3d_ifzB3lYrnBPD4Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DIk9fy3d_ifzB3lYrnBPD4Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dsearch.TACTILE.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D86%26h%3D86%26yaw%3D179.32492%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i3328!8i1664!4m5!3m4!1s0x4d554c655414abef:0x2158915e4b3fdabc!8m2!3d45.046213!4d-89.784785

[Steve]

This keeps getting better and better.

[Captain Zissou]

In their defense, that photo is from 2008.  For all we know, Wausau could be a bustling metropolis by now.

[Gators312]

In their defense, that photo is from 2008.  For all we know, Wausau could be a bustling metropolis by now.

So is the photo they used of DT Jax on their website.