One last rescue attempt for old Jacksonville firehouse

[ChriswUfGator]

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Stokes. The city gives them a historic building, pays for it to be moved and all they have to do is contribute towards the purchase of new land and make structural improvements... A new headquarters on the back of the tax payers moved to bargain priced land that's projected to skyrocket in value. Nice.

Welcome to Jacksonville.

Actually Stokes got screwed, compared to what usually happens around here. Look at the shipyards as a typical example. COJ handed out millions, and the developer promptly kept the money and abandoned the property back to COJ via nonpayment of taxes. But hey, look at the bright side, at least we did get a chainlink fence put around the site!

[Miss Fixit]

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Stokes. The city gives them a historic building, pays for it to be moved and all they have to do is contribute towards the purchase of new land and make structural improvements... A new headquarters on the back of the tax payers moved to bargain priced land that's projected to skyrocket in value. Nice.

Did I miss something?  I gathered that, in order for the Stokes deal to work, he would pay the cost of moving the building.

I think the city paying for it should be an alternative to the Stokes deal which sounds far from done.

[Shwaz]

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Stokes. The city gives them a historic building, pays for it to be moved and all they have to do is contribute towards the purchase of new land and make structural improvements... A new headquarters on the back of the tax payers moved to bargain priced land that's projected to skyrocket in value. Nice.

Did I miss something?  I gathered that, in order for the Stokes deal to work, he would pay the cost of moving the building.

I think the city paying for it should be an alternative to the Stokes deal which sounds far from done.

I didn't see anything about them paying for relocation in the proposed plan... you?

Spinks said Stokes' plan would be to house his headquarters in the old station. The historic preservationist said Stokes' company would do the site work, make building improvements and contribute to the cost of buying land next to city-owned parcels.

[Miss Fixit]

City doesn't have money to move 105-year-old building

Mayoral spokeswoman Misty Skipper said Wednesday the city hasn’t found money to the move the building or a place to relocate it. But she said the city will wait until mid-April to give its final answer to Fidelity about the station’s fate after Jones asked for time to work with the developer on a possible save.

Jones and Jacksonville Historical Society President Jerry Spinks identified the developer as John Stokes, who has a Fernandina Beach design and construction company that builds churches. Stokes didn’t respond to several phone calls.

While the city put the cost of moving the station at $600,000, Spinks said Stokes found a company to do it for about $300,000.

It's unclear who would pay under this plan - city says they haven't found the money, Spinks says Stokes has found a company to do it for $300,000.  

[Shwaz]

Regardless of pays for the move (which is still undecided)... it's still a sweetheart deal.

Hell I'll build boat dock for RAM if you give me the waterfront.

[Debbie Thompson]

John Stokes is my former brother-in-law.  He's an honorable man, and does quality work.  Everyone wants to save the fire station, and he's come up with a plan to do it, at a cost to move it 50% what the City estimated, but now we don't like it because John is going to repair it and use it? At this point, we're on the 10 with 10 seconds left, and it's 4th and 10 yards to go.  I've been reading about saving this fire station for, what is it?, two or three years now and no one is any closer to a solution than they were at the beginning?  I guess you would prefer to see it in the landfill.

[Sportmotor]

I dont, knock it down and build a starbucks and a mellow mushroom pizza place :3

[vicupstate]

Well Said Debbie. 

If it's such a great 'sweetheart' deal, anyone else could have proposed it sometime in the last two-three years.  Nobody did, so don't complain that a smart entrepeneur had the idea and ran with it.   

[stjr]

So, Debbie, what is the City saying now?

[Ocklawaha]

Go for it! Save it! At this point who cares how that is accomplished.

OCKLAWAHA

[Debbie Thompson]

Gosh, stjr, I don't know. I was just sticking up for my brother-in-law, who I know to be a good man. :-)  I'm with Ock, though, just save it.