Jack Diamond ("Mr. Downtown") Firm Closing

[stjr]

Jack Diamond's architectural firm closing; once Jacksonville's 'Mr. Downtown'
Posted: April 7, 2010 - 8:34pm

By David Bauerlein

The curtain is falling on the Jacksonville architectural firm headed by Jack Diamond, a civic leader known as "Mr. Downtown" for his support of revitalizing the city's core and designing its skyline.

Diamond, 65, said Wednesday that Rink Design Partnership Inc. faces severe financial problems. He said signing up new projects in the coming months would reverse the firm's fortunes, but fellow partners do not want to borrow more money to keep the firm going until there is a turnaround.

"This is the worst stress that I've been through in 40 years in Jacksonville and 30 years as a leader of various organizations," Diamond said.

The partnership will wind down in "an orderly and responsible manner" and use its assets to repay creditors, said Gardner Davis, an attorney for Diamond.

The firm will continue working with clients to finish ongoing projects, and work with contractors to minimize disruptions, Davis said, adding that it will probably take 60 to 90 days for the wind-down period.

Davis said the recession caused "tremendous stress for every aspect of the construction industry. All the firms are reconfiguring and reengineering to prosper in a very changed business environment."

Diamond is senior principal of Rink Design Partnership. The other principals are Glenn Dasher, Craig Davisson and Tom Hurst, according to the firm's Web site. Hurst declined comment. Other principals could not be reached for comment.

Diamond said Rink Design employed about 60 people at its peak. But layoffs have eliminated most of those jobs. The office was locked and deserted Wednesday except for a few executives. A recorded telephone message greeted callers.

Diamond has been chairman of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, the University of North Florida Foundation, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida, the YMCA of Northeast Florida and Visit Jacksonville.

He was a founder of JaxPride, a nonprofit that promotes beautification of the city. He helped found the Non Group, an informal organization that worked behind the scenes. When that group disbanded in February, he became one of 50 members of its successor organization, the Jacksonville Civic Council, formed to advocate solutions for long-term issues facing the city.

According to his official biography, he was responsible for the design of several downtown buildings - the Prudential Insurance Co. office complex, the SunTrust Tower, the AT&T Tower, the federal courthouse, and the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.

He also has worked on renovations to Trinity Church in New York City and construction of the Alachua County Courthouse.

Ed Austin, when he was Jacksonville's mayor, called him Mr. Downtown in the early 1990s when Diamond helped shape River City Renaissance, a $230 million package that contained several downtown projects.

More recently, Diamond served on a task force that recommended moving the convention center from its LaVilla location to a downtown location.

Diamond said Rink Design Partnership ran into cash-flow problems.

"We owe a lot of people a lot of money," he said. He declined to provide a figure for the amount owed, saying attorneys and accountants will be making that assessment.

Even paying the lease for office space at Riverplace Tower became a problem as the firm fell several months behind on those payments, he said.

The coming demise of Rink Design Partnership has been accompanied by disagreements about what course the firm should take. Diamond said some partners favored declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate the firm, which caused worried clients to call with concerns that the firm was going bankrupt.

Davis said bankruptcy isn't an option. "There is no need for or benefit from bankruptcy," he said.

Diamond said he was able to get a line of credit that would have provided money for the firm to continue for a few more months while seeking more projects. He said he is seeing signs of economic recovery in the construction industry and intends to remain an architect with a firm in his own name.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-04-07/story/jack-diamonds-architectural-firm-closing-once-jacksonvilles-mr-downtown

[tufsu1]

sadly this is happening to many architecture/engineering firms.

[cline]

Jack Diamond's architectural firm closing; once Jacksonville's 'Mr. Downtown'

Oh no, now who will design all of the churches in Jacksonville??

[riverside planner]

Wow.

[Charles Hunter]

Jack Diamond's architectural firm closing; once Jacksonville's 'Mr. Downtown'

Oh no, now who will design all of the churches in Jacksonville??

Or office towers with horizontal gray stripes?

But it is sad when a business has to close due to lack of business.

[Jerry Moran]

Nice guy.  Seemed to be able to smell the downtown / COJ B.S. I think we will see more of this...

[Jason]

Very sad indeed.  Although, this should open the doors wide for our other firms to step in and fill the void.

[TheProfessor]

What ever happened to the Riverplace Tower parking garage Rink redesigned??

[RiversideLoki]

(Full disclosure) I've been the firms contract I.T. guy for the past 8 years. I'm really sad they're closing, a lot of good people have worked there throughout the years. Sad to see such a nice network "go to the lawyers" as they say.

I hope there's no mudslinging in the decisions being made. I've heard bits and pieces here and there. But this article seemed like the opening salvo in a larger battle.

[RiversideLoki]

How do you mean, RL?

This part just seems a bit slight of hand and PRish. I know Jack has an image to uphold. But stories coming from various people tell a way different tale.

The coming demise of Rink Design Partnership has been accompanied by disagreements about what course the firm should take. Diamond said some partners favored declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy to liquidate the firm, which caused worried clients to call with concerns that the firm was going bankrupt.

Davis said bankruptcy isn't an option. "There is no need for or benefit from bankruptcy," he said.

Diamond said he was able to get a line of credit that would have provided money for the firm to continue for a few more months while seeking more projects. He said he is seeing signs of economic recovery in the construction industry and intends to remain an architect with a firm in his own name.

Diamond is a controversial guy, with supporters and critics in both his roles as architect and civic leader, but it doesnt seem like anyone could fault him for the quality of his convictions.

No you can't fault him, I suppose. I can totally understand him wanting to keep the doors open. But Jack has always struck me as an "architect in businessman's clothing" kinda guy. He has grown into a businessman, but he's still a core architect. And he's one of the nicest men you'll ever meet.

I think when the courthouse project rolled around (the one they lost the bid on to the god-ugly thing they're building now) the firm grew at too fast a rate for them to handle. I remember they jumped in capacity from like 30 employees up to around 75 at the peak of all of that. Remember, each one of the partners come from a mostly architectural background. After they lost the bid, they still had a moderate amount of work rolling around so everyone was "kept busy."

All of the partners there are really genuinely good people. I know it really killed them to have to let so many people go down to the level of the time of closing.

However, it's not all bad. Maybe not as a byproduct of the recent stuff ( but also because some of these were byproducts of other issues) we're seeing some really really good firms that have branched off from Rink such as Designmind (one of the original partners), Design CoOp (Rink's son and a bunch of other good guys), Fisher Koppenhafer, Kasper Arch, Hota, etc. All really small firms, but all of them have immense creativity.

Im one of his long time critics, in fact.  But he has always struck me as a good guy.

In any case, its a sad day

Indeed. I guess we'll see what happens. But this poster on the Jax.com thread pretty much nails the whole "snowball down the hill" scenario.

Other factors
By Space Coast Mike | 04/08/10 - 12:02

When founder Jim RInk and another partner passed away in short succession early in the decade, it set about many cascading problems for the firm.

That said, the company always had a lot of heart and was a critical factor in the success of the River City Renaissance.

Jack Diamond has many important roles ahead of him on behalf of our city.

When Mr. Rink and Mr. Fisher passed away, it was pretty devastating to the company. But he was wrong in that, because Mr. Fisher had already left to start Fisher Koppenhafer before he passed away. I won't recall any of the various stupid rumors I've heard along the years, there's no need to.