WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH KUHN IN JACKSONVILLE?

[Brick]

With the news that Cameron Kuhn is putting One12 (Barnett tower) on hold... it is time to ask the question of what will become of his other projects in Downtown Jacksonville.

Riverwatch?
One12?
Laura Trio?

What say you??

[thelakelander]

The optimist in me says yes, but they will be significantly delayed.  The realist says based on history, they will all languish in the pool of empty buildings and once great ideas.  Overall, I'd break them down like this:

One12 - with the amount of work that has already taken place, something will happen here eventually.

Riverwatch - a parking garage at the most.

Laura Trio - dead.

[Brick]

I see the situation the same way. The old Barnett is too attractive a project not to find some success. Riverwatch was always an aggressive project for the Northbank in the current market.  The Laura Trio is the one that breaks my heart!  What a waste of a fantastic opportunity. The longer its sits and waits for redevelopment, the more the character of the buildings crumble away! 

[thelakelander]

At least the these buildings have gone through the interior demolition stage and cleaned out.  I believe they are basically shells at this point.  However, it would be good to have them properly enclosed instead of being left open to the elements.

[Jason]

I too am holding out hope for the eventual completion of these projects.  However, after seeing how the city treats "outsiders" we may be mourning the death of these great projects.

[Seraphs]

Two steps forward and ten backwards.  I too am holding on to hope these projects will come to fruition.  However, it's just too hard to tell.  Didn't Trump Plaza or what ever it was called in Tampa break ground and still went under?

[thelakelander]

Yes, they broke ground and went belly up soon after.

[thelakelander]

I was looking for old dead downtown project renderings and came across this 2007 thread.  The majority vote won this poll hands down....

[CCMjax]

Wow, the same exact things that were being said about the Trio 8 years ago are still being said today.  Question . . . why did the city never close up the windows properly at the Trio to at least protect it?  Seems like it wouldn't have been that expensive, or is the city really that cheap or care that little about this magnificent gem of a building?

[jcjohnpaint]

I think cheap is an understatement

[CCMjax]

Hopefully Mr. "Fiscally Conservative" can get things in order financially and spend money on the right things. 

[thelakelander]

This dead project wasn't the Trio.  It was a 33-story tower that was intended to be built across the street from the Landing about 10 years ago. Instead of the tower, we ended up settling for the Parador parking garage.

[heights unknown]

1) I'm tired of parking garages in Jax...Jax leaders, developers, etc., please don't build no more; 2) Being that they are letting the elements further rot and decimate the Laura Trio, why don't they just tear it all down and let the empty lot sit until something new, meaningful, and toweresque is built on that property...what a shame.

[CCMjax]

1) I'm tired of parking garages in Jax...Jax leaders, developers, etc., please don't build no more; 2) Being that they are letting the elements further rot and decimate the Laura Trio, why don't they just tear it all down and let the empty lot sit until something new, meaningful, and toweresque is built on that property...what a shame.

1.  I agree.  If there are more on the way hopefully they are hidden and built into part of a development that requires parking.
2.  That is the same mentality that has led to the demolition of nearly all the historic buildings in and around DT and has left us with ugly vacant lots or surface parking lots for the past few decades.  That process has left ours and many other downtowns with very little substance, uniqueness and almost no ties to our historic past (which is more important than most people realize).  It is one of the reasons Jax has an abundance of unattractive 70's and 80's style buildings downtown that everyone hates and now want gone (some of them "toweresque").  If the trio is torn down I'm guessing nothing would be put in its place for quite some time, possibly decades.  There would be no tower because the market doesn't support that right now DT.  It would be an empty lot for a long time.  We should not be tearing down significant historic buildings to be more like Miami (Jax should never want to be like Miami), we should be restoring older towers to be more like New Orleans, Savannah, Chicago, Philly, Boston, NYC, etc.  Jax still has history to hold on to, let's not obliterate all of it.

[heights unknown]

I agree wholeheartedly with both of what you said; however, if they are just going to let them sit, FOR DECADES until they crumble to the ground, then tear them down and wait, yes, after we are popping up daisies. Don't mean to sound cynical or pompous, but just the way I feel. They really need to stop fingering themselves and do something, yes, Jax-wise, with all of these properties whether empty or just sitting and rotting away.