I noticed today on my way to work that the building near the corner of Adams and Jefferson (caddy corner to Wormans), was either in the process of being demolished, fell over, or blew up... Whats the story with that? Just another demolition-by-neglect case that this city is so hot on?
I saw that also over the weekend. I think its 2 or 3 buildings they are bringing down. I'm not exactly sure what buildings they were, I just know they are old. I'm sure someone on here will tell us soon.
I noticed the same thing a couple of days ago. Oh well, we won't have to worry about this for much longer, because there are so few old buildings left there will be nothing for the demolition team.
Maybe we can look at the foundation for this old building for the next 30 or so years.
I took images of the demolition today. Its the third building to be torn down on that block since I moved to town back in late 2003. I'll post some images later tonight.
umm im freaked over this i hope its not one building im trying to buy. love to see lakalanders photos!
Here you go. Its actually (well was) three buildings. Except for one small insignificant building at Broad & Houston Street, this entire block is now in prime condition to rival the city's courthouse property across the street in appearance.
Owner: Raabe Family Property, LLC.
Address: 516 West Adams Street
Year built: 1901
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/lakelander/P1080964.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/lakelander/P1080963.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/lakelander/P1080961.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v84/lakelander/P1080960.jpg)
I may have some pictures of the block as it appeared in 2003. I'll check my archives and see what I can dig up.
As I remember, the buildings on this site had a lot of potential for re-use, but the property owner wanted well over a million dollars for them "as is".
Is there any hope that they are trying to sell a clean lot in leiu of Bay Street Station coming on-line. Could there be some deal we don't know about? Meh.... who am I kidding? This is JAX! The words "planning" and "Jacksonville" contradict each other. It's kind of like saying "IcyHot". They are polar opposites in fact.
Thanks for the photos lakelander, not what i was looking at. youre correct, i remember them demanding 1 mill as is, obviously an excuse to destroy our 100 yr + heritage. the city needs to penalize this, condemn property, elevate prop taxes something to stop such "greed""
This makes me so freakin sick to my stomach. Not surprising how none of this was on the local news and we have to find out by driving by and seeing the demolition in process or by reading it here on a public forum. I guess Jacksonville doesn't have to worry about building a reputation, we already have one: Seek and Destroy.
I dont get the business model of these guys: hold out for impossibly high prices on our extremely dilapidated properties in a down real estate market and, if we cant get that we'll just demolish them. It doesnt make sense on its face. Perhaps there is more to this than we know. Probably not though. ???
yeah, i know theres a logic to this, i know that some property assessments were elevated by the city, perhaps by destorying the buildings hence no value (?) somewhere in future plans to develop numerous commercial, residential "projects"? i dont know, but id like to. maybe someone at city council would have an idea whats the logic.
Saturday afternoon the "president" of the demolition company doing it (I had no idea there was such a demand for demolition in this town that they're scheduled for Saturdays, oh wait, this is Jacksonville) was in my face about taking photos of the demolition.
I got hot headed, but when some little guy's in my face being rude, sexist and I'm feeling self-righteous about where I can stand on public property (on the "safe" side of the barricades) I guess it's no surprise. He got me so riled after nearly 15 minutes that I left in disgust. Guess he can say "mission accomplished."
wow, that's crazy.
This is exactly whats wrong with this city. We blow up the shipyards, blow up LaVilla, pave it all over, park cars on it ,let the weeds grow wild... when will this end? Should I worry, living in the Carling, that someone will bang on my door one morning and tell me to get out because theyre going to blow it up and put a surface parking lot here? I mean, coming from Detroit, our urban core has the same issues, but it seems that the city and private investors are at least LEARNING, and starting to lean away from total demolition of sites.. and if they DO demolish something, at least it (more often then not), ends up becoming something OTHER than a surface parking lot.
We have so much urban wasteland on that side of town now its almost rediculous. When will it stop? When will those in power/landowners be satisfied? It looks like Mogadishu over there.
Instead of building a new arm on the St. Johns Town Center, why dont be park a BestBuy, Toys R Us, and all those other associated stores in LaVilla. Call it the LaVilla Town Center or something.
Lake you should change your name to Spiderman!!!! You're on point with the flicks man. Good stuff.............. 1901?!?!?! was that before or after the fire? I gotta know??
Thanks. The building site sits on the edge of the fire line, according to the map in the Jax Architectural Heritage book. I would not be suprised if that block of structures were constructed immediately after the fire.
What happens with condemned 100 year old buildings in cities like St. Augustine, Charleston or Savannah? Is there something special about theirs that keeps them standing until a new use can be found?
QuoteHundred years comes down
A three-story building originally built in the early 1900s was demolished on the western edge of Downtown, leaving several residents combing through the ruble for choice bricks. Joel McEachin, planner with the City’s historic preservation division, said he didn’t know what the last use of the building was but that it was long abandoned. Jacksonville Economic Development Commission Deputy Director Paul Crawford said his office issued the demolition permit because the building was condemned and had no significant historical value. Although no redevelopment application or other use for the property has been submitted, Crawford said he doesn’t expect the land, directly adjacent to the proposed County Courthouse property, to stay vacant forever. “I imagine there’ll be a development plan coming forward in the next couple of years as we get closer to construction of the courthouse,†he said.
http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=49714
It's called responsible leadership...and in our case, the lack there of. It's a real shame that this city will take these buildings down, when most other large cities will do everything they can to save them.
I dont even know if it so much bothers me that it was torn down, what gets me is, it was torn down with no plan.
Without a building, the city now has no real recourse on making them keep the property up (not that they did before) and its just another empty lot around the westend. It will be over grown and crappy looking in no time.
QuoteI dont even know if it so much bothers me that it was torn down, what gets me is, it was torn down with no plan.
This is what hits me the most. Its one thing if something that enhances the downtown environment is planned to take it's place, but empty overgrown lots hurt the core's image more than blighted boarded up buildings do. They also eliminate the possibility of urban pioneers moving in and renovating one space at a time, which is how true urban revitalization happens. Instead, we're continuing to limit ourselves to the hope of a Cameron Kuhn or LandMar coming in to build some mega development in the middle of hopelessness.
QuoteIt will be over grown and crappy looking in no time.
If you want to see what it will look like, just take a look at the rest of the block. The same owner tore down the building on the corner of Adams & Broad a few years back and its looked like overgrown trash ever since.
What a shame. This city practically laughs at the word historic if it isn't in Riverside/Avondale, San Marco, or Springfield. I surprised they haven't filed to implode One12/ Old Barnett Bank Bldg. Something will eventually come along and change this, I just don't see much hope before 2011.
2011 wont make much difference unless we get someone in office that is at least friendly to downtown concepts. Dan Davis will be no friend of downtowns. Regardless of what kind of person he may of may not be, he is a suburban developer by trade.
I'm just hoping we have a significant amount of downtown's currently vacant historic building stock left by 2011. As for Springfield, buildings come down like a poorly constructed deck of cards there too.
Every time you turn around, the city's contracted someone to knock down another house in Springfield....so they're not helping us at all!