(https://photos.moderncities.com/Development/Urban-Construction-Update-Dec/i-JcDTMTk/1/6500772f/L/P1430331-L.jpg)
For years, the Park View Inn was one of the most visible abandoned and problematic sites in the city. Soon it could become the city's latest infill development site.
Full article: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-problematic-park-view-inn/
Some good info here about the past, present and proposed future of this long-blighted site.
I'm getting a 404 error from the link.
Quote from: remc86007 on October 04, 2018, 10:43:29 AM
I'm getting a 404 error from the link.
This link works:
https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-problematic-park-view-inn/ (https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/the-problematic-park-view-inn/)
I had no idea this was a hotel, but always wondered what that parking structure was for. Those pics from 2007 are such a shame, it looks like it had some unique perspectives on the downtown skyline.
I always feel funny when considering Jax hotels. I love supporting local businesses, but can't fathom ever spending money to stay in a hotel that's less than 5 miles from my own apartment. :P
Kind of related because it was a similar motor lodge, but my dad's family owned/operated the old Heart of Charleston motel. Very similar concept and layout from what I'm piecing together.
Anyhow, I remember as a kid (6/7 y/o) running around the place, the guidos were all sitting around the tables in the restaurant & lobby playing gin, my aunt had a condo on the roof of the bar overlooking the pool and the there was a little diner out front along the street.
Good times.
It is exposés like this that make me feel just a bit less optimistic about downtown's prospects. Why? I saw no mention that there was any compelling reason to tear down the structure, especially without permitting for replacement construction, and to add insult to injury, the public actually financed the demolition, turning the ParkView into yet another vacant PockMark for downtown. And even after demolition, why can't we hold the property owner to a certain standard of landscape upkeep, or would that be too much government? Has the city learned? Are these lessons graven in city policy-making and procedural frameworks so that such missteps never happen again?
It was a homeless magnet but pretty sound structurally. I remember prominent people in Springfield lobbying to have it torn down for years. It happened when public money paid for it.
Fyi - the Park View Inn makes an appearance in a 2001 episode of COPS, when a young officer named Michelle Cook (now Atlantic Beach Chief of Police) encounters sketchy activity in the vicinity: a guy is unable to remove himself from a pointy fence he tried to climb over, and a down & out couple being robbed (or is it a set up?) outside the property.
these are from 2011
(https://i.imgur.com/ENY4FdB.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/27oAp78.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/eQXwiVT.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/GLmhM5j.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/B5XfpnV.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Jv6cJB5.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/xOJrAG4.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/g0OAieQ.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/Tb33b7X.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/qpEWNzY.jpg)