Hi everyone! Long time reader but never really had occasion to post until now. My dad, his wife, and myself run a law firm that is currently in the Blackstone Building. We simply ran out of space at our current office so we decided to start hunting around for a building that fit our needs. We looked at a few places near the courthouse, but nothing struck our fancy and most were too expensive to justify. So we expanded our search to some other areas of downtown that kept us close enough to the courthouse/SAO/jail. After a few months we found a pair of connected buildings in the Cathedral District spanning from Monroe to Duval. After quite a bit of back and forth with the owner, we closed last month and hope to move in sometime this summer. We are going to renovate the 3rd floor and common area of the Duval St. building first so we can move the firm. Once that's done we will probably shift over and do a bunch of work to the Monroe St. building. We are working with an awesome architect and designer and have some interesting plans for our new office. If anyone is interested, we would be glad to show you around the buildings. I will try to post regular updates here so you guys can see the build as it progresses. Here's the first batch of photos with descriptions @ link:
https://imgur.com/a/CwRy1BW
Wow. Judging from that picture of you at your desk you must be the youngest lawyer in Jax. Or anywhere.
Love it!
Welcome to the hood, can't wait for the progress updates.
That's awesome. I drive past that building everyday and think it's such a cool looking building and deserves to be brought back to life.
@ Josh: We weren't totally sold on the looks of the building at first but it has grown on us. We are about to get started on a bunch of stuff that will make it look much better from the outside.
We have made some more progress since the last set of pics but I caught the flu so haven't been able to get over and snap any pics for the last few days. I will try to get up a new batch this week.
Welcome!
Another small batch of pics is up. We are getting close to being through with demo. The real fun is about to begin.
https://imgur.com/a/8H6nnzX Part II
Great stuff Chris... Welcome! 8)
Wish you well with both your project and practice. A couple weeks back I learned about current development efforts at a forum convened by CathedralDistrict-JAX. The group has done important planning and prep work in the neighborhood. You may already know about their website and efforts.
All the best with your reno!
@ Pastor Eric
We have met and spoken with Ginny Myrick over the last few months if that's the group you are talking about. I know there was a stakeholders meeting last week. I was planning on going until the flu wiped out my entire family. I will be at the next one.
Ginny and the group she leads is who I had in mind. Glad you are connected. Our paths may very well cross.
Part III: https://imgur.com/a/urtFWt7
We have been very busy lawyering and are waiting on some architectural and engineering plans to come back so it's been a slow last few weeks. However there has been some progress. After a bunch of discussion, we decided to go with polished concrete flooring. It should tie in well with the design aesthetic and was quite a bit cheaper than other options we looked at, so we collectively agreed it was the way to go. Some of the pics show the prep and beginnings of the concrete work. It should be finished early next week and I'll get some finished pics up soon. I also included some pics of the other building.
Is that the old Willis and Veenstra (sp?) space? I remember going there when JTA and the old Downtown Development Authority asked them to modify their model of the State Office Building (now part of the Hyatt) to include a People Mover (now Skyway) track, along the Water Street side.
Quote from: Charles Hunter on April 29, 2019, 07:51:40 AM
Is that the old Willis and Veenstra (sp?) space? I remember going there when JTA and the old Downtown Development Authority asked them to modify their model of the State Office Building (now part of the Hyatt) to include a People Mover (now Skyway) track, along the Water Street side.
Not to derail this post, but that's something I didn't know. How was it going to turn onto Water Street? I'm assuming this was designed around the Matra equipment (not bombardier)?
Here you go!
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/images/skyway/original-route-map.jpg)
https://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2006-oct-downtown-frankenstein-the-skyway-screwing-up-the-idea-of-mass-transit
Oh.....I've seen that one. Now I get it - I was thinking that the original Bay St leg was somehow going to connect to the Daniel Building.
Reminds me how much we've botched the Skyway (over and over again).
Anyway....back on topic:)
@ Charles
Yes these were formerly owned by the Veenstra's.
Part IV: https://imgur.com/a/6zTUBbk
Sorry it's taken a bit but we ran into some unforeseen issues with the fire marshal and other code-related stuff. After 2 months and unexpectedly spending about $20k we are back at it. Our leaseback runs in December so the clock is ticking...
We are also making some slow progress on the other building and landscaping. I'll get some pics of that stuff up in the next week.
Looks like it's coming along!
Thanks for sharing your progress report. Photos show the progress, and your line about the polished concrete floors caught my attention along with a couple of views of the curved wall. The floor treat reveals a glimpse of what's ahead. Wishing you well!
Congrats and can't wait to see how amazing the finished product will be. Just a caveat on the polished concrete floors, though - that chic but unforgiving surface is going to do a real number on your feet and joints after a while. Peace.
Hi everyone! Been a bit since I've posted so I figured I would give an update on our progress. The reason for the lack of updates since last summer is that we ran into some issues with the city and had to wait on a number of inspections before we could move forward. Good news is that it looks like we are past that and should be getting a bunch done in the next few months. We waited until it was getting hot to start landscaping :) and I snapped a few pics from the front of the Duval Street Building yesterday. Hopefully our plants don't get stolen before they take root, haha. I will get you guys some updated interior shots in the next week or so.
https://imgur.com/a/8gFVlQZ
Nice! Love date palms.
More thorough update with descriptions. Things are finally starting to move forward again so there should be quite a few updates in the coming days.
https://imgur.com/a/OsDl6AM