https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/feb/10/permit-issued-to-demolish-capt-sandy-yawns-downtown-building/
Thank God it's coming down before we have that Surfside collapse on our hands.
Mold remediation for that size of a building is in the $100-120k range. She's spent close to that between the demo and the attorneys fighting for the demo.
This lot is going to sit empty for the rest of my life.
I don't get the whole, we have to knock it down because of "X" reason.
Why hasn't the City or DIA put measures in place that in order to knock a building down, financing & approval of design/implementation for their next project is complete so that if a demolition happens, there is shovel ready progress.
Only progress we will see post-demo is a chain link fence around the property for decades.
There should be a process of some kind to prevent re-classifying these particular lots as 'vacant land' and making them worthless to the tax base. At the very least, make it expensive to hold onto until it is redeveloped. Maybe could force some action sooner than later..
This whole thing is just absurd. The plans were moronic from the get go. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to look at that location and understand this business model is doomed from the start.
Anyone with a brain can see this is going to end up with us having another vacant lot. Unfortunately, our policies have no teeth, our council doesn't have backbone and most COJ staff isn't willing to sacrifice their salary on things like this without some support from the higher ups.