Ruins of Jacksonville: The Ambassador Hotel

[Metro Jacksonville]

Ruins of Jacksonville: The Ambassador Hotel



The Ambassador Hotel originally opened in 1924 as 310 West Church Street Apartments, the first upscale apartments in downtown Jacksonville. Then, in 1944, it was converted into a hotel and renamed Three-Ten Hotel.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-oct-ruins-of-jacksonville-the-ambassador-hotel

[Lucasjj]

Maybe someone with renovation experience can answer this, but from the looks of those pictures is 8 million a realistic estimate to restore that place?

[Hurricane]

Has the city stated that they would help out with the $4M?  I'm sure the owner won't actually start construction until that is a guarantee...

[Hurricane]

My estimate is that $8M is enough to completely gut the place and make it look newer.  It is probably not enough money to completely start from scratch for all of the MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing).  I seriously doubt that they can re-use anything in there now, and I also doubt the budget is realistic to install all brand new MEP.  But, in these times, you never know how low some of the sub contractors will go to get a job...

[fsujax]

I can imagine that staircase being restored to its former glory. I hope they can get this done.

[blizz01]

Just add Zombies!

[ChriswUfGator]

That place is a teardown.

[vicupstate]

^^  How can you say that based on a few pictures?  Simply hauling off all the debris will make it look 50% better. 

I only glanced quickly at the pictures, and I'm not an expert but I didn't see anything structural.

Cosmetic appearances mean nothing. 

[thelakelander]

The building appears to be structurally solid.  This is just what places look like when they have been abandoned for over a decade.

[Cliffs_Daughter]

Always wondered what was inside that building... and considering it's almost Halloween, this interior is horror-fest-worthy.  I agree, structurally it seems pretty solid. every bit of wood and plaster needs to come out.

And HOW OLD is are those mini-stoves in the units?

[Overstreet]

Renovating for lofts means that most of the "apartments" would be shell space with no finishes.  That reduces the cost to common areas and MEP to each space. There really isn't enough information here to determine the cost of the renovation. So from that we can say, sure $8 million will be enough.

When it doesn't work then we'd say..........Oh, you didn't say you wanted that.

A lot of the unknown would be remediation requirements. How much asbestos, fungus and mold does it have?  Then too we'd need square footage and conceptual layout of the building. Add to that the concept of the units.  These old buildings may look sound but they often have structural issues that suck up a lot of the initial money.

[Dan B]

That place is a teardown.

Are you freaking kidding me??? Did you not just spend the last few weeks berating SPAR, and Louise for being too willing to tear down structures???

Jacksonville had dozens of amazing hotels, and there are but a couple left, and you want to tear one of the last ones down?

[Paradox]

It is a very restorable space inside. All the floors are intact and so are the walls and roof. All they need to do is strip everything inside and redo that and clean the outside. Put up some drywall, new ceilings, plumbing, elevators, flooring (carpet wood tile), fixtures, safety requirements, windows, then paint and clean everything. It is an honor to get my photos and writing featured again in Metro Jax Thanks.

My hard drive died so I have not been able to get other location's pictures but hopefully more to come once I get my data back.

[Sportmotor]

Nicely done Paradox, I wish you woulda told me about this so I could have gone with you

[Sportmotor]

now go fix your bike!