Bostwick Building To Be Demolished?

[thelakelander]

It looks like the Bostwick Building is about to come down, possibly next week.

I got an email that Code Enforcement has told the owners that they will start incurring the $100/day fine sometime in the next week or two.  It’s ashame they let it rot.  I had a client who was interested in purchasing it back in 2007 and I had the opportunity to do a site visit:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=1050.0

Evidently, they got an offer 4 years ago at $960k with the building was up in the 1.5mm range and turned it down.  They didn’t get any sniffs on the building in it’s current decrepit shape at $360k. 

[fsujax]

oh no. Really? this cant happen.

[mtraininjax]

Code Enforcement fines are really just an attention getter. They can be waived or reduced.

Does Brown really want this kind of downtown attention so early in his term? I am sure the "Public-Private" train-speak will be coming out soon from his office.

That would be a shame for it to come down, it really is a cool building, from the outside.

[Timkin]

 It is a beautiful building.  The problem is the same with every nice building that should be spared.  No one to buy it, re purpose it,  $$ to restore it.


Still.... I hope it is somehow spared.

[Kay]

Why is it being fined?  Is it not property mothballed?

[Marley Weinstein]

Sadly this is the ONLY building in downtown Jacksonville that has any likeness to our NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Driving around downtown, you wouldn't even know we had a team aside from the Jaguar peeking out of the Bostwick building. 

[aclchampion]

Look at the aerial shots from Google maps and you can actually see the beams in the roof where the roofing material is totally gone. The inside has to be a mess.

[thelakelander]

From my visit in 2007:

[aclchampion]

Whats the full history on this building?

[thelakelander]

Bostwick Building timeline:

1880 - First National Bank opens on site.  This was Florida's earliest national bank.

1901 - First National Bank is destroyed by Great Fire of 1901.

1902 - The first half of current building is constructed.

1903 - Bank fails and is purchased by Guaranty Trust and Savings Bank

1919 - Building is expanded to current size

1922 - Guaranty fails and is taken over by Brotherhood State Bank

1925 - Head cashier Thomas R. Hendricks commits suicide in building

1930s - Building converted to office space and continuously owned by Bostwick family

1944 - 1960 - Home of H.J. Klutho's architectural office

1990s - Jaguar mural painted over boarded up windows

[KenFSU]

We really need some kind of a stop loss policy for our downtown's historic building stock until we figure out what the hell we want to do to revitalize.

[Tacachale]

What would they do with the space? Just leave it empty? Who would pay for the demolition?

Clearly the thing is in abhorrent shape, but is it really a safety issue demanding immediate action? What's with the owners?

So many questions.

[aclchampion]

Thanks Lake. Its been around a while. Somewhere in the recesses of my memory I thought I recalled a radio station was talking about taking that building over many, many years ago and have their studios right there facing Bay and Ocean for passersby. That would have been cool. I wonder what ever became of that idea?

[Kaiser Soze]

Evidently, they got an offer 4 years ago at $960k with the building was up in the 1.5mm range and turned it down.  They didn’t get any sniffs on the building in it’s current decrepit shape at $360k.

That's the type of property owner that makes me mad.  Congrats buddy.

[Timkin]

Wonder what the cost of mothballing vs demolition would be in this case?

   The walls of the building are  thick mason walls.   What is failing is the roof and the insides. so remove the failed parts of it .  Looks like it is fairly well boarded otherwise. Unless I am missing something this is a similar case to another building with no roof at all , just the outside walls. Does this condition render the building  about to collapse and fall all over the streets or is this another case of demo by neglect for the sake of making the downtown area a bit more toothless, with the tab absorbed by us, just because someone deems it is time for it to go.

I'm with Ken on his post.  This needs to come to a halt.  It is absurd, and once these places are destroyed, the chances that anything appreciable is put in their place is slim to none.