Repurposing The Elena Flats Building

[Metro Jacksonville]

Repurposing The Elena Flats Building



Hostel Detroit illustrates one of the many ways that citizen-led advocates have initiated a creative re-purposing of the city of Detroit, MI. Could this productive rehabilitation provide a model for preserving the Elena Flats building?

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jan-repurposing-the-elena-flats-building

[fieldafm]

What is better?


This (images of Brooklyn's Loft Hostel):








Or this (former site of Hotel Desoto-critical to the success of Jacksonville's once bustling Railroad Row... now a surface parking lot):

[strider]

Interesting article.  Hostel Detroit looks like a true commercial commercial mixed use building that was re-purposed for this use. Lots more costly than what could be done with a building already laid out for the use. 

A hostel is basically a rooming house and functions like a true transient one.  The Elena Flats building could legally be a rooming house again as it is currently zoned CRO and rooming houses are allowed by exception.  The requirements for a rooming house are still part of the ordinance code and the original configuration (10 bedrooms, 4 baths) easily meets the standards. Rehabbing the building back to it's original interior configuration would also allow it to qualify for additional tax credits and make the restoration more affordable.

I think rooming houses and boarding houses got a bad rap as the general population decided they disliked sharing a bathroom with strangers. And yet, we all do exactly that when we travel or go to public events or even a night out on the town.  They then got left in the older areas where they already existed and got caught up in the drug issues and the lower income and property value issues. You see the same thing happening with the older motels in the same types of areas. 

Today, there are Bed and Breakfasts that take the place of the old boarding houses and we can certainly have Hostels that can be the new rooming houses.  The former is not very affordable generally but the latter certainly can be.

[urbanlibertarian]

I live a few blocks from Elena Flats and would be fine with an Ability Housing type of use for it.  A hostel?  Even better.

[vicupstate]

Or this (former site of Hotel Desoto-critical to the success of Jacksonville's once bustling Railroad Row... now a dirt surface parking lot):

Corrected it for you.

[fieldafm]

Hostel Detroit looks like a true commercial commercial mixed use building that was re-purposed for this use. Lots more costly than what could be done with a building already laid out for the use. 

Thanks for picking up on that! I chose Hostel Detroit as an example for this very reason... as the Elena Flats building is already configured for such a use. You aren't trying to make a hotel into a bank... you'd be simply rehabbing an already existing use.

[mbstout]

I live 2 blocks from the New York Loft Hostel in Brooklyn and they've really done a good job rehabilitating the building and adding amenities for the guests.  What what once was a pretty desolate industrial street near the Boar's Head Packing Plant, has now turned into a quite a lovely little block with the Hostel, a Green Gym, a cafe, a bike shop, a vintage store, and a restaurant.  It opened at a time when the Bushwick/East Williamsburg area was gaining favor of the artists over higher priced Williamsburg and Manhattan..

A quick google search turns up no hostels in Jacksonville, although St. Augustine has one.  A hostel would make great programming for that type of building.  I've stayed at hostels in European cities and my only concern, however, is that Jacksonville is not Brooklyn/NYC, New Orleans, Paris or even Detroit - they've bottomed out but are attracting artists (see the film Detropia http://www.detropiathefilm.com)..
Even Brooklyn's longtime artist performance space Galapagos recently packed up shop and is headed to Detroit to plant their flag there.. http://www.galapagosdetroit.com

One of my friends - who traveled to Jax last year for the Caravan Stage Company performance aboard the ship Amara Zee (docked at Metropolitan Park) complained there wasn't much to do and hard to get around.
In order for the hostel to do well in downtown Jacksonville and compete with AirBnB and Couchsurfing.com that'd be competing for the business of the backpacker set, a few things would need to happen before I think this business model would take off:
- Move Amtrak back downtown to the Union Terminal
- Restore the Amtrak 'Sunset Limited' (LA to New Orleans) to make Jax it's proud coast-to-coast end node
- Extend All Aboard Florida service up to Jax
- JTA follows through with a light rail plan (start with a northward route via the S-Line to connect into JIA)
Basically, the backpacker set travels via train (or bus) and would need convenient transit options.  Jax is so spread out it would be hard for visitors with no car to access the beaches..
Having on site bikes for guests to access cultural amenities, restaurants, & entertainment, within downtown, Riverside, and San Marco would be a must.  Perhaps shuttle busses for day trips to the beach, Timucuan Preserve, etc could be arranged to fit demand.

The hostel environment, however, offers bonding and social interaction which AirBnB and Couchsurfing.com sometime can't offer.
I'm glad to see this business doing well in Detroit.  It may take time before Jacksonville has the infrastructure or cultural clout to have one financially succeed.  That being said, the Elena Flats building is definitely a beautiful building worth saving.  It would be so sad to see another historic building turned into a surface parking area.   I'm hoping for the best!

[Redbaron616]

Historic? Are you kidding me? Looks like a nondescript brick building. Apparently we have run out of worthwhile buildings to preserve and now we have to run around finding anything old. I wouldn't cross the street to look at this house, even if it were free to tour. Boring as watching paint dry.

[ProjectMaximus]

One of my friends - who traveled to Jax last year for the Caravan Stage Company performance aboard the ship Amara Zee (docked at Metropolitan Park) complained there wasn't much to do and hard to get around.
In order for the hostel to do well in downtown Jacksonville and compete with AirBnB and Couchsurfing.com that'd be competing for the business of the backpacker set, a few things would need to happen before I think this business model would take off:
- Move Amtrak back downtown to the Union Terminal
- Restore the Amtrak 'Sunset Limited' (LA to New Orleans) to make Jax it's proud coast-to-coast end node
- Extend All Aboard Florida service up to Jax
- JTA follows through with a light rail plan (start with a northward route via the S-Line to connect into JIA)
Basically, the backpacker set travels via train (or bus) and would need convenient transit options.  Jax is so spread out it would be hard for visitors with no car to access the beaches..
Having on site bikes for guests to access cultural amenities, restaurants, & entertainment, within downtown, Riverside, and San Marco would be a must.  Perhaps shuttle busses for day trips to the beach, Timucuan Preserve, etc could be arranged to fit demand.

The hostel environment, however, offers bonding and social interaction which AirBnB and Couchsurfing.com sometime can't offer.
I'm glad to see this business doing well in Detroit.  It may take time before Jacksonville has the infrastructure or cultural clout to have one financially succeed.  That being said, the Elena Flats building is definitely a beautiful building worth saving.  It would be so sad to see another historic building turned into a surface parking area.   I'm hoping for the best!

I agree with all your observations, but I just wouldn't frame it like you're pandering to attract the backpacker crowd. That's not really a formula for success. If the city succeeds in becoming a young professional magnet, a major business center, and a tourist destination, that's what matters. Probably the backpackers would follow anyway.

[Gunnar]

- Move Amtrak back downtown to the Union Terminal
- Restore the Amtrak 'Sunset Limited' (LA to New Orleans) to make Jax it's proud coast-to-coast end node
- Extend All Aboard Florida service up to Jax
- JTA follows through with a light rail plan (start with a northward route via the S-Line to connect into JIA)
Basically, the backpacker set travels via train (or bus) and would need convenient transit options.  Jax is so spread out it would be hard for visitors with no car to access the beaches..
Having on site bikes for guests to access cultural amenities, restaurants, & entertainment, within downtown, Riverside, and San Marco would be a must.  Perhaps shuttle busses for day trips to the beach, Timucuan Preserve, etc could be arranged to fit demand.

Definitely agree with you on this one - make DT easy to get to, an interesting / fun place to be (nightlife).

Regarding light rail - if it were to go from JIA via DT to the Beaches and perhaps even St Augustine that would be even better.

[vicupstate]

Apparently we have run out of worthwhile buildings to preserve

Not yet, but that is the goal, apparently.

[vicupstate]

There is a quite popular Hostel in Nashville that does not have AMTRAK or Light rail or anything other than a bus line nearby, as far as transit goes. Nashville is certainly not NYC or SF, but it is more well known than Jacksonville internationally.  It has a lot more than 10 rooms/beds to fill though.  If DT JAX had more nightlife and attractions, I think a Hostel could make a go of it.   

MJ should try to get a tour of the building and post the pics

[thelakelander]

Chattanooga has a pretty nice hostel called the Crash Pad. It's not NYC, SF, Nashville or Jax. It's not in a historic structure but it is in an old warehouse district and roughly a block or south south of Chattanooga Choo Choo.





http://www.crashpadchattanooga.com/

[ProjectMaximus]

For the first One Spark, Emily Moody (creator of Underbelly) was promoting a project to create a hostel in downtown Jax. I don't know what happened with that.

[thelakelander]

Elena Flats boarding house Downtown is latest in demolition vs. preservation debate

By Max Marbut, Staff Writer

A 107-year-old former boarding house near the heart of Downtown could be the next battle in the demolition vs. preservation debate.
The Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission could start it by determining whether to designate the Elena Flats building at 122 E. Duval St. a historic landmark. The former boarding house was built a few years after the Great Fire of 1901.

The owner, Jimmie Lee Clark Jr., applied for a permit to demolish the building near the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

The discussion will center on whether the structure possesses sufficient historic signficance for the commission to request from City Council historic landmark designation, which also would reject the request for permission to tear down the building.

The owner could appeal the council's action and renew the demolition application.

The situation is similar to the commission's evaluation of the First Guaranty Bank & Trust Building, also known as the Bostwick Building, said Joel McEachin, city Historic Preservation Section supervisor.

Full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=544754