Lessons Learned As Berkman 2 Dream Goes Up In Smoke

[Charles Hunter]

Lenny gets to demolish another riverfront building!

[Peter Griffin]

It's a shame developers couldn't pick up the slack left behind from the mess in 2007, but honestly this one doesn't bother me in the least. An unfinished project that has been an eyesore for over a decade isn't going to be missed.

This hardly qualifies as a building, it's an inactive unfinished construction project.

[acme54321]

Honestly this should have happened a long time ago.  Glad we won't have to listen to any more fantasy land redevelopment plans for this mess.  See ya.

[thelakelander]

LOL, I'm surprised this is one Lenny didn't blow up a while back. It's probably the one thing he can blow up that won't get much push back.

[marcuscnelson]

I wonder if he's gonna try and give this land to Khan too.

[Kerry]

Honestly this should have happened a long time ago.  Glad we won't have to listen to any more fantasy land redevelopment plans for this mess.  See ya.

Wanna bet?  Give in Jax's history this site has at least 20 years of 'game changer'  proposal to go.

[thelakelander]

Still waiting for Lot J to secure $233 million in public funding. In other words, Khan isn't going to do anything with it.

[downtownbrown]

Finally, a better view of the jail from the river.  Awesome.

[Peter Griffin]

The city doesn't own the parcel, they only have the power to condemn the structure. Given the lack of interest in repairing the structure to remove the condemnation, it seems like demo is the only likely path forward.

[Kerry]

Still waiting for Lot J to secure $233 million in public funding. In other words, Khan isn't going to do anything with it.

Lot J is dead.  The funds for it were supposed to come from the JEA sale but that has blown up beyond on my wildest dreams.

Plan A:
Sell JEA in shady deal
Sign JEA to long-term lease at Lot J
Huge cash payment to Jags

Plan B:
Everyone goes to jail
Jags relocate

[Peter Griffin]

The funds for it were supposed to come from the JEA sale

Do you have anything to substantiate this claim?

[JaxAvondale]

The funds for it were supposed to come from the JEA sale

Do you have anything to substantiate this claim?

I think Kerry's right here. I would have suspected Lot J funds to come from the sale of JEA.

[Peter Griffin]

The funds for it were supposed to come from the JEA sale

Do you have anything to substantiate this claim?

I think Kerry's right here. I would have suspected Lot J funds to come from the sale of JEA.

I suspect the anticipation of the sale might have made the city more willing to commit the funds to Lot J, but I do not believe it will dry up just because JEA is off the table. Without anything in particular stating that Lot J was directly tied to the sale, I see it as a stretch to say the lack of a sale will sink it.

[JaxAvondale]

The funds for it were supposed to come from the JEA sale

Do you have anything to substantiate this claim?

I think Kerry's right here. I would have suspected Lot J funds to come from the sale of JEA.

I suspect the anticipation of the sale might have made the city more willing to commit the funds to Lot J, but I do not believe it will dry up just because JEA is off the table. Without anything in particular stating that Lot J was directly tied to the sale, I see it as a stretch to say the lack of a sale will sink it.

I agree that funds will be made available for the project regardless. My point was that I agree that had a sale happened the earmarking some of those funds for Lot J seemed inevitable.

[Ken_FSU]

The JEA sale and Lot J are mutually exclusive.

One had nothing to do with the other.

Shad Khan has flat-out stated in the past that selling JEA is a terrible idea.

Lot J - assuming it happens - will be funded like these things are always funded. There might be a decent chunk of cash from the general fund (which we can afford, but at the expense of other capital improvement projects), but you've gotta think it'll be largely debt-financed, off the back of wild projections about how much incremental revenue the development will generate down the line.

The Shipyards/Lot J talk significantly predates any talk of a JEA sale, and there's no universe where all parties involved are engaging in years of negotiations based on a dubious plan to see the public utility, which would ultimately require a public vote.

Agree with the above that, realistically, we probably would have seen some of the JEA proceeds go toward Lot J/Shipyards (Curry stated that his plan was to use the proceeds to pay off the city's debts, with no portion of the JEA money going to the stadium district, but by proxy of paying off the debts, we'd obviously have more cash in the general fund to finance cap improvement projects), but I don't believe for a second that Lot J was ever predicated solely on a JEA sale.