Historic Ford assembly plant in Talleyrand is preserved in images

[thelakelander]

Full article: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2023/apr/25/historic-ford-factory-is-preserved-in-images/

[Ken_FSU]

Ramon Llorens sure does like tearing down historic structures based on speculative future use.

Can't believe City Council was 17-0 in support of demolition.

What was your read on salvageability when you were out there, Ennis?

[thelakelander]

The large plant addition over the river is falling into it. What's most salvageable is the smaller oil plant warehouse on the north side of the larger plant. Its on land, has the same architectural style, but is significantly smaller and located on the edge of the property. So it could be a support building for a new site use.

The main office and plant could be saved but both would require a Laura Street Trio type of public incentive to make the preservation numbers work. However, shipyards (the proposed new use that has been publicly mentioned) don't need large warehouses.

[Jax_Developer]

It's incredible how much land they own in the DT & Shipyards area. Also incredible is how out of all their property, almost all of it is undeveloped or needing redevelopment. Very interesting to see how they play their cards.

[thelakelander]

This is what the smaller oil plant building looks like. It's about 6,900 square feet and on the north edge of the property. Completely manageable, with the same historic narrative and link back to Kahn and Ford, but without the significant challenges faced with the larger structure. Could have easily been reused as a support warehouse structure, office, maritime related use or even something like a waterfront restaurant, similar to the boiler house at the Ford plant in Richmond, CA. It's likely too late now, but with the focus to save the larger structure, we probably threw the baby out with the bath water as I don't recall a discussion around the smaller building:

[jaxlongtimer]

I just read an article about Bristol, TN/VA.  They had a dying "downtown."  Some ladies raised $4 million to save a historic theater which led to a couple of more historic restorations.  This kicked off even more restorations and has led to a booming downtown visited by tourists. 

This same scenario has been repeated successfully hundreds of times around the U.S. and over many decades.  It is a proven formula that is a no brainer to follow.

It is just amazing how nearsighted our City leadership is regarding the value of our historic buildings.  Ironically, some want to save Confederate monuments, but not our historic buildings, as an ode to history.  They clearly have it all backwards.

This is why it is time for change in our City's leadership from the establishment currently in power.

[thelakelander]

^One of my biggest pet peeves with the Ford plant demolition process through council, was that for more than two decades, everyone has known that the building would need a massive influx of public incentives to make restoration viable. If these buildings are so important, then we should have made an effort to put our money where our mouths are at, well before it started falling into the river. I actually can't 100% blame the developer for wanting to tear the thing down, assuming they are in the business to make a return on their investment. I also can't blame a buyer like a shipyard for not wanting it, as that building isn't conductive for that type of maritime related use.

This pet peeve extends far beyond the Ford plant property. I can say the same thing about most historic structures in this city. Preservation hasn't been a major priority in Jax's history.

However, when we put money behind these projects (only recently in downtown), they get done. We're seeing this now with the Old Federal Reserve Bank, FBC Convention Building, Ambassador Hotel, Jones Brothers Furniture, Old Independent Life Building, etc. So the answer is there. It's just a matter of if it is a big enough priority of this community to pony up the cash to start making the numbers work for some of these major projects.

[simms3]

This is the most insulting thing from our leadership in years.  Absolutely ridiculous.  Well, maybe tied with Nat Ford wasting all of the taxpayer money and political will for public transit on Skyway 2.0.  Wait till JEA screws up again, as well.  They'll be in good company though as all critical thought leaves our civilization and basically all power companies together reduce their energy output in the name of climate change while everything is electrified at the same time.  Just yesterday heard someone from the port talk about electrifying everything there as we speak from the cranes to all the vehicles - they even just built a new substation on Blount Island and this is in process now.  Same day I hear about all of this, another article comes out talking about how JEA is switching to "all green" essentially (and it quotes all the young climate activists and their professors at UNF as "the public" demanding this).  No talk of legitimate replacement for increased power needs, not to mention everything they are talking about is incredibly expensive so our bills will all skyrocket in the coming years.  This is supposed to be a municipal authority beholden to the citizens of Jacksonville, not Wall St shareholders like Blackrock focused on WEF new world order crap.  Anyway, I digress.  It's depressing how not one area of leadership is stellar now - from DC down to Jacksonville over to my company in some respects over to basically everywhere, we are all run by "experts" that are insane people without common sense or brain cells.

I came across an article from the Daily Record 2002 about the 22ND Chamber trip with 120 local people traveling to SF/Oakland.  27 people left their thoughts.  I am so flipping tired of everyone in Jacksonville.  We are all so flipping dumb and tired.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2002/oct/09/thoughts-chambers-leadership-trip/

How many chamber and civic council trips and COJ trips to "learn from" other cities have we taken even since then, and yet, just as in the 80s we demolished historic downtown and built the incredibly stupid and ineffective Skyway 1.0 (while other cities our size were building Light Rail 2.0), and yet 30-40 years later we are still demolishing historic downtown and building Skyway 2.0.  It's so insane it's incomprehensible.  It's made worse by the fact that all of our elected, unelected, and business leaders travel for fun to other cities and yet never come here ready to try to duplicate successes, only talking about them and wasting money on trips.

It's basically criminal in my opinion.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ This we agree 100% on.  Although posters here may differ on the ultimate ways to address issues, at least we are thinking proactively, long term, creatively and with passion for the best interests of our community.  All that is missing in most of our City leadership. 

While maybe not perfect (who is?), I believe Donna Deegan comes closest to aligning with the views I see expressed on the Jaxson.  If correct, I hope everyone turns out and exercises their right to vote for her.

Today, Matt Carlucci crossed party lines to endorse Deegan for the very reasons you have posted.  As he notes, local politics should not be about party, but about who cares and can best lead this City forward.  Like Carlucci, I think the choice is clear.

[scbennett67@gmail.com]

If the bones was in good shape it would have made a nice restaurant on the water that boats could pull up to with old historic  pictures of the Ford plant inside the restaurant.