Florida Construction News staff writer
The city of Jacksonville issued an emergency permit on Tuesday to ELEV8 Demolition for demolition of the fire-damaged RISE Doro apartment building’s frame.
The State Fire Mashal’s Office is investigation a fire that started Sunday night and city engineers determined the building was not structurally safe. However, the concrete garage and foundation will be assessed for damage and could remain.
“That means that in short order, as soon as we can do it, that the wood framing in that building will be coming down,” Mayor Donna Deegan said at a press conference Monday evening. “We are concerned obviously about not only the safety of people in the buildings nearby, but also we just don’t want to destroy anybody’s structure.”
The $60 million apartment building being built by RISE and in development since 2019, was expected to open March 1. According to the mayor, the building’s sprinkler system was not yet activated at the time of the fire and a pressure test was scheduled for next week.
“While this is clearly a setback for us and all of our hearts are broken about it, it’s not going to stop our forward momentum downtown,” Deegan said.
RISE, a Jacksonville-based company “is committed to building back.”
Flooring experts were laying tile on the bottom floor of the building when the fire started up higher in the building.
“They were not in the area of harm or danger with the fire and they left when they heard crackling,” a representative for RISE said at the news conference.
Eight residents were expecting to move into the building this weekend and they have been offered unites in other Jacksonville buildings.
“There’s a lot of heart-broken people in the office of RISE,” said. “Our motto is love, serve, care and we’re doing that with one another right now; our subcontractors, our professional partners. We all kind of held hands together today and tried to be strong and faithful while we deal with this tragedy
“This has been a labor of love since 2019.”
