Several proposed projects could bring at least 700 new hotel rooms to downtown Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Daily Record reports.
“There’s a lot of exuberance there,” the publication has quoted Aundra Wallace, CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority, as saying.
A recently released proposal would transform the unfinished, vacant Berkman Plaza II into a hotel. The JDR reports that Jacksonville mayor Lenny Curry says an undisclosed developer purchased the blighted, half-built condominium property on July 16 with plans to make it a hotel with riverfront entertainment space.
“I’m glad they finally closed,” Wallace said.
Choate Construction Co. purchased the unfinished structure in 2014. It had been designed as a 23-story, 222 unit condominium, but construction stopped at 18 floors in 2007 when an adjacent parking garage had collapsed.
The Berkman Plaza II will be one of several hotel projects in Jacksonville’s core. Other initiatives include:
- Augustine Development Group plans to redevelop the historic Ambassador Hotel along North Julia Street, including 100 hotel rooms, a 200-unit parking garage, and 15,000 sq. ft. of retail space.
- In Brooklyn, just outside the city’s urban core, Parkview Plaza Partners LLC proposes a 135-room Residence Inn by Marriott along Forest and Magnolia streets.
- On July 14, Elements Development of Jacksonville LLC closed on the site slated for a mixed-use project called The District, which will feature a 200-room AC Hotel by Marriott, a new flag for Jacksonville.
- On the north side of the St. Johns River, another Marriott flag is proposed for the Laura Street Trio at northeast Laura and Forsyth streets, as part of a $95 million project by SouthEast Development Group and The Molasky Group of Companies.
- Across Laura Street, the venture is redeveloping the Barnett Building, which will have apartments, offices, a University of North Florida satellite campus and ground-floor banking.
- At Laura and Bay streets, developer Eugene Profit wants to transform the former Life of the South Building into the 89-room Hotel Indigo with rooftop restaurant and lounge with ground-floor retail. Profit expects to break ground this year.
