Yesterday the mayor’s office and Toney Sleiman, president of Jacksonville Landing Investments, announced that they’ve agreed to terms on a $18 million settlement – pending city council’s approval.
If the settlement is indeed approved, the city will essentially be paying $18 million to get rid of the Landing. That figure includes $1.5 million to go toward the eventual demolition of the structure.
A lot of people – ourselves included – have very mixed feelings about the impending demolition of the Landing building.
Built in 1987, the Landing has never quite lived up to original expectations. It’s become associated with crime due to multiple shootings that have occurred in and around the property over the past few years. Tenants have gradually shut their doors due to lack of foot traffic, leaving the downtown shopping mall with only a handful of open storefronts.
It’s become a symbol for many of the problems that face downtown Jax: lack of foot traffic outside work hours, a revolving door of tenants, and the (largely unfair) perception of danger lurking around every corner.
That being said, it’s also one of the city’s most distinctive landmarks. And there are legitimate concerns about the city’s hypothetical plans to turn the property into a riverfront park – something that already exists on the Southbank and that may become inundated by the same vagrancy and cleanliness problems as other downtown-area parks.
Since many of us aren’t quite sure how to feel about these latest developments, we decided to compile all of the Landing-related photos in our archive to honor the soon-to-be-demolished mall. Check out our gallery at the top of the page.
What about aquajax getting that location instead of yet another park that’s just going to be over run with trouble?