Building Up Jax: Bids welcomed for new convention center; plans submitted for DT garage

DIA ACCEPTING BIDS FOR CONVENTION CENTER

The city’s Downtown Investment Authority voted in favor of accepting proposals for a new convention center that would be constructed on land currently occupied by the City Hall Annex building and the former county courthouse building.

The city’s current convention center, the Prime Osborn Convention Center, is badly outdated. In fact, the city had originally hoped to replace it as early as the mid-90s, but plans continually fell through. And even if it were to be rebuilt or renovated, its location in LaVilla makes it inconvenient and detached from the city’s center.

Bids are expected to start coming in over the next six months.

PLANS IN FOR LAURA STREET TRIO GARAGE

Plans were submitted to the Downtown Development Review Board for the parking garage that will be built to support the redevelopment of the Laura Street Trio buildings.

The garage will be built at 28 W. Forsyth St., and will hold just under 700 cars. It’ll also feature 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.

The plans also clarify that the anticipated Courtyard Marriott hotel will have its entryway along Laura St., and that the proposed garage retail space will also face Laura St.

NOTED PROJECTS

• Mambos Cuban Café at 13770 Beach Blvd. plans to expand into the unit next to it.
• Amazon announced its shortlist of 20 candidate cities for its second HQ location, and Jacksonville didn’t make the cut. The city had offered up the old Shipyards property along the St. Johns River downtown, proposing a massive lifestyle center and campus for the company and its employees.
• Site plans for the previously-noted Brooklyn Place addition to Brooklyn Station in Riverside show five new retail/restaurant units facing Riverside Ave.
• Dog daycare chain Dogtopia has submitted plans to redevelop a long-vacant building at 1075 Hendricks Ave.
• An unnamed tenant has leased the final 306,611 sq. ft. of space at NorthPort Logistics Center at 11530 New Berlin Rd., with the lease having been facilitated by Colliers International Northeast Florida. This brings the center to full capacity.