In our popular article series Jax Evolved, we discuss
historic buildings in Jacksonville that have been repurposed into new uses and,
as a result, are preserved and protected for the foreseeable future.
But for each of those buildings that find new life, there’s at least one historic property that continues to rot away. Whether it’s due to poor maintenance, structural issues, or lack of demand, many key historic properties in Jax – particularly in the urban core – continue to go unused.
And the longer they go unused, the worse their condition becomes, until eventually the city or the property owner opts to demolish them. It’s what’s happened to many properties over the years, decimating parts of the city’s history that could have been restored and lived on for years.
We’ve compiled a list of a few properties that would be great candidates for a Jax Evolved-style re-purposing, due to their historic value or their location – or both. For the purposes of this article, we left off buildings like the Laura Street Trio that have pending revival plans in the works.
While JEA’s current headquarters building will soon be losing its main tenant, the public utility company’s former HQ building remains vacant decades later.
The 19-story, KBJ Architects-designed office tower at 233 W. Duval Street was built in the early 1950s as the original Independent Life building. The company grew even faster than they anticipated, though, so by the ‘70s they outgrew that building and left for a new, much larger tower by the river.
When Independent Life moved out, JEA purchased the building and took over the space. But less than two decades after they moved into their new building, JEA purchased another office tower at 21 W. Church Street.
By 2000, JEA had fully vacated the Duval Street building; they would put the property up for sale shortly after. A couple of attempts at redeveloping the property were made during the mid-to-late 2000s, but they each fizzled out.
The building has now sat vacant for nearly twenty years. It’s in relatively good condition but needs major interior upgrades – likely including the removal of asbestos.
A developer willing to take on the task of gutting parts of the interior could turn this long-neglected office tower into a multi-use space in the mold of the 100 North Laura and Barnett Bank buildings’ revivals.
