JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – You might have heard this before over the last few years, but once again, there is a potential buyer of the Laura Street Trio.
Those are the abandoned buildings in downtown Jacksonville that people are looking to redevelop.
Jacksonville’s Avant Construction Group is helping in this process.
Avant Construction owner and president Alan Cottrill said its role in the possible sale is to do what he considers “due diligence.”
“It’s the process of understanding the condition of things, understanding the constructability of items, understanding what some of the cost components to those projects are,” Cottrill explained.
Cottrill said another part of the sale would be acquiring the historic Barnett Building. Currently, that former bank tower has been renovated as apartments, retail and office space on most of the 18 floors.
Three floors remain undeveloped, and this potential purchase would change that
Cottrill said the potential buyer and the current owner of the property have entered into a purchase in sale agreement. Cottrill would not name the potential buyer but confirmed that the group is out of state but does have some ties to Northeast Florida, including the principal owning a home in Ponta Vedra Beach.
They already have projects in the works in Florida and the Jacksonville market, Cottrill said.
Cottrill said his construction group will help determine whether all of the buildings can be saved. The work involves a cost, structural and historical analysis that he says will be conducted partly through the use of artificial intelligence powered 3-D imaging technology.
He says his hope for anyone who ends up buying the Laura Street Trio is to spark some life in those historic structures.
“To see those buildings restored and brought back to life, and to see the empty property around it utilized in a way that energizes the market of the Laura Street corridor, as we’re calling it,” Cottrill said. “The best case scenario is the ability to bring that corner back to life and to let that be the spark to continue because we have a lot of momentum going on downtown, but to continue that and reinvigorate that corner in that part of downtown.”
Southeast Development Group owns the buildings and is in the middle of a legal battle with the city after the group has not paid more than $800,000 in violation fees.
The owner of the group said the city unfairly used incidents of vandalism and graffiti that were beyond his control as the basis for that lawsuit.
In March, there was a different potential buyer who pulled out of a deal, which led to the city resuming the lawsuit. If the city wins the court case, it wants to sell the buildings in a public auction and the money made would pay off the code violation penalties.
Cottrill said that the possible new buyer and Southeast Development Group could close on the deal within 90 days.
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