JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After 100 years of standing in Springfield, a warehouse the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department says has long been abandoned has been knocked down.
Action News Jax told you Monday night when part of it already crumbled, collapsing onto north Main Street. JFRD says the building, itself, was in poor condition, but the city is now taking over the investigation into what caused it to collapse.
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Action News Jax’s Finn Carlin found the property is within the “Phoenix Arts and Innovation District” of Springfield, which is hoping to move forward with a plan to turn a collection of buildings in the neighborhood into offices and galleries for artists. We spoke with Springfield Preservation and Revitalization, SPAR, a nonprofit working to improve the neighborhood, who believes the building was bound to come down.
“The building has been vacant for, I believe, decades,” said Michael Haskins, executive director of SPAR, “it’s certainly unfortunate to see the building come down in this way, but I know that, bigger picture, that area is still going to be redeveloped.”
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Records through the Duval County Property Appraiser show the warehouse was first built in 1925 and has gone through six owners since then. The longest owner is a company called “2301 N Main Street LLC,” which owned the building for a 29-year period between 1985 and 2014, bought it again in 2018 and sold it in 2021 before dissolving.
The Future of Cities company, partly based in Miami, is the current property owner. Their portfolio covers the Phoenix Arts and Innovation DIstrict, which hasn’t yet shared specific plans for the property the warehouse has been sitting on.
The company hasn’t responded to Action News Jax after multiple phone calls, but Haskins doesn’t believe the tearing down of the warehouse will hinder plans to turn the property into something new.
“I think they’re operating at a scale where they’re going to be able to adapt to this,” Haskins said.
Councilman Jimmy Peluso oversees the Springfield neighborhood. Action News Jax is waiting to hear back from his office after a request for an interview.
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