THURSDAY June 27, 2019
Sailer Report: What’s behind the surge in townhomes PAGE 12
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TRANSFORMING
JEA sets date for final power park implosion
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North Jacksonville plant was shut down in 2018.
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BY SCOTT SAILER STAFF WRITER
The 1980s-era Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Airport in North Jacksonville will undergo a $10 million renovation with completion in 2020.
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The owner of the hotel near the airport is renovating it and plans a larger development for the site called Eagle Landings, with commercial and apartment possibilities. BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
W
ho says all the commercial development is focused on Southside? An almost 29-acre site at southwest Interstate 95 and Airport Road in North Jacksonville could be transformed into Eagle Landings, comprising a fully renovated Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Airport hotel and commercial and apartment development. “There is a lot of need in that area,” said property owner Gregory Morris, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident who owns three assisted-living facilities in Florida and has experience in the hotel arena. First, Morris said the $10 million renovation of the 1980s era hotel on about 10 acres on the northern parcel is underway and should be completed by year-end 2020. Next will be the sale of the undeveloped southern 18.96 acres. That’s commercially zoned property that Morris intends to list within 30-45 days for complementary uses. “It could be multifamily, it could be office, it could be storage, a combination or something else,” Morris said. “We don’t know the best fit.” Driving the decision is his view that the immediate area around the hotel hasn’t experienced much SEE CROWN PLAZA, PAGE 10
Photo by Karen Brune Mathis
Gregory Morris is the owner of the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Airport hotel. He said plans to renovate it are underway and he plans to sell land adjacent to the hotel for development.
The 640-foot-high smokestack and two boilers at the St. Johns River Power Park in North Jacksonville will be imploded July 19, JEA said Tuesday. It will mark the third and final implosion at the decommissioned facility at 11201 New Berlin Road. In June 2018, two 464-foottall concrete cooling towers were brought down. In April, four selective catalytic reactors were razed. The city has not issued a demolition permit for the final implosion. JEA Managing Director and CEO Aaron Zahn said demolition and remediation of the power park will be complete by the middle of next year. Zahn said future plans for the 1,600-acre site are undetermined, but the utility likely will keep some of the property for a future generating station and for ash disposal. The Jacksonville Port Authority has been calling about the use of the property, he said. The St. Johns River Power Park started producing electricity in March 1987. The plant, co-owned by JEA and Florida Power & Light Co., was shut down Jan. 5, 2018. JEA said closing the plant, which consumed 4.5 million tons of coal a year, reduced its carbon footprint by 30 percent. In November 2018, Buffalobased Total Wrecking & Environmental LLC was awarded a $17.73 million contract to demolish the cooling towers and other structures at the power park.
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SELF-STORAGE UNITS
New places to put your stuff popping up all over A look at what’s driving the trend. PAGE 9 VOLUME 106, NO. 157 • TWO SECTIONS