THURSDAY August 8, 2019
Mayor says Landing is not a Metropolitan Park replacement
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Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
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Daily Record CREATING AZALEANA MANOR The former home of Raymond K. JACKSONVILLE Mason, founder of The Charter Co., is transformed into a luxury boutique hotel in Orange Park along the St. Johns River in Clay County.
DIA OKs $29.9M Project Sharp deal The agreement clears the way for a new riverfront HQ and a 750-space parking garage nearby.
Daily Record Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
BY MIKE MENDENHALL STAFF WRITER
company. He owned and lived at the Jacksonville estate that now is Epping Forest Yacht & Country Club. Massee’s 2018 purchase of his 4-acre Orange Park parcel brings the land back into the Johnson-Massee family. With its ancient oaks and natural bluff facing the river, it was part of a multiacre parcel of riverfront land that Massee’s great-grandparents bought more than a century ago. Azaleana Manor is scheduled to open by Aug. 15, Massee said. With its seven professionally decorated bedrooms, each with its own bathroom and refrigerator, a cedar wood library and other large sitting areas,
The Downtown Investment Authority unanimously approved a development agreement Wednesday between the city and code-named Project Sharp worth $29.9 million in state and city incentives. Legislation must be approved by City Council. The agreement, Resolution 201908-01, would bring Sharp’s corporate headquarters to riverfront property on the Northbank, shown in a DIA aerial photograph as a surface parking lot at 323 Riverside Ave. owned by insurer Florida Blue. Also in a 7-0 vote, DIA approved a second resolution to provide the insurance company a $3.5 million grant to build a 750-space, $22.5 million parking deck on cityowned property at Magnolia, Park and Forest streets two blocks west of the Riverside Avenue lot. The agreement with Florida Blue in Resolution 2019-08-02 could open its Riverside Avenue parking lot for development. The resolution states the deal is “necessary” to facilitate an increase in the number of employees at a “nearby office building” and “comply with other redevelopment goals such as eliminating surface parking lots, especially on the waterfront.” Florida Blue would retain ownership of the riverfront parking lot but could choose to sell or redevelop the site. The lot is near the campus of Fidelity National Financial Inc.,
SEE AZALEANA, PAGE 4
SEE PROJECT SHARP, PAGE 7
JACKSONVILLE
AZALEANA MANOR 12 Kingsley Ave., Orange Park Opening: Aug. 15 Size: 10,000 square feet; seven bedroom suites Area: 4 acres on the St. Johns River Purpose: Venue for events such as weddings, showers, corporate meeings, birthday and graduation parties, group luncheons, Navy functions Previous owners: Raymond and Minerva Mason Amenity of note: Library with almost 1,000 books Built in 1982: The Masons doubled its size when they bought it in 1985. Website: AzaleanaManor.com
Photo by Caren Burmeister
Karrie Massee spent more than $1 million to transform a 10,000-square-foot home at 12 Kingsley Ave. in Orange Park into a luxury boutique hotel called Azaleana Manor.
BY CAREN BURMEISTER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
H
istory is coming full circle for two of Jacksonville and Orange Park’s most prominent families with ties to grand estates on the banks of the St. Johns River. Karrie Massee, a descendant of the B.J. Johnson Soap Co. and Palmolive Co. family, operates The Club Continental in Orange Park and soon will open a luxury boutique hotel a block north on Astor Street. Known as Azaleana Manor, it’s the former home of Raymond K. Mason at 12 Kingsley Ave. Mason was the founder of The Charter Co., once a Jacksonville-based Fortune 500
HEALTH & BUSINESS
Why state deregulation could accelerate industry plans SunTrust exec says it could reduce prices. PAGE 9 VOLUME 106, NO. 186 • TWO SECTIONS