Daily Record Financial News &
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Vol. 102, No. 097 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
The case of the missing ‘love locks’ City, state say they didn’t remove dozens from fence
When Mike Field came back to Jacksonville after vacation, he returned to the spot along the Northbank Riverwalk where he and his fiancé secured a padlock engraved with their names to the fence around the walkway near the Acosta Bridge. The couple made their contribution to a movement that has people in cities worldwide attaching “love locks” to fences
on bridges and other public structures as a memorial to their love and commitment. When Field returned to the site, he realized his and Caron Streibich’s heart-shaped padlock, along with about 30 others, was gone after being on the fence for about a year. “The fence wasn’t cut, just the locks,” Field said Monday. His first assumption was the locks were removed from the fence by the city Public Works Department.
Under city code, any artificial or man-made object illegally placed within a public right-ofway or attached to an object on public property is defined under the law as “litter” and therefore subject to removal. But, it wasn’t the city. “We didn’t do it,” said city spokeswoman Aleizha Batson in an email. She suggested the Florida Department of Transportation might be responsible for lopping off the locks.
But, it wasn’t the state, either. “FDOT did not cut the locks,” said department spokesman Ron Tittle this morning via email. Love locks already are being hung on the fence again. The “love lock” custom began about 15 years ago in European cities, then spread to America and other countries. While Jacksonville’s display was just a few locks, in some locations, hundreds, even thousands, of the locks have been placed on bridges and pedestrian walkways
over water. In 2013, the New York City Transportation Department removed more than 5,000 locks from the Brooklyn Bridge. In June 2014, The Los Angeles Times reported a section of the Pont des Arts footbridge across the Seine River in Paris collapsed under the weight of the locks. In Cologne, Germany, Deutsche Bahn railway company threatened to remove a multitude of locks attached to a bridge, citing Locks... Continued on Page A-3
Vistakon’s Phase 7 at least $19M expansion
Special to Daily Record
By Max Marbut Staff Writer
Developers rebuilt the dock at Waterman’s Bluff in Nassau County. Three builders are constructing homes in the subdivision.
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Inc. is exploring another manufacturing expansion at its growing Deerwood Park campus that would cost an estimated $19 million to build and likely much more to equip. The campus, at 7500 Centurion Parkway, makes Acuvue disposable contact lenses and employs about 2,000 people full-time, part-time and as temporary workers in Jacksonville. Sizewise, the proposed “Phase 7 Project Expansion” is larger than the previous addition approved for city and state incentives in 2013 and its construction cost is higher. Phase 6 was about 20,000 square feet of new space and 15,000 square feet of renovated space, and the site work and construction costs were about $16.7 million. Construction should be completed in several months. The newest project is a 35,000-squarefoot addition and the base construction cost is more than $2 million higher. That raises the question of just how significant Phase 7 could become because the previous expansion was valued at a $218 million overall investment. Phase 6 earned more than $8.6 million in city and state incentives to create up to 100 jobs at an average wage of $65,000 plus benefits. For that, the company outlined the addition of five new production lines and an upgrade of two more, in addition to the construction costs. Vistakon said then that project would make the latest generation of its Acuvue disposable contact lenses. Building plans filed last week for the “Phase 7 Project Expansion” show the addition could accommodate 115 people and would include manufacturing, materials staging, polymerization, resin silos and other functions, as well as shell space for later growth. Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is Mathis... Continued on Page A-2
‘Prettiest piece of property’ Waterfront development back online in Nassau By Carole Hawkins Staff Writer David Robbins of Victoria Robbins Realty has sold a lot of waterfront properties over his 30-year career. At this one, he’ll build a home. “This is absolutely the prettiest piece of property I think I know of anywhere around,” said Robbins, the project’s broker. Waterman’s Bluff, a Nassau County subdivision that went offline during the recession, is coming back.
Public
Eight speculative homes are under construction by the community’s three builders, Trevett Homes, Dostie Homes and North Florida Builders. The community sits at the site of a 19th century plantation on the Bells River, an arm of the St. Marys. It’s surrounded by waterfront and marshes. “This subdivision is so beautiful and that’s what makes it unique,” said Chris Dostie of Dostie Homes. The style is Old South, with a wrought iron entrance gate
Waterman’s Bluff entrance gate and community center/chapel. The center inside has floors of heart pine and walls with pecky Waterman’s... Continued on Page A-3 cypress.
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