Daily Record FINANCIAL NEWS &
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 218 • Two SecTioNS
The art of collaboration Artist-in-residence at MOCA influenced by home, community
By Kevin Hogencamp Contributing Writer
WORKSPACE
CONTINUED ON
PAGE A-7
www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Auction is new hope for Barnett
Historic building seen as catalyst for Downtown By David Chapman Staff Writer
Although she has little experience crocheting, Mary Ratcliff says she selected yarn as one of the principal mediums in “Interwoven: Heart, Home, and Community.” The University of North Florida student-in-residence will have space in the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville Downtown.
Photo by Kevin Hogencamp
It’s no accident University of North Florida sculpture major Mary Ratcliff’s new art studio has an inviting feel to it. Or that home is the central refrain of the emerging three-dimensional artist’s senior project. The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville’s 2016 student-in-residence says she longs for her work and her workspace to bond people. Just as houses and, in turn, communities do. “Houses symbolize comfort and unity and support and so many other important things that bring people together,” she said during an interview in her fifth-floor MOCA studio. “I guess you could say that home and community have a big influence on who I am.” Ratcliff welcomes visitors to pop in during her studio hours, lounge around on her rattan chair or loveseat and indulge in their own artwork. Her residency will continue through December, when her nearly four-month exhibition opens in the Downtown museum’s Florida Blue Education Gallery. Launched in 2014, the highly competitive MOCA residency program provides a UNF student space for a semester to work on a requisite senior art project. The program also more than fulfills the requirement for the project to be publicly exhibited for at least a week. “It’s an amazing opportunity — super rewarding — because the exhibit will be up for almost four months when some people have trouble getting a place to show their art for a week,” she said. While Ratcliff specializes in metal sculpture, her senior project — “Interwoven: Heart, Home, and Community” — will encompass various art disciplines, partly due to the studio space not being conducive to metalsmithing. A network of yarn, fiber, wood and cast iron forming a house, “Interwoven” also includes a collaborative element: Ratcliff is sounding an all-call on social media for people to crochet chains that will be linked to others in the project. “The more people who participate, the more successful it will be, in my eyes,” she said.
35¢
Outside the Barnett National Bank building on Tuesday, people and cars consistently streamed by during a busy lunch hour. It was a stark contrast to the emptiness that’s filled the building for more than two decades. Many, like Jacobs Jewelers owner Roy Thomas, see the looming building at Adams and Laura streets as a key to triggering Downtown’s revitalization. A critical piece for what one broker called the “complicated puzzle of Downtown.” “It was very vibrant in its heyday,” said Thomas, who purchased the jewelry store across the street in 1987 but has worked there since the 1960s. “It was nice for a while.” Bankers, lawyers and accountants streamed in and out of the bustling building each day. There have been constant starts and stops for the Barnett site for more than a decade. Numerous owners with even more plans that never came to fruition have left the structure the way it sits now. Today, there’s another opportunity for the Barnett building — and perhaps Downtown. There will be a foreclosure auction at 11 a.m., the last step in a legal case spawned by a dispute between developer Steve Atkins and Stache Investments, a group founded by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan. The public sale is part of a judge finding Atkins owed Stache Investments $4.6 million for loans, interest and fees stemming from Khan loaning Atkins’ SouthEast Development Group $3 million in April 2013 to redevelop the Barnett building. Getting the right developer and plan for the building is critical, said Downtown Investment Authority CEO Aundra Wallace. “The potential is there,” he said. Restoring that building would bring to BARNETT
CONTINUED ON
PAGE A-3
$30M Town Center One talking with tenants
A rendering is ready, talks are underway with Class A users and the construction team is in place for the more than $30 million Town Center One building in Southside, one of the first structures announced in years without a signed lead tenant. Developer VanTrust Real Estate Executive Vice President John Carey said he is talking with several prospective tenants for the Gate Parkway project. Groundbreaking is subject to “continued favorable market conditions,” he said. Anticipating completion of the design and permitting process, Carey said VanTrust Real Estate
Public
intends to break ground in the spring on the five-story office building that will offer about 164,000 square feet of space. The structure and almost 950 parking spaces will be developed on 10.5 acres. It should be ready for occupancy in summer 2018. Carey said the amount of parking is because of the expected users and their requirements. He said the 4 million square feet of office space in the Gate Parkway area submarket is more than 96 percent leased, indicating a demand for Town Center One. Brasfield & Gorrie is the general contractor; Rolland, DelValle & Bradley is the architect; and
legal NoTiceS begiN oN Page
b-1
England, Thims & Miller is the civil engineer. Architectural and civil plans are underway. VanTrust Real Estate is based in Kansas City, Mo. Carey leads its regional office. He also is founding partner of Whitehall Realty Partners LLC. VanTrust Real Estate, through JO Town Center 160 LLC, bought the property Aug. 31 from members of the Skinner family for
$4.58 million. Public documents define the address as 5201 Gate Parkway, but that is used by Deutsche Bank at its existing leased building near the VanTrust site. Carey said Town Center One would receive a new address. The property is next to the FBI building. With a name like Town Center One, could there be a Town Center Two? Carey said that would require buying adjacent land. “We have no formal arrangement with the Skinner family but ideally we would like to build MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE A-2
PubliShed
for
27,018
Carey coNSecuTiVe weekdayS