Daily Record Financial News &
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Vol. 103, No. 239 • One Section
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Photos by Maggie FitzRoy
Residents eagerly share tales of woe
Cora Johnston on the deck of a house her company, Generation Homes, remodeled south of St. Augustine Beach.
Helping build dream houses Generation Homes fuels Johnston’s love of industry
By Maggie FitzRoy Contributing Writer Cora Johnston loves homes and has for as long as she can remember. When she was 12, growing up in Illinois, she even chronicled her budding passion by creating a scrapbook that included pages from a real estate magazine featuring homes for sale. As the years went by, Johnston forged a lifelong career in real estate. First in traditional residential sales, then as a builder’s sales representative, followed by management positions and now as owner of her custom design firm, Generation Homes. She had forgotten all about that scrapbook until her father brought it to her after she moved to Northeast Florida.
It delighted her. It triggered memories. And it confirmed her choice of career. “I always say, ‘Be conscious of the conscious and subconscious goals you set for yourself,’” Johnston says. “I was 12 years old. I’ve loved homes my whole life. And since I got into the homebuilding industry, there has never been a day when I didn’t want to go to work.” Generation Homes, based in St. Augustine Beach, custom designs and builds homes from South Ponte Vedra Beach to just south of Marineland. This year the company will build about 30, in a wide expanse of price ranges. It also has begun its first subdivision, SeaView, a community of 28 homes, just south of St. Augustine Beach. Johnston continued on Page A-4
Johnston talks with Brian Keenehan of First Coast Closets and Window Fashions.
Hundreds without power seek help from Curry
By Marilyn Young Editor It was the sound for which Valarie Weigle had been waiting. JEA trucks were close, right outside her home on Chaffee Road South. She had heard and seen them on other days, too. One truck came through the neighborhood Saturday, with a driver who believed power already had been restored. When the driver learned otherwise, she promised to get someone there as soon as she could. No one came. On another day, 15 trucks were heading down the nearby interstate. But they went right by Weigle’s street. Curry And then there were at least 30 JEA trucks assembled in a parking lot across the street from her house. None stopped at her home. Finally, other JEA trucks arrived. And they were close. Weigle “literally burst into tears,” she said in an email to Mayor Lenny Curry. She was elated, the email said, until she watched them turn around and leave. No help for the 82 customers in her neighborhood still without electric service. Such has been the case for tens of thousands of JEA customers left in the dark by power outages caused by Hurricane Matthew. A sign of hope that service would be restored, followed by disappointment and more waiting. JEA’s infrastructure sustained $30 million in damages, CEO Paul McElroy told City Council members Tuesday. There were a significant number of downed trees and power lines, as well. Those factors kept JEA from hitting its self-imposed deadline of 11:59 p.m. MonJEA continued on Page A-4
Take a look at Downtown’s new Greyhound station
The architecture of the new Greyhound Lines Inc. station to be built Downtown near the Prime Osborn Convention Center will mirror the design of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s Regional Transportation Center in LaVilla, which will be completed in 2019.
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By Max Marbut Staff Writer If you don’t see the sign on the building depicting a sleek, silver racing dog in full stride, you might not immediately identify the structure as a Greyhound bus station. That’s the concept for Greyhound Lines Inc.’s new intercity bus terminal that will replace its decades-old station at Bay and Pearl streets. “They’ll have elements with their brand. You’ll recognize it’s Greyhound,” said Brad Thoburn, Jacksonville Transportation Authority vice president of
long-range planning and system development. The new building is the first phase of the authority’s $33 million Regional Transportation Center that’s scheduled to be in operation in 2019. The new station’s architecture will mirror the design chosen for the entire transportation complex and it’s scheduled to be considered for conceptual review Oct. 20 by the Downtown Development Review Board. That’s not what happened in Nashville in 2011 when Greyhound built a new station in the SoBro mixed-use district adjacent to that city’s urban core.
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Even after the building was under construction, Greyhound officials declined to comment on its appearance other than to say, in part, “Having a standard design allows our locations to be easily recognizable for our passengers,” according to an article published by The CityPaper, a Nashville news website. That’s not how it works in Jacksonville. Thoburn said JTA and Greyhound have been working together for some time to develop their new terminal as part of the transportation center complex that will combine long-distance bus transGreyhound continued on Page A-3
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