Page 2 - Augustine Development News Today

The 18-0 vote marks the second time the city has agreed to partner with Augustine Development Group. City Council previously agreed to an amended development agreement in May 2020 that committed $1.5 million in historic preservation fund money to help finance renovating the abandoned Ambassador Hotel, which is a few blocks from the Independent Life Building. The Downtown Investment Authority has given several months of extensions to the developer to get started on the Ambassador work, most re...

08:10 PM EST Share An Augustine Development Group LLC subsidiary plans 135 apartment units, a grocery store and restaurant at the 19-story Downtown tower. The Jacksonville City Council approved a $3 million historic preservation grant Jan. 26 for Augustine Development Group LLC’s proposed $30 million renovation to Downtown’s Independent Life Building. The Council voted 18-0 to commit money from the city’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund to help finance Augustine Developme...

12:08 PM EST Share City lawmakers held a side policy debate on when to budget and allocate award money from the Historic Preservation Trust Fund. Four City Council committees voted 7-0 this week to advance a $3 million historic preservation grant for Augustine Development Group LLC’s proposed $30 million renovations to Downtown’s Independent Life Building for a final vote. The Jan. 20 support by the Finance and Rules committees advances Ordinance 2020-0707 to the Council. Th...

JWB Real Estate Capital President Alex Sifakis describes the inside of the abandoned, 96-year-old Florida Baptist Convention Building at 218 W. Church St. in downtown Jacksonville this way. "It looks like Jumanji," he said. "You’ve got skylights that are just holes in the roof and ferns growing in there. You can see from the outside the bricks are falling off. When you’re inside you can see the potential, but it also looks like a lot of work.” The five-story building designed by famed ...

05:10 AM EST Share When it comes to progress in Northeast Florida in the new year, these are the places that will be driving headlines North Core  Four developers — JWB Real Estate Capital, Augustine Development Group, ACE JAX LLC and Jim and Ellen Wiss — have announced $116.1 million of investments in the historic area they’ve collectively branded the North Core. The North Core is bordered by State, Broad, Church and Main streets. Apartments for the North Core JWB, led b...

Managing Director and CEO, JEA Jay Stowe, the new CEO of Jacksonville’s municipal water and electric utility since Nov. 30, inherited an organization cooperating in a federal grand jury probe and preparing a five-year, $2.5 billion capital investment plan.  His hiring ended a 1½-year period that saw an attempt to sell JEA to a private company, resulting in U.S. Department of Justice and City Council investigations and the firing of former CEO Aaron Zahn and his senior leadership team. Stowe...