Safety fencing goes up on Wednesday around the Rise Doro apartment building as the city prepares to demolish most of it after a fire gutted the structure. | Dan Scanlan, WJCT News 89.9
Published on January 31, 2024 at 2:25 pm
Jacksonville officials are preparing to trigger an emergency demolition permit to tear down the new seven-story Rise Doro apartment building after a fire gutted it Monday.
Fences were erected around the Downtown building on Wednesday, and ELEV8 Demolition of Jacksonville will move in construction equipment Wednesday and Thursday for what the city calls a “safe demolition process” that will occur “as swiftly as possible.”
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The fire was reported at 9:30 p.m. Sunday and brought 110 firefighters as the building burned through the next day.
Fire Chief Keith Powers called the fire “one of the worst” in the city in a decade, leaving the brand new building on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard a total loss. City engineers determined the building is structurally unsafe, so the wood framing inside will be torn down, Mayor Donna Deegan said.
Rise real estate President Greg Blais said the building had insurance and the company will begin rebuilding as soon as possible. The cost is unknown because Rise must go through a redesign and permitting process and see how the market affects costs.
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The demolition is expected to cost $1 million, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record, a Jacksonville Today news partner. The demolition will tear down the facade and wood framing of the building, but city officials and Blais said a lot of precast concrete at its core should remain intact.
“There’s a parking deck and a podium — a concrete podium that God willing is unaffected and still sustainable and usable,” Blais said. “If that’s the case we will definitely try to do so. If it’s not and its unsafe as well, it will also come down.”
Since Rise Doro will not open as expected in March, the property will not get a nearly $6 million tax incentive that had been approved.
The Downtown Investment Authority Board authorized the Recapture Enhanced Value Grant in mid-October. City officials said the grant will be given once the building is rebuilt and open.
Intuition Ale Works and Manifest Distillery across East Forsyth Street and the city parking garage will not open until the walls are demolished, Deegan said.
