J Magazine Spring 2019

Artist Nathan Eckenrode inside perhaps 100 creative people occupying about 45
his studio on the third floor of percent of the warehouse space.
the Union Terminal complex.
The building now houses rental
A renaissance,
offices, warehouses and artists’
minor or major
studio space. The owners plan
It is the authentic combination of the historic
to develop it into retail, dining
and entertainment location for building, the almost-Downtown location and the
creatives.
native energy of the creators already staking a claim
that has led to a plan by an Atlanta-based developer
to redevelop the warehouse for residences,
commercial, retail and maybe dining and entertainment.
Columbia Ventures, which calls itself “the
Southeast’s premier social impact developer,”
bought the building in December, using a $4.5
million loan from the Jacksonville branch of LISC,
the Local Initiatives Support Corp., and may invest
more than $30 million in the project, with federal
Historic Tax Credits.
Dillon Baynes, managing partner, said Columbia,
with a local architect, will spend the first six
months of this year planning, including studying
the venerable building and its considerable deferred
maintenance to determine whether to do a
minor or major renovation.
44 J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019
If the latter, he said there could be three floors
of residential, probably workforce apartments, one
floor of “makerspace” and one of commercial. “But
we would be agnostic as to the use; we wouldn’t
ban anyone from a certain floor. The idea of the loft
would be to do what you want so long as you’re not
bothering your neighbor.”
A loft is different from an apartment in that it has
an open floor plan with a bathroom and a kitchen
but otherwise open space for the occupant to organize
and use as he or she wishes, for living or work
or both. Think of a section of a warehouse, with the
original big windows restored.
“For people who are merely looking for a new
apartment, there are lots of places in Jacksonville,”
Baynes said. “We will create a loft experience.”
For a comparable project, he pointed to Studioplex
in Atlanta, where Columbia renovated an old
industrial building into rental lofts, with commercial
and restaurants. (www.studioplexlofts.com)
“In Studioplex today, we have restaurants, we
have artists, we have doctors and lawyers, we have
an entire creative class of people. We just finished
adding 30,000 square feet of retail to the community,
and we’ll continue to add over time. We have