A few weeks ago, while I was working on a column about the construction of the Independent Life building 50 years ago, one of the people involved said something I had never heard before.
Larry Denny, who worked for KBJ Architects, said that when Independent Life agreed to build the 37-story building — which was then the tallest building in Florida — the company did not ask for incentives from the city, but did get a promise from the city: A tower would never be built on the land between the building and the river.
“Now these crooks are talking about building right there,” he said.
There were plans to build the 44-story American Lions residential development on the former Landing site. And while those plans have fallen by the wayside, the idea of building a high-rise there has not. At a Downtown Investment Authority workshop last month, DIA staff recommended delaying, but not stopping, potential development on the northeast corner of Riverfront Plaza.
Delay is the key word here. And that’s exactly what continues to happen with plans for the park. Phase 1 is under construction and is scheduled to be completed by the end of next year. But if Phase 2 moves forward at this rate, it will be years before this park is truly finished.
More: 50 years ago, Independent Life was more than a high-rise in Jacksonville | Mark Woods
After I wrote the column about the Independent Life building, I spoke with JF Bryan IV. His family had founded Independent Life. And in the early 1970s he was on the building committee for the tower. When I asked him about Denny’s statement about the city agreeing not to build a high-rise on that site, he said, “That’s very true.”
He recalled more details. He said five companies that owned land nearby came together and agreed – “and the city agreed with us” – that a skyscraper would never be built there.
That would not exclude what happened in 1987 when the two-story Landing opened. It would exclude what is still an option now.
When I asked Bryan if this was in writing, he said it was “probably just a handshake deal.” He noted that, as hard as it is to believe today, the actual construction of the building began with a handshake deal between Independent Life and the Auchter Company.
I tried to get a written agreement not to build a high-rise there. I didn’t succeed. So it feels a little like when the previous mayor’s administration decided to remove the Times-Union name from the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. Never mind that key figures on both sides of the original agreement remembered that they had asked for the name to stay there in perpetuity. That was apparently not in writing.
The moral of the story: write it down.
In the case of the site in front of the Independent building, I will not argue that a tower should not be built there because of a handshake deal from the 1970s.
I would argue that a tower should not be built there for a simpler, more current reason: it’s a park.
Or at least it is becoming one. And it could and should be the centerpiece of a large, linear urban park, with waterfront promenades and bridges connecting everything, with private development, but also with some important public spaces. Especially this one.
It’s not a huge piece of land, just 7 acres.
Squeezing a tower in there – even one that is supposedly “narrow, tall and iconic” – has a dramatic impact on the space.
This does not mean that there should be no man-made structures at Riverfront Plaza. should. There should be a place to eat or drink. There should be a place where children can play. It should include much of what was included in the original Perkins&Will design (which envisioned a much smaller hotel).
This is hardly a new idea.
When I spoke to JF Bryan IV, he said something else I had never heard before: “Fifty years ago, the plan was to take the area between the Independent Life building and the river – a surface parking lot – and build something over it.”
No tower.
“They wanted to raise the land and build a park on it,” he said.
“The plan was to create parks along the river.”
The plan to park in the parking lot fell by the wayside. Instead, a garage was built on a plot diagonally across from the Independent Life building. It was only meant to be temporary. 50 years later, it is still there.
And we are still working on the plans for the riverfront.
Now a new residential tower is planned, this time on the east side of the Main Street Bridge, the old Landing parking lot. Under current plans, at 720 feet tall and 53 stories, it would be the tallest building between Atlanta and Miami and would feature 320 condominiums and 35,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.
There are still many question marks, concerns and complications. To make this happen, among other things, the east ramp of the Main Street Bridge would have to be removed. And as things stand (or not stand) now, we are still evaluating both sides of the bridge as sites for possible towers.
We should basically make this a relocation of towers.
Don’t build one in the park. Build the park.
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