Halsema Building at 8th and Market

The troubles of Craig Van Horn have been many and varied. Most recently JaxScene documented that Craig hasn’t paid JEA $15,000 he owes on an electric bill. This non-payment may force the residents of the building out, including a local salon.

The tenants in 121 E. 8th Street including myself are currently all running around, meeting people and making phone calls. JEA was here last week trying to find our water valve so they can cut it off. Why? Our landlord, Craig Van Horn, has not been paying his bill.

There may be a silver lining to the Craig Van Horn legacy with the proposed purchasing of the Halsema building by Mack Bissette (SRG) and Jack Meeks (Meeks, Ross, Selander, CPAs). It is “under contract to be purchased”. SRG/Meeks still have to do due diligence including inspections and environmental. Provided due diligence doesn’t turn up anything unexpected, contract should go through. The Halsema building is located about 30 yards from 121 E. 8th Street so maybe there’s a chance SRG and Meeks will acquire that property too.

This is the first joint venture between SRG and Meek’s into Springfield’s commercial corridor redevelopment. The building is approximately 15,500 square feet on two stories, and currently houses a social service organization and a few renters in the residential units (approx 25% occupied).

The interior spaces are reportedly in poor-to-fair condition, but do feature some interesting urban achitectural features such as brick walls in the end units. SRG/Meeks plan to renovate the building into a Class A historic building, which will then be marketed as workforce and some live-work housing.

“Jack and I remain committed to this Springfield’s residential and commercial corridor efforts, and we look forward to transforming this historic building back into the gem it used to be,” said Mr. Bissette. “We’ll be taking our renovation inspiration from the historic picture of the building that is hanging inside Worman’s deli downtown.”

You can read about the initial discovery and demise of the Van Horn ownership of the Halsema building on Metro Jacksonville.

There seems to be no stopping SRG and their commercial/residential development machine. I know Mack and SRG conjure lots of differing opinions, but there is no doubt in my mind this new commercial development push is going to be good for Springfield. Look for SRG to release plans for several multi-family projects in the coming years.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 13th, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Springfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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