Industrial adaptive reuse will increase in popularity

The Union Terminal Warehouse Company construction site on January 11, 2024.

As we’ve noted before, adaptive reuse of existing buildings is driving much of the forward momentum in the Downtown Northbank and other parts of the Urban Core. While much of the energy has gone into converting office and commercial buildings, industrial adaptive reuse is emerging as a major part of this renaissance.

At the time of its completion in 1913, the Historic Eastside’s Union Terminal Warehouse Company was the largest industrial building in Florida. Now the 330,000-square-foot warehouse is the centerpiece of a $72 million redevelopment project, which is Florida’s first Historic Tax Credit project in a Federal Opportunity Zone and the state’s largest Historic Tax Credit project by square footage. When completed later this year, the project will include 228 apartments, over 20,000 square feet of community commercial space, even more maker/artist studio space, and room for a restaurant and coffee shop.

And the Eastside isn’t the only place where industrial adaptive reuse is taking off in Jacksonville. In 1897, Henry M. Flagler opened the Jacksonville Terminal Co., which quickly became one of the busiest train stations in the country. Flagler’s company soon leased surrounding property to supporting industries in what’s now been rebranded the Rail Yard District. The Florida Ice Manufacturing Co. was one of the earliest to open, in 1902. Here, ice was manufactured for household and railcar use, and it supplied cold storage to local industries. The cold storage business eventually became Caribbean Shipping & Cold Storage. Recently, a portion of the former cold storage warehouse was redeveloped into a creative office building that serves as the central anchor for a mixed-use development called Dennis + Ives.

These two major redevelopment projects are a part of a national trend that has witnessed obsolete industrial buildings transformed into a mix of uses, including apartment lofts, entertainment venues, office space, restaurants and boutique retail. With downtown surrounded by century old warehouse districts, expect to see several new large infill and adaptive reuses projects proposed for former local industrial sites in 2024.

F&J railroad corridor: The urban core’s next revitalization hotspot

A rendering of the proposed Phoenix Arts & Innovation District

Today it’s just a wide linear green strip of overgrown vegetation serving as the border between Springfield and the Eastside. But 143 years ago, this forgotten path was a major gateway into Florida’s largest city. In 1881, it was part of the Fernandina and Jacksonville Railroad (F&J), the first railroad constructed through Springfield, running 22 miles from Yulee in Nassau County to the St. Johns River. In 1898, the Atlantic, Valdosta & Western Railway built the last railroad line into Jacksonville, running parallel with the F&J between Springfield and Historic Eastside.

After the Fernandina and Jacksonville became the Seaboard Air Line, or S-Line, in 1899, and the Atlantic, Valdosta and Jacksonville was acquired by Southern Railway in 1901, by World War II, the logistics provided by the railroad corridor had attracted several planing mills and other industrial uses including Swisher International, Coca-Cola, Jacksonville Shipyards and Maxwell House Coffee.

But what was considered to be cutting edge industrial architecture 100 years ago had become obsolete by the late 20th century. As a result, rail traffic declined, leading to the abandonment of a significant portion of the old rail corridor after the closure of the Jacksonville Shipyards.

While manufacturing may be out, the rail corridor has left Jacksonville’s urban core with a collection of old unique buildings that can’t be replicated with modern construction techniques. Sandwiched between Springfield and Historic Eastside, two popular revitalizing neighborhoods, the old railroad corridor is poised to become the urban core’s next revitalization hot spot in 2024.

At the St. Johns Riverfront, plans continue to progress on the redevelopment of the former Jacksonville Shipyards site into a new riverfront park. In the Eastside, Atlanta-based Columbia Ventures will complete the restoration of the Union Terminal Warehouse into a mixed-use property in 2024. A few blocks north in Springfield, the Florida Mining Gallery will be relocating its museum-style contemporary art gallery to a former warehouse. On the north end of the corridor, Future of Cities will rehabilitate 8.3-acres of old industrial property into the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District. When complete, the collection of Springfield Warehouse District buildings will be repurposed into artist studios, gathering spaces, retail and restaurants.

As for the old abandoned railroad corridor itself, there are plans to revamp it into a future segment of the Emerald Trail system. With these major adaptive reuse projects anchoring the linear corridor, expect to see additional projects announced in 2024 for nearby aging industrial sites.