The Downtown Development Review Board said a proposed Home2 Suites by Hilton in Brooklyn can have a surface parking lot despite its staff’s objection that it conflicts with the area’s design code.
The board voted 6-0 May 13 to grant final design approval for the six-story, 100-room hotel at 600 Park St. a joint project of Kelco Management and Development Inc. and Corner Lot Development Group.
Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow attorney Cyndy Trimmer, who represents Kelco and Corner Lot, said the structured parking garage required by the Downtown Zoning Overlay would not be feasible or financially viable for the 10,720-square-foot hotel layout.
07:50 PM EST Share The project is the first of two city-backed infrastructure projects linked to the construction of FIS’s Brooklyn headquarters.
Jacksonville City Council approved a $3.5 million city-backed construction completion grant for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc.’s Brooklyn parking garage at 800 Forest St.
Council voted 18-0 to approve Ordinance 2020-0756 that appropriates the grant for the insurance company’s four-level, 869-space, 269,080-square-foot garage that’s now complete.
The grant is tied to Fidelity National Information Services Inc.’s $156 million, 12-story headquarters under construction at 347 Riverside Ave.
The Downtown Investment Authority offered Florida Blue the taxpayer incentive and the city-owned Forest Street property so that the insurer could make its former 4½-acre riverfront surface lot available for the FIS project.
Kelco Management and Development still has design work to do before Downtown regulators will allow it to break ground on a proposed Home2 Suites by Hilton in Brooklyn.
The Downtown Development Review Board voted 7-0 on Dec. 10 to award conceptual approval to the project at 600 Park St.
The board expects the extended-stay hotel to have higher quality architectural finishes when it returns for final review.
Several DDRB members said the construction materials presented in the plans and renderings look like a “suburban” product and not something found in the Downtown design overlay.
“This looks like the Home2 budget hotel,” board member Craig Davisson said. “It looks like it’s not up to the standard on what I’ve seen of other Home2 hotels.”