Duval County

First Baptist church may demolish historic building, sells other buildings to investors

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Historic First Baptist Church building may be demolished

Steve Williams, co-founder of “Mapping Jax,” tells Action News Jax he was surprised to learn about the plans of the First Baptist Church downtown to demolish a historic building it owns. The building was constructed in 1927.

“I’m concerned that we’re taking away more of our story. I’m concerned that we are recklessly going through downtown and getting rid of these buildings that seem ugly possibly to someone,” said Williams. “… We want them to save this building.”

Action News Jax obtained a statement from First Baptist Church about the project.

“The plan for the First Baptist Sunday School building is to demolish it to make room for a beautiful and spacious new welcome center that would connect all of our remaining buildings on that block, and serve as an entry into the historic Hobson Auditorium,” said Heath Lambert, senior pastor. “The entire project to demolish buildings, to restore the Hobson Auditorium, and to remodel the other remaining buildings is projected to be $30 million. We are working with architects and city officials to comply with the code and anticipate beginning this project as soon as our demolition permit is approved.”

Soon, a city of Jacksonville board will decide whether the project gets the green light.

Williams says he’s not opposed to development downtown but is concerned about how historic buildings are being treated.

“I feel like the developers are leading the city instead of maybe the city leading the developers,” said Williams.

First Baptist Church buildings sold to Investment Company

But the possible changes don’t stop there. We’ve learned the First Baptist Church recently sold two buildings on Ashley Street to an investment company called EJPC, LLC.

Co-manager James Wiss tells us they bought the property for about $1.13 million on Feb. 15 and says it could become a $25 million development with about 200 apartments.

“Obviously, we’re extremely early in the development stage, but our initial plan if we continue moving forward would be an apartment, retail complex,” said Wiss.

Wiss tells us one of the buildings will likely be preserved, and the other is still being evaluated.