More than six years after JEA sold its Southside Generating Station site for a massive mixed-use development, ground has been broken at the Southbank property.
The 30-acre site will be home to the newly dubbed RiversEdge, a development by Preston Hollow Capital that will include public parks, townhomes and apartment buildings, a hotel, and retail and office space.
Toll Brothers is in the process of purchasing property in the development that will be used for 39 townhomes, and Preston Hollow has a signed contract for work to begin on the riverfront bulkhead, which could kick off as early as next week.
“Come some time next summer, this site will look very, very different,” Preston Hollow Managing Director Ramiro Albarran said Tuesday during a groundbreaking ceremony.
The site will be developed as one project, not in phases, said Albarran, who has been heading up the company’s partnership with the city involving the site.
“It’s important for the market to realize this is happening,” he said following the ceremony.
The city has long pushed to have the site developed — Mayor Lenny Curry remembered the excitement around the project when he first campaigned for the office in 2015 — and its 950 residential units, 140,000 square feet of retail space, 125 boat slips and more are seen as a game changer for the area.
“This mega project will have a huge impact,” said Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer, who used to represent the council district containing the project.
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