The former site of The Florida Times-Union offices and production facilities is close to the beginnings of new buildings and construction.

While the Times-Union relocated to the Wells Fargo Center downtown in 2019, it’s taken the past three years to demolish the iconic newspaper complex at 1 Riverside Ave. on the Northbank.

Fuqua Development of Atlanta plans to build an apartment complex at the site with additional retail and other amenities. The 18.8-acre property is being referred to as the 1 Riverside Ave. project. The $250 million development will eventually have about 400 apartment units, a Whole Foods grocery store and other mixed-use additions.

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The Jacksonville Building Inspection Division gave the go-ahead for permits allowing the pouring of the reinforced concrete foundations for three buildings and a parking garage in August.

The cost of the foundation project will run about $3.5 million, according to the permits. Live Oak Contracting LLC will handle the work.

1 Riverside Property LLC, which is owned by the Morris family of Augusta, Ga., sold the property to Fuqua. Morris owned the Times-Union from 1983 until October 2017 when GateHouse Media assumed ownership. The newspaper currently is part of Gannett, which merged with GateHouse in November 2019.

More parking coming for downtown

Additional parking is going to be added for the downtown area near Jacksonville City Hall.

Building permits have been approved at 33 W. Duval St., the future headquarters of Downtown Vision Inc., an organization that advocates downtown development. The plans are for the city to add reinforced concrete below an existing parking garage.

The project, under contract with Auld & White Construction LLC, is the second phase of adding more parking in the area and will cost $1.8 million.

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Additional building permits

8000 Lem Turner Road, Unit 2, tenant buildout for ChenMed Lake Forest Park owned by Chen Neighborhood Medical, $989,280. CBJ Construction Inc.

701 San Marco Blvd., tenant improvements to the seventh floor for the Prudential Insurance Co. of America building, 31,900 square feet, $952,743. Tenant Contractors Inc.

7147 Philips Highway, demolition of existing 217-square-foot yard to make way for 610-square-foot building for a kitchen for a Chick-fil-A restaurant, $850,000. Horizon Construction Co.

1833 Boulevard St., demolition of parking garages for Shands Jacksonville Affiliates Inc., $698,000. C Harrison Construction Inc.

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9790 Historic Kings Road, Units 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500, construction of five structural steel industrial units at the Hagan Building, $645,000 combined. Home Design & Reconstruction LLC.

9940 Old Baymeadows Road, finishing restaurant work for Scramblers at Deerwood Village Mall, 3,318 square feet, $550,414. Skyline Construction Inc.

10300 Southside Blvd., Unit 304, pouring of reinforced concrete for improvements for a Popeye’s restaurant at The Avenues mall, $262,740. The Malle Co. Inc.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Former Florida Times-Union site prepped for Jacksonville development