With heavy smoke still billowing from an eight-story apartment building under construction in downtown Jacksonville, Mayor Donna Deegan called the overnight fire “heartbreaking” and said the building suffered devastating damage just a month before it was slated to open.
The building along A. Philip Randolph Boulevard in the sports complex, just a few blocks from VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, was ravaged by a blaze that 110 firefighters worked on Sunday night and into Monday to control so it wouldn’t damage next-door businesses, according to the Fire and Rescue Department.
Deegan said Monday the investigation of what started the fire is ongoing. As of 6 p.m. Monday, the structure was deemed structurally unsafe and the wood framing of the building would come down, Deegan said.
“We’re concerned obviously about not only the safety of people in the buildings nearby, but also we just don’t want to destroy anybody’s structure,” Deegan said.
The RISE Doro complex is among the residential developments that city leaders have worked to incentivize in order to reach a milestone of 10,000 residents in downtown.