Heckscher Drive Neighborhood

History makes way for housing

Sep 15, 2000

The Annie Lytle Elementary School will be turned into condominiums and loft-style homes.

By Mark Gordon Times-Union business writer

After surviving a fire, an explosion and a few graffiti vandals who used the outer walls as a canvas, an 82-year-old Jacksonville school is finally getting its facelift.

The Annie Lytle Elementary School, on the brink of downtown Jacksonville in Riverside, is slated to be transformed into condominiums and loft-style homes by next fall. Jacksonville-based developer Cheyenne Properties plans to turn the school, which was built in 1918 but has not been used for more than 20 years, into a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom homes, including some oversized units with 20-foot-high windows and 14-foot-high ceilings.

"This is going to be a beautiful building," said Mark Werner, the president of Realty Management Group, the agency handling most of the leases. "We're going to sell it to the type of people who live in Riverside, so there is going to be a mix of young and old people."

The Lytle project comes one day after Jacksonville developer Vestcor Properties said it too would be turning a pair of downtown buildings, the old Roosevelt Hotel and the American Heritage Life Building, into condominiums and apartment homes.

Werner said the location of the school -- near downtown corporate offices and in a growing neighborhood -- will help sell the condos to a big audience. He expects that some people will buy for a personal place to live, while other purchases will come from companies with downtown offices that want to set up a corporate apartment for travelling employees.

And he said the complex itself will be attractive, because in addition to the size of the condominiums, there will be a swimming pool and covered parking for all tenants, including 26 underground parking spots. Washer-and-dryer hook-ups and microwave ovens are some of the other features.

The Lytle school, designated an official historic site by the Jacksonville City Council earlier this year, is at 1011 Gilmore St., just north of the Fuller Warren Bridge and can be seen off Interstate 95 at the College Street exit. The new homes, called Lytle Place Condominiums, will become one of the first historic sites in Jacksonville to be turned into apartments.

Because of the historic status, Werner said the developers have to follow certain procedures to preserve the building. For example, nothing outside the school can be wrecked or altered from its current position. The plan does call for a park to be built outside the front door, near the spot where the College Street exit currently sits -- the exit will be taken out when the Fuller Warren construction is completed.

Werner said historic site statutes also offers another bonus: Buildings that fall under the category usually get tax exemptions, so it's possible a condominium buyer can go up to 10 years without paying real estate taxes. The specific formula for taxing the property and the condominiums is still being worked out by city officials.

The project comes just five years after a fire, believed to be started by vagrants, swarmed through parts of the building. And it caught fire again a few months later when nearby trash bags were set ablaze.

The school was built for $252,000 by a group of architects who came to Jacksonville after the Great Fire of 1901. It was named for Annie Lytle Housh, a principal at the school when it was called Riverside Grammar.

After the school closed, it became an office for the school district. Ownership changed a few times, and rumors about the building's future varied from someone turning it into a seminary to another developer making it an arts center. A television and movie company expressed interest at one time, too.

Generally speaking, the building is considered part of Riverside, right around the corner from the Brooklyn neighborhood, a cluster of loft-style arts galleries. But under Jacksonville's zoning system, it falls within the territory of the Downtown Development Authority.