J Magazine Winter 2019
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Last year, Simpson Memorial United Methodist<br />
Church moved out of its deteriorating property<br />
at Kings Road and Cleveland Street.<br />
considered offering the property for redevelopment,<br />
Luckey said. But several nonprofits<br />
meet at the church, including the Downtown<br />
Ecumenical Services Council, which provides<br />
food, clothing and financial assistance<br />
for the needy.<br />
The church is involved with Cathedral<br />
District-Jax, a nonprofit started by St. John’s<br />
Episcopal Cathedral to foster the redevelopment<br />
around the Cathedral.<br />
The Cathedral has been involved in<br />
Downtown redevelopment since the 1960s,<br />
under the leadership of Dean Robert Parks,<br />
who left in 1971 to become rector of Trinity<br />
Wall Street. Parks built three high-rises for<br />
about 650 seniors and a rehabilitation center<br />
Downtown.<br />
More recently, Dean Kate Moorehead<br />
established Cathedral District-Jax, which is<br />
spearheading the redevelopment of the old<br />
Community Connections (YWCA) property<br />
next door to the Cathedral. The Vestcor<br />
Company is buying the property and plans<br />
to build the Lofts at the Cathedral with mar-<br />
rate and affordable housing. Lket<br />
ori Boyer, chief executive<br />
officer of the Downtown<br />
Investment Authority,<br />
said the churches are<br />
an important player<br />
Downtown because they<br />
bring people Downtown.<br />
But since churches are tax exempt, they<br />
haven’t contributed to the economic base of<br />
Downtown.<br />
“The possibility that some church property<br />
could be available for development has<br />
the potential for activation on more than<br />
Sunday and Wednesday, but five or seven<br />
days a week,” Boyer said. “And it would put<br />
those properties on the tax rolls and help<br />
contribute to the overall tax base.”<br />
The unique thing about churches is their<br />
architecture. Sanctuaries are not the most<br />
adaptable structures but offices and classroom<br />
space are.<br />
That has been the challenge facing the<br />
old Snyder Memorial United Methodist<br />
Church property on Hemming Park. The<br />
historic church, founded in 1870, is on the<br />
National Register of Historic Places. The<br />
Gothic Revival building of granite and limestone<br />
was constructed in 1903 to replace the<br />
sanctuary destroyed in the Great Fire of 1901.<br />
The church closed in 1992 and the<br />
property was bought in 2000 by the River<br />
City Band, which performed in the sanctuary.<br />
The city took over the mortgage and has<br />
owned the building since the early 2000s<br />
after the band moved out.<br />
Several ideas have been floated to convert<br />
the church into a museum, a visitors center<br />
or a club but nothing has materialized.<br />
Boyer said Snyder is a high priority for<br />
redevelopment.<br />
“It’s a wonderfully iconic building in the<br />
center of Downtown,” Boyer said. “We have<br />
quite a bit of interest. I’m really hopeful we<br />
will have some genuine offers within the<br />
next 12 months.”<br />
At least three groups have expressed<br />
interest lately, including one from out of<br />
town. Boyer said all of the proposals are<br />
revenue-producing.<br />
Also generating a lot of interest is the First<br />
Baptist property, 12 acres in the Cathedral<br />
District that has seen little redevelopment.<br />
“I think they’re trying to be deliberate<br />
about what they do with the property so they<br />
get what they want and not just sell it off to<br />
the highest bidder,” Boyer said.<br />
“I would love to have a master plan for<br />
that property. From a city perspective, there<br />
are few places in the urban core that have<br />
that quantity of land that is available. There’s<br />
an opportunity to do something much<br />
bigger, a medical campus or a university<br />
presence. It would take time to pull it together,<br />
but I’d like to see the possibilities before<br />
we lose the opportunity.”<br />
First Baptist has not disclosed its plans,<br />
but in September, when asking for the congregation<br />
to support the sale of the property,<br />
Lambert said, “I want to stop the decline of<br />
the Downtown church and want to be a better<br />
neighbor to Downtown. I think this plan<br />
allows us to simultaneously do both.”<br />
Downtown, once dominated by the<br />
massive presence of First Baptist Church, will<br />
have a new look.<br />
Lilla Ross, a former Florida Times-Union editor,<br />
lives in San Marco.<br />
JEFF DAVIS (2)<br />
Located across from Hemming Park, Snyder<br />
Memorial United Methodist Church closed in<br />
1992. The building remains vacant.<br />
70<br />
J MAGAZINE | WINTER <strong>2019</strong>