Jacksonville Maritime Museum looking for new home
On January 4 Peter Baci, president of the Jacksonville Maritime Museum Society (JMMS), met with the Jacksonville Waterways Commission in search for a sponsor to help it acquire access to small piece of property from the State Department of Transportation as a site for a new maritime museum.
JMMS president Peter Baci at the proposed museum site overlooking the Southbank Riverwalk. |
Currently the museum in a small 5000 sq. ft. building that was once an open pavilion on Jacksonville's Southbank Riverwalk. The complex building was build on a dolphin pier sitting in the river and has leaked continuously since it was occupied by the museum in 1994.
The museum's collection has expanded and is being maintained in several other offices and in storage.
The piece of property that the museum would like to build a new museum on is located at the south end of the Southbank Riverwalk, on a small triangular parcel of land sitting between a boat ramp and the Acosta Bridge. The site is separated from the rest of the Riverwalk by the boat ramp and is currently developed as a parking lot for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority but on most days is less than 10% utilized.
The JMMS has designed for a 13,000 square foot museum that it proposes building on the site that would interact well with the Riverwalk. The museum has already raised approximately $200,000 toward the estimated 2 million dollar price tag for the new museum
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Proposed museum site is now an under utilized parking lot.. |
The major potential roadblock for the project is getting the sign off of Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton. The property is part of a larger parcel sitting between the Main Street and Acosta bridges that is currently occupied by a waterfront park, a restaurant, the Jacksonville Museum of Science & History and between the Riverwalk and the shore, the current maritime museum site. Peyton, a major property developer before becoming mayor, is reportedly eying the property for private development of condominiums.