The Beach House in Jacksonville Beach Ready to Go

After years of planning and legal wrangling, The Beach House, one of Jacksonville Beach's last approved high-rise projects, is preparing to start construction.

By the time voters approved a 35-foot height limit referendum in 2004, developer Martha Cesery Taylor had already received the development plan approval for the beachfront property at First Street and 14th Avenue S. But it took a circuit court ruling in January to allow her to apply for the building permit necessary to start construction.

"We're very delighted to finally get some good press," said Taylor, president of Southern Waterview Development Inc. "We're locals, we want to hire locals. We're not big, bad developers from South Florida."

The Beach House is a 10-story, 37-unit condominium project with units ranging from 3,100 square feet to 6,000 square feet and priced at $1.6 million to $3 million.

Amenities include a lap pool and spa, a fitness center, a media/billiards room, a parlor with a fireplace and catering kitchen for entertaining and a greenhouse and herb garden maze.

All the units will have ocean views. Interior units are designed to have views of the ocean to the east and the Intracoastal Waterway to the west.

Taylor hopes the building will be one of the first green residential high-rises in Florida. She is trying for the designation, she said, because "I have asthma and I believe in living in a clean environment."

Green buildings reduce their impact on health and the environment through siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal that are environmentally conscious. The United States Green Building Council and the Florida Green Building Coalition set standards and certify green buildings in Florida.

Applicants for the council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for green construction must meet minimum standards for water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality and innovation and design processes.

Two of the 12 Florida LEED-certified buildings are in Jacksonville, said Paki Taylor (no relation to the developer), the vice chairman of the North Florida division of the council. No condominium high-rises have met the criteria yet.

"It's admirable, that's for sure," Paki Taylor said of the developer's green goal, but the criteria are "very rigorous."

"There's a lot of people talking green, but what it boils down to is that you have to show it's green," she said.

Building a LEED-certified structure may add 4 percent to a project's costs, she said, but most of the environmental upgrades pay for themselves relatively quickly.

This is Martha Cesery Taylor's first development project, but not her first experience in the field. She is a licensed architect, a real estate broker and the daughter of the late William R. Cesery, a local developer for whom Cesery Boulevard is named.

Two other developers also had projects approved before the 2004 referendum, said Steve Lindorff, Jacksonville Beach's director of planning and development. Five or six other developers are also moving through the judicial process.

Taylor has not applied for the building permit, but expects to start construction in June and to finish the project by 2009.

Source: Bizjournal.com