JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A group of community volunteers is taking matters into their own hands at a 118-year-old duplex sitting in neglect in downtown Jacksonville — and they want answers about who owns it and why.
The historic property at 411 North Liberty Street, built in 1908, had couches, wooden boards, beds and garbage scattered around it before members of the social media page Rootin4Jax showed up to clean it out.
“We said, hey, we see a problem in the community, so we decided to show up and take some action and report it to the city so that they are aware of it — to get something going, to do something about it,” said Jesse Jones, the creator of Rootin4Jax, a page dedicated to highlighting historic buildings and preservation in Jacksonville.
Six complaints, one neglected property
According to the city of Jacksonville, the property has racked up six complaints and case records in the last five years. Those complaints include overgrowth, trash and debris, an unsecured vacant structure, and unsafe structural conditions.
The city confirmed it has contacted the owner — Duval Street Properties LLC — multiple times.
A million-dollar purchase, a $132,000 market value
County records tell a complicated financial story. The property sold for $300,000 in 2002. Then, on December 28, 2022, it sold again for $950,000. Its current market value is listed at just $132,000.
Jones did not hold back when asked about the price tag.
“You spent almost a million dollars to not even pick up the trash,” he said.
Neighbors see it every day
The neglect is hard to ignore. Just across the street sit the Lofts at the Cathedral, a new apartment complex where residents look directly onto the property.
Jones said properties like this one are holding the neighborhood back.
“It’s properties like this that continue to hold downtown back,” he said.
What volunteers hope happens next
Rootin4Jax volunteers pushed the trash to the sidewalk and reported the blight to the city, hoping officials will pick it up. But the bigger question — what the owner plans to do with the property — remains unanswered.
“I understand a property being vacant, but when you have an owner that recently bought a property for almost a million dollars and they are not even doing the bare minimum or picking up the trash to maintain those properties, it makes you wonder what is the intention behind it,” Jones said. “Are you wanting to tear it down? Do you have other motives?”
Volunteers hope the answer is not demolition. For now, they are watching — and cleaning up — what they can.
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