The apartments once known as Franklin Arms were a notorious hot spot in the Eastside for crime, drug dealing and building code violations before the Jacksonville Housing Authority bought the sitein 2023 with plans for renovating the 55-year-old building.
The housing authority still intends to make one of the biggest residential investments ever in the Eastside, but it has changed course on how to do it. The strategy now calls for tearing down the four-story building by the end of the year and constructing a new apartment complex geared toward residents 55 and older in its place.
"The demolition of this is really about a new beginning for not just the residents here, for not just only those on the Eastside, but for everyone," Jacksonville Housing
Authority CEO Cheron Corbettsaid while walking on the sidewalk next to the fenced-in site. "This should be a model property."
Corbett said it will have about 130 apartments with "top of the line appliances," energy-efficient washers and dryers, and screened-in porches. Instead of the window air conditioning units in the current building, the new apartments will have central air and heating.
"Even if you're traveling from afar and you drive by, you should be like whoa, tell me more about that," Corbett said. "And then you find out it happens to be affordable."
Construction of the new apartments will be a partnership between the housing authority and Paces Preservation Partners. The total development cost is $50 million. Hard construction costs are estimated a $30 million with other soft costs rounding out the total.
City Council recently approved $1 million to help pay for demolition that has started on the interior and has a target of clearing the site by mid-December.
The apartment building dates back to 1971. It wasn't always a blight, said Travis Williams, who grew up in a home along Odessa Street across from the apartments.
"Over time, it got like this, but it's been a challenge," Williams said. "It had a lot of crime that emanated from that address and location."
Williams said the new apartments will bring "new life, new energy" to a site that "definitely was a negative pull on the neighborhood before."
Williams serves as president of Lift Jax, a nonprofit striving to help end generational poverty in the Eastside. Lift Jax helped make the case to the housing authority for buying the property that was known as Downtown East Apartments at that time.
The authority paid $8 million for the 98-unit building in November 2023, a year after the city had declared the property a public nuisance because of violent crime.
![The Jacksonville Housing Authority is working with a developer to tear down the vacant Downtown East Apartments building, formerly known as Franklin Arms, located at 888 Franklin Street in Jacksonville, Fla. The property is show here, Tuesday, August 18, 2026 They plan to build a new affordable housing community for seniors in the Eastside neighborhood of Jacksonville. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2026/08/20/NFTU/91390163007-eastside-apartment-building-004.JPG)
After Corbett moved to Jacksonville as CEO of the housing authority in April 2025, she began examining the financial viability of doing a complete rehabilitation of the building.
She said construction costs had gone up to the point that it made more sense financially to demolish the building and build from the ground up.
The construction will be the second big residential investment in the Eastside in recent years, following the privately financed renovation of the historic Union Terminal Warehouse into a 228-unit apartment building. Columbia Ventures put $72 million into the restoration of that building whose landmark is a red rooftop water tower.
![The Jacksonville Housing Authority is working with a developer to tear down the vacant Downtown East Apartments building, formerly known as Franklin Arms, located at 888 Franklin Street in Jacksonville, Fla. The property is show here, Tuesday, August 18, 2026 They plan to build a new affordable housing community for seniors in the Eastside neighborhood of Jacksonville. [Doug Engle/Florida Times-Union]](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2026/08/20/NFTU/91389414007-eastside-apartment-building-001.JPG)
The apartments planned by the housing authority and Paces Preservation Partners will be geared toward older residents.
The site is a one-block walk to A. Phillip Randolph Boulevard, which is the main street into the Eastside, and is catty-corner to The Church of Oakland, a mainstay of the Eastside that has done its own community developments over the years.
The Corner at Debs Store, a neighborhood grocery store that opened in 2024, is a few minutes away.
A Phillip Randolph Boulevard extends from the Eastside neighborhood into the sports and entertainment district that's home to the football stadium, arena, baseball park and amphitheater.
Corbett said those neaby destinations will appeal to residents.
"I'm pretty sure this is going to lease up extremely fast," she said.
The development partnership will apply for low-income housing tax credits to help with financing and once the project is fully funded, construction would start in 2027 and take 18 to 24 months to be ready for move-in.
"I think it will be a good addition for the neighborhood because there are a lot of children here and senior citizens are nosy, you know what I mean?" Eastside resident Lashana Brock said when she drove past the site. "They'll be watching, right? They know a little bit about everything."
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: New apartments will take place of Franklin Arms after demolition
