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January 24-30, 2019
The Basch Report: CSX says it plans to keep cutting jobs PAGE 6
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JACKSONVILLE
Record & Observer JEA board of directors facing vacancies
REDEVELOPMENT JACKSONVILLE
SEEING POTENTIAL Record & Observer IN ARLINGTON JACKSONVILLE
Board Chair Alan Howard won’t seek reappointment; Husein Cumber resigns.
Record & Observer A Miami-area developer wants to
transform the Bethelite property,
BY DAVID CAWTON
site of the former Thunderbird
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Motor Hotel, but some
JACKSONVILLE
question the feasibility.
At least two seats on the JEA board of directors will need to be filled in the coming months. JEA board Chairman Alan Howard said Tuesday after a board meeting that he will not seek reappointment when his term ends Feb. 28. “This is a job that requires a great deal of time and attention to do it right and I’ve tried to do that for the last year-plus,” Howard Howard said after the board’s monthly meeting. “It’s really time for someone else to have their turn at the helm,” he said. He served on the board since 2016 and as chair since May 2017. Howard indicated that while he plans to step down as chair at the end of his term, he could remain on the board while Mayor Lenny Curry’s office fills his seat and up to two others. At the meeting, Howard announced that board member Husein Cumber resigned, citing a potential conflict of interest with the City Council election of his wife, LeAnna Cumber. Cumber did not attend the Tuesday board meeting. Curry also may need to fill the seat held by the Rev. Frederick Newbill, whose term also ends
Record & Observer THE SITE
This 18.7-acre site at 5865 Arlington Expressway was developed in 1964 and long served as the Thunderbird Motor Hotel and Thunderbird Dinner Theatre. It has been unused for more than a decade,
BY KAREN BRUNE MATHIS EDITOR
T
hat run-down Bethelite property along the Arlington Expressway hasn’t been much to look at. But where passers-by have been seeing weeds, graffiti, broken glass, empty buildings, fallen fences and junk, its owner envisions potential. The South Florida ownership group of the 55-year-old vacant and deteriorating motel and conference center along the Arlington Expressway wants to redevelop the property into apartments, hotels, a restaurant and retail uses. The 18.7-acre site at 5865 Arlington Expressway was developed in 1964. It long served as the Thunderbird Motor Hotel and Thunderbird Dinner Theatre, catering to the new neighborhoods popular with young executives working Downtown. SEE ARLINGTON, PAGE 8
The Mathis Report: More growth coming to Gate Parkway PAGE 4 Cawton report: Ambassador Hotel to become a La Quinta PAGE 10 OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP
“We bought it like this. We are going to make the best of it.” DEVELOPER SHMUEL BONNARDEL
SEE JEA, PAGE 7
THE MARBUT REPORT
Shotgun-toting lawyers have blast Its all for good sport. PAGE 11 VOLUME VOLUME 1, 1, NO. NO. 34 27 • ONE SECTION