Daily Record Financial News &
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016
Vol. 104, No. 023 • oNe SectioN
35¢ www.jaxdailyrecord.com
Downtown getting JU satellite campus
Dolphin Pointe is part of a strategic partnership between Jacksonville University and a group that will manage the adjacent health care facility to provide services to residents while giving students hands-on experience close to campus. A groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning.
Renderings provided by Jacksonville University
DIA also OKs Brooklyn apartments expansion
Selling point for university Dolphin Pointe nursing facility boosts JU’s health care offerings
By David Chapman Staff Writer When students and their parents visit Jacksonville University to determine whether it’s the right place to spend formative learning years, typical questions emerge. The prevailing ones: Why here? What can JU offer that other schools can’t? For those looking to enter the health care field, the school for decades has had a solid reputation for nursing and orthodontics. But Christine Sapienza will soon be able to simply point across campus to Dolphin Pointe as an experience distinct to the school. The 120-bed skilled nursing facility will be an opportunity for hands-on experience for students while providing a service to Arlington and Jacksonville residents as a whole. The project is a partnership between JU and a group led by alumnus Greg Nelson, which owns the property the center will be built on and will manage day-to-day
The facility will have 120 private suites overlooking the St. Johns River. operations. The facility adjacent to JU broke ground this morning, a project years in the making. “It is the ultimate dedicated education partnership,” said Sapienza, dean of the school’s Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences.
It will continue JU’s pursuit to lead in areas beyond nursing and orthodontics, though, said school President Tim Cost. Speech pathology, kinesiology, mental health counseling, occupational therapy — they’ve all been incorporated into the Applied Health Science program. But JU wants to continue responding to the needs of the health care industry. Dolphin Pointe will be a nexus for that continued effort. Additional programs at the facility will be available early in students’ tenure at the university, as opposed to just being for juniors, seniors and graduate students like other schools might offer. It’s an effort a couple of years in the making for JU, when Cost recruited Sapienza from the University of Florida. Sapienza said she made the jump because she saw the vision of the school becoming a leader in the health care field. She said JU is on par with most large universities for applied health sciences and could one day be comparable to Emory DOLPHIN POINTE
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By Max Marbut Staff Writer The Downtown Investment Authority wrapped up its business for 2016 on Wednesday by approving incentives to bring a satellite campus of Jacksonville University to the urban core, expand the scope of an apartment project slated for Brooklyn and support two businesses in The Elbow entertainment district. In a fast-paced three-hour meeting, the board of directors also approved improving a parking lot near the Sports Complex to promote retail activity in the area and issuing a request for proposals for redevelopment of the Shipyards property and Metropolitan Park. The authority will loan JU $274,000 for costs associated with tenant improvements and capital expenditures to establish a 15,000-square-foot campus on the 18th floor of SunTrust Cost Tower. Thirty faculty and staff members will provide undergraduate and post-graduate courses to about 100 students, who will take day and evening classes. Tim Cost, president of JU, said the students will be in programs offered by the Brooks Rehabilitation College of Healthcare Sciences and the Davis College of Business. The loan will be forgiven at the rate of 3.45 percent per month over the course of the initial 29-month term of the lease. Cost said the intention is for the urban campus to be permanent. “The idea of coming Downtown has been on our schedule for two years,” he said. “JU is part of the DNA of this city. I want Downtown to be part of the DNA of JU,” said board Chair Jim Bailey, publisher of the Daily Record.
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Wrapping up half-century at The University Club Art, furniture and fixtures have been auctioned and the fitness facilities are closed. The University Club is winding down this weekend at the top of Riverplace Tower on the Downtown Southbank of the St. Johns River. The club’s December calendar, labeled “Thanks for the Memories,” lists a farewell party at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for members and an employee send-off event Sunday. Until then, there also will be an ugly-sweater contest Friday
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night, with a chance to win a piece of club memorabilia. The Saturday party’s theme is “Through the Decades – 19682016” to mark the club’s time in Jacksonville. “Dress how you will, but keep it classy!” the calendar requests. It features heavy hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and “lots of merriment!” At 6 p.m. Sunday, members are invited to attend “accolades for excellence.” Members are asked to bring a dish or drink to share and to serve to the staff.
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That’s the last event on the club’s calendar. On Dec. 19, buyers are asked to pick up the furniture, artwork, fixtures, doors and other items that were auctioned Dec. 3. The fitness facilities closed Nov. 30. That equipment also was auctioned.
The auctioneer said everything must go by Dec. 27 because that’s when the club must be out of the building. The weekend ends the process announced in mid-September when owner ClubCorp of Dallas notified members the club would close Dec. 20 after 48 years in business. A board member said at the time there were about 925 duespaying members and about 50 employees. A letter to members from the regional vice president of Club-
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Corp in September said closing was a business decision that was not easy, but one that is necessary. Dining and club functions occupy the 27th floor of Riverplace Tower, with former athletic facilities on the 28th floor and a fitness center on the ground-floor concourse level. Building owner Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners said it would convert the club’s top two floors at 1301 Riverplace Tower into about 22,500 square feet of MATHIS CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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