Ford plant in Florida on demo list

The city council of Jacksonville, Florida, reportedly has voted to approve the demolition of a Ford Motor Co. Assembly Plant described by a regional news outlet as “a historic downtown property.”

The plant opened in 1924 to produce Ford Model T autos, and in its heyday “employed hundreds of people,” according to a report by First Coast News.

The factory’s lifespan as an auto assembly plant was limited, according to the news outlet, since “The Great Depression led to the plant’s downfall in the 1930s.”

Local historian Ennis Davis tells First Coast News that wood posts supporting the building are beginning to fail, so despite the structure’s history, it would require “significant money” to restore it to a usable state.

Davis also says because of the property’s location along the Saint John River in Jacksonville, shipbuilding is one potential use of the land.

After it outlived its Model T assembly function, the property served as a logistics and distribution center for Ford, according to First Coast News, and then as a facility that hosted boat manufacturing operations.

Regarding its near-term fate, “It is unknown when the timeline of when the demolition will take place,” First Coast News reports.

The Jaxson magazine wrote in May that the factory sat on a 10-acre parcel and initially hosted a 115,200-square-foot building for Model T assembly. A 1926 expansion added another 50,000 square feet of factory space.

Ford stopped using the building in 1968, according to The Jaxson, with other tenants finding uses for portions of the complex in the following decades.

Project bidding and procurement opportunities presented by the city of Jacksonville are typically posted here.