Producing 125 automobiles a day, the plant was in need of an expansion to meet the demand of Florida’s rapidly growing population. In 1925, Ford purchased an additional ten acres south of the plant for $114,000 to expand operations. On November 13, 1926, the 50,000-square-foot expansion project to the east side of the assembly plant was completed, bringing its total square footage up to 165,200 square feet. By 1927, 74,908 automobiles, primarily Model As, and 14,821 trucks had been assembled at the plant since its opening. In 1928, the plant was retrofitted to add an assembly line for the production of Model A vehicles. Automobiles were assembled in Jacksonville’s factory until the Great Depression eliminated Ford’s need for a local factory in November 1932. At its height, the plant employed as many as eight hundred workers manufacturing over 200 cars a day. After manufacturing operations ceased, Ford utilized the building as a parts distribution center for the company’s southeast region until 1968, when operations were relocated to West Jacksonville and Orlando.
Over the next few decades, the plant would be utilized for brief periods of time by several companies, such as World Cars (Toyota), a van conversion firm, Borom Boats and a European car-importing firm. During this time, the water tower and powerhouse were demolished, while the rail siding was replaced with a truck loading dock on the south end. By the end of the 1990s, the old assembly plant was being used for construction storage by Wood-Hopkins Contracting Company, a marine contracting business adjacent to the building. When Wood-Hopkins relocated to a site near Blount Island in 2000, the Ford site became the focal point of failed redevelopment proposals.Atlanta-based Commodore Point, LLC, comprising partners from McNamara Associates, also of Atlanta, planned to purchase and redevelop the structure into a $41 million development featuring 144 loft apartments, artist studios and 50,000 square feet of office and retail space. The 120 residential units were to range between 800 and 3,500 square feet each. The remaining units were proposed to be arranged as “live-work” units. Development plans also included the construction of a 125-slip marina, condominiums and a dry storage marina on the twenty-two acres surrounding the plant. Although McNamara selected the Auchter Company as the project’s contractor and architecture firm Rink Reynolds Diamond Fisher Architects for the design, redevelopment plans would falter after the developer failed to purchase the property in August 2001.
With Jacksonville preparing to host an NFL Super Bowl in 2005, a proposal to convert the plant into a cruise ship terminal and port of call began to pick up steam. At the time, the cost to redevelop the building into a cruise ship terminal had been estimated to be in the range of $10 to 20 million, with construction starting in early 2002. In addition to facilitating cruise ships, the terminal would contain stores, apartments and a training facility for hospitality workers. The project would have been developed under a joint venture between the City of Jacksonville, Jacksonville Port Authority and Hill Street, LLC, a group of investors who planned to acquire the property. The use of the building as a cruise port terminal remained in doubt as of 2012, as the Jacksonville Port Authority desired a terminal east of the Dames Point Bridge to accommodate larger ships without height restrictions.
In 2015, Amkin Hill Street LLC, the Miami-based developer that acquired the TIAA Bank Center in Downtown Jacksonville, purchased the old Ford plant and 35 adjacent acres for $4.4 million. With the recent announcement of Fincantieri Marine Systems North America taking over an existing nearby shipyard at Commodores Point with the intent to expand, Amkin Hill Street LLC seeks to raze the historic industrial structure. If demolished, the property could be redeveloped to accommodate a 400-foot drydock and a state-of-the-art ship repair facility for mid-sized US Navy warships, research vessels, and mid-sized coastal cruise ships. An application for a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) for the demolition of the Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant wad denied by the Historic Preservation Commission on May 25, 2022. It is anticipated that Amkin Hill Street LLC. will appeal to City Council to demolish the structure.
Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com