By Earl Daniels
Times-Union business writer

The city is showing renewed interest in redeveloping the vacant Florida Life, Old Florida National Bank and Bisbee downtown buildings.

Today, members of the newly created Downtown Historic Task Force will discuss whether to recommend that the city seek proposals from developers interested in converting the old buildings to new uses.

In the past, efforts to redevelop the trio of buildings, which have fallen into disrepair, have not materialized beyond the idea stage.

The Downtown Historic Task Force cannot issue a request for proposals because it is not a governing body, but it plans to lend its support for such an effort. The Downtown Development Authority and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission issue requests for proposals for such projects.

"This is a group of people who are interested in this and can bring a lot of support to this," said Paul Krutko, executive director of the DDA. The task force consists of City Council members. "They would like to see a [request for proposals] done and how we might be able to accomplish this."

Krutko said he will make a presentation at the task force meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. today at City Hall's Renaissance room to show members of the task force how the city provided financial incentives to The Vestcor Cos. to redevelop the vacant Lynch Building at 11 E. Forsyth St.

The city has orchestrated several such deals with developers, providing themtax breaks, loans or grants to help fund downtown projects.

The three buildings, which are catercorner to the Bank of America tower at Laura and Forsyth streets, are among 10 buildings being reviewed by the task force.

City Council President Matt Carlucci, who created the task force in July, wants the buildings to be evaluated for their redevelopment potential.

The task force chose the three buildings because of their location and condition, Carlucci said.

The Bisbee building, which was built in 1908, is a 10-story building and became Jacksonville's first skyscraper. Interest in the building was so high, the building was rented before construction was finished. The Florida Life building, a slender 11-story building, held the designation of being the city's tallest skyscraper for about a year starting in 1911, when itd. The city experienced a significant building boom in the early 1900s following a devastating fire that leveled downtown in 1901.

"These buildings seem to be the ones that are most threatened because they are deteriorating," Carlucci said. "One does not have any windows and the another one has roof problems. And from a historical perspective, these buildings rate pretty high."