Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, in partnership with Oldivai, has announced a two-site redevelopment project in Jacksonville's Springfield Historic District. The plan involves the adaptive reuse of a century-old brick industrial building at the northwest corner of Main and 12th streets, coupled with the construction of a new modular workforce housing community directly across West 12th Street. This initiative aims to blend historic preservation with new housing supply, addressing the critical need for workforce housing in the area.
The two-story brick building, formerly home to Screen Process Printers Inc., was acquired in October 2019 by Springfield Community Development LLC, an entity managed by Daniel Kaufman, along with a companion 0.23-acre vacant commercial parcel at 2124 N. Main St. The combined purchase totaled $515,000. The site is situated in the Springfield Warehouse District, adjacent to Andrew A. Robinson Elementary School, and lies within one of the largest historic districts in the southeastern United States.
The redevelopment plan preserves the building's original brick shell and adds three new stories on top, creating a five-story structure with 125,000 square feet of space. This will include ground-floor retail and creative office space, upper-floor residential lofts, rooftop terraces, 80 residential loft units, and 50 workspace suites. The estimated investment for this adaptive reuse is $40 million, with a delivery timeline of 24 to 30 months. This approach reflects Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting's philosophy of pairing historic character with new supply, rather than choosing between preservation and growth.
On the companion parcel across West 12th Street, Oldivai will develop a new workforce housing community using an iteration of its Project Zero model. This modular, kit-of-parts construction methodology involves building modules off-site in a climate-controlled factory using LEAN/Six Sigma manufacturing methods, then delivering and setting them in place by crane. This accelerates the development timeline and improves quality and cost control compared to conventional construction. The community will target the "missing middle" — teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, and tradespeople earning approximately 80–120% of area median income who are increasingly priced out of the neighborhoods they serve.
Daniel Kaufman, President of Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, emphasized the significance of the project: "Springfield is one of the best examples in the country of what adaptive reuse can do for a neighborhood. We've owned this corner since 2019 because we believed it deserved a plan that respected its history instead of erasing it. Restoring the building and building workforce housing across the street lets us do both at once." Susan Gillespie, Chief Operating Officer of Oldivai, added, "Project Zero proved that modular construction can deliver workforce housing faster and at higher quality than the conventional process allows. Jacksonville gives us the chance to bring that model to a neighborhood with real employment density and real need for attainable housing."
The workforce housing component will consist of 150 units across a six- to seven-story massing, with an estimated investment of $35 million and a delivery timeline of 16 to 20 months. The project is net-zero ready and utilizes cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction. This development is poised to become a model for integrating historic preservation with innovative housing solutions, potentially influencing similar projects in other historic districts across the country.
