Jacksonville developer Steve Atkins is taking his second shot at building a game-changing project in downtown.

Atkins on Tuesday unveiled plans for bringing apartments, hotel rooms, restaurants and shops to the abandoned Barnett Bank Building and Laura Street Trio.

At an estimated cost of $70 million, the ambitious proposal comes five years after Atkins attempted to purchase the old city library for a $40 million development consisting of condominiums, stores, restaurants, a theater and entertainment venues.

Read the Times-Union article about the project.

In 2005, Atkins and the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission negotiated for months before he withdrew his $5 million offer to buy the library property, located off Ocean Street.

"Obviously, that wasn't the right project at the right time," he said Tuesday.

This time around, talks with JEDC will again be critical for the latest plan. Mayor John Peyton and Ron Barton, executive director of the JEDC, attended Tuesday's unveiling and both spoke highly of the concept. But Barton said the city still needs to determine the extent of its role in providing financial incentives.

Read the Times-Union series examining the ailing health of Jacksonville's urban core.

Barton said the past talks regarding the old library will have no bearing on the upcoming negotiations.

"I think they are different animals," he said.

When the city put the old library up for sale, there was debate about whether the building should be preserved or torn down. Atkins proposed demolishing the library. Ultimately, the city sold the library to a development team, led by Cesery Cos. of Jacksonville, that submitted a plan to renovate the building.

The plan for the Barnett Bank Building and Laura Street Trio would preserve those historic buildings. Barton said there is a "strong public policy position" for the city to give financial assistance because of the historic significance.

He said he favors using the downtown historic preservation trust fund, which has $3.2 million available. He said he also has other ideas for how the city could be involved.

Atkins is managing principal of recently formed Linea LLC of Jacksonville, which is teaming up with Capital City Partners of Tallahassee.

Atkins and Peyton both said it's significant that the redevelopment would occur along the stretch of Laura Street where the city is spending $2.7 million to make it more pedestrian-friendly.

david.bauerlein@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581