JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Global hotelier Hard Rock Hotels might come to downtown Jacksonville on a riverfront site that’s stood vacant since demolition tore down the half-built Berkman II apartment tower.

The Hard Rock Hotel would be just up the St. Johns River from the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences Jacksonville that Jaguars owner Shad Khan is building and a short walk from the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront hotel.

Hard Rock and its music-themed hotels operate around the world. In Florida, Hard Rock is a major player among destination hotels operating in Daytona Beach, Orlando, Tampa, Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. Hard Rock is moving forward with a planned hotel in Pensacola.

City officials have had talks with a development group that’s interested in building a Hard Rock Hotel in downtown, city spokesman Phillip Perry said.

“We have spoken with several groups looking at downtown parcels,” Perry said. “One of those groups is interested in the possibility of a hotel on the Berkman II site, and it potentially being a Hard Rock Hotel.”

Some of Hard Rock’s hotels in Florida have casinos in them. The hotel in Jacksonville would not have a casino.

Hard Rock previously showed interest in Jacksonville when a developer submitted a proposal in 2022 for building a Reverb by Hard Rock Hotel and an apartment building on the former site of the old county courthouse off Bay Street.

The Downtown Investment Authority selected a different developer for that parcel. But Hard Rock has kept Jacksonville in its sights for expanding the hotel’s growing brand into Northeast Florida.

The site where the city imploded the skeletal Berkman II apartment tower in March 2022 is a couple of blocks down Bay Street from the old county courthouse site. Construction of Berkman II halted in December 2007 after an adjoining parking garage collapsed, killing a construction worker.

If a hotel were built on that site, it would rise up next to The Plaza Condominiums at Berkman Plaza & Marina tower on one side and a swath of riverfront that the city plans to turn into Shipyards West Park on the other side.

The site would be connected by an extension of the riverwalk continuing through Shipyards West Park toward the planned Museum of Science and History and then the Four Seasons Hotel and Metropolitan Park.

Walking the other way on the riverwalk would take hotel guests toward the Main Street bridge, the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront and the new Riverfront Plaza park where another developer is interested in building a tower containing a hotel and condominiums.

City Council has put a priority on bringing development along Bay Street.

The council approved legislation in June that puts $30 million into a downtown economic development fund for incentives on development deals in an area bordered by the Main Street bridge, the river, Bay Street and the eastern boundary of the vacant parcel where Berkman II was imploded.

City Council member Joe Carlucci, who sponsored the legislation, said the intent is to get developers moving on bringing projects to construction.

“It really ignited people to get going,” he said. “What I’ve been telling people right now is if you’re serious about it, start working on some designs, start working on some actual plans and then bring it to the table.”

He said construction on the site where Berkman II was demolished would fit into that vision of building up along Bay Street and the river.

“It’s literally one of the last blank spaces along the riverfront, and I just want to get rid of those blank spaces along the riverfront,” he said.

This story was first published by the Florida Times-Union.