Jacksonville Construction Pictures

[bobliocatt]

Here's a couple of pics I took, this morning, of various construction projects in Downtown, Five Points and Springfield.

Downtown-Southbank

The Strand & Peninsula site

The Strand is up to the sixth floor, 22 more to go.

San Marco Place beginning to rise, with The Strand in the background

Riverside Avenue area

everybody's favorite storage center, on Park Street

Fidelity's 8 floor office building site moving along

Its actually pretty close to the new riverwalk. Put in a cafe, fronting the walk and it might not be that bad.

Downtown-Northbank

Arena parking garage getting underway

The new library is almost finished

The Carling, at street level

The renovated Carling rises above Adams Street

The Carling's parking garage

20 West Lofts, moving slow

Five Points

1661 Riverside going vertical

All the stucco has been removed of the Five Points Theater loft project

Springfield

This building is beginning to look pretty sharp

This Main Street building is losing its stucco finish and being renovated into a restaurant/bar

a set of new SRG houses rise on Market Street

new houses going up on Hubbard

General Observations

What's the deal? Can you imagine if Confederate/Klutho/Springfield parks were maintained like Riverside Memorial Park or the new riverwalk? Developers would be paying the city to get a hold of property surrounding it. I think Peyton needs to get to work.

Olmstead designed Riverside Memorial Park in Five Points

New riverwalk..........shade trees

[Metro242]

These are some really cool pictures, thanks a lot of posting these. You are making me realize how much of Jacksonville I haven't even seen yet, I think I am going to check out Memorial Park, it looks beautiful.

[Urban_Legend]

What building is this? I like it! Great update pics!

One thing I noticed is that the storage place is actually a little better-looking than I had thought. And the Carling garage is a little uglier than I thought...

[RiversideGator]

Great pictures Lake. You were all over town today. I love to see several victories over stucco in progress (i.e. the removal of stucco from older brick structures). Nice..

[RiversideGator]

QUOTE

What building is this? I like it! Great update pics!

That is an newly renovated/expanded office building at the south-west corner of 4th and Laura in Springfield. My family owned the commercial building across the street from this for 50 years, until selling to Bank of America who tore it down.

[RiversideGator]

These are some really cool pictures, thanks a lot of posting these. You are making me realize how much of Jacksonville I haven't even seen yet, I think I am going to check out Memorial Park, it looks beautiful.

Metro: Downtown, Riverside/Avondale and Springfield are the best parts of Jacksonville, in my opinion. You should check them out.

[Captain Obvious]

Great photos, as always, Lakelander.

- I love that riverwalk extension. Imagine how great those live oaks will look 10 years from now!

- The Strand construction is going sloooooooooowly. What are they doing, about two floors per month? I guess concrete construction just takes a little bit longer than steel.

- I have to admit, that self storage building is pretty decent looking for a self storage building. Maybe the DRC does some good after all.

- I hope Vestcor paints that garage. Nothing worse than bare concrete.

[prahaboheme]

Nice pictures Lakelander. Like I said before, I really do like the new library. The massing is right on.

[vicupstate]

Great photos, as always, Lakelander.

- I love that riverwalk extension. Imagine how great those live oaks will look 10 years from now!

- I have to admit, that self storage building is pretty decent looking for a self storage building. Maybe the DRC does some good after all.

- I hope Vestcor paints that garage. Nothing worse than bare concrete.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

During my visit last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see the large number of shade trees along the Riverwalk. I had gotten the impression that it was mostly Palms. The Fidelity riverwalk frontage seems to have a sufficient number of shade trees, the other areas could use more though.

I agree about the self-storage building, for what it is, it looks pretty good.

According to the rendering, the Carling garage will indeed be painted.

[Zissou]

Great pictures.

Its a little off topic but how did the Super Bowl effect Jax? I know in Detroit it has been a catalyst for many projects and people are hoping the development continues after the game. Has Jax seen more growth and developments now that the game has come and gone? Was the SB a boost for the city?

[vladittude0583]

Hey Lakelander, you mentioned that the Peninsula should reach well over 400ft., but what do you think the Strand will reach? From the looks of it, it seems that it can reach above 300ft right? Given that San Marco Place is going to be @231ft w/21 floors and The Strand is 26/27 floors, then it should reach close to 300ft or so right? Are condo/loft/apartment/hotel towers smaller than office towers in general even if they have the same number of floors? I noticed that some condo towers being built for example: 50story condo tower is like the same height as a 40 story office tower? Do office towers have more clearance in between floors or so or higher ceilings? Any word on the proposed Old JEA building being converted into condos? That would really add a nice touch to the Northbank. I think the area of downtown desperately needing towers is along Riverside Avenue b/c driving along I-95N gives you a great sight of towers along the Northbank until you hit the Riverside Avenue which is like small buildings for the most part. When is the Shipyards project going to start? They should build a higher tower for the shipyards instead of the renderings they've shown. I think they should've also added the Mayo Clinic, Allstate Tower, the Blue Cross buildings off JTB to downtown b/c they're pretty high too and would give more towers in downtown I think. Any word yet on the JEA site in the Southbank?

[RiversideGator]

Great pictures.

Its a little off topic but how did the Super Bowl effect Jax? I know in Detroit it has been a catalyst for many projects and people are hoping the development continues after the game. Has Jax seen more growth and developments now that the game has come and gone? Was the SB a boost for the city?

I think it was a boost to Jacksonville in that our name recognition was greatly increased, but in terms of actual new construction or jobs, I havent seen anything substantial. Of course, our current mayor wouldnt know an opportunity if it kicked him in the ass. We are now just basically completing projects announced before the SB.

[vicupstate]

I think it was a boost to Jacksonville in that our name recognition was greatly increased, but in terms of actual new construction or jobs, I havent seen anything substantial.

[vicupstate]

On the subject of the Riverwalk, I think there definitely needs to be some residential projects on it. I walked it at night and their were only a handful of people using it. There aren't a lot of available parcels left. Hopefully Fidelity will come through on it's condo proposal and St. Joe will eventually put residential on the YMCA site.

Another observation from my recent visit: The Bay Street Town Center will be a flop. It is hot as hell on those sidewalks and those stupid Palm trees that don't even look good, provide no shade whatsoever. Now that it looks like the Courthouse isn't going anywhere anytime soon, the true concept is not going to come about.

There is one retailer, Circa '46, a men's clothier. The clothes look pretty cool too. Circa 46 Clothier Unfortunately, there is nothing else on that block, except Eclate, and that is only open when Circa'46 is closed. No snergy there.

Great job DDA!! Now when the other spaces remain unleased, and circa '46 closes, everyone will say "See I told you retail won't work downtown!" The truth is, if the DETAILS had been handled better, it could work. Use shade trees, put some hanging baskets on the street lights, put some tables in front of Eclate and ask them to open for lunch. Ask the property owners to put up attractive awnings like The Churchwell building is planning. Recruit like hell to fill those vacant storefronts, and put artwork in the vacant ones in the meantime. Make a written in stone pronoucement that the courthouse is going to leave the riverfront (and back it up with construction on a new courthouse). And make another announcement that the street will remain two-way!! Do everything possible to make Churchwell happen sooner rather than later. Convince the owners of the Warehouse to put lofts in its upper floors. Recruit Peterbrooke to move to Bay Street and not the Burns library. Time is of the essence.

Of course the first mistake was not concentrating on retail for Laura and Adams Streets in the first place. Make that successful and then proceed to Bay Street.

[RiversideGator]

DDA is clueless. The whole design of Bay Street is just plain stupid and ugly. Instead of widening the sidewalks and messing up the traffic lanes, they should have added diagonal parking along Bay Street like in 5 Points which would actually allow people to park near businesses. Next, those sidewalks are the probably the worst sidewalks I have ever seen anywhere. They look like Jacksonville meets Cancun. I mean did they bring in an architect from Mexico to design that (I know they were installed by an all Mexican illegal crew - I work in one of the buildings on Bay Street)?? They are completely inappropriate to the setting and are horribly tacky.

And finally, the palm trees. I think these stem from some Yankee's idea that this is Florida so there must be palm trees EVERYWHERE. These palm trees are (1) not native to FL, (2) not attractive at all, and (3) provide absolutely no cover to pedestrians from the sun. On top of this, they are expensive as hell. If the city wants to throw away thousands of dollars, they should just give it away instead of making downtown less attractive. Who is in charge of this???

[bobliocatt]

Imo, outside of the Landing, Adams is destined to become the dining and entertainment corridor. Its got a centralized location, residences and a couple of restaurants and bars already. it could really take off, depending on what proposal is chosen for the Haydon Burns building.

As long as the county courthouse stays there, Bay Street will be a failure. The city might as well keep its money and not start phase II, until the courthouse situation is worked out. Even then, with the jail right around the corner, I wouldn't expect many of those bail bond places to relocate.

[wolfdawg54]

Awesome pictures Lakelander of the construction going on. Also, are you going to take pictures of the Beaches development. That would be kind of cool. Nice job.

[bobliocatt]

^Yes, most likely next weekend.