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Regency Square Mall

vladittude0583

By vladittude0583
in Jacksonville

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Metro242 Unincorporated Area

Metro242

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I haven't lived in town long enough to really have a full grasp on this yet, but why on earth would:

A) Someone spring for a parking garage for Regency now when parking is usually easy to come by and competition from other malls will probably do nothing but bring the traffic for Regency down?

B) An upscale presence like Macy's make their long awaited emergence into our area and then settle in what is arguably the third best mall in town?

This is just my observation as a relatively new person to the area, but it seems like about 20 years ago Atlantic Bvd was the place to be, and then Southside became the new Atlantic, and eventually the Town Center area with the new highway interchanges is going to become the new Southside.

It doesn't seem like Regency Square is really that great of a mall anymore, and honestly I am really suprised it still does the business that it seems to do. It's only one floor, it takes forever to get from one side to the other and aside from the food court, it doesn't really seem to be very well maintained. It has one of the nicest movie theatres in town going for it, but it's also the theatre in town that I see the most fights in front of, and a theatre that I have stopped going to because without fail it always has the highest percentage of loud, obnoxious people talking during the movie at.

Anyway, people who have been here longer than me might see it in a different way than me, but what is the upside to pouring money into a mall that is still going to likely remain only the third best in town due to structural traits (one floor, a mile long, 30+ years old) and will likely never even have the mid-level retail (Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch etc) that the Avenues and St John's Town Center do?

It's a shame that they didn't have the foresight to build the Barnes & Noble on Atlantic and Southside into the Regency Square Mall. They did it in the "b" mall in Tallahassee and it seems like it is one of the bigger factors keeping that mall popular.

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bobliocatt City

bobliocatt

Posted
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I haven't lived in town long enough to really have a full grasp on this yet, but why on earth would:

A) Someone spring for a parking garage for Regency now when parking is usually easy to come by and competition from other malls will probably do nothing but bring the traffic for Regency down?

I agree, the last thing Regency needs is more parking

B) An upscale presence like Macy's make their long awaited emergence into our area and then settle in what is arguably the third best mall in town?
Macy's indicated that they would enter the market with at least 3 stores. Regency may be an older mall, but its still very profitable. Since Macy's (after all the mergers) isn't really an upscale store anymore, I could easily see them open a new store in the old Montgomery Wards spot.

It doesn't seem like Regency Square is really that great of a mall anymore, and honestly I am really suprised it still does the business that it seems to do. It's only one floor, it takes forever to get from one side to the other and aside from the food court, it doesn't really seem to be very well maintained.

Its an older mall, but its the only, true regional mall serving North Jax and Arlington. In general, the area is still growing in population, so there's no reason for Regency to dry up anytime soon.

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Urban_Legend Town

Urban_Legend

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I'm not suggesting that Regency needs more parking. I'm saying they could concentrate some of their parking in a garage, and use all that surface parking to add on another component to the mall. But, as previously stated, the STTJ has really pushed the other malls down. You thought these were 3ns rate shopping experiences to begin with? Look at them now.

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bobliocatt City

bobliocatt

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A regional mall serves a significant portion of an area's population. They're normally around 1 million square feet, as well. Older traditional enclosed malls average around 500,000sf in size, and for the most part, have just about died, due to competition from the larger regional malls. The only traditional malls in this area, that are still open, that I can think of, is Ponce De Leon Mall in St. Augustine and Gateway Mall in North Jax.

I also don't think there are any more malls planned in the near future for Jax, so Regency Mall is in a great position to continue to serve the Northern areas of Jacksonville.

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93sportie Whistle-Stop

93sportie

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I wanna know why it says Oppourtunity in this picture here of a great portion of the mall? http://www.generalgrowth.com/content/live/...Mall_aerial.jpg

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not sure,except that is where the Montgomery Ward used to be,excluding the inner concourse areas connecting Sears,Dilliards & Belks.

I noticed a lot of commercial infill has taken place around the mall since this pic was taken.

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vladittude0583 Whistle-Stop

vladittude0583

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If that's true that Macy's plans to enter the Jax market w/3 stores, then what do you think is the possibility of Regency actually getting a macy's? Is Regency even "upscale" enough to acquire such a store especially the facade of which perhaps the "suspected" old Wards building being the location of a Macy's?

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

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I haven't lived in town long enough to really have a full grasp on this yet, but why on earth would:

A) Someone spring for a parking garage for Regency now when parking is usually easy to come by and competition from other malls will probably do nothing but bring the traffic for Regency down?

B) An upscale presence like Macy's make their long awaited emergence into our area and then settle in what is arguably the third best mall in town?

It doesn't seem like Regency Square is really that great of a mall anymore, and honestly I am really suprised it still does the business that it seems to do. It's only one floor, it takes forever to get from one side to the other and aside from the food court, it doesn't really seem to be very well maintained. It has one of the nicest movie theatres in town going for it, but it's also the theatre in town that I see the most fights in front of, and a theatre that I have stopped going to because without fail it always has the highest percentage of loud, obnoxious people talking during the movie at.

It's a shame that they didn't have the foresight to build the Barnes & Noble on Atlantic and Southside into the Regency Square Mall. They did it in the "b" mall in Tallahassee and it seems like it is one of the bigger factors keeping that mall popular.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have seen Regency both before and after the rennovation. I consider it to be a rather nice mall, depsite its aging exterior. I don't think a garage is needed, but if they were to add a floor or reduce the surface parking, I would be in favor. That said, it would be weird to have a garage taller than the mall.

For an out-of-towner, that Barnes and Noble is extremely hard to get to- not knowing exactly where it was. I missed the turn and had to go down to Southside I think and go halfway to forever to turn around to get back to it.

There is no permanent tenant there (I believe the vintage revivals is temporary).  A while back, Bass Pro Shops was interested in it, but I have heard nothing sense.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am very suprisd that Jax does not have a Bass Pro Shops. I think that would do wonders for Regency :)

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Fruit Cove Hamlet

Fruit Cove

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Yes it is.  Due to its centralized location, Polk County is one of the State's most important areas for the illegal drug trade.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats surprising, I always had the impression lakeland had a small town feel, good old south, I guess not, Ive never visited lakeland so that was just what I had imagined from pictures.

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bobliocatt City

bobliocatt

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No Lakeland is basically a sprawling suburban bedroom community to Tampa and Orlando. Its got a funky kind of feel for a metro of over 520,000, which is larger than more popular cities like Tallahassee or Daytona Beach. On one end, its got the small town Florida feel, but in certain areas, its got big city hoods, like North Jax and booming sprawl that compares with the Southside, Orange Park or Northern St. Johns.

Unlike the rest of Florida, tourism isn't the main economic engine.....Phosphate mining, citrus processing (Orange Juice), manufacturing and distribution are. However, as a whole, Polk County has 17 different cities.

The illegal drug trade is big there, for the same reason companies like Publix, GEICO, State Farm, and Coca-Cola have major operations there......its the perfect distribution point for sending products throughout the state in a timely matter.

The biggest drugs produced there are Meth, Cocaine and Weed. Manufacturing operations range from large solar operated greenhouses in the middle of orange groves and abandoned warehouses to small meth labs in mobile homes.

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