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big downtown projects starting to move!


bobliocatt

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In today's business section. :)

Looks like the 15 story office building on Riverside is getting ready to go up

Site clearing for Riverside Avenue Partners building and parking garage, 495 Riverside Ave. between Rosselle and Forest streets, 1.96 acres, $85,000; agent is Fred Parvey, Fidelity National Financial; owner is Riverside Avenue Partners LLC; engineer is England-Thims & Miller Inc.

Shipyards getting ready to begin sales?

Renovations at Shipyards for additional management offices in previously permitted double-wide trailer, 950 E. Bay St. between Catherine and North Georgia Street, 2,092 square feet, $73,875; contractor is Worsham Construction Co.; agent is Bob Furlong, project manager; owner is Landmar Group/North Bank Development Co.; architect is Lane Architecture.

The Metropolitan moving along

Demolition at Jax Telcom Center of interior partitions on third, sixth and seventh floors, 421 W. Church St. between Clay and Pearl streets, 50,000 square feet, $55,000; contractor is River City Contractors Inc.; agent is Hal Horton, managing partner; owner is Jax Partners LLC.

Cesery purchases land for Springfield Lofts

The Lofts on Main LLC purchased property at 1303 Main St. from Dennis Simpson for $640,000.

Laura Trio also getting underway

lauratrio1gf.jpg

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=43454

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1) Given that the new office building for Fidelity or whatever is 13 stories and that office building have higher floor to ceiling height ratios, wouldn't you say this building is going to be almost as tall as the Blue Cross building? Since the current Fidelity main building is 11 floors and almost as tall as BCBS.

2) What's the status of the lofts @ east union?

3) Has the high-rise crane been placed yet for The Peninsula?

4) I've noticed that SMP is already on the 5th floor... they're moving pretty quickly with this project as they stated before unlike The Strand. I bet SMP will top out way before The Strand does. The cam is working today when I checked on it but it might not later, who knows.

5) The area over fidelity & blue cross needs more high rises b/c it looks kind of dull when you're on I-95 heading towards I-10 and you see all these high rises to your right but when you reach the I-95 bridge, all you see is like small buildings... ugh

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1) Given that the new office building for Fidelity or whatever is 13 stories and that office building have higher floor to ceiling height ratios, wouldn't you say this building is going to be almost as tall as the Blue Cross building? Since the current Fidelity main building is 11 floors and almost as tall as BCBS.

Not sure of the height, but from the rendering, it looks like it will be somewhere between the BCBS and Fidelity's tower. Btw, Fidelity's other building under construction, looks to be about 8 or 9 stories.

2) What's the status of the lofts @ east union?

No word on this project. The developers want incentives, so don't expect to see anything on this site soon.

3) Has the high-rise crane been placed yet for The Peninsula?

Not yet, they're still working on the foundation.

4) I've noticed that SMP is already on the 5th floor... they're moving pretty quickly with this project as they stated before unlike The Strand. I bet SMP will top out way before The Strand does. The cam is working today when I checked on it but it might not later, who knows.

The Strand is up to the 15th floor. At this rate, it will top out before San Marco Place does.

5) The area over fidelity & blue cross needs more high rises b/c it looks kind of dull when you're on I-95 heading towards I-10 and you see all these high rises to your right but when you reach the I-95 bridge, all you see is like small buildings... ugh

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think this spot will get a big boost from the Fidelity and Riverside Partners office buildings going up.

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Which projects do you think will be completed in 5 years? The Shipyards? The Landing? JEA Site? Atkins? Any of the towers proposed for the Radisson and Charthouse site? Maybe the new towers proposed for the sports area near the Hart Expressway?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Landing and Radisson are multi-phase proposals, so it's doubtful that either will ever be "completed" exactly as proposed. Plans, designs, and timetables will almost certainly be altered over the years even if the projects never actually die. Even if Radisson worked out exactly as planned, the last phase isn't scheduled to start until 2011. But the first two major towers (which I'm still holding out hope will actually be built) could very reasonably be done by 2008 if they hold to the proposed groundbreakings.

The Shipyards is a little different because they are contractually obligated to finish by 2013, I think. Phase One has to be u/c by 2008, right? However we don't even know what phase one looks like yet, since they haven't released details. But Shipyards phase one, whatever it is, will likely be done in 5 years.

We know almost nothing about the JEA site plans. So it's impossible to say for them. But just based on overall development patterns, I think we'd be looking at least at 3 years before anything significant is completed. Do the developers even own the property yet? I've lost track of that story over the past few months.

Sadly, all these proposals are nothing more than pretty drawings until the construction financing is in place. Until then, the delays always seem endless. (Just look at the "Riverpoint" proposal. They haven't even held to their timetable for releasing a new rendering ... much less building the darn thing!) That's why it's so exciting to read about 4 projects that have just made actual tangible steps towards completion.

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Josh - I wouldn't be surprised if it turns its back to Bay Street ... but considering their neighbors are a coffee factory, an elevated highway, and a prison ... I'll just be happy if it has a better design than the Berkman Plaza streetfront!!

But one would hope there will be some interaction on Bay Street, at least on the Western half of the site. Unless they construct a brand new side road, they won't be able to "hide" their main entrance like Berkman did. The Eastern half of the site couldn't have true street interaction if they tried. The Hart Bridge elevated highway - along with the public parking underneath it - is in the way. At that point, the best "streetfront" becomes the riverwalk itself.

Other observations ...

- That looks like shade trees along the river! Common sense might prevail (but they still have palms on the access paths).

- That "Timucan Villiage" thing/public art looks better than I expected. I was fearing an actual grass hut, or something similarly stupid.

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Random aside ... but the "Landmark" and "Watermark" (Landmar's previous condos) have huge setbacks w/parking lots because that's basically what the Jax Beach zoning codes require.

So perhaps they are perfectly capable of building nice buildings if the zoning allows for it?

Oh well ... it's all speculation anyway, until they release renderings ...

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That Timucuan village is pretty cool. I thought it was going to be extremely tacky when i first heard about it. Finally some prgress in this crazy prokect. Hopefully there will be no more setbacks, legal or otherwise. It seems like it has been years since the project was first announced.

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Its creepy,if I am correct Indians honored nature and this indina village is so cheap.

It reminds me of death and genocide on Indians,poor way of white folks to honor Indians or even to copy them.

I am sure they never asked any Indians if that looks good.

I just dont get architectural art and memorials,its so weird and out of place.

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Its creepy,if I am correct Indians honored nature and this indina village is so cheap.

It reminds me of death and genocide on Indians,poor way of white folks to honor Indians or even to copy them.

I am sure they never asked any Indians if that looks good.

I just dont get architectural art and memorials,its so weird and out of place.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Timucuan Indians died off due to diseases accidentally brought in by Europeans - not war or conflict. Modern historians estimate that between 50-90% of all Native Americans died through disease, often decades before ever even coming in contact with white people - because the diseases spread from tribe to tribe after contact with white explorers on the coasts.

This was truly one of the great tragedies of human history - but it's not genocide. Now, what the Fed govet did in the 1800's could be called genocide, but that was over 200 years after the Timucns died out.

The Timucans dissapeared generations before the first Anglo settlement in Florida, as the tragic consequence of Spanish and French explorers having a host of diseases that Natives could not defend against. So in that context, I think it's appropriate to honor their past. But yeah, I think it would be very hypocritical if, say, the State of Georgia decided to put up a monument to the Cherokee, or something to that effect.

(And as an aside, I think it's unfair to say that Natives were somehow in perfect harmony with nature. Their landfills still exist to this day ... and have even become tourist attractions!! Jacksonville has a very impressive Native American trash pile in the Willie Brown Nature Preserve, next to Fort Caroline.)

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I am sorry but I really loathe the whole Indian village concept. This is maybe appropriate for a history museum or theme park, but not for downtown. This adds a cartoonish element to the development (not to mention the ghastly pier) and I am afraid that the rest of the renderings will follow suit. One can only conclude that the developer has bad taste.

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