St. John's Center

[vladittude0583]

I remember awhile back when the 3rd tower for the St. John's Center was a proposed 13-story office tower and then later changed to a residential tower of unknown size; I was thinking and realized, wouldn't it be awesome if the 3rd tower is even taller than The Strand & The Peninsula?

Just think about it. It could be like the trio towers on the part of the Southbank. You have The Strand @ 27 floors (I don't think it's 26 anymore), The Peninsula @ 37 floors (I think it was around 38 floors last time I heard). If you look at those two figures, it seems like that each building is 10 more floors than the other one. Given the rapid pace at which the two towers sold, I'm sure by the time the 3rd one is proposed, there'll be more than enough of a market demand for them especially when the other proposed residential tower areas are constructed igniting the commercial aspect of downtown jax.

By fall of 2006, these should be the status of such projects:

San Marco Place completed & running by fall

The Strand completed & running by summer

The Peninsula will be at least almost halfway constructed by this time

Berkman Plaza Phase II should be under construction too

Hopefully, one of the towers for the San Marco Riverwalk will be under construction

Riverside Avenue Partner's building will be well constructed by then

"Riverpointe," assuming no delays & whatsoever, should be beginning construction or so

Sax's Seafood restaurant will be done by then

The Loop should've moved into DT area by then

I'm not too sure about The Shipyards nor the Atkins project

I'm sure I left some other projects out but these are pretty much the ones that are for sure so far from what I think, right guys?

Such construction activity in terms of residential will bring in the much needed commerce and thus, vice-versa with even more residential project proposals.

Perhaps even the recently proposed 3-30 story condo towers by Alltel Stadium will see the light of day eventually

[bobliocatt]

I don't think anyone here knows the status of the 3rd tower, but The Strand will be 28 stories and will currently be apartments. The Peninsula will be 36 stories and is condo. I also doubt the Strand and San Marco Place will be completly finished by next summer.

[BosTech]

Well is it me but Strand looks bit small,its on 16th floor and it doesnt look like half of Riverplace Tower.

[vladittude0583]

Yeah, American Ventures I believe is the company and I remember they said that the Strand will be operational by the end of summer. It'll top off by the end of this year I'm sure of that.

The company building SMP said they plan to have it up and running by fall of next year also. After all, SMP is building pretty quickly, already on the 5th & perhaps 6th floor in some areas. While The Strand is I think on the 16th floor still. I must admit though, The Strand is small compared to Riverplace Tower.

Do you guys think The Peninsula will actually be taller than Riverplace Tower? Assuming it retains the same size floor to height ratio as The Strand, I don't think it'll be taller, if any, probably just a few feet taller which is hardly noticeable.

[vladittude0583]

I don't know about you guys, but I'm kind of dissappointed by The Strand so far. I actually thought the building is one huge square but it looks a backwards L if you talke a look at the construction pictures so far.

I think being a big square building all the way up gives it more presence.

What do you guys think?

[bobliocatt]

I never expected the Strand to be anywhere close to the height of Riverplace Tower. Riverplace is an office building and doesn't have multiple parking garage levels at its base. I also expect the Peninsula to be taller than 400ft, but still a little shorter than Riverplace Tower, which is 432ft.

As far as the Strand's shape goes, I don't think it matters, because once all the other towers go up nearby, all you'll notice is a dense cluster of highrises on the Southbank, instead of individual shapes.

[BosTech]

Weird but looking at Strand of 95 looks actually big and nice but from anywhere else looks small compared to ST Tower.

Once all are built it will add density and it will look fairly nice and urban.

L shape of Strand and Peninsula is for garages and pools on top of it.

[HurricaneTeen]

I've made a couple of rough height projections for the Strand/Peninsula. Here's how I did it in case you're wondering.

I got the photos from the FCN Supercam at firstcoastnews.com

I uploaded them in my painting software on my computer

I counted the number of pixels that make up each story (3 pixels)

And then assumed that each story would be the same height and drew in all the floors!

So, here they are.

The Strand is currently on the 16th floor of construction. It actually looks like it may size up pretty well with the Riverplace Tower.

The Peninsula looks really impressive! It's only on the 4th floor of construction, but the projection sure is nice! Just as many people thought, it looks like it will be just slightly shorter than the Riverplace Tower, but really will size up well...Btw, I really wish they had put the Strand and Peninsula closer together. It really looks like there's a big gap between them. What do you think? Is that where they're going to put the third tower?

[vicupstate]

There is a "gap" between the two buildings, but it's not very wide. The third building will be behind the Peninsula, not between the two. All three buildings are on a 2.88 acre parcel. Once everything is built, it will look pretty compact.

[bobliocatt]

^The building you show as The Peninsula is actually San Marco Place, which will be 21 stories and is across the street. From this view, The Peninsula will sit in the gap right between the two.

The third phase of St. Johns Town Center will be where the Peninsula's sales trailer is currently located. In this view, it will probably be blocked by the 36 (or 38 story, according to some reports) Peninsula. In the end all of these towers, along with San Marco Riverwalk's will form a nice dense cluster.

[RiversideGator]

Good work on the graphics, Hurricane.

[HurricaneTeen]

I thought from that particular viewpoint SMP would be behind The Strand and the Peninsula would be to the left. No?

[bobliocatt]

^No, that's definately San Marco Place. The Peninsula only has a couple of rebar out of the ground and no crane has been assembled yet. San Marco Place, on the other hand, is up to around 4 stories now.

[Viper]

This is the same view point, higher angle though for perspective, but it shows the placement in relation to each other.

[vladittude0583]

Lake is right, SMP is across the street from The Strand. The Peninsula is right next to The Strand. Btw, SMP is already on the 5th/6th floor in some areas of it.

[HurricaneTeen]

Oh, ok! Thanks a lot for the help! Well, I guess I'm gonna have to make a few changes

[DavePaulk]

Great picture Viper. From that image you can really see how much room there is on the radisson site. That is an enormous piece of property. Also you can see some pretty sizeable surface parking lots. Hopefully we'll see those go away in time.

[Viper]

I'd love to see a small cluster of towers at the surface lot in the 'V' of I-95 and the Acosta exit.

I'm working on adding in Jacksonvilles towers into the 3D modeling feature of Google Earth. That should really give us a nice visual for the future. I tmay take me until they are all built anyway to finish it though....

[HurricaneTeen]

Is that feature available on the free version of Google Earth?

[vladittude0583]

Not only do they need to concentrate more towers in the alloted space between the fuller warren bridge & acosta bridge, but also in the space lining Riverside Avenue near the Fidelity Center & BCBS. Although they're building the 8 floor Fidelity Office Tower & 13 floor Riverside Avenue Partner Office Tower, those two aren't enough to suffice I think. Personally, driving north on I-95 where it merges with I-10 and you see the Northbank which is great with the Modis, BoA, etc. until you come to the Riverside Area which seems desolate and flat compared to the rest of downtown. At least the Southbank area where the residential projects are being constructed will add density with buildings that are actually tall compared to the ones being built along riverside avenue. This is my belief, what's yours?

[Viper]

Riverside Ave would look nice with a sort of canyon effect.

HurricanTeen, no, that's not available on the free version and it's the only reason I even upgraded to the paid consumer version. It's very tedious though but will look great once I'm done. I may even add in the major current buildings too.

[asonj23]

^ I was wondering how the guy in the Orlando forum did the layout for current and proposed buildings in DT Orlando.

Can't wait to see Jax in 3D! Thanks for taking on the task Viper

[vladittude0583]

Just wanted to ask, is The Peninsula actually 37 floors or 38?

I read in some mags/sources listing it @ 37 while others have it listed @ 38? Not to mention when The Peninsula was first mentioned, it was said @ 36 floors. Ever since then, the floor count has changed.

The only reason I'm asking this is because when The Strand was first listed, it was @ 26. Later, it was changed to 27. Now The Strand is actually 28 floors if I'm not mistaken. It seemed as if they kept adding more floors to The Strand which is the same thing that I can say about The Peninsula.

Can someone please explain or tell me the correct figures? Thanks.

[bobliocatt]

Ive also seen articles mentioning the height at 36, 37 & 38 floors. The official permit has it listed at 38, so that's what I'm going to go with. I assume the 38th floor will be mechanical.

[vladittude0583]

Oh ok, but it will still be technically speaking 38 floors though right? If the 38th floor is mechanical, does that mean that this floor will be spread out throughout the entire floor footprint or will it just comprise a small section at the very top of the 37th floor?

Then again, isn't the top of The Peninsula going to be that special "club room" w/like 20ft. ceilings if I'm not mistaken? If this is true, is this "club room/floor" going to be included in the 37/38th floor, or will it be a floor by itself?

Furthermore, as everyone have noticed/seen, The Strand has like a huge box area bulging out above everything else being constructed and I'm assuming that this is the elevator shaft/mechanical area right? Doesn't The Peninsula have the same type of thing? Looking @ the renderings from the official site seems to show this exact same type of structure on the rooftop. If so, then there must be an actual 38th floor of residence right?

I mean, it sure would seem weird for it to have a 37th floor, no 38th floor, but then have the "private rooftop club" at the top of the building?

Any answers to these? Thanks.