Southside News Thread

[BosTech]

There is TONS of construction going on on Southside,area around Beach blvd to Gate,Touchton and Kernan...almost every block seems to be getting some kind of building.....New office park on Industrial Pkwy,actually there are TWO,new VyStar bank on Beach/Bluff,Il Villagio condos on Touchton,Flagler park on Touchton is getting another 5-6 story building,there are talk about house subdivison on Kernan/Beach in european style,bunch of warehouses/offices going on al over St.Bluff,St.Johns Twon Center,new strip plaza on Beach Blvd and another on place of that old flea market (at least it will look nicer),another few building at Publix on Touchton,new additions to Regency mall with new streets,highway and bunch of stores behind Lowe's,new dealerships all over Atlantic from Porche to Acura etc,not familiar but new house subdivision on Beach blvd past Kernan,at least several brand new ones.....New apartment complexes filling up on Baymeadows road (at least I haven't seen them before),whole area is getting build up.....

Just SOME constructions happening in Southside area.....

[bobliocatt]

Building project in works at Kernan

By ALISON TRINIDAD

The Times-Union

Beazer Homes and ICI Homes, two well-known Florida home builders, have partnered to develop a 781-acre master-planned community on the northeast quadrant of Kernan and Beach boulevards.

The project, called Meditierra, would convert the largest parcel of undeveloped land on Kernan Boulevard into a posh commercial and residential neighborhood projected to be built over a five-year span, said Brian Garbacz, land manager for Beazer Homes in Jacksonville.

Homes are expected to sell from the low $200,000s up to a million dollars.

The developers, who purchased the timberland in September, face the first of several required city reviews next week. They filed to re-zone the property -- a mix of rural residential, medium density residential and commercial office districts -- into a planned-unit development. That application will go before City Council during a public hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. The Land Use and Zoning Committee will have second public hearing on the re-zoning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, at City Hall.

The developers also have applied for city concurrency, which ensures that there is adequate infrastructure such as roads, sewer and traffic circulation available to support a proposed development. According to city records, one of those concurrency applications was initially denied on Tuesday. The developer could appeal the decision or make a fair-share payment of $10.9 million. Another application is being reviewed for a fair-share agreement.

Because both Kernan and Beach boulevards are busy thoroughfares, the developers have said they expect the city will require them to make a fair-share payment to help pay for road improvements to the area. Their proposal also includes a 4-lane extension of Alden Road between Kernan and Hodges boulevards, which would be paid for by the developers.

Garbacz said the area, which is near the Jacksonville Golf and County Club, needs a commercial center to support the residential neighborhoods there. He envisions building a neighborhood that invites people to work and play in the same place they live. He said that specific plans are still months away from completion, but that the developers are working with neighborhood groups to develop a project amenable to everyone.

"I think everyone benefits," he said.

Garbacz said the commercial center will comprise about 40 acres of the property. The remainder will be reserved for residential use. He said the architecture of the buildings will have a European theme.

"It's an upscale community," Garbacz said. "We want to make a pedestrian friendly environment."

Garbacz said Beazer's partnership with ICI, doing business as Beach Boulevard Venture LLC, is its first such partnership in the Jacksonville market, and the project its largest.

"It was a good opportunity for Beazer and ICI to build some single family homes," he said. "When we elected to work with ICI, we had seen their properties in the local area and the products they offered. We thought we complemented each other well."

Beazer Homes USA, based in Atlanta, builds in over 40 markets in the country. Beazer builds about 17,000 single-family homes a year at an average price of $250,000, according to Hoover's Inc. Most of Beazer's homes are designed for first-time and first-time, move-up homebuyers. The publicly-traded company has built a few projects similar to Meditierra in markets other than Jacksonville, Garbacz said.

Based in Daytona Beach, ICI builds homes in Florida and southern Georgia. The company entered the Jacksonville area in 1993. Some Jacksonville communities ICI is affiliated with include Bartram Plantation, Hampton Park and Julington Creek Plantation.

alison.trinidadjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4268

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._17991846.shtml.

[bobliocatt]

]Jacksonville Bank branch to anchor Gate Parkway site

By TIMOTHY J. GIBBONS

The Times-Union

A new Jacksonville Bank branch will anchor a three-story office building planned for Florida 9A and Gate Parkway, with the 46,000-square-foot site expected to be completed in about a year.

The developer, Ash Properties, will also build the "Shoppes of Gate Parkway," a 45,000-square-foot shopping center west of the office building that should house about a dozen retailers, company officials said.

"We're looking at small specialty stores that will cater to the residents," said Randall Whitfield, vice president of acquisitions and development with Ash Properties. The Shoppes should have a mixture of restaurants and retail stores, he said.

As the area continues growing, Whitfield said, the intersection with 9A will be a prime location for both retail and offices.

"It's one of the most dominant and growing areas in Jacksonville," he said. "There's demand we've discovered in that area for people to locate in a dynamic area."

Ash Properties, now on Beach Boulevard, will relocate its own office to the new building, which will also contain Jacksonville Bank's fourth branch office.

The bank will lease about 9,300 square feet of office space as well as three drive-through lanes on the east side of the building.

"It's a very fast growing area," said Gilbert Pomar III, president and chief executive officer of the bank. "There's a lot of decision makers in the market and a lot of businesses, too."

The bank has been growing at a rapid pace since opening almost six years ago, Pomar said, and the visibility of the new branch will help that growth accelerate. "Everybody's going to know where we are," he said.

Ash should break ground for the building in the next month and complete the project within a year, although some in the area aren't sure there's a need for additional office space in the suburban Jacksonville real estate market.

Not only are there vacancies in the suburbs, but more businesses are looking at moving downtown, where there's a 20 percent vacancy rate.

"There's more interest in the core area of Jacksonville than the suburban area," said real estate consultant Ray Rodriguez, president of the Real Estate Strategy Center of North Florida. "The suburban office market has always been in competition with the downtown office market. For the past decade, the suburban market has won, but now maybe the tides are turning."

timothy.gibbonsjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4103

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._18031003.shtml.

[Urban_Legend]

Well I sure hope the tides are turning on the suburban office market!

[wolfdawg54]

Why is the demand so high out by 9A and the Baymeadows area? Personally I am not a fan of such a large quantitiy of this kind of development but I like the building's design.

[JaxNole]

Why is the demand so high out by 9A and the Baymeadows area? Personally I am not a fan of such a large quantitiy of this kind of development but I like the building's design.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe because the current demographics are attracting developers. There are many gated communities with houses priced from the 200s+ and that's not including Deerwood and Deercreek, where prices exceed that amount easily. The Davis family owns huge tracts of land. Just yesterday I was driving down Gate Pkwy and a new development advertised townhouses from the 210s. The St. Johns Town Center is anticipated to attract new high-end retailers and the developers know this. Land is plentiful in that area and it is projected to continue southward into St. Johns County. Nocatee, Silverleaf, Bartram Park and the eventual build out of Julington Creek will create a mass of development with high household incomes and buying power. Developers are not simply building new houses; they're building an income center. For example, a church on Southside Blvd recently announced they were moving to a site in Mandarin. To build on available land on Kernan was cost prohibitive, with their desired parcel assessed at 800k+.

[RiversideGator]

I dont get the attraction of that area. While I do go to the Tinseltown area for movies sometimes, the traffic during the week is Horrendous. From where I live in Riverside, I can be at work downtown in 5 minutes. Why waste thousands of hours of your life sitting in traffic??

[JaxNole]

I dont get the attraction of that area.

[bobliocatt]

Beach Boulevard widening to begin

By DAVID BAUERLEIN

The Times-Union

A portion of Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville will become a construction zone for three years when work begins next week between Hodges Boulevard and the Florida Community College at Jacksonville campus.

The $23.5 million contract will completely rebuild that stretch of four-lane road, turning it into a six-lane road with curbs and gutters instead of roadside ditches. The project also will build 5-foot sidewalks on either side of Beach Boulevard, and JEA will build bigger utility lines along that stretch.

Monia Robinson, who commutes daily on that piece of Beach Boulevard, said the road definitely needs improvements because of the increasing traffic. But she wasn't looking forward to driving past orange construction barrels until 2008.

"Three years?" she said with surprise. "That seems like a long time. I know that road needs a lot of work simply because there are so many accidents on Beach."

The project is scheduled to start Wednesday.

The roadwork will cover a 2.9-mile segment of Beach Boulevard, which is a "relatively long" distance for a complete reconstruction of such a heavily traveled road, state Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Goldman said.

To reduce the ordeal of lane closures, the state will build a temporary two-lane road next to the existing westbound lanes. The additional lanes will give DOT more options for keeping four lanes of traffic moving during the construction, Goldman said.

However, there will still be some lane closures from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays. At places within 600 feet of a signalized intersection, lane closures will only occur between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., according to DOT.

Also, the location of the temporary road will eliminate the ability of drivers to make some left-hand turns on and off Beach Boulevard. "That's the trade-off to limit the lane closures," Goldman said.

DOT will be distributing information this week to business owners along Beach Boulevard.

More traffic cones are expected on Beach Boulevard in the future as the road widening moves east.

In the 2007-08 budget year, DOT will do the same kind of rebuild to make Beach Boulevard six lanes between Hodges Boulevard and San Pablo Road. In late 2005, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority plans to begin widening Beach to six lanes from San Pablo Road to Penman Road, including construction of a new Intracoastal Waterway bridge.

david.bauerleinjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4581

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._18115377.shtml

[Viper]

It's about time. If the urbanization of Atlantic Blvd is any indication, Beach Blvd is will have a development explosion.

Now they just need to make JTB a spur of 295 with a full 6 regular lanes and 2 HOV lanes all the way to A1A.

[wolfdawg54]

It's about time.  If the urbanization of Atlantic Blvd is any indication, Beach Blvd is will have a development explosion.

Now they just need to make JTB a spur of 295 with a full 6 regular lanes and 2 HOV lanes all the way to A1A.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Also, the traffic on Atlantic, Beach, and JTB will already be spread out some with Wonderwood's completion to the north as well. Beach Boulevard is already having a development explosion as well.

[bobliocatt]

PHH Mortgage to expand in Jacksonville

PHH Mortgage Corp. today announced plans to expand its Jacksonville operations by constructing a $14.5 million office building and creating 600 new jobs.

The new office near Gate Parkway and State Road 9A will be about 150,000 square feet and sit on an undeveloped 20-acre site. It will provide space for PHH's private label mortgage division to eventually relocate its headquarters from New Jersey to Jacksonville, and house 700 employees from the company's present Merrill Lynch site, said Patrick Cummings, vice president of administration for PHH Mortgage.

PHH, a subsidiary of PHH Corp. (NYSE: PHH), received a recommendation this morning from the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission for a tax credit refund of up to $4,000 for each new job the company creates, based on an average wage of $51,000 annually.

The tax credit cannot exceed $2.4 million as recommended by the JEDC and must be approved by the City Council and the state.

Under the agreement, the city must pay $480,000 toward the total tax credit and waive its incentive policy.

[Viper]

I thought tax credits were not allowed in Southside.

Oh well, damn good news anyway.

[Urban_Legend]

Though I wish they'd move out of suburbia, I'm at least glad for 600 new jobs. That's good news.

[bobliocatt]

Town Center adds Neimans to its tenant recruitment list

Along with other upscale department stores, developers want to recruit luxury retailer Neiman Marcus to the St. Johns Town Center, which opens its first phase of almost 130 shops and restaurants a week from today.

A spokeswoman for Neiman Marcus Group Inc., considered the upper tier of retailing, said this week she had "no knowledge at this point."

"Until it's a done deal, we can't release any information," said Christine DiVita. "As far as we know, there's no information."

Fueling the Neiman Marcus talk was a statement on the Web site of Sephora, which will open its first Jacksonville perfumes cosmetics store at the town center. Sephora.com said "shoppers will be pleased to hear that Sephora's opening will be followed by Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus within the year."

A Sephora representative, who asked not to be identified, referred questions to St. Johns Town Center management and maintained that the statement "would not be on our web site" if Sephora did not believe it to be true.

St. Johns Town Center, at Butler Boulevard and St. Johns Bluff Road, is a joint development of Ben Carter Properties and Simon Property Group. Developer Ben Carter said he was not sure where Sephora gathered its information, but he did say that Simon and Carter tell tenants that the second phase will include space for three department stores.

And we've reported already that Carter and Simon are working on Nordstrom, Macy's and Saks.

Industry observers expect at least one luxury retailer to open in the second phase of the 207-acre project, although there are questions whether the market could immediately support more than one or two.

The first phase of 1.1 million square feet should be followed by early 2007 with a second phase of 150,000 square feet of shops and eventually up to three department stores totaling 410,000 square feet.

The first phase features a flagship Dillard's, and some shoppers have complained that they expected to see at least one upscale department store new to the market.

That first phase does include at least 30 stores and restaurants that are new to Northeast Florida, including Dick's Sporting Goods, DSW Shoe Warehouse, The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's China Bistro and Maggiano's Little Italy.

Carter said construction should start in September on the second-phase shops and possibly on one of the new department stores.

As for who's on first in the second phase, a Macy's executive said in early December that the chain, owned by Federated Department Stores Inc., wanted a "major presence" in the area. Later in December, Nordstrom Inc. confirmed interest in Jacksonville. In early January, a Simon executive confirmed talks with Saks Inc., which continues to have no comment.

Carter said developers are focused on Neiman Marcus, Macy's and Nordstrom. "We are talking to them regularly," he said. "We're in early conversations with them -- all three -- and we hope to get one or all three."

Carter acknowledged that Saks has been in the mix, although the company has been closing some stores and opening others as it reassesses its locations.

He also said the second phase probably would comprise 30 to 35 stores new to Jacksonville and "the kind of tenants" that upscale retailers like to join in retail centers.

karen.mathisjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4305

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._18186490.shtml.

[bobliocatt]

Mortgage firm would add 600 jobs

By RYAN GEDDES

The Times-Union

A New Jersey-based mortgage company gained city approval Thursday for a plan to add 600 jobs in Jacksonville and build a $14.5 million building on the Southside using $2.4 million in city and state money.

The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission unanimously approved a $2.4 million "qualified targeted industry" incentive package for PHH Mortgage Corp., formerly Cendant Mortgage, to make the investment near the intersection of Gate Parkway and J. Turner Butler Boulevard.

The tax refund formula requires the state to pay 80 percent of the incentive package, or about $1.9 million, and the city to pay 20 percent, or about $480,000.

New Jersey-based PHH already employs about 1,050 people earning an average annual salary of $51,000 at its leased Deer Lake Drive office space near the Merrill Lynch campus. The company plans to partner with Liberty Property Trust to build a 150,000 to 175,000 square-foot building on a 20-acre vacant parcel near the TNT Logistics building.

At the meeting, PHH Vice President of Administration Patrick Cummings said the company is eager to begin hiring employees in Jacksonville.

When asked by JEDC commissioner Charles Appleby whether PHH was committed to building in Jacksonville rather than continuing to lease its existing property, Cummings said: "It is our intention to sign a lease [with Liberty] in about 5 minutes, after we walk out of this meeting."

According to JEDC documents, Liberty would build the building and least it to PHH.

If the deal is approved by City Council, Cummings said PHH would expect construction of the new building to begin in May.

Although Jacksonville's sluggish office market makes renting space an attractive alternative to owning for many businesses, PHH has parking and infrastructure needs that made building a specialized structure a better choice, Cummings said.

The commission waived its incentive policy, approved by City Council in 2002, in order to approve the project, but such a deal would not require a waiver if the commission's proposed new incentive policy is adopted by the council.

Where the old policy placed great emphasis on specific sectors of Jacksonville in need of development, the new policy more specifically targets high-wage job growth, distressed areas, private capital investment, downtown development and small business expansion. Although PHH does not qualify as a small business, JEDC says its ability to indirectly effect small businesses in the area earned it 20 out of 20 points on the matrix, helping the deal reach a total of 56 points out of 100.

The commission also unanimously approved a redevelopment agreement between the city and LandMar Group LLC for the Shipyards project. Commissioners raised questions about the status and projected findings of an appraisal for the 40-acre property, which is expected to be complete next week, but approved the resolution with no changes.

A City Council council workshop on the Shipyards is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.

ryan.geddesjacksonville.com, (904) 359-4689

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._18188441.shtml.

[jandar]

Neiman Marcus has also been rumored to be in the new Oakleaf Regional Mall (when its built)

It will be here in Jax sometime soon I imagine.

[Viper]

Any word on that malls' progress?

[jandar]

you talking Oakleaf or Town Center?

[bobliocatt]

Any word on that malls' progress?

St. Johns Town Center opens on March 18th.

[afh]

Neiman Marcus has also been rumored to be in the new Oakleaf Regional Mall (when its built)

It will be here in Jax sometime soon I imagine.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What the h*ll is Oakleaf Mall and where is it? Is that in Gainsville? This story in the TU is so old. The Business Journal reported last August that Simon was in negotiations with Neimans, Nordstroms and Saks. No real surprise here. It takes 8 to 12 months to complete a lease deal so if something happens Simon should announce in a couple of months.

[jandar]

Oakleaf is the development out on the Clay County/Duval County border.

6400 acres of homes/shops/etc.

The regional mall out there has yet to be built, but will be a cornerstone.

be interesting to see where Neiman desides to place itself at in this area. Lots of money going up everywhere.

My money is on the Town Center due to its location, although Amelia Island or Pnte Vedra would fit as well.

[afh]

Oakleaf is the development out on the Clay County/Duval County border.

6400 acres of homes/shops/etc.

The regional mall out there has yet to be built, but will be a cornerstone.

be interesting to see where Neiman desides to place itself at in this area. Lots of money going up everywhere.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They'll place themselves wherever they can get the best lease. Lifestyle centers, which is what ST Johns TC is, tend to have lower lease rates, but stores on average make more money per sq ft at Lifestyle centers than they do at malls. So Neimans would be better off at this center for their first store in the market. That is b/c the typical shopper at a lifestyle center is a bit more affluent that the typical "upscale" mall shopper.

If Leon County can handle two malls, Clay can handle two malls.

[Urban_Legend]

Southside overpass out of plan

11 intersections on JTA project list

By GREGORY RICHARDS, The Times-Union

A Jacksonville Transportation Authority study released Thursday recommends $185 million in road improvements at 11 intersections but not the controversial Southside Boulevard-Baymeadows Road overpass.

The recommendation includes building three overpasses and adding high-tech traffic signals and additional turn lanes. It also advises buying land along Southside Boulevard between Beach and Butler boulevards for future upgrades.

The analysis, ordered after prices skyrocketed for seven Southside overpasses outlined in the Better Jacksonville Plan, came out as City Hall updated its projections Thursday to show that the $2.2 billion plan faces a shortfall of $658 million for road projects alone. Earlier this month, the cost of the Better Jacksonville Plan's road projects was estimated to be short $760 million.

The Full Article......

[bobliocatt]

Eye, pain management and other procedures will be performed at facility

By URVAKSH KARKARIA, The Times-Union

The growing population on the city's Butler Boulevard business corridor has lured many new projects in the last few years. Add to that list a $6 million-plus outpatient surgery center.

Full article