Downtown Jacksonville

[vladittude0583]

Hey guys, what's the address again of the new forum for just jacksonville? Thanks.

[Viper]

Click my sig.

[Urban_Legend]

Hey guys, if you're like me, and you won't be able to see the new main library any time soon, check this out:

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._20245864.shtml

It's got lots of great stuff, including 360 tours, and a video time lapse of construction. (It shows the Rhodes building getting demolished...) Check it out!

[vicupstate]

City takes first step toward agreement on Landing

I wonder if this means that Sleiman is not asking for incentives for the Landing expansion?

If it is going to take 14 months or more just to get the necessary permitting, how in the dickens was Sleiman going to get this work done BEFORE the Super Bowl? That was his original plan when he bought the property.

[jjoshjl]

Probably boils down to he jsut didnt realize how much red tape is involved in downtown. But then again Kuhn sems to be moving pretty quick...

Anyway.. hopefully this will be the first real step we have been waiting for...

Cheers

[Dale]

Question: I remember when the lobby of the Modis tower (then Independent Life) used to be a swirl of synergy. The lobby wrapped around the building and including a crazy welter of cafeterias and shops.

Is it still pretty much like that ? I remember that it was fascinating to an easy-to-impress Gainesville boy.

[Urban_Legend]

I thought this was interesting:

• What does Mayor John Peyton order when he goes to The Chunky Chef on Bay Street? The Mayor John Peyton, obviously. All of the items on the new restaurant’s menu are named after well-known people from Jacksonville and co-owner Ron Dray said the mayor usually orders his namesake, which happens to be chicken Diana, whenever he comes in. Dray said most of the people with namesake menu items order their item when they visit except for one — Sheriff John Rutherford, whose item is the chef salad.

OK, so I think I'll go to Chunky Chef and order a John Peyton. I will then proceed to either:

a) give it to a homeless man

b) dump it in the river

c) bury it in the courthouse 'field'

or if all else fails, I could just blow loud jet noise of protest in front of Chunky Chef....

[asonj23]

QUOTE(Captain Obvious @ Nov 10 2005, 01:11 PM)

asonj, jjosh ...

The city has definitely produced a few masterplans for LaVilla. The most recent was in conjunction with the mass-tranist hub. However, they have never actually acted on anything. This is especially frustrating to me, because the city actually owns most of the vacant land!!!

If I had to guess, the city is holding off on LaVilla for several reasons (all of them extremely shortsighted).

1) They are waiting for the courthouse to get built, and hope to sell off the land to law firms for huge profits.

2) They are stubbornly trying to attract only commercial development to the area, despite the current housing boom.

3) Political forces are opposed to "gentrification" of the area. Councilman Fullwood essentially killed a proposed rowhouse development in LaVilla because it was "too expensive" for the area. The proposed prices? $179,000!!

The bad thing is its already under gone "gentrification" in the worst type of way. The city basically leveled the whole neighborhood and its rich history along with it. At this point, there can't be anymore then 20 people living in what was once, one of the city's most populated and densest neighborhoods. To pour salt on its wounds that townhouse project was actually one of the best things to come online in years for LaVilla.

Renewal of any area would almost always start with higher end development. Without the city offering heafty incentives to developers to provide market rate or low income housing the area will remain vacant.

I was looking forward to the rowhouse development in LaVilla. That is the ideal area for it.

[Captain Obvious]

Is anyone else starting to worry about San Marco Place being extremely ugly? I mean, we all knew it was going to be typical boring stucco stuff like berkman plaza. But construction has hinted at problems not necessarily visible from renderings.

Take a look at a webcam shot from today ...

Notice the pre-fab garage which makes up the first 4 floors. It's basically just one giant concrete wall - except for one lonely window on the East side. The North side will have townhomes built in front, and the South will be obscured by the skyway. However, the East and West sides appear like they will be little more than monolithic 4 floor blank walls! The East and West walls will actually be what most people see when they drive past ... I hope they plan some sort of fascade treatment to mitigate the ugliness.

[Viper]

I doubt they remain just 4 story stucco walls. Hard to really say at this point. I've seen bland walls in construction become something really nice.

The renders make it as though that location won't be very visible once completed and at least will be tree lined.

[Urban_Legend]

^Ick, that picture bothers me. I was never expecting much from San Marco Place, after I saw the rendering's grass buffer separating it from the street.

[prahaboheme]

So this is amazing, and a bit depressing, but I thought i'd post it here:

JAX 1910

[bobliocatt]

This section of downtown today is pretty dense. Other than some of the old significant public and commercial buildings, like the Masonic Lodge & City Hall (left side of pic), Post Office (bldg. with bell tower), most of this is residential and has been replaced with high density commercial uses.

The new library sits, where the row of houses on the lower right end of the picture is located. Hemming Park (now Plaza) is still there, but the site of the hotel facing it, is now the home to the new Federal Courthouse.

[Urban_Legend]

I miss that old Post Office building. It's a shame that's gone. And I didn't know there were actually two churches on Monroe Street across from Hemming Plaza...

Here's some downtown news for today:

Chairman supports plan to abolish DDA

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=44033

[Captain Obvious]

I miss that old Post Office building. It's a shame that's gone. And I didn't know there were actually two churches on Monroe Street across from Hemming Plaza...

Fortunately, 2 of the 4 churches in that photo are still standing. The leftmost one is obviously the Snyder Memorial Church on Hemming Park, and the rightmost one is the first First Baptist Church behind city hall.

And interestingly enough, (if I'm not mistaken) the buildings that replaced the two demolished churches along Hogan street are actually now protected historical buildings themselves!

[bobliocatt]

Here's a pic of the old First Baptist Church at Church & Hogan Streets (far right of 1910 photo). The houses next door, were demolished in 1926, for the mid-rise Sunday School building, that still standing today.

The church across the street was probably destroyed for the Federal Reserve Bank, which was also constructed in the booming 1920s.

All in all, most of the buildings in the 1910 historic photo were demolished during the 1920s, when the city evolved from a small Southern town, to a booming urban city.

[prahaboheme]

I know that this area is denser today, I was more or less talking about the housing downtown. JAX doesn't really looks like a small southern town in this picture. It looks quite interesting.

[vladittude0583]

Some Pictures I Took Of Downtown Jacksonville A Few Days Ago

[Urban_Legend]

^I love how the light hits the Modis building, and makes a vertical ray! It's like magic or something lol...

[Springfieldian]

Early Autumn and early Spring sunset views are are absolutely incredible from the Skyway. Anywhere between 5:00pm and 5:30pm is ideal. Definitely a bargain at 35

[Urban_Legend]

Another Nightclub for the Landing!

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stor..._20422308.shtml

Some interesting, notable quotes from the article:

Deep Blue is being built above the Copper Cellar Grille & Tavern, a 190-seat restaurant the Cutlass Group opened three weeks ago in the former South End Brewery space. Copper Cellar is the third original restaurant concept developed by the 3-year-old Jacksonville company, Williams said.

"Our focus is more on the entertainment where years ago it was more on shopping," she said. "This has been a little bit of a change with the Landing and what we're accustomed to."

Sleiman, who paid $5.1 million for the Landing, said he wants more national chains as tenants.

"It's just the name and the people it attracts," he said. "It just makes [the Landing]go to the next level."

This is great news. I see The Landing becoming more like Universal Citywalk in Orlando. Now, all it needs is a facelift and some unique retail and restaurants, preferably a national chain that would draw people to the CBD, like Sleiman said^.

[otowner]

I spent Thanksgiving weekend at the Hyatt in Downtown Jacksonville. I was very impressed with the city and the activities going on. Was most of that due to the holiday weekend or is downtown Jax always that lively?

The St Johns River seems to be a valuable asset to the city, much better than being on a bay (Tampa) or the ocean (Miami). Jax has a lot of potential, I hope that they reach that.

[Captain Obvious]

I spent Thanksgiving weekend at the Hyatt in Downtown Jacksonville. I was very impressed with the city and the activities going on. Was most of that due to the holiday weekend or is downtown Jax always that lively?

No, it was just the holiday weekend. I was down there last weekend and it was abnormally active (in a good way, of course). Although tremendously better in recent years, Jax is still sadly a "9-5" kind of downtown.

You were probably seeing people there for the boat parade/fireworks on Saturday, which seems to draw a tremendous crowd. Or perhaps the Landing christmas tree. Also, the new main library has been drawing thousands of visitors per day, and lots of them were probably drifting over to other downtown activities afterwards.

[vladittude0583]

Given the recent proposals of The Vue, St. John, and River Watch @ City Centre, could someone please explain to me the statuses of these certain projects...

1) Berkman Plaza II

2) San Marco Riverwalk

3) St. John's Pointe

4) Lofts @ East Union

5) 323 Duval

6) St. John's Town Center Phase II (when is it going to start)???

I know that these projects are or have been proposed, but I believe that some of them were to have renderings proposed later this month or something? Thanks.

[jp2005]

As far as another project is concerned -- the building at 20 W. Adams St. -- it would seem there's a new wrinkle:

http://sonzaki.blogspot.com/