Ron Littlepage: Looking for ways to reinvigorate downtown Jacksonville

[comncense]

Lucky Strike is the same concept pretty much. Bowling, bar, food, art, music... Minus the kids and arcade factor. Personally when I'm out drinking or for a happy hour, I don't wanna see little kids running around. I think Miami is the only place in Florida that has Lucky Strike though. I've been to the ones in Vegas and LA.

http://www.bowlluckystrike.com/

[tufsu1]

if you dont want help change things and just complain about things then why do talk on this website then  do you know what im saying?

simms generally isn't one of them, but that seems to be the norm for some posters

[JeffreyS]

Simms look for another name on the AT&T building very soon.

[spuwho]

One word I have never heard mentioned in Jacksonville is 'repositioning.'

I have been looking into various landlords and various downtown office building owners and their management companies, and I am not seeing very many brains (or reputable companies/owners).  Sure the city leadership is about as bad as it can possibly be, but I don't expect much from this group of landowners either.

Oh Jacksonville, at this point I have no plans to ever come back...

Simms,

Everyone has different reasons to be in commercial RE. For some its merely an investment by which better margins reap profits. For some they need losses to carry forward to avoid some level of taxes. Others do it because they actually enjoy it. Others are mere 'flippers' who simply see RE as a distressed asset that can be turned over and help them acquire some cash reward.

Many would agree that some CRE developers have a limited set of creativity. For some, it is simply a by the numbers exercise that helps them meet some fiscal or accounting goal.

For every successful downtown (anywhere) RE development, there are many that never make it or reach build out. There are some that reach build out, but can only carry an anchor tenant, but no more. Even further, there are speculative build outs that have no tenant at all!

For example the Chicago Spire designed by Calatrava http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Spire

Looks like this:


The Chicago Spire story gives a good example of just how many pieces have to come together to make a project work.

A building a few blocks away, started just 3 years sooner fared much better;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_Tower_Chicago



Different objectives, marginally different time periods, yet one failed, the other succeeds.

Both developments make little use of street or urban access design, because they were 'off traffic' locations. If anything the Trump development had more possibilities being on the Chicago River and it was built on top of a railroad ROW! (since removed).

Trump and Chicago traded many volleys on designs that he considered 'wasteful and expensive' but urbanists felt were necessary to have the build out compatible with contemporary urban design and have it interface with the South Rush "backdoor" to Michigan Ave. (The Mag Mile).

Trump won most of those fights because the City wanted it built very badly and he made it clear he wouldn't make money if they made him do it.

What does it have to do with Jax?

If the city planning department doesn't demand urban access in any large scale developments in the urban core, then why would a developer design one? We rue the fact that these building have little access at the street level, but who has held the city accountable on that?

Just one piece of the puzzle when putting together a solid urban layout.

[simms3]

^Timing is infinitely more important than location, but for the rest of the responses: thanks for the headsup on ATT name change (that's such an ATT building what else can it be?)).  I can't help that I'm turning into a snob that's enjoying wonderful opportunities in cities further north and hardly looking back (and I join at least half my former high school classmates).  Spuwho: I'm involved in CRE/finance