PSS world medical and Advanced Disposal looking at downtown

[iluvolives]

I've often heard that it is not where the employees live, but where the executives live or want to live. This is pure speculation (based on experience), but I'd be willing to bet that companies with executives that live in San Marco, Ortega, Avondale, Epping Forest, and other upscale areas near downtown are more likely to be located downtown than companies with executives that live in Ponte Vedra, Marsh Landing, Deerwood, Atlantic Beach, and other upscale areas that are closer to the Southside.

I agree with this thought process...and all the PSS execs live at the beach.

[Captain Zissou]

If downtown was much cheaper compared to Baymeadows Way, our real estate people would make us move down there.  We don't have a big enough presence here for incentives though.

Locally PSS has over 1,000 employees.  The city has offered incentives to companies with far fewer people.

[finehoe]

I've often heard that it is not where the employees live, but where the executives live or want to live.

Bingo!

Executives especially like to create a short commute for themselves. They may also locate for amenities such as golf courses or good schools for their children. A study of 38 companies that left New York City found that 31 moved closer to their chief executive’s home, reducing the average CEO commute to eight miles.

[Ocklawaha]

No argument here, a fact little known to most MJ readers is that Baldwin, Ponte Vedra, Jacksonville Beach, Neptune and Atlantic Beaches, as well as places like Orange Park and St. Augustine all have downtown's of their own. Granted that at the moment Ponte Vedra and Fruit Cove (Julington Plantation) are unincorporated... that will likely change as people discover those sales tax dollars are going away from their community FOREVER. Incorporation puts those dollars back in the hands of local citizen rule. If one of these places snags a major corporation more power to them and shame on Jacksonville for not making our central city the most desirable of the lot.

[thelakelander]

Where is Ponte Vedra's downtown?

[fsujax]

^^Sawgrass Village! haha

[Tacachale]

St Augustine and Jacksonville Beach do have downtowns. Neptune and Atlantic share the Town Center, though Atlantic Beach doesn't have it's government buildings there. Baldwin and Orange park sort of have areas of concentration, but that's a bit of a stretch. Neither Ponte Vedra nor Fruit Cove have downtowns or town centers and neither are likely to ever incorporate. Ponte Vedra especially has shot that down repeatedly.

In and of themselves none, besides perhaps St Augustine, really compete with the business districts in Duval directly, the rest are essentially bedroom communities. Where they have their influence is in leaning toward the suburban business parks over downtown.

[Ocklawaha]

^^Sawgrass Village! haha

Bingo!

I'd consider both Ponte Vedra and Fruit Cove as having embryonic 'downtowns'. Today they both have one or two arterials that are pretty well lined with businesses. As the area densifies those strip shopping centers will find the dirt under them worth more then the Wal-Mart on top, when that happens, things will start to change. Consider that tomorrow, a few high rise condos, an multi floor 'Baymeadows' style office complex and you've got young urban.

Don't count out incorporation too quickly either, I live down in St. Johns, and all are not Neanderthals. I saw this same pattern of 'NO' votes time and again in both Santa Clarita, CA and in Deltona and Debary FL, all of which are now officially 'cities'.

Agree with me or not, I don't hold anything against a company for heading to any of these places. Fact is as the new I-795 is completed, and the Nocatee  Parkway, or CR210 goes FREEway or toll road, expect that change is in the wind. ME? I'm sitting pretty waiting in the wings... 'cha-ching!'

[thelakelander]

I was wondering about Ponte Vedra because I worked there for my first five years here.  From my view it has no downtown.  Sawgrass Village just happens to be one of its more uniquely designed shopping centers.  You don't have to worry about that site densifying.  Residents over there came out with their pinch forks when a redevelopment proposal for that site popped up a few years back.

[downtownjag]

Where is Ponte Vedra's downtown?

There's plenty of space available at the Veranda project

[Ocklawaha]

I'd say everything from about Palm Valley Road, to Butler along A-1-A is the future 'downtown'. Looking at it from that point of view, it really isn't too far removed from St. Augustine, Ormond or Daytona Beach, and it's probably long since passed the Flagler Beach status.

[Tacachale]

I was born and raised in the Beaches and live there now. I AM the Beaches. Ponte Vedra has nothing like a downtown, and it won't densify or incorporate in the foreseeable future.

A long stretch along A1A does not a downtown make. There's no core area or any area that has concentration or mix of uses. What offices there are, the government facilities (all county & state, not local) and most commerce are separated in suburban strip malls and business parks on that road, and are totally separated from any potential residential areas. Sawgrass Village is just a rather large privately-owned suburban strip mall. It serves a lot of Ponte Vedra residents, sure, but as many or more are served by the Target shopping center at JTB - and that's in Jax Beach.

As for densification or incorporation, the residents would have to want it, and whenever it's come up in the past, the scene has looked like this:

[thelakelander]

Ock, I've always seen it as a strip commercial corridor with similar design characteristics with the Hodges, Beach, and Argyle Forest Boulevards of Jacksonville.  The distance between Palm Valley Road and JTB is nearly five miles in length.  That's basically the same distance as a drive from the I-95/10 interchange to Lane Avenue.  It's very far removed from the idea of a traditional downtown being a pedestrian scaled cluster of activity and mix of uses.  Given the land use policies out there and concurrency issues with A1A, it won't even become an Edge City.

[Tacachale]

Ock, I've always seen it as a strip commercial corridor with similar design characteristics with the Hodges, Beach, and Argyle Forest Boulevards of Jacksonville.  The distance between Palm Valley Road and JTB is nearly five miles in length.  That's basically the same distance as a drive from the I-95/10 interchange to Lane Avenue.  It's very far removed to the idea of a traditional downtown being a pedestrian scaled cluster of activity and mix of uses.  Given the land use policies out there and concurrency issues with A1A, it won't even become an Edge City.

Yes, because that's what it is, and it was a fight even to get it to that point. It's not even any different than what A1A looks like in Jacksonville and Neptune Beaches, and A1A is *not* the "downtown" of Jax & Neptune Beach.

[Tacachale]

Additionally, even if that area somehow became a downtown, neither it nor similar areas in Orange Park, Julington Creek, etc. would be competing directly with Downtown Jax for things like the PSS or Advanced Disposal offices (or EverBank, BOA, etc). There are suburban business & industrial areas in St. Johns & Clay that do compete, with both Downtown Jax and the various suburban business parks in Jacksonville. But they have nothing to do with the nearby developments having "downtowns".