Nordstrom confirmed for St. Johns Town Center

[Adam W]

Finally a place that could REALLY use a covered, all weather, fixed, captive, transit system... and we're all talking parking lots, grassy fields and garages. Way to go Town Center/Jacksonville, someone call me when it starts raining common sense.

The above photos (both Los Angeles area malls) prove that mall developers think (rightly so) that Jacksonville shoppers are so desperate and/or unsophisticated so as to not need or desire more amenities in their shopping experiences. In spite of Los Angles having a FAR more congenial climate for walking the mile, the malls are in a gloves off competition to the top. To our south Orlando, Miami, and of course Boca Raton, Miami, Palm Beach and Coral Springs, all have properties and tenants that blow us back to the dark ages. Darn shame there isn't a button we could push to bring things into a tighter focus.

I agree with Ock. SJTC didn't have the density originally to support anything trolley wise, but now that they are adding another anchor (and room for another) perhaps a people mover should at least be considered. (not a bus driven clone)

The problem is they want to keep that tenant space price competitive. If the tenants don't want to cover a people mover in their lease agreements under their CAM allocation, then someone has to pay for it. No one is going to park at Pollo Tropical and pay $3 for a ride over to Dick's. They would rather drive around the lot for 15 minutes to avoid the cost.

Christmas traffic will be problematic, but if they add another anchor in the SE quadrant it will get pretty close to gridlock during the holiday season. They need to look at the big picture and find a way to make it easier for shoppers to find parking in a more distributed way.

I have seen 3 near accidents coming and going out of the new Daily's on Gate in just 15 minutes. That was on Labor Day, imagine what Christmas will bring.

I'm not going to bag on SJTC, as I think (in spite of its flaws) that it's a pretty great shopping area for Jax and certainly better than any of the other malls.....

But the traffic situation is insane. People don't even bother to observe the lights around there. It's dangerous.

[Dapperdan]

They should get rid of the parking in the main walkable strip and in fact ban cars from even driving through. Place in the trolley line with 3 or so stops from one end to the other, and watch the appeal of the place grow. I ahve honestly only been to the town center maybe three times and have hated it each time.

[vicupstate]

Congrats to Jacksonville.  I still won't be able to do any decent shopping when I come home as I am a loyal Bloomie's cardholder, but it's nice to know that the city can now officially support one decent department store.  Just for the record on the chain of command of the largest department stores to put things in perspective (all opinion of course):

1) Saks Fifth Ave/Neiman Marcus/Barney's New York
2) Bloomingdale's/Nordstrom/Barney's Co-op
3) Lord & Taylor/Macy's flagships
4) Dillards/Macy's/Von Maur
5) Belk/Macy's
6) JC Penney/Sears
7) Kohls

Did you leave off Walmart and Dollar General on purpose?

[tufsu1]

Neiman Marcus = needless markup

[fsquid]

Neiman Marcus = needless markup

their targeted demo doesn't care about markups.

[copperfiend]

They should get rid of the parking in the main walkable strip and in fact ban cars from even driving through. Place in the trolley line with 3 or so stops from one end to the other, and watch the appeal of the place grow. I ahve honestly only been to the town center maybe three times and have hated it each time.

What is their motivation to do so? The place is packed every day of the week. Every restaurant is full every night.

[fsquid]

They should get rid of the parking in the main walkable strip and in fact ban cars from even driving through. Place in the trolley line with 3 or so stops from one end to the other, and watch the appeal of the place grow. I ahve honestly only been to the town center maybe three times and have hated it each time.

What is their motivation to do so? The place is packed every day of the week. Every restaurant is full every night.

every night?

[duvaldude08]

I really dont care for it either. Just the hassle of the traffic and parking is enough to keep me way. But there sure is some good eating out there!  That is the ONLY thing I go out there for to be honest.

[copperfiend]

They should get rid of the parking in the main walkable strip and in fact ban cars from even driving through. Place in the trolley line with 3 or so stops from one end to the other, and watch the appeal of the place grow. I ahve honestly only been to the town center maybe three times and have hated it each time.

What is their motivation to do so? The place is packed every day of the week. Every restaurant is full every night.

every night?

Go by BJ's, Brio, Cantina Laredo, Season's 52, PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, Bahama Breeze, Mimi's or any other casual and above restaurant tonight and let me know.

[ben says]

Neiman Marcus = needless markup

That applies to any and all corporations flourishing today....I guess it depends how you define 'needless'....that's the deal with corporations--growth for the sake of growth (sounds sorta like a tumor, doesn't it?)....

[Captain Zissou]

They should get rid of the parking in the main walkable strip and in fact ban cars from even driving through. Place in the trolley line with 3 or so stops from one end to the other, and watch the appeal of the place grow. I ahve honestly only been to the town center maybe three times and have hated it each time.

What is their motivation to do so? The place is packed every day of the week. Every restaurant is full every night.

every night?

Go by BJ's, Brio, Cantina Laredo, Season's 52, PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, Bahama Breeze, Mimi's or any other casual and above restaurant tonight and let me know.

Wow.  You managed to hit almost every one of the restaurants that I will never go to again without naming one I will go to in the future.

As far as SJTC goes, I will eat at J Alexanders, Mitchell's, Libretto's, Bento, Wasabi, Chipotle, Pei Wei, Pollo tropical, Ted's, and Chick fil a.  I will eat at Capital Grille on someone else's dime and I may end up at PF Changs or Cantina Laredo again, but for those three I think you're wasting your money.  For all of the others, I don't see the point in going to any of them.

[finehoe]

centrally-located St. Johns Town Center

How do they figure that?

[Tacachale]

^By our population patterns it's probably the most centrally located shopping area at this point. There are more people on the south side of the river than the other side, and that's without St. Johns County and parts further south.

[copperfiend]

They should get rid of the parking in the main walkable strip and in fact ban cars from even driving through. Place in the trolley line with 3 or so stops from one end to the other, and watch the appeal of the place grow. I ahve honestly only been to the town center maybe three times and have hated it each time.

What is their motivation to do so? The place is packed every day of the week. Every restaurant is full every night.

every night?

Go by BJ's, Brio, Cantina Laredo, Season's 52, PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, Bahama Breeze, Mimi's or any other casual and above restaurant tonight and let me know.

Wow.  You managed to hit almost every one of the restaurants that I will never go to again without naming one I will go to in the future.

As far as SJTC goes, I will eat at J Alexanders, Mitchell's, Libretto's, Bento, Wasabi, Chipotle, Pei Wei, Pollo tropical, Ted's, and Chick fil a.  I will eat at Capital Grille on someone else's dime and I may end up at PF Changs or Cantina Laredo again, but for those three I think you're wasting your money.  For all of the others, I don't see the point in going to any of them.

That's great. But plenty of people do.

It's sort of funny and predictable how every thread about the SJTC disolves into the same thing. They're never building a trolly, they're probably not building a parking garage any time soon. The main reason for both is they don't have to.

[CityLife]

^By our population patterns it's probably the most centrally located shopping area at this point. There are more people on the south side of the river than the other side, and that's without St. Johns County and parts further south.

Not just that. It's pretty much the center point of the middle and upper income parts of the Jax metro area that comprise most of the SJTC's shoppers.

I'll rip on the SJTC's numerous design flaws and missed opportunities till I can't talk anymore, but can't really fault their location. Especially when you consider the costs of land and proximity to UNF.