Urban Construction Update - March 2013

[Josh]

Aardwolf is open. You guys should do a profile, it's one of the most impressive new spaces in Jax.

My SO and I went for the opening last Friday, and I concur that building is AMAZING.  Beautifully done.  I'm looking forward to seeing if their beers are as good as the location.

However, the opening day was the most mis-managed mess I've seen in a long time.  We got there 20 minutes after opening, but still waited 50 minutes for our first beer and gave up after that.  They were out of clean glasses by 5:30.  The three (!!) barmaids were wholly insufficient, and didn't know how to use their fancy iPad/Square devices efficiently.  They also have no idea how to pull beer quickly and correctly. 

I'll never understand why breweries don't clearly mark a queue for placing order and paying when they have big events like that.  The polite wait and wait for service, and the rude just hustle their way to the head of the blob of waiting polite people and order a dozen beers.  Someday I'll find a brewery/bar that doesn't wait on people like that first, and I swear I'll never leave there.

The massively long bar counter only compounded the issues during opening night since there was one person at the counter every 2-3' of counter space, and then several people in line behind them. Obviously it will get much better as the staff gets a handle on things, and (un)fortunately they will likely never have a crowd like they had on opening night except for maybe a few big events every now and then.

It was amazing to have such a large crowd since it seemed like a bit of a last-minute announcement only on Facebook.

[Tacachale]

Aardwolf is open. You guys should do a profile, it's one of the most impressive new spaces in Jax.

My SO and I went for the opening last Friday, and I concur that building is AMAZING.  Beautifully done.  I'm looking forward to seeing if their beers are as good as the location.

However, the opening day was the most mis-managed mess I've seen in a long time.  We got there 20 minutes after opening, but still waited 50 minutes for our first beer and gave up after that.  They were out of clean glasses by 5:30.  The three (!!) barmaids were wholly insufficient, and didn't know how to use their fancy iPad/Square devices efficiently.  They also have no idea how to pull beer quickly and correctly. 

I'll never understand why breweries don't clearly mark a queue for placing order and paying when they have big events like that.  The polite wait and wait for service, and the rude just hustle their way to the head of the blob of waiting polite people and order a dozen beers.  Someday I'll find a brewery/bar that doesn't wait on people like that first, and I swear I'll never leave there.

The massively long bar counter only compounded the issues during opening night since there was one person at the counter every 2-3' of counter space, and then several people in line behind them. Obviously it will get much better as the staff gets a handle on things, and (un)fortunately they will likely never have a crowd like they had on opening night except for maybe a few big events every now and then.

It was amazing to have such a large crowd since it seemed like a bit of a last-minute announcement only on Facebook.

Yeah, the extent of the marketing they did was a post on their and the Jax Truckies Facebook pages, and word of mouth. I guess they just underestimated how much this city loves its beer. Things will surely smooth out.

[Hayley]

Aardwolf is open. You guys should do a profile, it's one of the most impressive new spaces in Jax.

My SO and I went for the opening last Friday, and I concur that building is AMAZING.  Beautifully done.  I'm looking forward to seeing if their beers are as good as the location.

However, the opening day was the most mis-managed mess I've seen in a long time.  We got there 20 minutes after opening, but still waited 50 minutes for our first beer and gave up after that.  They were out of clean glasses by 5:30.  The three (!!) barmaids were wholly insufficient, and didn't know how to use their fancy iPad/Square devices efficiently.  They also have no idea how to pull beer quickly and correctly. 

I'll never understand why breweries don't clearly mark a queue for placing order and paying when they have big events like that.  The polite wait and wait for service, and the rude just hustle their way to the head of the blob of waiting polite people and order a dozen beers.  Someday I'll find a brewery/bar that doesn't wait on people like that first, and I swear I'll never leave there.

They weren't expecting such a crowd considering they're not even brewing their own beer yet, especially right at 6. I think they probably should have counted on it, but at any rate they'll get the hang of it. And having had Michael's beer for many years, I can guarantee it will be magically delicious.

Why is anyone still surprised that Jacksonvillians like good beer??  I must say the Pinglehead collaboration was FABULOUS.

[spuwho]

Ground has broken for several residential developments.

San Pablo has 2 in progress, Crossroads at San Pablo between Beach and Mayo.

Seagrass Apartments on San Pablo just south of Atlantic appears to be 40-50% complete. (brought to you by a mobility fee waiver)

A new "Resort Apartment" complex broke ground on Southside, south of JTB.

With all of the new units in progress at STJC and these others in flight, I am wondering who is going to consume the inventory once they finish?

This is what I have seen in the past week, I can't help but wonder what inventory is going up elsewhere.

[thelakelander]

Is the new resort complex at Southside and AC Skinner Parkway?  That land looks pretty wet.  I noticed they're clearing quite a few parcels along AC Skinner, one of which is an apartment complex called Lost Lake.  Is this resort complex in addition to that project?

[duvaldude08]

Although Lincoln Properties walked, Pope and Land is the entity that purchased the entire site and Fuqua is the developer for the commercial component.  It appears that Pope & Land may be just clearing/cleaning up the site but the development of this site is far from over.

I passed by today on my lunch break today and couldnt stop looking. LOL im just glad to see action on all that land. That entire area was empty for sooooooo long. Its good to see some action finally.

[PeeJayEss]

I'll never understand why breweries don't clearly mark a queue for placing order and paying when they have big events like that.  The polite wait and wait for service, and the rude just hustle their way to the head of the blob of waiting polite people and order a dozen beers.  Someday I'll find a brewery/bar that doesn't wait on people like that first, and I swear I'll never leave there.

You should hit up Northstar Substation on Bay St downtown. The only bar I've ever seen with a queue. And it is the most awkward place in the world to get service.

[thelakelander]

I passed this Family Dollar in Charleston on upper Meeting Street earlier this week:



This happens to be the same exact site plan as the Family Dollar in New Springfield at 17th & Main:





It find it quite amazing how simply modifying your zoning regulations and design policies directly leads to major change at the pedestrian scale.  The Charleston Family Dollar is what we should have had on State Street.  However, because of our poor zoning regulations, we're going to end up with the Main Street example.

[sdmjax]

This is sad...people are getting excited about a Family Dollar? What is wrong with this town?

[PeeJayEss]

This is sad...people are getting excited about a Family Dollar? What is wrong with this town?

Talking about something doesn't mean you are excited about it, but thanks for making a joke that wasn't funny the first time!