Intuition moving to Forest Street?

[thelakelander]

The closed Forest Park in 2008.

Intuition Ale Works is considering building a 20,000 brewery and 2,500 tap room at Forest and Margaret Street in Mixon Town. The site is the location of COJ's closed Forest Park, near I-95 and across the street from the animal shelter.  Assuming the EPA cleans the site, which was a city incinerator decades ago, and the city agrees to sell a portion to Intuition, the brewery would be built along Forest Street and Intuition would partially fund the construction of a new city park on the remaining portion of the property along McCoys Creek Boulevard.  Intuition's King Street location would be closed.

[river4340]

From the T-U, but it's members only:

Intuition Ale Works founder Ben Davis has been looking a second location for his brewery for about a year now. He originally had his eye on downtown, but that didn’t work.

Now he’s found a spot to move and enlarge his brewery: A piece of city-owned property on Forest Street that’s currently a park that’s closed because the ground is contaminated by ash from a city incinerator.

http://members.jacksonville.com/business/premium-business/2013-05-19/story/intuition-hopes-build-bigger-brewery-site-closed-city#

[Charles Hunter]

I see a new brew .... Toxic Ash Dark Ale

I see promotional tie-ins ... get a puppy, get a coupon for Intuition

[Noone]

A new Mayor Brown Kayak logo on McCoys Creek. We need another round over here! Great news.

[Hayley]

Great for the city at large, but OUCH for the King Street area. 

[thelakelander]

Seems like it's too much trouble to accommodate their growth on King Street.  I'm just happy Ben isn't trying to move Intuition into some random suburban industrial park.  I wonder if his plans include reusing that concrete building at the closed park, shown in the image above?

[peestandingup]

Great for the city at large, but OUCH for the King Street area.

I'd say ouch for Intuition as well. That area looks to be in the middle of nowhere & mostly abandoned. http://goo.gl/maps/DDkuE

Growth issues or not, they'll still sell & distribute a lot of beer I'm sure, but I can't imagine many people are gonna make the trek up there to drink in their tap room. That synergy that they shared with the rest of King, people walking up there from the district, biking, etc will be gone.

[thelakelander]

When Intuition came to King, it wasn't what it is today.  If they do end up relocating to the Forest Street site, there's an opportunity for additional redevelopment in the area.  After all, it really isn't that far from the Brooklyn developments and that interchange is supposed to be a gateway to downtown.

[CG7]

I've worked around the corner from that location for over 20 years, and I wouldn't go near that area after dark. I'm sure people will spin this as a good move, but that is as dangerous an area as there is in Jacksonville.

[peestandingup]

When Intuition came to King, it wasn't what it is today.  If they do end up relocating to the Forest Street site, there's an opportunity for additional redevelopment in the area.  After all, it really isn't that far from the Brooklyn developments and that interchange is supposed to be a gateway to downtown.

I realize that, but still. I think its apples & oranges. They had the already established district on King (Kickbacks & everything surrounding that) plus all the businesses on Park St backing them up, somewhat walkable, in a real neighborhood, etc. There was a definite vibe already there, which is not the case on Forest. They're basically surrounded by a highway, an interstate overpass & nothingness.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how they can turn that area into anything since there's just not much to work with. It'll take years & years if they do.

[thelakelander]

There's a highway (great visibility) but there are a lot of old warehouses on the side streets between Forest and Edison.  On the other side of the overpass, there's also land for infill between I-95 and Park Street. Nevertheless, you're right in that it will be Riverside's loss.  They've simply outgrown the space and it doesn't appear the surrounding context and environment presents the opportunity to expand at the current facility.

[Josh]

Great for the city at large, but OUCH for the King Street area.

I'd say ouch for Intuition as well. That area looks to be in the middle of nowhere & mostly abandoned. http://goo.gl/maps/DDkuE

Growth issues or not, they'll still sell & distribute a lot of beer I'm sure, but I can't imagine many people are gonna make the trek up there to drink in their tap room. That synergy that they shared with the rest of King, people walking up there from the district, biking, etc will be gone.

Yeah, that area is definitely up-and-coming between the new interstate interchanges and the development going on in Brooklyn, but it is currently a wasteland for pedestrians aside from concerns with crime. There are way too many cars and traffic lanes for walkability/bikeability to ever match what they have on King Street IMO. That aspect of the brewery will definitely be lost.

[iluvolives]

I never really associate Intuition with the King St district, because I never think to walk from one to the other- I think of everything between college and park as the king st district and intuition and bold city as a separate  brewery district. When Bold city opened there was nothing there either and really there still isn't much.

I think people will drive the extra mile to Forest and once all the new development on Riverside opens they will likely be seen as pioneers of that area. I also could see people leaving LPS after work and hitting up intuition as a convienent happy hour spot.

[ricker]

I for one personally hope they keep the present location in the 700 block of King Street up and running and maybe just move on to open a larger more upscale bar and SECOND Tap Room. High visibility and much open green space a true beer garden!! AHH FINALLY

But again just to reiterate leave the operations exactly as they are on King Street there is a lot of synergy which is building further based on CoRK, the growth there and across the street as well with the new KING ST.STUDIOS.

Also the very large expansion of bold city brewery.

BOTH can work well filling different needs and voids to vastly different traffic to bother worrying the two would be competing or starving the other.

IMHO

[vicupstate]

I don't know that exact location very well, but it does seem to be on the 'wrong side' of the interstate from where most of the revitialization is occurring and is being encouraged to occur.   In that regard  an interstate can be a very powerful obstacle.  It seems a very risky location to be a pioneer. 

If they were willing to go Downtown, why haven't they been able to find something there?  It not like there isn't vacant land.