Beaches Construction Update - April 2014

[Metro Jacksonville]

Beaches Construction Update - April 2014



Here's an update on a few new business openings and construction projects currently underway in the Jacksonville - Neptune - Atlantic Beaches area.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-apr-beaches-construction-update-april-2014

[AuditoreEnterprise]

I really, really like the facade on 12. Very nice looking building. Trader Joes space looks awesome too. I can't wait for that one to open! Graffiti Junktion is running out of days for a may opening... and I went into bold bean yesterday for the first time and I really like the vibe of the building. If it has any similarities it is going to be nothing less then phenomenal as well.

[Tacachale]

Last weekend I was able to tour a house in the Paradise Key development in south Jacksonville Beach, right off Jacksonville Drive:

http://www.paradisekeysouthbeach.com/

It's a refreshing change of pace from a lot of what we're seeing in the Jax Beaches, and Jax in general, at the moment. The houses are all designed to include street-facing front doors and porches. My architectural pet peeve is houses that basically do away with a real front door in favor of a garage, or even have the door face the driveway instead of the street, as if people were living in the garage and not just storing objects there. Additionally, the houses all have some architectural features in common (they came up with some buzz phrase like "Coastal Beach Vernacular" for their architecture) but each one is custom designed (not cookie cutter) and they don't force them to recreate historical styles like we see too often in the historic districts. They actually look pretty good.

The neighborhood is also much better planned than we generally see in subdivisions. It's not gridded and there are still culdesacs, but there are multiple entrances in an area covering 9 blocks, and there are no gates. Compared to the adjacent development, where there's only 1 entrance for an area covering probably 30 blocks (!) it's definitely a lot easier to get in and out of.

In all it looks like it combines a lot of the things people actually like about suburban environments with much better design than we're used to seeing. The houses are pretty large and upscale, but I'd like to see some of those features included in future suburban developments. The house I was looking at still had a bit of work left, and there are more to come, so it would be a good thing to have in future updates.

[Keith-N-Jax]

A lot of activity going on at the beach. I like the look of the Bluwater development.