Rummell, Balanky pitch ‘Healthy Town’ for JEA site

[Tacachale]

Will be interesting to see the site plan for this, but that much residential in that area is certainly promising. Good access to the Riverwalk, Skyway, and hopefully the adjacent neighborhoods as well.

[finehoe]

http://www.youtube.com/v/xF77Y1JLScc

Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me
Town to keep me movin', keep me groovin' with some energy

Well, I talk about it, talk about it
Talk about it, talk about it
Talk about, talk about
Talk about movin'

Gotta move on
Gotta move on
Gotta move on

{Bridge}

A-won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?

{Bridge}

Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?

{Bridge}

Gotta make a move to a town that's right for me
Town to keep me movin', keep me groovin' with some energy

Well, I talk about it, talk about it
Talk about it, talk about it
Talk about, talk about
Talk about movin'

Gotta move on
Gotta move on
Gotta move on

{Bridge}

A-won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?

{Bridge}

Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?
Won't you take me to Healthytown?

Won't you take me down to Healthytown?
Won't you take me down to Healthytown?
Won't you take me down to Healthytown?
Won't you take me down to Healthytown?

(Won't you take me to) Healthytown?
(Won't you take me to) Healthytown?
(Won't you take me to) Healthytown?
(Won't you take me to) Healthytown?

Take me, won't you take me?
Take me, won't you take me?
Take me, won't you take me?
Take me, won't you take me?

I wanna go to Healthytown
I wanna go to Healthytown
I wanna go to Healthytown
I wanna go to Healthytown

[jcjohnpaint]

1,000 to 1,200 multifamily residential units for sale and for rent as well as the "base camp" and 100,000 to 150,000 square feet of space for retail, food and beverage.

Balanky said the project could accommodate professional office uses and possibly a hotel, making it a mixed-use development.

[comncense]

I really hope that don't go forward with that name if it goes through...

[Charles Hunter]

Thank you finehoe for that musical interlude. 

[Bill Hoff]

By Karen Brune Mathis, Managing Editor

Developer Peter Rummell is making a formal pitch to develop his "Healthy Town" concept at the 28.6-acre JEA Southbank site.
He hopes for a home run.

"There really is a big idea here," the Jacksonville businessman and investor said Wednesday, a week before bids were due from developers who want to buy the vacant property.

RELATED STORY: About the JEA site up for grabs.

Rummell considers the idea so big that he is trademarking "The Healthy Town" as well as "Generation H."

Gen H is defined as a growing market of all ages, single and married, families and retirees, who seek "happier, more fulfilling, productive lives" achieved by healthy living that includes their personal habits and living environment."

"We are at the point now where financially it makes sense. Now we have to execute," Rummell said.

Rummell didn't provide an overall investment estimate, but he said it could be $150,000 per unit. At 1,000 units, and there likely would be more, that indicates an investment of at least $150 million.

Full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=544007

Thought others may enjoy reading this Letter to the Editor about Healthy Town from my neighbor:


"Mr. Rummell's plans for a 'Healthy Town' are definitely different from the cookie-cutter suburban development that Jacksonville seems to be addicted to and a breath of fresh air for those of us who see the value of living within the urban core. I like it; Jacksonville's urban core needs to be seen as a good and healthy place to live if we want to grow up and be taken more seriously as a city. I have one challenging idea for Mr. Rummell and a silver lining to Deutche Bank's potential acquisition of the JEA site. His concept already *mostly* exists and merely needs his extended vision.

Rummell essentially wants to build what we already have nearly all of in Springfield. That's right, Jacksonville's red-headed stepchild, Springfield. This is the neighborhood my family and I have called home and watched transform almost totally through the hard work and determination of ourselves and our neighbors for the past sixteen years. From the perspective I've gained having grown up in the suburbs, choosing Springfield as our home when starting our family, and visiting more than one tier-1 city I think if more developers had the vision to look past building all-new and explored a mix of creative re-use and new construction stitched into existing fabric on the scale of what he wants to do, they'd find plenty fertile sites for germinating their grand ideas and seeing them fruit bountifully in ways that they hadn't expected. There are also fantastic neighbors already here - many neighbors who will admit their initial hesitance about the neighborhood given the perceived risk who have been overwhelmingly rewarded with what most of us feel is the best neighborhood we have ever lived in.

See - an existing open and inclusive community such as ours that already has the mindset of a "Healthy Town" is one heck of an amenity that cannot be engineered and constructed. It has to grow organically from several diverse individuals and families who are of like-enough mind to make it work. 9 of his 10 Principles are already at work here. It's that second one that is constantly overlooked.

Mr. Rummell, don your imagineer glasses and peer up Main St. less than a mile outside of Downtown and you'll see plenty available retail space, vacant land that can handle multistory residential building, existing parks and recreation infrastructure, and easy ingress + egress to and from the other urban core neighborhoods. You'll also see that Springfield is a mere healthy bicycle ride, jog, or stroll from the Downtown riverfront. The Springfield neighborhood is a location of economic value; it's time for it to be fully recognized and enable all 10 Principles to be applied and in effect."

[edjax]

I really hope that don't go forward with that name if it goes through...

What name? Healthy Town? That would not be the name of the development, that is just the concept. Currently e name would be Element.

[edjax]

Saw a site plan on WOKV Reporter Stephanie Brown's twitter page of both proposals. I am sure someone can import them that is not as tech challenged as me.

[finehoe]

Saw a site plan on WOKV Reporter Stephanie Brown's twitter page of both proposals. I am sure someone can import them that is not as tech challenged as me.

Thank you!

[thelakelander]

Hmm. That's a decent layout!

[IrvAdams]

And that nearby Skyway station is perfectly positioned to connect the Northbank with this development. 

[JeffreyS]

Would love to see a direct walking path to the skyway but it is close enough.

[jcjohnpaint]

I like it. 

[downtownbrown]

word is that a 3/2 condo is going to be priced around 350k.  Pretty attractive entry point for that location, I think.

[Tacachale]

That seems steep, though I guess it's not much over what a lot of homes farther south in San Marco go for, even those not right on the river.