Peter Rummell's Healthy Town Site Plan Released

[Papa33]

Don't forget there are plans to build apartments at the old Crawdaddy's site.

[Tacachale]

On quick glance, I think they nailed it site planning wise. Plenty of green space along the waterfront, good scale of building height and design (similar to a pic I posted of Vancouver in a Shipyards thread), walkable corridor that leads to King Avenue Station and the rest of the Southbank, and hidden parking in the rear along the preserve/wetlands. Nicely done.

I agree. The site plan continues to look strong.

[finehoe]

I especially like slide 5 ("Main Street Rendering").

[ProjectMaximus]

The rendering shows Berkman 2 as demolished and the Shipyards as a patch of dirt and grass.  Is this the real estate equivalent to dissing a rival in the lyrics to your rap song?

I would've thrown a family dollar on the shipyards site and put a little rinky dink fishing boat on their docks.

[ProjectMaximus]

Just watched the promo vid. Was the bird's eye footage of the actual site the only shots of Jax?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPI6Sqyw-44

[johnnyliar]

Wow, that promo video was horrible. Good luck attracting millennials with that garbage. Seems more like a place you would send your aging parents/grandparents.

[CCMjax]

Wow, that promo video was horrible. Good luck attracting millennials with that garbage. Seems more like a place you would send your aging parents/grandparents.

Ha ha!  Yeah I think they need to rebrand this whole thing.  I like the scale and renderings but I don't think they need to focus so obsessively on attracting the trendy Fitbit and spandex wearing, spinach and kale cocktail drinking, hyper yoga enthusiast crowd.  I think if they just let the renderings speak for themselves they'd do better attracting a crowd.  It's a unique way to market a place and that's what their trying to do but I think you're right, some millennials may see it as lame. 

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

the trendy Fitbit and spandex wearing, spinach and kale cocktail drinking, hyper yoga enthusiast crowd. 

Fixed!

the Whole Foods crowd. 

[jaxnyc79]

Wow, that promo video was horrible. Good luck attracting millennials with that garbage. Seems more like a place you would send your aging parents/grandparents.

I think they know their marketplace.  This isn't some gritty district in Brooklyn (NYC), this is Jacksonville, where millennials have tended to occupy suburban gated apartment complexes with names that invoke images of green meadows and waterways.  Branding this new in-town neighborhood as having a resort quality is how you appeal to all ages of the Jacksonville residential marketplace.  Perhaps that will change over time, but for right now, that's the way it is.  I wish them tons of success, and am pleased and impressed that Peter Rummell, at nearly 70, still wants to invest the energy in pulling together a legacy-building project for Jacksonville's core.

[CCMjax]

Wow, that promo video was horrible. Good luck attracting millennials with that garbage. Seems more like a place you would send your aging parents/grandparents.

I think they know their marketplace.  This isn't some gritty district in Brooklyn (NYC), this is Jacksonville, where millennials have tended to occupy suburban gated apartment complexes with names that invoke images of green meadows and waterways.  Branding this new in-town neighborhood as having a resort quality is how you appeal to all ages of the Jacksonville residential marketplace.  Perhaps that will change over time, but for right now, that's the way it is.  I wish them tons of success, and am pleased and impressed that Peter Rummell, at nearly 70, still wants to invest the energy in pulling together a legacy-building project for Jacksonville's core.

I wish them all the success as well.  I really hope this project does well.  They are the experts and have done the research and Rummell has proven that he is a brilliant developer.  I think myself and Johnnyliar just had the same first impression of that video and I had a good laugh at that.

[InnerCityPressure]

Every time I hear the name Healthy Town, I think of Arrested Development.  Minute marker 1:42

http://www.youtube.com/v/YVMQ48o2rHQ

[johnnyliar]

Every time I hear the name Healthy Town, I think of Arrested Development.  Minute marker 1:42

http://www.youtube.com/v/YVMQ48o2rHQ

Hahah same! I posted the same thing today on facebook!

[brainstormer]

I would encourage Vitti and the school board to get themselves a great deal out of this development. The school board building is dingy and the school district has really outgrown the space. Perhaps he could get a brand new school board office tower in the Healthy town site in exchange for giving the current site to Rummell. It would give Rummell even more waterfront space and allow Healthy town to nicely connect to the proposed apartment development on the old crawdaddy's site.

[arb]

The rendering shows Berkman 2 as demolished and the Shipyards as a patch of dirt and grass.  Is this the real estate equivalent to dissing a rival in the lyrics to your rap song?

The rendering also shows the second half of the school board's parking lot highlighted as if it is part of the development.  That has been a major point of contention for this project, so I hope that means that this has been resolved.

Move the Duval County School Board to LaVilla.

Lol, the school board would probably close the street, pave a parking lot, and fence the property in.

[jaxnyc79]

In a jaxdailyrecord article today, there seemed to be a suggestion that there have been unnecessary delays in issuing the development rights agreement. 

Wallace said details of the project will be negotiated as part of the development agreement, while Pappas suggested the pace of the process should increase.

"The longer we delay, the harder it will be to bring this project to fruition," she said.[/color]

What's the story here?  Does the city drag its feet on downtown projects?  I believe during the mayoral campaign, Curry alluded to too much bureaucracy in getting things built downtown.  What are your reactions to that?

The rendering shows Berkman 2 as demolished and the Shipyards as a patch of dirt and grass.  Is this the real estate equivalent to dissing a rival in the lyrics to your rap song?

The rendering also shows the second half of the school board's parking lot highlighted as if it is part of the development.  That has been a major point of contention for this project, so I hope that means that this has been resolved.

Move the Duval County School Board to LaVilla.

Lol, the school board would probably close the street, pave a parking lot, and fence the property in.