south Liberty Street Drama

[downtownbrown]

Add to all of that a new Jacksonville Municipal Marina and you have beautiful sight lines from every angle. 

[thelakelander]

It certainly makes that old steakhouse spot in the Hyatt a more desirable spot. Hopefully, with the streetscape remake, they can integrate that corner to include outdoor/waterfront dining as a potential opportunity for a new restaurant user.

[downtownbrown]

No doubt.  A marina would be huge, because: 1) River City marina is a hazard because of the currents, 2) mooring overnight at the Landing is a recipe for vandalism (people have had their boats untied in the middle of the night) and there is no power or water hook up available, 3) the Berkman marina is dangerous (the finger piers are two feet wide and floating; not safe especially for kids and the "impaired"), 4) Metro Marina is too far away except for Jags games, and is not in the best shape, 5) a downtown marina will attract not only locals, but plenty of traffic from the biannual migration of boats headed south and north.  Check out Charleston Municipal marina.

[downtownbrown]

Update:  3 bids submitted for the repair. Winner to be selected in December or January. Proposals submitted by June.  Work begins in about a year, and it will take 30 months.  So we'll be 7 years into the original street closing before the fix occurs in 2019.

I love government.

[thelakelander]

It's good to see it move forward. The Broadstone River House and Houston Street Manor multifamily developments will also be presenting their conceptual plans to the DDRB next week.  I'll post the renderings when the agenda comes out.

[brainstormer]

We've discussed the Broadstone River House development before, but this is the first I have heard of Houston Street Manor. Great news!

[thelakelander]

Houston Street Manor is a proposed 72-unit, seven story senior apartment complex. The site is 615 Houston Street. To accommodate the project, the last surviving Houston Street bordello would be demolished. The developer is Beneficial Communities of Sarasota.

[thelakelander]

Sketch of Houston Street Manor:

[Apache]

Houston Street Manor is a proposed 72-unit, seven story senior apartment complex. The site is 615 Houston Street. To accommodate the project, the last surviving Houston Street bordello would be demolished. The developer is Beneficial Communities of Sarasota.

What kind of shape is the bordello in? Can it be moved?

[downtownbrown]

Annnnd, we're back.  Demo begins right after the Christmas holidays.  Work originally projected to be completed in early 2019 is now projected to be completed a year earlier: Spring of 2018.  Liberty Street will be vastly improved for the townhouses, and the long nightmare will be over soon enough. It takes a village to raise a child, but all it takes is a pile of millions to raze a parking lot.

[Lunican]

That's cool they will create a waterfront parking garage, loading dock, and abandoned building.

[downtownbrown]

which, as bad as it sounds, will be a huge improvement.

[downtownbrown]

From the TU Call Box this weekend: Only one more year, and only half a year behind schedule.  Not bad.

City spokeswoman Tia Ford provided the following estimated construction timeline:
Bulkhead Replacement at Coastline Drive: fall 2017
Liberty Street bridge demolition: early 2018
Liberty Street bridge reconstruction: fall 2018
Coastline bridge reconstruction: spring 2018
Courthouse parking deck structure demolition: early 2018
Riverwalk construction: summer 2018
The Riverwalk will be rerouted around the area with open water where the parking deck now stands.