Khan's Jacksonville Shipyards Plans Revealed

[MusicMan]

"Exactly! And before that it was San Francisco's museum to lose but they didn't want it either...at this rate it very well could end up in Jax in another 15 years or so."

Just in time for the environmental clean up (at The Shipyards) to be finished!!

[KenFSU]

If we could talk them into erecting a public statue of Don Estridge, the jaxon who created the IBM PC.

I've lived here a decade and this is the first time I've heard this fact.

Pretty cool.

Certainly worthy of a statue.

[KenFSU]

The city has nullified its development agreement with Iguana in order to re-issue an RFP inclusive of more property.

Much like the Barnett, there's still a very real possibility that Khan plays reluctant developer, but for the most part, this seems to mark the end of the Shipyards project as it was initially proposed.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=548842

[Tacachale]

The city has nullified its development agreement with Iguana in order to re-issue an RFP inclusive of more property.

Much like the Barnett, there's still a very real possibility that Khan plays reluctant developer, but for the most part, this seems to mark the end of the Shipyards project as it was initially proposed.

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=548842

Thankfully, that crazy proposal was effectively ended when Sam Mousa returned to City Hall. It will be interesting to see what's proposed now.

[edjax]

Or perhaps he has no desire to develop the Shipyards site now and is only interested in the Metropolitan Park site.  Which would make sense based upon recents discussions. So this will just now open the Shipyards development back to all the others that showed interest before, so perhaps the Ark is back in play. 

[Wacca Pilatka]

If we could talk them into erecting a public statue of Don Estridge, the jaxon who created the IBM PC and John Archibald Wheeler, the native who coined the term Black Hole and led to some of the most revolutionary theoretical physics of the last century, while they are at it there would be a legitimate tie in.

Stephen, do you know if Estridge's influence was the reason IBM had an office in Jacksonville for a number of years in what's now the Suddath building on the Southbank?

[Houseboat Mike]

If we could talk them into erecting a public statue of Don Estridge, the jaxon who created the IBM PC and John Archibald Wheeler, the native who coined the term Black Hole and led to some of the most revolutionary theoretical physics of the last century, while they are at it there would be a legitimate tie in.

Stephen, do you know if Estridge's influence was the reason IBM had an office in Jacksonville for a number of years in what's now the Suddath building on the Southbank?

IBM benefitted for many years from the deep reserve of technical engineers who lived (and worked) here because of the Navy.

I was actually lucky enough to live across the street from a couple of (now retired) naval intelligence agents.  One of whom was a communications and electrical engineer.

Got to play on an early desktop computer using Estridge's general designs in the late 1970s. About five years before the first PC was introduced to the consumer market.

If you think about it, its one of the reasons that Jville is actually pretty advanced in some ways.  We have a spaceport and one of the drone manufacturing giants here in town for a reason after all.

But yet, still no floating nuclear power plant in the middle of the St. Johns. 

[MusicMan]

Yeah and that's a shame, I was looking forward to the "Glow in the Dark" manatees.

[TimmyB]

Yeah and that's a shame, I was looking forward to the "Glow in the Dark" manatees.

You guys got nothing on our "pre-cooked salmon" up here in the Great Lakes!

[KenFSU]

Mark Lamping confirmed this morning that the plan is to bring a portion of the original Shipyards proposal, including hotel, to Metro Park, and move Metro Park greenspace to the Shipyards property.

[downtownbrown]

Mark Lamping confirmed this morning that the plan is to bring a portion of the original Shipyards proposal, including hotel, to Metro Park, and move Metro Park greenspace to the Shipyards property.

By "moving the green space" does he mean turning the area into a managed park, or just leave it as a flex field for game day parking?  It would be nice to see fountains, landscaping, play areas, etc on that spot.  Somehow, though, I think I may be over-imagining it.

[tufsu1]

^ In order to relocate Metro Park, they will need sign-off from the state because of the grant money used to acquire the park originally.  So no, they won't be able to just have an open field that is used for gameday parking.

[KenFSU]

Curry also stated this morning that there will be a lot of news coming in January, and that public safety and downtown development were on top of his list for 2017. Mentioned a desire to do Hemming right, the need for more residential density, and a new RFP for the area between Berkman 2 and Met Park.

He also suggested that the old courthouse will be coming down soon and developed privately.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Coming down? So they going to raze it then? The phrase coming down soon, does that mean 10 years or 20? 

[KenFSU]

Coming down? So they going to raze it then? The phrase coming down soon, does that mean 10 years or 20? 

Take this with a grain of salt, I might have misheard (I reached out for clarification), but I believe the old Courthouse could be demo'd as soon as early next year, in tandem with the demo work at Coastline/Liberty. Not sure how economies of scale work with demolition, but on the surface, seems to make a lot of sense. Once the parking deck is gone, the value of that property increases significantly.