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[mtraininjax]

Whoa, the Landing is looking for a way to pay for its space. After all the countless dog events and hee-haw events, now, looking for a way to help keep the lights on at the Landing.....

http://jacksonville.com/business/2015-07-17/story/new-businesses-opening-jacksonville-landing

After months of talk about businesses leaving The Jacksonville Landing, some of those "for rent" signs are coming down.
Times-Union news partner First Coast News spoke with some of the newcomers about the impact these new businesses will have on Jacksonville. Three new businesses are getting office space and the view to go with it, according to First Coast News.

"We want to put arts and technology and innovation at the forefront of Jacksonville going forward, and the landing can be the hub of this innovation, technology and arts movement in the city," said Jason Salvagni with CoLabJax.

He says it's a vision a year in the making. CoLabJax is one of three new businesses finally moving into their new space at the Landing. The non-profit says they want to help the city grow.

"A 3D printer and laser cutters are all pieces of equipment that are rather expensive that entrepreneurs here in the city can come to CoLabJax maker space and use to prototype their ideas into real products and start their businesses," said Matt Barker, co-founder of CoLabJax.

The company also wants to help reach out to students interested in technology.

"We want to do a bunch of community outreach with pushing STEM to high school and middle school kids," said Chris Lavan.

In the meantime, The Landing says it's looking forward to the additional foot traffic the new businesses will bring.

Another new business already settled in is the Art Center Cooperative. Vince Cavin, Hemming Park's CEO, who's also on the board for the cooperative and The Bunker, says he's happy to be a part of the growth.

In a statement, Cavin said: "As The Art Center's board member, I recommended The Art Center Cooperative move into The Jacksonville Landing to meet the growing demand for art studios and to expand our gallery space. I also saw an opportunity to bring in other entrepreneurial ventures and reached out to Derek Distenfield of The Bunker to see if he was interested in space at The Landing, which he was, and he jumped at the chance to meet the GM, Janice Lowe. Derek brought in the other businesses because we all saw the potential of creating a new and innovative scene by combining forces with the art, technology, and other business that would be located there."

But the entrepreneurs aren't the only ones with a hopeful vision.

"Starting businesses here in Jacksonville and really pushing for entrepreneurs to come down to Jacksonville so we're really excited about the energy they're bringing to the Landing," said Samantha Ashcraft, marketing and public relations manager for The Landing.

The Landing expects to see more entrepreneurs seeking office space there. For now, CoLabJax is going to be open and ready for business on Monday, July 20.

The Landing is to become just another office park very soon. That ladies and gentlemen is the status of downtown. Just another office park.

[Crabernacle]

This actually sounds fairly interesting. I've read about similar projects in other cities with some jealousy. Will it be limited to budding entrepreneurs trying to build a business, or will regular folks can bring in projects for them to work on? I wouldn't mind paying for their time and materials if they can whip up something like a laser cut map of the city. https://www.etsy.com/listing/199840401/madison-wicsonsin-3d-laser-cut-street?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_housewares-wall_decor-wall_hanging-mid&utm_custom1=3472c287-6a37-4f0a-9714-797c637bf6c0&kpid=199840401&gclid=Cj0KEQjwz6KtBRDwgq-LsKjMk9kBEiQAuaxWUh3MMw6UYS9-88t2zPEJQog0MRysPeK_eVijztAPRF8aAjOB8P8HAQ

(as an aside, is there anyway to turn words into hyperlinks on this forum, rather than including the whole damn link?)

[JaxJersey-licious]

Hi! Fake Tony Sleiman here. You have a look-see at what I'm doing here? Opening my doors for these plucky young visionaries? In the spirit of true altruism, I am welcoming with open arms these new companies full of innovation, creativity, and collaboration and cradling them deep into my bosom...my well-below-current-market-office-rate bosom, that is. How benevolent of me being such a team-player fostering and fueling a new downtown civic-synergy we've been lacking for some time, right? 

Now about those much needed Landing improvement incentives....

[simms3]

Whoa, the Landing is looking for a way to pay for its space. After all the countless dog events and hee-haw events, now, looking for a way to help keep the lights on at the Landing.....

The Landing is to become just another office park very soon. That ladies and gentlemen is the status of downtown. Just another office park.

Highly disagree.  This sounds interesting to me, and like a good use of the space.

"Maker Space", "Technology, Innovation, and Craft", "Production, Distribution, and Repair" (PDR) zoning

Whatever you want to call it, this is catching on, along with co-working space, in cities all across the country.  Jax can't even put a Starbucks in its downtown yet, so maybe it is logical and worthy to try to attract people first, and then the Starbucks and other things will come.  Coworking space and this urban light industrial type space go hand in hand together, especially with the advent of new technologies such as 3D printers, as was mentioned in the article.

Collaborative atmosphere continuously occupied by people...doesn't beat that.

Here are just a few examples that come to mind of this light industrial use here in SF, which is typically at the forefront of these kinds of schemes and trends.


Rendering porn at links below.


http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2015/01/proposed-hundred-hooper-innovation-campus-unveiled.html

A plugged-in tipster delivers the latest renderings for the proposed 427,000-square-foot 'innovation campus' to rise at 100 Hooper Street, adjacent to the California College of Arts.

Dubbed 'Hundred Hooper' and designed by Pfau Long Architecture, the development aims to become "the New Address of Technology, Innovation, and Craft," with a "marriage of applied art and product design, engineering and prototyping, technology and manufacturing uses in a vibrant and collaborative campus setting" as envisioned.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2015/07/kilroy-soma-office-deal-in-sf-helps-sfmade.html

Nonprofit affordable housing developers have constructed and operated buildings in San Francisco for decades, a boon for the city's low-income residents. Manufacturing and industrial businesses that can't afford market-rate office space haven't had the same champions – until now.

PlaceMade is the city's only nonprofit manufacturing space developer, the new real estate arm of the nonprofit SFMade that formed five years ago to support nearly 600 businesses that make everything from food to baby products.

PlaceMade soon will own and operate about 56,000 square feet of production, distribution and repair space that is part of the 450,000-square-foot 100 Hooper project. The South of Market development site was bought by real estate giant Kilroy Realty Corp. on Tuesday. Kilroy donated the industrial part of the complex to PlaceMade.

So far, the nonprofit doesn't have employees, but will make hires to support the development and operations.

"This is a big deal for us because it bears out the model behind PlaceMade in the first place, which is being creative and looking at public-private partnership to do things with new industrial space," said Kate Sofis, executive director of SFMade. "Kilroy validates this (idea) that a hybrid product that has industrial and office can attract that kind of capital."

The city has an economic interest in keeping manufacturing jobs in the city, as the sector provides job diversity. A Planning Department report cited the "good pay relative to education" for the production, distribution and repair (PDR) jobs where median pay is $60,000 a year. About 70 percent of workers don't have a four-year college degree, compared to about a quarter in office jobs.

Those jobs are now just 10 percent of the city's total, driven out due to globalization, suburbanization and lack of land supply, the report notes. But they're now outgrowing the space that PDR businesses can grab, as rents for industrial space in San Francisco are predictably two to three times that of other Bay Area cities.

Now as the city unlocks former industrial space for office and residential builders in South of Market, Dogpatch and the Mission District, it wants developers to see 100 Hooper as a model. Manufacturing companies will pay about $21 a square foot each year in rent, more than three times less than what the tech companies will pay.

It's still not easy to make the economics of this arrangement work though. Kilroy's involvement makes construction less expensive, but the nonprofit will need to take on debt to cover about 50 percent of those costs, a quarter with tax credits and another quarter through philanthropy.

Dan Murphy, president of UrbanGreen Devco, which sold the 100 Hooper site, said "using offices as a way to underwrite the economics of PDR development is a pilot."

UrbanGreen bought the land – a 3.3-acre self-storage facility between Potrero Hill and Mission Bay – for $12.5 million a few years ago and took it through entitlements. Kilroy bought the site for $78 million.

Sofis said PlaceMade was worried about finding a buyer for the site that wouldn't think the manufacturing requirement was a "hairy deal." Kilroy saw it as an advantage.

"We actually think that this sort of synergy between manufacturing and tech and media companies is in its early stages," said Mike Sanford, executive vice president at Kilroy.

"Just like what we're seeing in the collaboration of tech and life sciences in Mission Bay, manufacturing companies are doing the same thing with tech companies."

Sofis added another wrinkle that adds an advantage: It's now cool to have "makers" on site.

"There's been a few (developers) coming up to me, believe or not, that want to do PDR even if they don't have to," she said. "Having a smaller scale of manufacturing on projects is compelling. It's more interesting than retail. It's authentic."

Pinterest was even blocked from leasing up an old warehouse design center because of concerns of losing this sort of valuable space in the city.
http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2014/09/another-barrier-pinterests-design-center-move-raised.html



Another abandoned warehouse that formerly had plans for a condo tower is now going to be converted to creative office/co-work space and PDR space.
http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2015/03/the-appeal-of-340-bryant-streets-creative-conversion.html

As proposed and designed for Group I by Thousand Architects, 340 Bryant's second, third and fourth floors are to be converted to 45,000 square feet of creative office space, with 15,000 square feet of PDR on the ground floor and a rooftop deck serving as the project's required open space.

Finally, a residential building not unlike 220 Riverside is pre-leasing and opening in a few months.  It will have 453 units, retail, open space, and 7,000 sf of PDR.
http://www.dbarchitect.com/project_detail/99/Potrero%201010.html
http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2015/07/01/453unit_potrero_rental_complex_will_start_leasing_this_fall.php

The project brings approximately 7,000 square feet of PDR/SEW space to provide restaurants and useful services for the larger neighborhood. PDR (production, distribution, and repair) zoning allows for small businesses that fill daily uses. SEW (small enterprise workplaces) zoning allows businesses ranging from 500 to 2,500 sf.

[ProjectMaximus]

This is the best move Sleiman has made in all the years owning this space.

[thelakelander]

So are these short term uses until a plan is created to demolish and replace most of the complex?

[cjlavan]

Hey guys...Chris Lavan from CoLabJax here...sorry for my wall of text

I was expecting a thread full of hate but I'm so relieved that you guys are mostly supportive of what we're doing...

The Landing is a natural hub and it's just busting with potential.  It's an incredible opportunity that we have to be able to be in the space that we're in.  I can't imagine it happening for me in any other city.  We are trying to pull it together for the opening in 3 weeks, and as of me posting this, it doesn't look like much, but by the time we open it will be a respectable space where we hope to attract a bunch of cool people doing cool things.

The Art Center Cooperative is right next door and also across the hallway, and I hope that together we ignite a firestorm of art and tech and entrepreneurs downtown and otherwise.  We will be programming it like mad and I really hope that people come out and enjoy The Landing with us.  We have a bunch of ideas, but I think it's critical that it be community driven.  I just want to fill that place up with things that are good.

We are bringing together people who do stuff, all day, every day, very few days off.  Whatever we can do to connect the dots.  We have 4600 sq ft at The Landing, and we still have the space that we started in, 5500 sq ft of industrial space in the giant warehouse on E Union St...we are ready to tear into some awesome.

We have been fortunate enough to meet a ton of amazing people throughout the city, and we've just gotten an outpouring of support and positive feedback since we started back in December.  I think that a lot of people except anything downtown to fail, but I really feel like people are hungry for this.  And, what I keep saying is that none of this is even theoretical...these types of spaces are transforming local economies all over the world.  It's actually hard to think of a major metro area that doesn't have one.  They're like the libraries of the 21st century.  Jacksonville should have one.   

If you're interested, we need 3 things

Makers
Donors
Evangelists
 
We have a ton of momentum, but we still need people to help paddle the boat.  The door will remain down until the opening, but if you feel like it, come talk to us.  We'll probably be there, and we'd love for more people to get involved.  I think with the noise we're making, and the high visibility space that we have, we will.

[UNFurbanist]

^ I'm very excited for you guys and I hope for nothing but the best! Jax needs an innovation district in the core! It does make me wonder, however, how this affects the plans for the landing. Has Sleiman decided to not go through with any planned redevelopment or is this just temporary? There is suppose to be a charrette tomorrow sometime I believe

[simms3]

The fact that he is having a charette where every old grandma and oddball with time on their hands can attend and pipe up their "opinion" on what the Landing should be to a seasoned veteran of the Jacksonville real estate and development industry tells me he's in no hurry to do anything with the Landing.  Sounds like is already acting on a few better ideas of his own than having some fat 65 year old smoker-voiced woman named Joan hobble around loudly talking about what she thinks would be best for the site, with an 80 year old war veteran over in the corner with his John C Stennis hat piping up every chance he gets followed by a few people in from the street accompanied by the lone 34 year old young professional who works downtown who accidentally came in thinking he or she would be able to make a few comments that might get heard.

I've never heard of so many charettes in one place as I have with Jacksonville real estate deals.  I'm pretty sure they are there for amusement of others, not to actually get anything done.

If the Landing can somehow be a Jax version of the Ferry Building with vendors, retailers, and restaurateurs (and not Hooters) on the lower level, substituting the office space in the Ferry Building with this colab/cowork/maker space on the upper level, adding a touch of character and re-configuring a few things, I think it can be very successful as-is.  The only downside is you take some added profit off the table, but you also take a additional high equity requirements (as well as the need to find financing) off the table and keep risk to a minimum.  Clearly this is an option Sleiman is weighing.

[cjlavan]

I didn't go to the charette and I have no idea what was covered there.  We did make it on NPR though and that was pretty cool.

Personally, I think tearing down The Landing would be insane.  A rebuild is not going to fix the problems with downtown such as the blight and the fact that people do not feel safe.  The Landing simply cannot compete with the Town Center.  Period.  Anyone who says that there can be high end retail and restaurants there is lying so that they can get a contract to rebuild The Landing.

My vision for The Landing would be what Steve Williams laid out here
http://www.harbingersign.com/signofthefuture/jaxlandingpechakucha/

plus the startup community that has emerged following One Spark.  It's my hope that CoLabJax will play a huge role in that.  As Steve said, the building is not the problem...people congregate under a bridge in Riverside and love it.

From what I'm hearing, it sounds like Toney just wants the Landing to be relevant and cool.  Whatever that takes.

Either way, if The Landing is destined to be torn down, it sounds like we'll have somewhere between 3 and 8 years before that actually happens.  So if we're successful I have no doubt that we'll find ourselves a new home, and in the mean time, I'm going to eat my lunch every day overlooking the river.

As far as an innovation district, Ed Baldwin, the founder of Profile Gorilla (one of Jacksonville's most successful recent startups) has been working on implementing this for the past two years, and it looks like he's very close to getting it done.  The geographic boundaries are still kind of up in the air, but it will almost certainly be the river on the south side and Newnan on the east.