New Downtown Living: Broadstone River House Apartments

[thelakelander]

The key thing with Jax is that turning things around for the Northbank would not take much time since Jax isn't starting from scratch and there's some adaptive reuse projects already underway at key locations. The important thing is to have a redevelopment strategy that rapidly addresses a few key gaps, sites and buildings within the Northbank. This would include RFPing key city owned buildings and properties, hamming out deals with existing building owners to revamp properties at street level, making the streetscape multimodal friendly and nailing it right with the Landing site. This is pretty critical for the few corridors with potential continuous blocks of street level retail like Laura and Adams. If you nail the Landing and Hemming correctly and funnel more of that Hart Bridge demo traffic down a single corridor through the CBD, you'll naturally stimulate some things that work with the market. We're already spending the money, so capital isn't the issue right now. Do things right with tried and true, time-tested successful principles and the place will look dramatically different in five years. Keep up doing the same old stuff and we'll still be having this discussion in 2029.

[Tacachale]

I think the housing slow down might be more sever than is being reported.  Even here in my new subdivision since March 1st construction has almost reached a stand-still.  We went a good 3 weeks without a single contractor on-site.  Lennar moved 45 homes (including ours) from a March closing to a Feb 28th closing.  Our mortgage got sold to another lender before I made the first payment.

All of the bitching and moaning you do about walkability, urbanism, etc and you move from 220 into something being build by Lennar?  LOL

Yea, I hear you but Jax is 99% urban sprawl.  What other options are there?

Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, Murray Hill, Springfield, Fairfax, St. Nicholas, increasingly Lake Shore.

[Tacachale]

The key thing with Jax is that turning things around for the Northbank would not take much time since Jax isn't starting from scratch and there's some adaptive reuse projects already underway at key locations. The important thing is to have a redevelopment strategy that rapidly addresses a few key gaps, sites and buildings within the Northbank. This would include RFPing key city owned buildings and properties, hamming out deals with existing building owners to revamp properties at street level, making the streetscape multimodal friendly and nailing it right with the Landing site. This is pretty critical for the few corridors with potential continuous blocks of street level retail like Laura and Adams. If you nail the Landing and Hemming correctly and funnel more of that Hart Bridge demo traffic down a single corridor through the CBD, you'll naturally stimulate some things that work with the market. We're already spending the money, so capital isn't the issue right now. Do things right with tried and true, time-tested successful principles and the place will look dramatically different in five years. Keep up doing the same old stuff and we'll still be having this discussion in 2029.

True. Though it'll take a while for DT, especially the Northbank core, to have a lot of residential space available. That would take fairly big reno projects or new construction.

[thelakelander]

Residential is needed but honestly, it will take decades for DT to have a population base to self support an urban retail and dining district. You speed things up with clustering complementing uses that attract outside spending power....hotels, cultural/entertainment venues, programming of special events, forcing exposure to through traffic (auto and transit), etc. Do that and you'll get yourself a "WPB Clematis" or "Greenville Main" that your unborn grandkids won't have to push you in your wheelchair to enjoy.

[Tacachale]

Residential is needed but honestly, it will take decades for DT to have a population base to self support an urban retail and dining district. You speed things up with clustering complementing uses that attract outside spending power....hotels, cultural/entertainment venues, programming of special events, forcing exposure to through traffic (auto and transit), etc. Do that and you'll get yourself a "WPB Clematis" or "Greenville Main" that your unborn grandkids won't have to push you in your wheelchair to enjoy.

You're right, but Kerry was talking about a place to move into. For the foreseeable future anyway, if you're not in one of the couple thousand units that stay over 90% full, you're SOL. Or, you move to one of the other neighborhoods I listed.

[thelakelander]

That's true.

[Kerry]

I think the housing slow down might be more sever than is being reported.  Even here in my new subdivision since March 1st construction has almost reached a stand-still.  We went a good 3 weeks without a single contractor on-site.  Lennar moved 45 homes (including ours) from a March closing to a Feb 28th closing.  Our mortgage got sold to another lender before I made the first payment.

All of the bitching and moaning you do about walkability, urbanism, etc and you move from 220 into something being build by Lennar?  LOL

Yea, I hear you but Jax is 99% urban sprawl.  What other options are there?

Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, Murray Hill, Springfield, Fairfax, St. Nicholas, increasingly Lake Shore.

Looked at all those places and for the prices being asked we found every single property on the market to be substandard.

[Kiva]

I think the housing slow down might be more sever than is being reported.  Even here in my new subdivision since March 1st construction has almost reached a stand-still.  We went a good 3 weeks without a single contractor on-site.  Lennar moved 45 homes (including ours) from a March closing to a Feb 28th closing.  Our mortgage got sold to another lender before I made the first payment.

Oh oh. Another recession, possibly even more major, on the horizon.

I doubt that. The last recession was caused by loose lending, and lots of people who had never before invested in real estate suddenly buying houses in the hopes of flipping them for big profits. I don't see that now.

[Tacachale]

I think the housing slow down might be more sever than is being reported.  Even here in my new subdivision since March 1st construction has almost reached a stand-still.  We went a good 3 weeks without a single contractor on-site.  Lennar moved 45 homes (including ours) from a March closing to a Feb 28th closing.  Our mortgage got sold to another lender before I made the first payment.

All of the bitching and moaning you do about walkability, urbanism, etc and you move from 220 into something being build by Lennar?  LOL

Yea, I hear you but Jax is 99% urban sprawl.  What other options are there?

Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, Murray Hill, Springfield, Fairfax, St. Nicholas, increasingly Lake Shore.

Looked at all those places and for the prices being asked we found every single property on the market to be substandard.

To each their own, I guess, but I'm sure there were properties available that cost less than what you were paying in 220.

[Kerry]

I think the housing slow down might be more sever than is being reported.  Even here in my new subdivision since March 1st construction has almost reached a stand-still.  We went a good 3 weeks without a single contractor on-site.  Lennar moved 45 homes (including ours) from a March closing to a Feb 28th closing.  Our mortgage got sold to another lender before I made the first payment.

All of the bitching and moaning you do about walkability, urbanism, etc and you move from 220 into something being build by Lennar?  LOL

Yea, I hear you but Jax is 99% urban sprawl.  What other options are there?

Riverside, Avondale, San Marco, Murray Hill, Springfield, Fairfax, St. Nicholas, increasingly Lake Shore.

Looked at all those places and for the prices being asked we found every single property on the market to be substandard.

To each their own, I guess, but I'm sure there were properties available that cost less than what you were paying in 220.

Trust me, if we could have found anything we liked we would still be living in or near the urban core.  It is a shame that Jax doesn't have more urban housing options.  Moving to suburbia is like a prison.

[Kerry]

Residential is needed but honestly, it will take decades for DT to have a population base to self support an urban retail and dining district. You speed things up with clustering complementing uses that attract outside spending power....hotels, cultural/entertainment venues, programming of special events, forcing exposure to through traffic (auto and transit), etc. Do that and you'll get yourself a "WPB Clematis" or "Greenville Main" that your unborn grandkids won't have to push you in your wheelchair to enjoy.

But what will "WPB Clematis" and "Greenville Main" look like in 20 years?  Those place aren't just standing still.  Not only did they get a huge head start but they are still increasing in speed.  I seriously feel like the time for Jacksonville has already come and gone.  We are so late to the urbanization party we'll probably never catch up.  I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where Bart falls behind in class and is sent to remedial school.  He can't figure out if they are already behind how are they going to catch up by going slower.  That sums up Jacksonville perfectly.

Just picture the Jacksonville City Council sitting around the group table in the Leg Up program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wguuKpRJRE

[thelakelander]

I wouldn't worry about catching up. Just freaking give residents something they can enjoy sooner rather than later.

[vicupstate]

I think the housing slow down might be more sever than is being reported.  Even here in my new subdivision since March 1st construction has almost reached a stand-still.  We went a good 3 weeks without a single contractor on-site.  Lennar moved 45 homes (including ours) from a March closing to a Feb 28th closing.  Our mortgage got sold to another lender before I made the first payment.

Oh oh. Another recession, possibly even more major, on the horizon.

I doubt that. The last recession was caused by loose lending, and lots of people who had never before invested in real estate suddenly buying houses in the hopes of flipping them for big profits. I don't see that now.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-regulators-republicans-and-big-banks-fought-for-a-big-increase-in-lucrative-but-risky-corporate-loans/2019/04/06/08c8cd58-4b1e-11e9-b79a-961983b7e0cd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.33e5dfd143a3


"Actions by federal regulators and Republicans in Congress over the past two years have paved the way for banks and other financial companies to issue more than $1 trillion in risky corporate loans, sparking fears that Washington and Wall Street are repeating the mistakes made before the financial crisis. The moves undercut policies put in place by banking regulators six years ago that aimed to prevent high-risk lending from once again damaging the economy."

"Now, regulators and even White House officials are struggling to comprehend the scope and potential dangers of the massive pool of credits, known as leveraged loans, they helped create. Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and other financial companies have originated these loans to hundreds of cash-strapped companies, many of which could be unable to repay if the economy slows or interest rates rise."

[MusicMan]

From Kerry:

"Looked at all those places and for the prices being asked we found every single property on the market to be substandard."

What was your price point?  How much time are you spending in your car (now) to get to every single thing you need?  Hard to believe not one single home (in those neighborhoods) met your "standards."

[Bill Hoff]

Hard to believe not one single home (in those neighborhoods) met your "standards."

He's bad & boujee.