San Marco's Florida Baptist site to become apartments

[howfam]

More info. The project is underway:

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/work-starts-on-the-1230-hendricks-on-the-downtown-southbank

Thanks for that link to the article lakelander. Nice project, but now my suspicions are confirmed, another 5-story Baymeadows-Type building in the downtown area. That would have been a nice spot for at least a 15 story building fronting I-95 with tourists and other visitors passing through. Oh well, another missed opportunity for a precious piece of real estate. That's good ol' Jax for you.

I would be more upset if it was another 5 story building along the river. In this spot, it's the right size for the neighborhood and glad it's starting to come to life.

The building could have easily been a bit taller to keep in line with the hotel a block over on King St. A more urban scale structure that close to a major interstate would have been within scale and still maintained a residential image for that area. We have to get away from these 5-story frame suburban style buildings in the downtown area, which is where this is now located. Same thing about to happen on the Times-Union site, 5 or 6 story buildings on prime waterfront property (previous plans showed high rises). Come on, stop the low rise madness and bring Jax into the 21st century with other big cities.

[MusicMan]

In the last 2 year San Marco has added :
Broadstone River House
SoBa
The Exchange
The Barlow
San Marco Promenade

With plans for sites at Florida Baptist, River City Brewing, Park Place San Marco, and the site right on the river by Baptist.   

I've counted 1904 apartments built or planned to be built in San Marco/South Bank ALONE.  Does not count the Northbank or CBD.

[tufsu1]

^ well to be fair, some of those are officially Southbank

[Steve]

Definitely a nice increase. It's really 4 clusters that are walkable to each other:

(Including pre-existing)
Southbank: Strand/Peninsula/San Marco Place/SoBa/Florida Baptist Site
Fountain Area: OneCall-Baptist Site/River City
Square Area: Hendricks/35 Townhomes at East San Marco
Atlantic-Kings: Exchange/Barlow/Promenade

While we're getting there, the four clusters aren't really walkable to each other. You could make the argument that you could take the riverwalk between the Southbank and Fountain Area, and MAYBE between the Square and Atlantic-Kings but that's it.

Now that said-it's a HUGE improvement. But it shows how dense some other cities really are.

[Captain Zissou]

Come on, stop the low rise madness and bring Jax into the 21st century with other big cities.

I just got back from a week in San Francisco and Denver and they are fully embracing the low rise madness outside of their central business centers.  In Denver I took the train to and from the airport from Union Station and hung out in LoDo on my way in and out of town.  That area predominantly has buildings with 6 floors or less, but had tons of street-level activity and successful retail.  It was way more vibrant than Riverplace blvd which has 3 high rises on the same block.

[acme54321]

the four clusters aren't really walkable to each other. You could make the argument that you could take the riverwalk between the Southbank and Fountain Area, and MAYBE between the Square and Atlantic-Kings but that's it.

I'll respectfully disagree.  We live next to Bishop Kenny and regularly walk to all of them and between them.  They are all only a 15-20 minute or walk from each other and there are a lot of people that love right in the middle of them all.  Plus, they are all connected by commercial corridors on San Marco/Hendricks/Atlantic of pretty solid activity.

[Steve]

the four clusters aren't really walkable to each other. You could make the argument that you could take the riverwalk between the Southbank and Fountain Area, and MAYBE between the Square and Atlantic-Kings but that's it.

I'll respectfully disagree.  We live next to Bishop Kenny and regularly walk to all of them and between them.  They are all only a 15-20 minute or walk from each other and there are a lot of people that love right in the middle of them all.  Plus, they are all connected by commercial corridors on San Marco/Hendricks/Atlantic of pretty solid activity.

That's awesome that you do, but I'd challenge how many people would regularly walk from BKHS to say, Broadstone River house.

[MusicMan]

Very few, who have any money, and are on their way to spend some of it.

[acme54321]

Permits Issued.  They've been doing what looks like storm water work around the perimeter of the site this week.

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/city-issues-permits-for-dollar65-million-san-marco-area-apartments

[thelakelander]

Glad to see this moving forward. It will fill a huge pedestrian scale void between San Marco and the Southbank.

[acme54321]

With the garage at full height now it's really giving some scale to this project.  That whole area is going to look totally different once this thing is complete.

[Charles Hunter]

DIA opposing a change to Downtown Overlay that would allow more self-storage businesses downtown. An issue prompted by a proposed facility on Home Street, which would be near this apartment site, and several others on the Southbank.

There is stiff opposition, however, to the company's plans from downtown and neighborhood advocates. The proposal would change zoning rules in most of downtown's core neighborhoods — the Southbank, Cathedral, Central Core, Sports and Entertainment and Working Waterfront districts — to permit self-storage facilities by special exception after public hearings. They're prohibited in those locations today.

They're permitted in the Church, LaVilla and Brooklyn portions of the downtown overlay district, however.

https://residentnews.net/2022/06/01/more-self-storage-facilities-downtown-sparks-opposition/?fbclid=IwAR3C5zv8OnPlp8_HdoteGQKK4UYND5ATHNgwXcrE_mGNu6lzfQ3Wy_EkKBI

The developer tried to get Councillor Cumber, in whose district the facility would be, to sponsor the rezoning. She refused. So they went to Councillor Gaffney, who introduced the change.

[acme54321]

DIA opposing a change to Downtown Overlay that would allow more self-storage businesses downtown. An issue prompted by a proposed facility on Home Street, which would be near this apartment site, and several others on the Southbank.

There is stiff opposition, however, to the company's plans from downtown and neighborhood advocates. The proposal would change zoning rules in most of downtown's core neighborhoods — the Southbank, Cathedral, Central Core, Sports and Entertainment and Working Waterfront districts — to permit self-storage facilities by special exception after public hearings. They're prohibited in those locations today.

They're permitted in the Church, LaVilla and Brooklyn portions of the downtown overlay district, however.

https://residentdnews.net/2022/06/01/more-self-storage-facilities-downtown-sparks-opposition/?fbclid=IwAR3C5zv8OnPlp8_HdoteGQKK4UYND5ATHNgwXcrE_mGNu6lzfQ3Wy_EkKBI

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The developer tried to get Councillor Cumber, in whose district the facility would be, to sponsor the rezoning. She refused. So they went to Councillor Gaffney, who introduced the change.

First thing Cumber has done in a minute that I'm happy about.  Seems like Philips Highway would be a better fit.