Lofts at Monroe

[Steve]

Btw, DDRB staff recommends final approval.

#Shocked

[BenderRodriguez]

Went and talked with the staff at the Lofts of LaVilla site. It would seem that Vestor is planning to move on a 3rd location within the LaVilla area. The third will not be low income based.

[thelakelander]

I believe the third location is next door to Lofts of LaVilla. Basically, right next to the Skyway's Jefferson St Station.

[ProjectMaximus]

Interesting. So are they doing that one without subsidy? That would be great if the market can sustain such a development.

[UNFurbanist]

That's great to hear! And makes total sense. That whole vacant strip should be made into residential. Hopefully it comes with a few retail bays on the ground floor.

[jaxjaguar]

Excellent news! This is basically what happened here in Orlando over the past 5 years. A few companies invested in apartments on the cheap empty lots on the edge of downtown. Suddenly there was a boom when investors realized how quickly they'd fill. It went from about 3 projects 5 years ago to ~10 just in the last 2-3 years.

It's insane how much more housing there is downtown now, compared to when I moved here. I have a feeling Jax is on a similar, but slightly longer, timeline.

[FlaBoy]

That's great to hear! And makes total sense. That whole vacant strip should be made into residential. Hopefully it comes with a few retail bays on the ground floor.

No chance of retail unless forced.

[jaxjaguar]

Personally, I think it's ok for the first few developers in this area to not include retail. They're a little too far from everything to be supported by the business crowd during the week and aside from the convention center and fed there's not enough to do in that area to support restaurants/retail.

[remc86007]

^ I agree, I'd rather have the money that would be spent creating retail spaces used for more residential units initially. The retail will come naturally if a critical mass of residents is created out there.

[thelakelander]

Lofts on Monroe has some retail space included. JTA's JRTC will also have some retail. As the area grows, more retail will come naturally to support the population. Ideally, what we should be doing at this point is to make sure the ground floors of various projects are designed to accommodate a mix of uses, as the market evolves.

[acme54321]

Is this project where that large crane showed up this weekend?  I think that's the first once on the northbank since I've moved here that isn't for a public project.  Pretty cool.

[thelakelander]

No. The project with the crane is Houston Street Manor. It will be a 7-story apartment building for seniors.

[thelakelander]

This is a bad picture from Saturday:



Here's a rendering of this particular project:

[jaxjaguar]

Glad to see Houston is finally moving along. I was worried it want going to start since all the way back in 2015 they said it was going to be started/completed Dec this year haha.

Having that lot filled in will relieve a massive eyesore... Now we just need all of those other empty lots/fugly abandoned buildings filled in/replaced

[acme54321]

This is a bad picture from Saturday:



Here's a rendering of this particular project:

Did the crane go up on Saturday?  Usually I notice these things and it first caught my eye on Sunday.