Asian Town Jax?

[Rynjny]

http://asiantownjax.com/en/asian-town/

Anybody know where is this in Jacksonville?

[thelakelander]

Nice. Regency. The West Mall. Now I see why Project Maximus was excited.

[Rynjny]

http://asiantownjax.com/en/asian-town/

Anybody know where is this in Jacksonville?

nevermind, its Regency Mall. Why would they put it in that location?

[thelakelander]

Probably because IDO has leased the West Mall and has been trying to find tenants for year. It's a pretty cool use of the space if they can pull this off.

[Cheshire Cat]

I think this would be great fun for Jacksonville and bring some much needed vitality to a failing area.  My guess is that they cut a great deal on the property, bargain basement pricing would make a project like this much more reasonable to pull off.  It will be quite an undertaking.  I thought there was some discussion a while back about the old mall becoming a medical center of some sort?  Anyone heard anything like this?

[thelakelander]

^I haven't heard that about Regency. Basically, most of Regency is already leased.  A church took the Belk space and IDO leased the entire west mall.

A few years ago, there was talk about turning Gateway's old mall into a medical center.  However, I don't think that ever materialized.

[ProjectMaximus]

Nice. Regency. The West Mall. Now I see why Project Maximus was excited.

Yep. I guess they weren't trying to keep it a secret. Get some momentum going even before they even have any sublease agreements. It's interesting, I'll say that much.

[Cheshire Cat]

^Thanks for the update Ennis.  I think this new project sounds like a bunch of fun if it is done well. 

[ProjectMaximus]

bargain basement pricing would make a project like this much more reasonable to pull off. 

It is not. Hence why I'm not terribly optimistic.

[Cheshire Cat]

bargain basement pricing would make a project like this much more reasonable to pull off. 

It is not. Hence why I'm not terribly optimistic.

About the project or it's location?

[ProjectMaximus]

bargain basement pricing would make a project like this much more reasonable to pull off. 

It is not. Hence why I'm not terribly optimistic.

About the project or it's location?

Both. In this case I consider the project to be intrinsically tied to this location, as I haven't heard of anyone currently seeking to develop an Asiatown elsewhere in the city. The prices I was told were more in line with San Marco than a vacant, indoor mall in a struggling part of town.

If it happens and it's legit I will be coming to Regency far more often. Heck, even if it's not legit I probably will be there pretty regularly, which would be infinitely more often than I have been the last few years. (I think my last visit was in 2010 or 2011)

[JaxJersey-licious]

Conversion of parts of old malls to Asian centers like this has been a growing trend. The ones I've seen were anchored by a Great Wall or Ranch 99 supermarket and attract a lot of related small businesses giving new life to these dying places and I hope they have a similar affect on that part of Regency Square.

What's different about more recent conversions is that they're happening in areas that do not have a sizable traditional Asian-American population centers like the communities they have in California, for instance. Here's an example of one such conversion in Iowa City...

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/life/people-places/old-capitol-mall-becomes-hub-for-asian-students-20170129

I could see something like that be supported quite well by the Jacksonville Asians and non-Asian community. Best of luck to the developers and future merchants.

[edjax]

Many, many years ago wasn't there something similar in a part of the old Philips Mall?  Perhaps that wasn't all Asian, but seems like majority was if not all.

[JaxJersey-licious]

Yeah, it was an International Food Court for a little while but after a year or too the only business still around and thriving was the Filipino restaurant.

[remc86007]

This sounds really cool. I hope it's able to attract some authentic food vendors and restaurants. It would be awesome to grab some noodles to go and walk around and shop.