JEA headquarters to shrink

[Steve]

Also, I'm really curious where they plan for this 40,000 SqFt hardened building. This has bunker written all over it.

To me the ideal site would be abutting something like I-95, next to something that has a chance to be active use as outside of employees during the workday, I'm not sure this building is going to add much to downtown.

[thelakelander]

Knowing our history and how we view downtown, I totally expect it to end up in a historically black area of downtown...so either in or close to LaVilla and the Black Bottom (basically the State/Union/Beaver corridor tying LaVilla to the Eastside). At the very least, if it is blank walls, I'd love to see some heritage type placemaking included into the design. This water plant in the middle of Denver's historic Five Points is a good example:







Now that people are more racially woke, this would be a good opportunity to get these types of things included to activate some of our pedestrian hostile spaces.

[jaxlongtimer]

Also, I'm really curious where they plan for this 40,000 SqFt hardened building. This has bunker written all over it.

To me the ideal site would be abutting something like I-95, next to something that has a chance to be active use as outside of employees during the workday, I'm not sure this building is going to add much to downtown.

I have noted before that JEA already has a remote emergency operations center.  It's well outside of downtown.  Low profile for obvious reasons.  Again, not sure why they need another one.  Maybe they expand the one they have if they have the land for it.

[Tacachale]

Also, I'm really curious where they plan for this 40,000 SqFt hardened building. This has bunker written all over it.

To me the ideal site would be abutting something like I-95, next to something that has a chance to be active use as outside of employees during the workday, I'm not sure this building is going to add much to downtown.

I have noted before that JEA already has a remote emergency operations center.  It's well outside of downtown.  Low profile for obvious reasons.  Again, not sure why they need another one.  Maybe they expand the one they have if they have the land for it.

I was told it's a best practices thing and that most of the other big utilities do similar. Zahn was aware of that but didn't want to do it so he could have a big tower in addition to the millions of dollars he was trying to get. I don't know why they arent doing it at the current site, if they plan on merging the current site to the new one, etc.

[thelakelander]

They don't need the space in the existing tower and it appears they want to be a single tenant entity. Even with the hardened building included, the new building would have been 1/2 the size of the existing. With that said, I'd rather have those +200 employees in that hardened building working in downtown than out in the boonies.

[thelakelander]

Here is the updated ground floor plan. The cafe in the main lobby has disappeared from the plan (same space but text has been removed) and the retail in the garage now has more realistic and useable depth.

[Steve]

Wow. I actually like it better. I'm really surprised (pleasantly):

- The retail space now has a nice corner on Adams, so used right the retail is now on Adams and Julia. The Monroe and Julia one is as well, but has the staircase in the way so that location is a little less desirable (also since Monroe has a break at the courthouse.)
- I'd be happy for JEA to not put a cafe in their building. Have their employees walk across to eat and support a local business. Or, get a food place in the retail spaces on Julia - this way the restaurant can serve the general public.

[thelakelander]

The more retail the merrier, IMO. Now that I look at it, the design still leaves the possibility of doing some interesting things with the main lobby space, including the inclusion of a deli or coffeehouse. Looking at things from a bird's eye level, Adams Street is one of the few that can easily offer five to six continuous blocks of pedestrian scaled retail and dining frontage. So the more spaces that interact at the human scaled level, the better. Overall, activating the corridors of Adams, Julia, Hogan, Laura will be the things that change the image of DT Jax. Even moreso than activating the riverfront with greenspace and the Elbow with more entertainment uses. That older, urban strip with its diverse range of historic human scaled architecture being alive and spilling out into the riverfront can quickly alter the general impression most have of DT. We just have to be smart enough to not screw it up with infill pedestrian hostile walls, uses and designs. So it will really be interesting to see where JEA's hardened structure goes and how it fits in with whatever is around it.

[thelakelander]

JEA shrinks plan for new downtown headquarters



An illustrative before and after look at JEA's scaled down plans for a new downtown headquarters complex.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/jea-shrinks-plan-for-new-downtown-headquarters/

[Charles Hunter]

Looking at the more detailed first floor plan (with the red notes), I have some questions about the first floor of the garage.  But, first, I am glad the retail space will be bigger.
1. It looks like the retail space is divided into two 'stores', both from the internal wall, and door placement.  Is it flexible and big enough to be divided further?
2. Is the "corridor" shown between the retail and the garage public, or is it a service access?
3. Only two ADA parking spaces on the first floor?  Also, the path from them to either the JEA Lobby, or the retail, seems rather long and indirect.
4. Could the area on either side of the Adams Street entrance still accommodate a deli or coffee shop?

Great article, and I like the new building.

[thelakelander]

Minneapolis developer pays $2.6 million for JEA HQ site

Full article: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/minneapolis-developer-pays-dollar2-6-million-for-jea-hq-site

If this is the market rate price for a full prime downtown block, demolishing the existing JEA Tower does not make financial sense. It would take a lot more than $2.6 million to demolish a structure that large. City Hall Annex and the Old County Courthouse were smaller and they cost $8 million to raze.

[marcuscnelson]

Interesting to compare the two pictures and see how chopping two floors off looks.





Could be better, but it could certainly be a lot worse. Sorry HeightsUnknown.

If this is the market rate price for a full prime downtown block, demolishing the existing JEA Tower does not make financial sense. It would take a lot more than $2.6 million to demolish a structure that large. City Hall Annex and the Old County Courthouse were smaller and they cost $8 million to raze.

Whoever said demolition had to make financial sense in Jacksonville?

Speaking of the Annex and Courthouse, I wonder how that Spandrel project is going. Hopefully they and the Hyatt figure out a solution for some kind of exhibition space, open up Union Terminal for redevelopment. Would be nice to sell off the terminal to Virgin and get a sweet TOD setup in LaVilla.

[thelakelander]

The shorter, value engineered version looks worse. The design has elements that look better on a taller structure. Overall it is too little density on a prime CBD site. In any other major Florida city that garage is integrated into the structure and not side by side. But whatever.

[jaxjaguar]

The garage should be integrated into the building like Lake said. They could  make floors 3-6 garage space without affecting the overall height / footprint of the original design. It would better activate the street level, provide better security and still alleviate any risk from floods, by keeping the cars and offices above ground level. Not to mention it would look better and be better use of land.

[Steve]

The garage should be integrated into the building like Lake said. They could  make floors 3-6 garage space without affecting the overall height / footprint of the original design. It would better activate the street level, provide better security and still alleviate any risk from floods, by keeping the cars and offices above ground level. Not to mention it would look better and be better use of land.

True, but I'm guessing that would be more expensive. The garage itself is likely a "tilt-up" Preston Haskell special. If you integrate in the building then it has to support the building above. Plus, as pointed out the land is (in the scheme of things) pretty cheap here. It's much cheaper to go out than up and if you put the garage on the bottom, then you don't need as many floors of office since the floor plates would be much bigger.