Top 10 Things to Make DOWN-town a BOOM-town

[thelakelander]

There is a tourist information center on Laura Street, near Hemming Plaza.  Its pretty nice.  There is also a smaller one in the Landing.

[sandyshoes]

Sweeeeeet!  Ok, so 2 more places to advertise the trolley tours, etc...if someone wanted to get from the Landing to RAM, they could take one trolley over from there, if some were arranged.  From there, they could take RAP trolley or Springfield trolley for a tour, or stop at a museum (Karpeles is open on Sat, also?)  These are the logistics that someone with more experience than I could work out, but you see where I'm trying to go with this?  I know there are talented movers and shakers out there and this could happen very easily and quickly in their capable hands - isn't it exciting to realize that?   

[stjr]

This should have gone Downtown.  Funny, private developers get it but city planners don't!  Read the details of this mega-entertainment complex just announced for SJTC below:

New entertainment complex slated at St. Johns Town Center
Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Whisky River nightclub opening in March

   * By Roger Bull
   * Story updated at 5:33 PM on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009

An entertainment complex featuring restaurants, bars and an open air concert area is planned to open in the spring at St. Johns Town Center.

The Plaza at Town Center will feature 300,000 square feet of entertainment and retail on 50 acres just east of the Town Center, the project’s developers announced Friday.

Whisky River, a country themed nightclub and music venue owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. of NASCAR fame, is already under construction and is scheduled to open in March 2010. Whisky River, which opened in downtown Charlotte, N.C., in 2007, features live music by celebrity guests, talented DJs and a mechanical bull.

“NASCAR fans flock to the original Whisky River in Charlotte to experience the replica and atmosphere of Jr.’s own saloon on his property in North Carolina,” the release said.

“I think Jacksonville is a prime market for this kind of establishment,” Earnhardt was quoted as saying.

Whisky River has a Facebook page that announces saying a representative will be in Jacksonville in January, “Looking for the hottest bartenders & servers to join our team.”

BlackFinn American Saloon, which describes itself as a New York style saloon, is slated to open later in the spring.

A spokeswoman for the developers, Landmark Leisure Group and Ben Carter Properties, said that a high-end martini bar, currently unnamed, would be the third venue at the complex. An old-world style Italian eatery is planned, and he developers are talking to seven or eight more restaurants and nightclubs, she said.Retail stores are also planned for the venue which will include outdoor festivals and concerts in the mix that invites patrons to “stay and play,” according to a release..

An artist’s rendering of the planned complex shows businesses on both sides of a walking street that also features a concert space.

Ben Carter Properties was a developer of the orginal St. Johns Town Center in a joint venture with Simon Property Group.

http://jacksonville.com/business/2009-12-18/story/new_entertainment_complex_slated_at_st_johns_town_center

[thelakelander]

Wow, it looks like they are really trying to corner the market. 

[finehoe]

Frankly, I prefer the organic entertainment districts of places like Bay Street over these ersatz Disney-esque creations with their chain venues and faux "celebrity hotspots”.

[Ocklawaha]

A face not even a mother could love, so damned ugly that they've gone and put it inside police tape for fear it might be the root cause of necrophilia.

Sweeeeeet!  Ok, so 2 more places to advertise the trolley tours, etc...if someone wanted to get from the Landing to RAM, they could take one trolley over from there, if some were arranged.  From there, they could take RAP trolley or Springfield trolley for a tour, or stop at a museum (Karpeles is open on Sat, also?)  These are the logistics that someone with more experience than I could work out, but you see where I'm trying to go with this?  I know there are talented movers and shakers out there and this could happen very easily and quickly in their capable hands - isn't it exciting to realize that?

OH! MY! DEAR GOD!

Somebody LIKES the stupid intelligence insulting PCT Trolley Fleet? Lord forgive me, but this is why some animals eat their young!

CHOKE! warp, buckle, heave, gag, gasp, clasp, pant, falsify, distort, heft up, garble, puff, heft, billow, retch, surge, crumple, heave up, gag, heave, retch,vomit; strain to vomit, choke, cat, heft, fret, honk, barf, sick, heave, chuck, puke, cast, heft up, spue, vomit, purge, regorge, puff, buckle, billow, vomit up, gasp, upchuck, disgorge, suffocate, pant, spew, strangle, regurgitate, throw up, be sick, retch, quip, ...PUKE!

By "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, JACKSONVILLE TRACTION shall be avenged!, don't allow a perfectly good streetcar route become poisoned by those ridiculous looking PCT Trolleys (PCT=Potato Chip Truck - Think's it's a Trolley) rubber tired, fume belching, trackless, noisy, nauseating, cheap, imitation shoe boxes.

Some of you people might yet drive me to an act of self immolation.

 

OCKLAWAHA

[rjp2008]

Finally!!

I spent last summer in Jax and when I saw the St. John's Town Center, I was amazed that it's developers could have been so lame-brained to do NOTHING for evening entertainment space there. No movie theater, concert area, nightclubs, nada. Every time I went there I lamented there was NO EVENING hangout spot - in a prime place where it COULD Be.

THIS is something that will take off. Southside, especially the newer section is full of wealthier individuals who will pay to go to NEW and clean entertainment spots. The bulk of them are not going to drive downtown to some crusty, rat-holed refurbished place or east to the trashier beach hangout spots.

The sea of parking lots there is still a waste - parking garage would have made sense. But at least this gives people something to do - and even better - it can be a tourist stop for people going around Jacksonville as well. Smart thinking here.

[vicupstate]

^^  More like run-of-the-mill, nothing-special, suburban sprawl thinking.  

If Peyton had worked with Sleiman in 2004 to transform the Landing/Laura Street corridor/Bay Street, into the city's entertainment district it would largely be in place now.  It would also boost the city's image just as Kansas City's Power and Light district did for that city.  It would be something unique that could not be replicated elsewhere.  

It would be the 'draw' , the catalyst for an increased residential presence DT, which in turn would increase the presence of 24 hour activity.  That in turn would increase demand for still more goods and services and restaurants DT.

Not to mention that a Downtown entertainment district goes hand-in-glove with Jaguar games, FL-GA, Gator Bowl, ACC Championship games, etc. etc.

See where I am going with this ?


A HUGE opportunity has been MISSED.  Tony Sleiman now will have full-scale competition AGAINST what he is trying to accomplish with the Landing.  

Way to go Jacksonville !!   Just another example of piss poor leadership with no vision, no creativity and no clue !!!  

[tufsu1]

Here's the problem...SJTC is central to the community's wealth....downtown isn't....that's why it got built where it did!

[vicupstate]

The SouthPark and Ballentyne areas of Charlotte each have large concentrations of wealthy residences and each has it's own retail hub, and either could have sited an Epicentre type project.  

They didn't go to either place because Uptown is 'where the action is' whether  it be business or major events (NFL, NBA, Bowl game, festivals, etc. ) and because it was already emerging as the entertainment district for the entire city.  It is also the area that is foremost in the mindset of the entire city.  

 

[Ocklawaha]

Here's the problem...SJTC is central to the community's wealth....downtown isn't....that's why it got built where it did!

I disagree. Downtown certainly rolls out as much if not more economic power then Bay Meadows - Town Center - Deerwood areas.

Downtown power is centralized, and Southside economics are on an auto scale, isolated, unsustainable, and scattered all over hells half acre.

Your choice of words is central to our argument too, "Central to the Community's...." Built on an auto scale, Town Center is anything bus a "CENTER" of anything. They didn't even include transit or foul weather shelters, something downtown already has in abundance.

The bulk of them are not going to drive downtown to some crusty, rat-holed refurbished place or east to the trashier beach hangout spots.

The sea of parking lots there is still a waste - parking garage would have made sense. But at least this gives people something to do - and even better - it can be a tourist stop for people going around Jacksonville as well. Smart thinking here.

Guess you don't live in Jacksonville anymore? When was the last time you lived here, 1955? 1960? maybe 1970?
To think downtown or our urban environment is "crusty, rat-holed" and that our Beaches are "trashier hangout spots," speaks more to your lack of a recent downtown experience then to Town Center's success.

On these cool winter and spring days, there is scarcely a prettier place on earth then downtown Jacksonville.

^^  More like run-of-the-mill, nothing-special, suburban sprawl thinking.   

A HUGE opportunity has been MISSED.  Tony Sleiman now will have full-scale competition AGAINST what he is trying to accomplish with the Landing. 

Way to go Jacksonville !!   Just another example of piss poor leadership with no vision, no creativity and no clue !!! 

Just like our BRT lines, it's  more of the same, "JTA competes with self," or "downtown duplicated," type story's.
Even so, nothing can come close to a Landing freed from under the curse of bus only transit or no parking. Chock it up as just one more Peyton Pissing Contest = Failure. It's NOT A FAILURE OF DOWNTOWN or the LANDING.

Downtown is truly urban, Town Center is not.
Downtown is far more scenic, Town Center is not.
Downtown has history and sense of place, Town Center does not.
Downtown is central to all of Duval County, Town Center is not.
Downtown is the hub of urban mass transit, Town Center is not.
Downtown has the incredible river, Town Center does not.
Downtown has dozens of other attractions, Town Center does not.
Downtown has HQ of several fortune 500 companies, Town Center does not.
Downtown and surroundings are all walkable, Town Center beyond the main street, is not.

Way to go Jacksonville !!   Just another example of piss poor leadership with no vision, no creativity and no clue !!!  

AMEN BROTHER! AMEN!

OCKLAWAHA

[Bativac]

Finehoe I agree 100%. All the new place is missing is the Disney gift shops. (Of course it hasn't been built yet... who's to say they WON'T have themed gift shops every 20 feet?)

[stjr]

Imagine this project in LaVilla or Brooklyn tied to Ock's "Ray Charles Night Club."  Think of all the tourists we could have pulled off of I-95 in addition to the giant boost to Downtown.

[finehoe]

Finehoe I agree 100%. All the new place is missing is the Disney gift shops. (Of course it hasn't been built yet... who's to say they WON'T have themed gift shops every 20 feet?)

LOL.  I guarantee that Whiskey River joint will have a gift shop.

[finehoe]

I knew it:  http://whiskyriver.shop.musictoday.com/Default.aspx