Maybe this trend will take hold in JAX as well. It will have to at some point to some degree, to bring about a true pedestrian-oriented environment.
QuoteSome of uptown's most prominent office buildings are getting major ground-floor makeovers. Out: Blank walls, reflective black glass and bank branches. In: Hip new restaurants and bars that invite pedestrians to step inside.
At least a half-dozen buildings spread across the city's center are undergoing or slated to undergo ground-floor renovations:
The final phase of Charlotte Plaza renovations will bring a new façade, connecting the lobby visually to College Street. A rendering of the planned Bank of America Plaza finished renovations at night. The final phase of Charlotte Plaza renovations will bring a new façade, connecting the lobby visually to College Street. A rendering of the planned Bank of America Plaza finished renovations at night.
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A rendering of the planned Bank of America Plaza finished renovations at night. Redline
▪ At Trade and Tryon streets, Bank of America Plaza is getting a $20 million upfit that will include ground-floor retail.
▪ At 400 South Tryon, Rhino Market & Deli is gearing up to start construction on its first uptown location.
▪ And Charlotte Plaza on South College Street earlier this month announced a $14 million overhaul to remove much of its black glass and open up the lobby to natural light.
"I think the age of the grand office lobby is over – at least it should be," said David Furman, a longtime Charlotte architect and developer, who said such spaces create "vast dead zones as the workers go home."
QuoteSeveral factors are driving the wave of uptown renovation projects, which Charlotte Center City Partners CEO Michael Smith estimated total $80 million. Most of those buildings being renovated are from the 1970s and '80s , when office buildings were often set back from the street and deliberately screened from view with dark, reflective glass or hidden behind moat-like landscaping.
Behind the tinted glass and screens of shrubbery, grand lobbies and large bank branches took up most of the ground floor. Bank of America Plaza, opened in 1974 as the new headquarters for Bank of America predecessor NCNB, is one such example: Opaque black glass sheathed the ground floor and a bank branch used to take up most of the lobby at the prestigious Trade and Tryon intersection.
"Our building, from the ground level, appeared to be closed for business," said Rhea Greene of Trinity Partners, director of office leasing who handles Bank of America Plaza. "We had space sitting there that was a missed opportunity."
Now, tenants don't want those features anymore. Instead, they want restaurants for employees to grab lunch or a cafe for a quick coffee – seen as amenities for employees and attractive places for business meetings. The idea of having shops, restaurants and bars open to pedestrians and passersby has replaced the monumental ground-floor architecture of past decades.
QuoteMore owners are taking advantage of the chance to turn disused space into rent-generating square footage, as at 400 South Tryon, where a blank wall and empty space facing Church Street is being transformed into retail space, including Rhino Market.
"For much of our city's history, the big banks ruled the real estate landscape. The order of the day was grandiose lobbies with floor-to-ceiling marble," said Adam Williams of Legacy Real Estate Advisors, who specializes in leasing retail space uptown, including at 400 South Tryon. Now, most office buildings uptown are owned by real estate investment trusts or real estate firms that want to maximize their revenue from each building and care less about that prestige factor.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article102119392.html (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/development/article102119392.html)
^It's already happening here, although on a much smaller scale.
The old AT&T Building retrofitted its bottom two floors for EverBank and Citizens. No hip restaurant but a Nature's Table Restaurant was added and they almost had Bold Bean Coffee. Two blocks away, 100 North Laura is being retrofitted. When complete, it's ground level will include a restaurant with outdoor seating that will be operated by Black Sheep.
Here's a little more info on the 100 North Laura project: https://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=547501
With that said, I'd love to see something similar happen with the lobby of One Enterprise Center. It's a huge chunk of wasted space in its current condition.
Quote^It's already happening here, although on a much smaller scale.
I'm all for it happening on a larger scale, but to think that Jacksonville's downtown will ever become what Charlotte's is, well, that's a great idea, but just a lottery ticket purchase idea. I keep going back to what Ian said about moving Chomp Chomp from downtown to the suburbs, there just wasn't enough demand to warrant keeping the business open, in the face or rising rental expenses.
I agree with Stephen that most of the lobbys will become service centers, but look at what Starbucks did in 11E, they left, not enough demand for the coffee service in downtown, they also left the Landing, they went to where the people are located. Stephen is right about the businesses moving to the burbs, Avondale, Riverside, San Marco, after all, its where the people reside. All the places that have come and gone along Adams street, Gordos was a personal favorite, could make it in Tally, just not in Jax. Even during the better economic times.
Downtown is no different, in fact, it might be a good time to call downtown a suburb itself, what do the people who reside in this suburb want, since they are the ones likely to support the after 5 pm offerings.
But new businesses MUST be smart about what they build and where they start. Would Blacksheep have been successful to start their 1st restaurant downtown? Jon pulled Chew out and went back to focus on the business in Riverside. Now that it has a name and street cred, it can draw people in pretty much any area, even with Intuition. Its really hard to build a new business with such a small group of residents as compared to the areas that Stephen mentions. I wouldn't be suprised to see more hip restaurants take a chance DT as their offerings in burbs grow.