Back from the dead.
https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/balanky-plans-southbank-tower-with-gondolas-across-st-johns
This is an outrage! Where will be park for the bearded pig?!?
Cool looking project if it can be pulled off. I can't imagine, they'd force it to only be office/retail. Other than that...umm who needs a gondola system? That defeats the purpose of a new AV river crossing for the Skyway ;-).
Gondola crossing sounds pretty unnecessary to me. This is something I imagine would be broken, rotting, and nationally mocked within 10 years based on our city's track record for maintaining its assets.
A Gondola is a great idea. Modern gondolas are making a comeback. Disney World is building one in between its resorts and parks. It is relatively cheap to implement and modern cars are actually pretty nice. Why would this be a bad idea?
Pretty silly that one of the holdups is JTA restricting residential on the lease of land. With Baptist building a garage next to their JOI building right now they will probably stop using King Street so parking should be plentiful for this development.
Quote from: thelakelander on March 20, 2018, 08:43:36 AM
Cool looking project if it can be pulled off. I can't imagine, they'd force it to only be office/retail. Other than that...umm who needs a gondola system? That defeats the purpose of a new AV river crossing for the Skyway ;-).
LOL!
Quote from: Dapperdan on March 20, 2018, 09:48:42 AM
A Gondola is a great idea. Modern gondolas are making a comeback. Disney World is building one in between its resorts and parks. It is relatively cheap to implement and modern cars are actually pretty nice. Why would this be a bad idea?
I was joking with my initial post concerning the gondola vs autonomous vehicle crossing. However, any new river crossing will need to meet some type of demand to make the ROI worth it from a public investment standpoint. Not saying it will be a bad idea but also not sure there's real demand for anything other than it being a novelty. Something that would be cool to do once and take pictures of, moreso than an essential transit element designed to meet commuting and accessibility needs. With that said, a lawsuit seems to cloud this entire project but one component seems a lot more realistic to pull off than the other.
We talked about a gondola pretty extensively last year:
https://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=28273.0
I really love the idea, just not now.
Finish the Shipyards and Doro District, complete that Cordish project, fully build-out the District, and add that 28-story tower first.
If and when all of that development is actually complete, I think you'd actually have the demand and utility to justify a gondola crossing as an alternative to the insane Skyway crossing bridge that would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and block sightlines of downtown from both the stadium district and District.
Bonus points if the gondola could directly carry JTA's clown cars across the river.
So many options to cross the river. I can use a bridge, the ferry, the Skyway, and possibly a pedal pub or gondola. What's next? Zip line? The Jacksonville Chunnel?
Quote from: jagsonville on March 20, 2018, 09:54:24 AM
Pretty silly that one of the holdups is JTA restricting residential on the lease of land. With Baptist building a garage next to their JOI building right now they will probably stop using King Street so parking should be plentiful for this development.
According to the article that was negotiated around 10 years ago. That was a while before Nat Ford got to JTA. I'm betting they will work this out.
The Michael Blaylock-led JTA was.....something. There certainly were some good folks there, but as a whole the organization was.....not good. They probably thought that Dense Residential was a bad thing for transit.
Some of you people are just as short sighted as the city itself
If they can afford to build it, and can build it sometime in the near future at a cost that doesn't painfully depend on taxpayers, I say go ahead.
The article says the gondola would have to be a public/private partnership and only if the city builds a convention center first. Basically, it won't be happening anytime soon, if ever.
Quote from: thelakelander on March 21, 2018, 12:29:52 AM
The article says the gondola would have to be a public/private partnership and only if the city builds a convention center first. Basically, it won't be happening anytime soon, if ever.
Well... it was fun while it lasted.
Quote from: Keith-N-Jax on March 20, 2018, 06:18:52 PM
Some of you people are just as short sighted as the city itself
What is so visionary about making the city pay for a gimmick that brings people to your development?
Maybe the gondola can have a stop at the Barge Entertainment Space, another "private" development that needed our city's charity to ever get past a silly drawing.
Quote from: Captain Zissou on March 21, 2018, 09:39:47 AM
Quote from: Keith-N-Jax on March 20, 2018, 06:18:52 PM
Some of you people are just as short sighted as the city itself
What is so visionary about making the city pay for a gimmick that brings people to your development?
You clearly have no vision!
Hey, I just saw this story on News 4! No doubt, it is happening!!! ;D
More info:
https://residentnews.net/2018/04/03/developer-wants-to-traverse-st-johns-river-by-sky-gondolas/
This totally screws up my dolphin pulled floating rickshaw venture-
To be clear, is the gondola not happening until the convention center gets built? Or is the tower not happening until the convention center gets built.
I don't particularly care about the gondola, but the tower would be a nice addition to the skyline and continue the growth in the San Marco area.
The gondola is a pipe dream that's not happening. The tower ain't happening either until he clears up the legal dispute with JTA.
...and the convention center won't be built, Berkman 2 won't be finished, the USS Adams will never arrive, the Hart Bridge ramps will never be lowered, and Khan will never develop the Shipyards. Welcome to Jacksonville!
Why on earth would JTA be opposed to having residential units on the site. It seems like that would give them built in users for the Skyway.
Quote from: Kerry on April 06, 2018, 10:30:44 AM
Why on earth would JTA be opposed to having residential units on the site. It seems like that would give them built in users for the Skyway.
Sounds like it has to do with the Skyway expansion proposal, of all things.
Integrate the Skyway into the building design. What a novel idea.
Quote from: thelakelander on April 06, 2018, 09:11:52 AM
The gondola is a pipe dream that's not happening. The tower ain't happening either until he clears up the legal dispute with JTA.
I feel like the JTA agreement with Balanky will get resolved, as getting it resolved really is in everyone's best interest.
The gondolas on the other hand..,..that will likely happen when Charter Co's Floating nukes are completed.
Quote from: Steve on April 06, 2018, 11:41:34 AM
Quote from: thelakelander on April 06, 2018, 09:11:52 AM
The gondola is a pipe dream that's not happening. The tower ain't happening either until he clears up the legal dispute with JTA.
I feel like the JTA agreement with Balanky will get resolved, as getting it resolved really is in everyone's best interest.
The gondolas on the other hand..,..that will likely happen when Charter Co's Floating nukes are completed.
What's a bit goofy to me is that Balanky wants the first phase of the gondola to go from just west of the District (in the contaminated plot boxed below) to the old Courthouse site.
(https://snag.gy/T302zq.jpg)
That spot on the Southbank is literally a 60 second walk to a Skyway station, and it'll dump you off on the north bank a couple of blocks away. With much shorter headways.
The route doesn't seem practical or necessary.
At least there's utility in a Southbank to Sports Complex route. It's serving a need that currently isn't served.
While I'm not a fan of the elevated Skyway overall, the Convention Center site, Shipyards site, and Sports Complex is one extension that to me could make sense.
Then, you don't need this Gondola thing at all. Fundamentally, I really don't have a problem with it, but How much is a river crossing with these things? And his plan has two!