How cool would it be to have THIS in the old Ford plant in downtown Jax?? Closer than St. Aug...
https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/fords-garage-restaurant-building-out-at-bozard-lincoln-in-st-augustine
P.S. I think I may have inadvertently pulled this rug right out from under someone else making the same post - my apologies and I defer to you. I haven't eaten lunch yet today, so I plead low blood sugar. Gonna fix that right now.
The old Ford plant is a cool historic building, but it's in a terribly desolate area with little to no hope for being a dining destination.
The restaurant looks cool, though.
Most Ford's Garage restaurants are located along the side of highways, although the original in Fort Myers is in downtown. The old Duval Ford dealership was located in LaVilla at the corner of W. Forsyth and Lee Street. That would have been a cool site for the theme, and straight off the highway too. Unfortunately, we're putting townhomes on that commerical site.
Quote from: thelakelander on June 02, 2020, 02:40:19 PM
Unfortunately, we're putting townhomes on that commerical site.
Why is that unfortunate? Adding residents to LaVilla within walking distance of the JRTC is a good thing, isn't it? Hasn't that site been vacant for over a decade now?
More residential in the area is fine and definitely needed. However, you need to be strategic with redevelopment and site placement. If LaVilla is to have mixed use development, the commercial uses will need to go on corridors with higher traffic counts and visibility. By not working with market based site selection criteria and characteristics, you can end up with your redevelopment dreams being inefficient and put together in a manner that fails to meet the overall long term objective.