The Plaza at Town Center Entertainment Complex
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/765821260_rbu3b-M.jpg)
Featuring as much as 300,000 square feet of restaurants, bars, an open air concert area and retail, the Plaza at Town Center is scheduled to open in Spring 2010. This project involves the combination of existing vacant retail space and new construction to create a centralized entertainment complex in the middle of Jacksonville's rapidly growing Southside.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-jan-the-plaza-at-town-center-entertainment-complex
Could you imagine this in the city core!! Ok, so I got to be the first to say it. So can we move on and talk about this is the sort of thing this town needs. Somewhere for people to go.
Yeah, its a spreadout version of the Landing without a riverfront view. Perhaps the Mayor should take the $8.2 million he wants to spend on Metropolitan Park and use it to help open the Landing's courtyard to Laura Street, since the land is publicly owned and the most visited spot in DT.
I find it interesting that this space has remained largely vacant for over a year...it has some nice touches, including a faux pedestrian environment, and is located (sadly) in the hottest area of town..
Its not alone in its struggles to land tenants during this economic recession. A ton of new strip centers all over town are largely empty. Right down the street, Tapestry Park still has a lot of commercial space available as well. However, taking available empty retail space and attempting to fill it by developing a market niche is a pretty smart idea.
Definitely a smart idea. It looks like the developers pulled a page or two from Toney Sleiman's book on revamping The Landing.
If only Toney was able to carry out his vision.... this stuff would be DOWNTOWN!
Duval County has somewhere between 850k-900k residents. Thousands of more pass through or visit the area on a regular basis. I believe there is room for both and even more, with their own unique themes, characteristics and atmospheres. Not only in DT and the Southside, but also the North and Westsides. We just have to get our heads together, plan and implement with a long term vision or goal in mind.
Quote from: tufsu1 on January 18, 2010, 09:25:31 AM
I find it interesting that this space has remained largely vacant for over a year...it has some nice touches, including a faux pedestrian environment, and is located (sadly) in the hottest area of town..
I am pretty sure it hasn't been there for a year.
Its been there for over a year. The center was completed Fall of 2008.
Which portion? The portion with Best Buy or the portion with the empty spaces? They weren't built together.
The portion with empty spaces. Here are a few old articles. From the photos, excluding various outparcels, the actual shopping center was built at once, even the section with West Marine.
original article in March 2008: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-mar-the-markets-at-town-center
under construction in August 2008: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-aug-the-markets-at-town-center-takes-shape
Walkability article from April 2009: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-apr-suburban-walkability-markets-at-town-center
Interesting. It didn't seem like it had been there that long.
Wow, I'm so excited I could just PUKE!
BTW, if one was to "develop" a downtown, wouldn't that include roads that connect and mass transit? Not in Jacksonville.
OCKLAWAHA
So far all I'm seeing is two more bar/restaurants surrounded by a sea of parking lots.
Typical "build it cheap" approach to entertainment and recreational needs. The entire property should've been designed to be walkable with parking garages.
rjp....land values there are still low enough that parking lots made much better financial sense than building garages....its pretty much a decision factor for all types of development.
Quote from: tufsu1 on January 18, 2010, 03:37:04 PM
rjp....land values there are still low enough that parking lots made much better financial sense than building garages....its pretty much a decision factor for all types of development.
Nice point, if it was a land use LAW factor, then the decisions would be made for environmentally sound development with mass transit, causing a seed change in our thinking.OCKLAWAHA
Actually, I've driven through this development and thought it was better done than most. They've got great graphic transparencies of shops full of goodies covering up all the vacant storefronts.
Still, how many more restaurants does the Town Center need? What's the dining capacity of the places already there? Has to be nearing 7K or 8K.
These places no where they're moving in to. The highest traffic shopping and dining area in the region, and until all the land is built on, they'll keep coming.
QuoteBTW, if one was to "develop" a downtown, wouldn't that include roads that connect and mass transit? Not in Jacksonville.
Just got back from Denver where they have a very impressive transit system, and with it all, the light rail does not even go to the airport. First rate cities connect to the airport, after all, more people need transit to the airport. Until Jax builds dependable transit to the airport, don't expect anything great anywhere else.
Art Shad said it best about downtown, we need to Spend, Spend, Spend downtown and grow downtown. The amount being spent on SJTC and Downtown is not even comparable. At some point, when the traffic becomes too much of an issue at SJTC, I hope the patrons enjoy it.
You guys are so funny. EVERY thread has to turn into, "ok heres how we can do it down town". Why cant a thread ever bring up the positives about what this does bring to the city even if this is not in the core. Applaud the developers for actually doing something, even if it is not where you want it. Baby steps. I know half of you want the TownCenter to fail but it is a HUGE success. Something this city NEEDED. This could very well be another feather in its cap.
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 18, 2010, 07:35:46 PM
Just got back from Denver where they have a very impressive transit system, and with it all, the light rail does not even go to the airport. First rate cities connect to the airport, after all, more people need transit to the airport. Until Jax builds dependable transit to the airport, don't expect anything great anywhere else.
Might be because Denver's airport is like 25 miles from downtown....that said, their FasTrax plan does include rail to the airport.
btw, I can think of several major U.S. cities that don't have rail connections to their airports...New York comes to mind first.
Quote from: St. Auggie on January 18, 2010, 07:47:04 PM
You guys are so funny. EVERY thread has to turn into, "ok heres how we can do it down town". Why cant a thread ever bring up the positives about what this does bring to the city even if this is not in the core. Applaud the developers for actually doing something, even if it is not where you want it. Baby steps. I know half of you want the TownCenter to fail but it is a HUGE success. Something this city NEEDED. This could very well be another feather in its cap.
I agree. While more entertainment and retail options are desperately needed downtown, I am just glad that we're getting more options SOMEWHERE in town than not at all.
The funny thing is, if more things like this were to pop up downtown and downtown miraculously became the mecca we all hoped for, then we would have nothing to talk about other than how much downtown sucks because parking is so expensive, traffic getting to downtown is bad, there are too many homeless people living in rail/metro stations...etc. That's the beauty of this website I guess... there will never be a shortage of topics. LOL.
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 18, 2010, 07:35:46 PM
First rate cities connect to the airport, after all, more people need transit to the airport. Until Jax builds dependable transit to the airport, don't expect anything great anywhere else.
It's so simple. Why can't leaders see it?
Seems to me that downtown has gained plenty of momentum on its own in spite of everything else - consider how many bars/nighttime venues that have either popped up or are about to.....In downtown. In this economy. - I don't think that there's another area in North Florida that's run in tandem to date. I for one am excited to have yet another "spot" - this city's big.
This IS a good thing for Jacksonville and a smart move by the developer to bring a couple chains to anchor the Markets. I don't think the the Town Center's success has to be at the expense of developing a vibrant downtown or even related. This is a huge city and downtown nightlife isn't for everybody.
Blizz, you are right! Since I've lived DT in the last three years, I've seen a huge improvement in DT living....Just look at the sky-line of the Southbank (three new res towers), the Bay St Entertainment district taking off, the ArtWalk gets bigger every month it seems. There is definitely somethings going down in Downtown and I'm happy to be a part of it...growing with it.
Quote from: tufsu1 on January 18, 2010, 10:15:47 PM
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 18, 2010, 07:35:46 PM
Just got back from Denver where they have a very impressive transit system, and with it all, the light rail does not even go to the airport. First rate cities connect to the airport, after all, more people need transit to the airport. Until Jax builds dependable transit to the airport, don't expect anything great anywhere else.
Might be because Denver's airport is like 25 miles from downtown....that said, their FasTrax plan does include rail to the airport.
btw, I can think of several major U.S. cities that don't have rail connections to their airports...New York comes to mind first.
Subways, no?
nope...but they are building/planning rail links to LaGuardia and JFK (existing line is just off-site w/ shuttle)....and the Newark airport just got its connection to the downtown train station (PATH/NJT/Amtrak) a few years ago
That is incorrect. You can take a subway from anywhere in Manhattan to Penn Station. You can take the LIRR from Penn to Jamaica Station and then take the Air Train from Jamaica directly to any terminal at JFK.
http://www.mta.info/mta/airtrain.htm
Tufsu, dude you can take the train from DOWNTOWN NYC to Newark and Laguardia as well as JFK, great transit system in NYC. Not as modern a system, but hey, it works.
Great article on Penn Station and the 1,000+ trains it services each and every day in Trains Magazine.
QuoteI know half of you want the TownCenter to fail but it is a HUGE success. Something this city NEEDED. This could very well be another feather in its cap.
This city needed more SPRAWL? The real feather in the cap when SJTC traffic approaches the density of Blanding Blvd southbound of I-295 on a Rush Hour. And we are not too far behind, given the traffic patterns from the holidays at the SJTC.
The only reason it is a HUGE success as you mention, is because the main stores around most of the major malls, Regency, OP, and Avenues, have failed and gone out of business, leaving older malls to fend for themselves. You put an Apple store in the Avenues, and it would be rocking too. Fact is that SJTC is just a mall, that is closer to the beach, to allow PVB patrons similar, albeit higher priced, options as those afforded to people on the southside with the Avenues Mall. Its newer, nicer, but in 20 years, it too will be washed up.
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 19, 2010, 05:58:02 PM
Tufsu, dude you can take the train from DOWNTOWN NYC to Newark and Laguardia as well as JFK, great transit system in NYC. Not as modern a system, but hey, it works.
really...how?
Looking at the plans, all I see are parking lots, parking lots, and more parking lots. Get some parking garages in there to save space and get some transit options. I live in Tampa now and while it is not a great city for transit, it is leaps and bounds beyond Jax. We also are at least trying to get light rail. That is the Mayor's #1 priority.
Quote from: DemocraticNole on January 19, 2010, 10:45:37 PM
Looking at the plans, all I see are parking lots, parking lots, and more parking lots. Get some parking garages in there to save space and get some transit options. I live in Tampa now and while it is not a great city for transit, it is leaps and bounds beyond Jax. We also are at least trying to get light rail. That is the Mayor's #1 priority.
Tampa is trying...but they spun their wheels for 12 years...they had a light rail plan in 1998 and the County Commission refused to put it up for referendum....and Mayo Iorio is a convert, who was not a big transit supporter when she first ran in 2003.
Quote from: DemocraticNole on January 19, 2010, 10:45:37 PM
Looking at the plans, all I see are parking lots, parking lots, and more parking lots. Get some parking garages in there to save space and get some transit options. I live in Tampa now and while it is not a great city for transit, it is leaps and bounds beyond Jax. We also are at least trying to get light rail. That is the Mayor's #1 priority.
There is no motivation for them to build garages. They are much more expensive and they own so much land, it is unnecessary.
I always love how this board compares itself to cities w/ metro areas 3-4 times the size of Jax. If Denver is just now getting rail, why on Earth would you think that Jax would have it already. And connecting DT Jax to the airport? Good lord the airport it heck and gone from anything in Jacksonville. Should it be connected? Yes. But NOTHING is on the northside of the city. When the area does a backflip about getting a cinema, it CANNOT support rail. Babysteps guys.
Tufsu - Are you for real? I take the train into Penn Station every time I fly to Newark. Do we really need to add 100 pictures to the blog to prove the point? You can get to the New Jersey Transit site and go from "Newark Airport to New York Penn Station", they run about every 30 minutes every day.
QuoteBut NOTHING is on the northside of the city. When the area does a backflip about getting a cinema, it CANNOT support rail.
Nothing was or still is on the southside of Atlanta, but they deemed it important enough to connect to the airport.
Man I hate qouting myself, but again, did you really just compare Jax to Atlanta? I love this town but come on. Atlanta's airport is the BUSIEST airport in the world. Jax threw a party when we hit 6 million passengers in a year. Atlanta does that montly. Bad example. Next.
Quote from: St. Auggie on January 20, 2010, 09:05:58 AM
I always love how this board compares itself to cities w/ metro areas 3-4 times the size of Jax. If Denver is just now getting rail, why on Earth would you think that Jax would have it already. And connecting DT Jax to the airport? Good lord the airport it heck and gone from anything in Jacksonville. Should it be connected? Yes. But NOTHING is on the northside of the city. When the area does a backflip about getting a cinema, it CANNOT support rail. Babysteps guys.
LOL, you have not really followed the front page over the last couple of years. We routinely compare Jax with our actual peer cities and many smaller than us. Forget Denver, how about cities with rail like Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis, Little Rock, Tacoma, Albuquerque and Buffalo. From an planning and economic development standpoint, Jax's focus on this issue is long overdue. It may be time for us to go back to the basics of explaining how transit really works.
When you have some free time, try combing throught the transit section: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/transit/
You'll find a ton of comparisons to smaller places here.
Concerning the town center, I think they should now focus on adding density to the area. The plans already have a parking garage proposed for the area between Dillards and Barnes & Noble. I say put at least a 4 story deck there and then create a trolley line that runs down 'main street' and then along the southern edge up to Bento/Best Buy/Entertainment zone.
Put condos and some offices on the lake on the other side of Town Center Parkway and encourage more office and residential project to fill in the expansive parking lots.
I think the only way to keep this area vibrant beyond 2025 is to actually create enough density to become a Real town center and be self sustaining.
It would be nice if there was some way to connect Tinseltown, SJTC and that new town center area that's there on Southside and Gate Parkway together.
^Send my proposed trolley down the gargantuan median on gate parkway with a loop to Tinsletown/ those surrounding restaurants & up through tapestry park......
Put a garage at tapestry park and people would be able to utilize that whole area via trolley. Merrill Lynch and BCBS could utilize it for lunch and on weekends it would look like one of those Indian trains!!
Quote from: Captain Zissou on January 20, 2010, 09:45:27 AM
Put condos and some offices on the lake on the other side of Town Center Parkway and encourage more office and residential project to fill in the expansive parking lots.
I am pretty sure that was in the original plan.
Copperfiend, would you be able to find said plans?? I'd be interested to see what sort of development they had for that area.
This is what I have:
http://www.simon.com/mall/LeasingSheet/st%20johns%20town%20center857.pdf
You can see the residential planned between the mall and JTB and in the back of the complex. Also, notice there was a Ruby Tuesday slated to go where Bahama Breeze is being built.
Thank God that Ruby Tuesday wasn't built... I'll take Bahama Breeze over that any day
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 20, 2010, 09:22:40 AM
Tufsu - Are you for real? I take the train into Penn Station every time I fly to Newark. Do we really need to add 100 pictures to the blog to prove the point? You can get to the New Jersey Transit site and go from "Newark Airport to New York Penn Station", they run about every 30 minutes every day.
I never said you couldn't take a train from Newark...I said not from JFK or LaGuardia...and the Newark rail link was only buil a few years ago.
Quoteand the Newark rail link was only buil a few years ago.
Define a few.....I was riding it back in the 90s.
QuoteFor service between LaGuardia and Manhattan, take the E, F, G, R, V and 7 trains on the New York City subway
Shall I post info on JFK as well?
QuoteAtlanta's airport is the BUSIEST airport in the world. Jax threw a party when we hit 6 million passengers in a year. Atlanta does that montly. Bad example. Next.
Do you really want to compare airport traffic now? All we wanted to do was quote some modern cities have rail to their airport, now you want to start discussing the size of the airport? When you have the world's largest airlines use ATL as their HOME and MAJOR HUB, its not hard to see why it is the world's busiest airport. Airtran has a major hub there as well as the commuter planes like ASA and Delta Connection. Comparing ATL airport and JAX airport is not the idea of comparison, again, we are discussing
rail to airports.
I'm not sure how SJTC got to "rail to airports," but I'd like to just add a really great example of a city, on a similar level with JAX, that has done this effectively.
Portland, Or./ PDX is a a little distance outside of the city and is surrounded by industrial and commercial development. A traveler can take the MAXX (a light rail) for approximately $2 from PDX to Pioneer Sq., which is in the center of downtown. The ride takes about 30-35 minutes, but the scenery is enjoyable and the cars are comfortable. The ride takes you through commercial, rural, and eventually urban neighborhoods with many stops along the way.
I think that JAX should look to this great example.
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 21, 2010, 08:24:19 AM
Quote, we are discussing rail to airports.
Yep, I get that. But to say we should have rail to the airport because the world's busiest airports have it is not a very good reason IMO. Have you walked through our airport on a Wednesday? NO ONE is there. ATL had to do it because people use their airport, people dont use Jax airport enough to spend all that money on something that just is not used that much. Now dont get me wrong I LOVE that airport... because NO ONE uses it (its also been nicely redone).
Quote from: mtraininjax on January 21, 2010, 08:21:32 AM
Quoteand the Newark rail link was only buil a few years ago.
Define a few.....I was riding it back in the 90s.
QuoteFor service between LaGuardia and Manhattan, take the E, F, G, R, V and 7 trains on the New York City subway
Shall I post info on JFK as well?
Here's what I know...the Newark AirTrain link opened in 1996 as an airport circulator....but wasn't extended to Newark's Amtrak station until 2001...this 3 mile link is free for some (up to $5.50 each way for others) yet had less than 5,000 riders per day in 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Liberty_International_Airport_(NJT_station)
As for the NYC airports, a look at the New York MTA route map does not show a direct rail connection to LaGuardia....
http://www.mta.info/nyct/maps/submap.htm
and the JFK station is off the airport itself and requires a transfer to the AirTrain to get to the terminal...
http://www.mta.info/mta/airtrain.htm
btw, cost of this trip is between $7 and $13 each way...how many in jax. would do that when airport parking can be had for $5 a day?
^ I see what you're saying St Aug. We don't need to get ahead of ourselves trying to be like the big boys. I think we should be very proactive and make sure we don't wait until its too late to decide to connect our airport to our city.
If we had a rail line that went from the airport to the transit hub downtown, lines that went down Philips to St Aug and Roosevelt to Green Cove, and a line down JTB to the beach.... How much better of a city would we be?? It would make doing business in Jax much easier for out of towners, and could encourage new businesses to relocate here for that reason. We'd reduce sprawl and encourage compact centers of development around rail stops.
We don't need to do it today, tomorrow, or even in the next couple years, but we need to get ahead of demand so that we're not stuck widening 95 and 295 around the airport again in 5 years when materials costs will be higher.
That being said, I'm going to Bento at the Town Center for lunch and I'm going to stop by Best Buy because I have a gift card. I'm Psyched! (seamless transition)
QuoteWe don't need to do it today, tomorrow, or even in the next couple years, but we need to get ahead of demand so that we're not stuck widening 95 and 295 around the airport again in 5 years when materials costs will be higher.
Actually, we should have did it (rail) yesterday or a decade or two ago. Not having it is one of the reasons we're so sprawled out today with a struggling urban core. Rail builds density, its not the other way around.
I meant rail to the airport. I agree that we're overdue for some rail in this town. My parents' house would almost be a TAD on roosevelt!
Quotebtw, cost of this trip is between $7 and $13 each way...how many in jax. would do that when airport parking can be had for $5 a day?
Airport parking in lots A and B are $6 a day, where are you thinking?
QuoteHere's what I know...the Newark AirTrain link opened in 1996 as an airport circulator....but wasn't extended to Newark's Amtrak station until 2001...this 3 mile link is free for some (up to $5.50 each way for others) yet had less than 5,000 riders per day in 2007.
The AirTrain is only a link between the airport and the terminals and parking decks. The Northeast Corridor line for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains run by the Newark terminal. The Airtrain does not really serve anywhere other than the airport. You take this to the Newark Liberty International Airport (NJT station) which takes you into Manhatten and Penn Station.
Rail here should have kicked off years ago and where are we now.............still talking about it!
WTF? I thought this was about the town center.
yeah, the town center at the airport rail station!
yeah, the town center at the airport rail station & SPAR!
Whisky River to open tomorrow. However, it doesn't look like the grand "entertainment complex" will be built anytime soon.
QuoteThe club is in Markets at Town Center, which is next to the main St. Johns Town Center. Two more venues are expected to open there this year:
- Suite, an upscale martini bar.
- BlackFinn American Saloon, is a bar and restaurant patterned after a classic New York saloon.
Whisky River, Suite and BlackFinn are all affiliated and have locations in Charlotte's EpiCentre.
Last December, a publicist announced a much larger entertainment center in the Markets at Town Center, featuring up to a dozen restaurants and clubs. Developers have since said that only the three are planned.
full article: http://jacksonville.com/business/2010-04-15/story/whisky-river-set-town-center-opening-friday
I know a bunch of people going there tonight and/or tomorrow....apparently they gave out about 3000 tckets for the Grand Opening!
A neat little electric-powered trolley or PCT down the spine of the SJTC from the blue-collar side to the white-collar side and then over to the Whiskey River section at the Plaza, then flips back down the spine of the TC would be all sorts of brilliant.
Still would love to see even a bus line to the Town Center that wasn't just to the UNF campus and back.
How awesome would it be to have a bus line down JTB from east to west, originating at the eastern end of JTB, stopping at park-n-ride lots adjacent to the JTB on-ramps on the arterials of San Pablo and Kernan, and then hitting the two different stops within the Town Center; then flip back around for the trip back east to the terminus at the end of JTB by the beach. How's that for your 'BRT'? Hell, not even "Rapid," just "Regularly-scheduled." At the east terminus of JTB it could intersect with a 'trolly' that runs the length of 3rd Ave all the way up to Beach Blvd or even Atlantic. Isn't there already a 'trolley' in place thereabouts? The Beach Trolley or whatever?
Another bus line that continues west on JTB to Southpoint and the park-n-ride lot for a future multimodal hub at Philips for the commuter rail line downtown could use the same route and hit the same stops, maybe minus one of the two SJTC stops.
Right there you've at least partially alleviated JTB traffic; and, even though its buses, you've got a set of relavent transit lines pretty quickly.
Went to a "town center" in California that had a train to take folks from one end to the other. It looked awesome, gave the place a REAL upscale feel, and it was EXTERMELY functional. It would have been nice if they had thought of that before starting. I dont know how many times I have not gone to certain stores at the SJTC because I dont want to have to walk from one end of the place to the other... even if I could use it!
Fair point, St. Auggie. To each their own. I don't mind so much the walking around. It's good for me.
Now granted, in the dead of summer that walk from end-to-end is a biatch - I won't deny that for a moment. At that point I'm very much on-board (pardon the pun) for a little air-conditioned train-type thing, or the aforementioned electric PCT even, running the length of the complex. I agree that it'd have been nice to have that originally planned and implemented.
QuoteA neat little electric-powered trolley or PCT down the spine of the SJTC from the blue-collar side to the white-collar side and then over to the Whiskey River section at the Plaza, then flips back down the spine of the TC would be all sorts of brilliant.
Bingo.
I was supposed to go to Whiskey River last night, but then I realized it would be awful so I didn't go.
Why would you choose Whiskey River over the Tax Day Pub Crawl anyway?
Well we didn't have a mechanical bull at the Tax Day Pub Crawl. Even with their opening last night we still had an amazing turn out. I don't think we're the Whiskey River crowd anyway. Besides, drinking and bull riding isn't safe. :P
You may have to eat your words if the crawl finds its way to Mavericks!
Crap! Very true. I'm fairly certain I will be trying to convince people to get on that thing. Hope cameras are near!
QuoteTwo new restaurants to open at Markets at Town Center
QuoteTwo more new restaurant brands will open their first Northeast Florida locations at the Markets at Town Center, bringing more than 100 jobs to the area.
Suite, a tapas lounge and night club, will open late in the fourth quarter and Libretto’s Italian Kitchen and Pizzeria is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2011.
Both restaurants will be located on Big Island Drive, according to a representative of Suite. The two restaurants are not related.
Suite, developed by an investment group led by Charlotte, N.C.-businessman, will be the first of its kind. There are two other Suites, one in Charlotte and the other in Milwaukee, that do not offer tapas.
Libretto’s, founded in New York, operates one pizzeria in Manhattan and two in Charlotte.
The owners of Suite expect to hire 100 to 125 employees. It’s not yet known how many employees will be hired at Libretto’s.
The two restaurants will open on the coattails of two other new restaurants to the Markets at Town Center. BlackFinn American Saloon opened this summer and Whiskey River, a concept developed by race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., opened this spring.- Jacksonville Business Journal
http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2010/10/04/daily43.html
http://www.suitecharlotte.com/
http://www.librettospizzeria.com/
I wonder if there are any plans to make this area into a true pedestrian friendly entertainment complex? Right now, they are just filling an empty automobile oriented strip center's retail spaces with restaurants.
Looks like another venue is on its way (with a Piano Bar) - not a big fan of Darden, though, since they cut out the fire/juggling bartenders at Bahama Breeze......
Seasons 52 to open at the Town Center
http://jacksonville.com/entertainment/food-and-dining/2011-02-22/story/seasons-52-open-town-center
One word to describe Seasons 52: Outstanding
Ate at the Sand Lake location a few times and have never had anything but a terrific meal. Very classy inside and the food is very fresh and generally healthy.
I'm just excited at the prospect of a piano bar!
QuoteOne word to describe Seasons 52: Outstanding
Really? I was just having a discussion today about not being excited at all for Seasons 52 b/c the words 'fresh' and 'Dardens' go together like peanut butter and mayo.
BTW, Librettos has great pizza for those that want to grab a slice while in the TC area.
Mellow is so busy at lunchtime and their very slow service reflects it, but Librettos has great pizza(in my top 5 in Jax) and is much quicker than Mellow for lunch.
That being said, I am craving a Thai Dye pizza right now. :(
Completely agree on Librettos! Wonderful almost-mom-and-pop addition to the local pizza scene.
Great stuff.
Kind of a dead thread, but I had remembered a few people saying how good Librettos was and I can't say that I'm on the same page. It didn't stand out one way or the other. To clarify: The crust was nice and crunchy but lacked any real flavor and by the time that I got home for seconds, there was no crust to speak of. The tomato sauce was ..... tomatoey?!? I didn't get any depth at all. No garlic, no roasted flavor, no basil, just tomato. The topping choice was nice, I had kalamata olives, mushrooms & prosciutto, but everyone has a plethora of toppings to choose from these days.
Had a brown town ale (I think) that was fairly tasty.
I'd eat there again if I'm in the area and really want non-mellow mushroom pizza, but I'd never drive just for Librettos.
It's a nice compliment to Suite (connected) as they stay open until 3ish on the weekends. The pizza was good enough that the wait staff pushed the overall experience to Very Good.
Never been to this place at night. So does this feel like the "entertainment center" they talked about when this thread was first started? I've driven through the area in the day time and it looks like a few restaurant/bars inside a typical strip mall to me.
^Of course it's just a couple of lame chain restaurants in a mall. Surrounded by a sea of surface parking, of course.
The area gets pretty crowded at night. I have been to Whisky River a few times and it was packed.