The Jacksonville Landing: Parking Myths vs. Reality

[RockStar]

I went to Bahama Breeze last Thursday night and as I was sitting outside enjoying the lovely view of SJTC Parkway.....I thought to myself what a waste....being down on the river would be so much better!

I went to Bahama Breeze tonight and thought what a waste...of my time and money. It's a caribbean themed Chili's. Not going back.

[fieldafm]

creating a critical mass

That sums it up!

Lake - Why is Sleiman bringing up parking at a time when there is no money in the city? What idiot brings it up now? Hasn't he had the property for a few years? Why now? Leverage for something else? I don't think his ethics are in the right place, what with the City employees needing to take 5% paycuts, libraries closing, and services being cut all over the city. Now when the City has a 60 million dollar hole, NOW is the time for him to raise such a stink over parking?

Fact of the matter is he got screwed in his deal with Rouse, and now is taking it out on the City. Who takes over the Landing without a clear definition of parking? He bit off the apple, he knew what he was doing, this was not his first development. He'll find a way out, but now is not the time to go and subsidize 3.5 million in a parking lot. It would be far cheaper to tell him to STICK IT, and run diesel bus trolleys to the spaces available for his patrons.

Its not as if the Landing is a destination to rival SJTC, either. The high end shops have not materialized, not because of parking, but because there is not a critical mass downtown.

So you agree about what the problem is... but your answer is to do nothing about it?  Do you do business the same way you did 10 years ago, 5 years ago.... 1 year ago?  Money and effort is being spent by the city to make Laura Street the main walkable causeway in the core.  With that in mind would you rather ignore the anchor of this project(The Landing), or would you instead want to continue to create that critical mass(the intention of the Laura Street renovations) by doing something as simple as honoring your contract with the Landing so that a couple of national restaurant chains can anchor this coridoor?

DVI spent a great deal of effort in putting together their latest paper... and one of the key points was that the attitude of 'just getting by' in regards to the core is one of this city's biggest problems.  The time to close our eyes and ignore opportunity is over.

[JeffreyS]

We really can not wait until the city says oh we have plenty of money lets spend it.  Can you imagine the heart attacks at the next concerned taxpayers meeting.  Pay for the parking now save the reasons, excuses or alternative ideas for someone else.

[thelakelander]

creating a critical mass

Lake - Why is Sleiman bringing up parking at a time when there is no money in the city? What idiot brings it up now? Hasn't he had the property for a few years? Why now? Leverage for something else? I don't think his ethics are in the right place, what with the City employees needing to take 5% paycuts, libraries closing, and services being cut all over the city. Now when the City has a 60 million dollar hole, NOW is the time for him to raise such a stink over parking?

All this and the city can find $8.2 million to burn in Metropolitan Park?  Going back to the Rouse days, its been 23 years already.  Maybe he's speaking up because he wants to make his investment a success, is getting tired of waiting for the city to live up to their obligation and noticed they recently moved the money intended to solve the problem to Metropolitan Park?  Imo, this is a great time for him to go on a crusade to get this thing finally taken care of.

Fact of the matter is he got screwed in his deal with Rouse, and now is taking it out on the City. Who takes over the Landing without a clear definition of parking? He bit off the apple, he knew what he was doing, this was not his first development. He'll find a way out, but now is not the time to go and subsidize 3.5 million in a parking lot. It would be far cheaper to tell him to STICK IT, and run diesel bus trolleys to the spaces available for his patrons.

That won't get him any anchor tenants, which is what the whole issue is about. 

Its not as if the Landing is a destination to rival SJTC, either. The high end shops have not materialized, not because of parking, but because there is not a critical mass downtown.

The Landing is a regional retail complex, so its market pull is larger than downtown.  As expressed in this article and those linked by several media outlets, the goal is not to make it a SJTC.  The goal is to land a few restaurant/entertainment oriented anchors.  Those guys aren't coming without the dedicated parking the city promised two decades ago.