A Look at the Proposed Bank Hotel

[Captain Zissou]

tufsu, for many things, people would always choose the Town Center.  What I am saying is don't force people to choose.  Downtown is a much different environment than JTB @ Gate Parkway, so why have competing uses for each?  Downtown can either target a different demographic, or offer them a different experience than the Town Center does. 

Downtown is a destination for a classy night out, rich in culture and history. It's a night out that makes you feel alive!  SJTC is a shopping mall with the roof torn off.  Don't short change people by giving them SJTC downtown, give them something new! 

Maybe a cheesecake factory at the Landing, it's already close to a competing venue for SJTC, but they could do better there as well.

[Fallen Buckeye]

The beauty of the Barnett development is that it is diversified. It's not putting all of the eggs in the hotel basket so to speak. Even so I think it could draw enough guests between business travellers and tourists. With a grand ballroom there is also potential to host small conferences and other events. I wonder how many rooms this hotel would be.

[finehoe]

Maybe a cheesecake factory at the Landing, it's already close to a competing venue for SJTC, but they could do better there as well.

You seem to have changed your tune.  When I made a similar observation a couple of months ago, you said the Landing

...could use a walgreens, borders, best buy, or even a clothier.  I'm not saying we can support one today, but we should be talking to at least walgreens, if not the rest, now.

Which would also just be "a shopping mall with the roof torn off."

[heights unknown]

^ HU.  There may be no concrete reason for the project Right Now, but it will add at least 2 restaurants, at least 1 bar, up to 250 residents, and plenty of hotel space.  What if those additions were enough for us to hit a tipping point in downtown development, which then increased demand for more projects?  That is my hope.  While it may seem like a stretch right now, I think that this will be the nudge that gets the downtown ball rolling again. 

This could complete the Bay street/ FL theatre area entertainment district, and better tie that district into the Landing.  That would put dt ahead of the beaches entertainment district, IMO, and would be unmatched anywhere in town. 

One thing this will do.... It will excentuate how dumb that parking garage between Main, Ocean, Forsyth, and Bay is.  That will be smack dab in the middle of the entertainment corridor.

Optimism...along with a positive attitude; a real cool and awesome thing; and that is what you have just injected into me regarding the "Bank Hotel," and the whole Laura Trio thingamagig.  I hope you're right Captain and I will maintain and keep up hope, optimism and a positive attitude for this project!

"HU"

[brainstormer]

^ Captain, I totally agree.  I live near Tinseltown but when I go out, it is always in downtown.  If I wanted something like Cheesecake Factory, I would choose a downtown location instead of the one at SJTC.  I know that isn't environmentally friendly because of the longer drive, but it is about the atmosphere and experience of downtown.  While Cheesecake Factory isn't the greatest food, it is a step above some of the current options at the Landing.  American Cafe and Hooters are not at all appealing in my opinion.

[thelakelander]

The beauty of the Barnett development is that it is diversified. It's not putting all of the eggs in the hotel basket so to speak. Even so I think it could draw enough guests between business travellers and tourists. With a grand ballroom there is also potential to host small conferences and other events. I wonder how many rooms this hotel would be.

The hotel will have around 120 rooms.  It will include a bar, restaurant and art gallery at street level.  A roof deck bar could also be in the works. 

[JC]

Too bad its not being renovated for affordable housing!  Who will stay here?  LOL... Its really a joke! 

[JC]

If I could get a quality 3 bedroom apartment downtown for less than 1,200 myself, my wife and my three children would move in ASAP

[simms3]

Less than 1200 for a 3 bedroom apt in the city?  hahahahaha  I pay that for 1 bedroom and I am literally in the 2nd cheapest high rise in midtown Atl (more expensive than Jax but still not considered expensive).

1200 for 2 bedrooms might be reasonable to start off with, but there has to be a balance between cash flows and the developer still needs to at least break even LOL.

Very excited for the Bank Hotel, but I am curious as to how they are going to finance this and who is going to manage the hotel?  What are the rooms going to be like...etc?  I loved the package that has already been shown here, but it marketed the concept of the renovated building and left out some details to the actual rooms.  There have been 3 recent great renovations here in Atlanta just in the past couple of years that I will try to take pics of.

The Terrace Hotel (my favorite of the 3)
Hotel Indigo
The Artmore (next door to where I live)

The Terrace has a very well known (locally) restaurant in it that does advertising in The Atlantan/Atlanta magazines and locals go there for drinks and dinner every night.  The Terrace as well as Hotel Indigo are also right across the street from the Fox Theater, so that really helps them, too.  The Bank Hotel is in a pretty prime location that it should take advantage of and the operators should coordinate with other local venues to offer valet parking or discounts in a restaurant or bar, etc, anything that can draw "crowds".

The Artmore has a great courtyard and a bar that hosts routine events like wine tastings, etc.  It also helps to have over 1,000 residents on that block alone.

[simms3]

Here is the difficulty with our market: the general citizenry of our city has a lack of money, and those that do have money tend to want to spend it at the Beach or in the suburbs.  It is the nature of the beast.  Rehabbing buildings (and doing a good job) is very expensive.  Building new high rises is also very expensive.  People generally regard Novare as being a great developer of lower priced loft apartments and condos (though they are struggling financially right now).  I have many friends that live in Novare buildings and I have looked there myself, and even in a Novare studio in an "older" building (i.e. 2004) with bare concrete walls and floors, the price started at well over $1,000.  Condos start from $250K up and don't forget about HOA fees if you are buying (they are $420/month on average in m building alone, which has condos starting at $150K now).

We talk about affordable housing like its a duh type of thing, but affordable in Jax sometimes takes on a whole different meaning and we must try to look at the price points and the overall develpment from the developer's POV.

Don't get me wrong, we DO need affordable housing in DT, but it most likely cannt come in the form of a brand new high rise or a really well done rehab because both of those are expensive for all te parties involved (lender...takes a huge risk, especially in ourmarket), developer does too depending on the type of loans he assumes, contractor...well we have seen firsthand contractors go down in flames on projects in our core, etc.

[simms3]

Give me a break because I do not post frequently and I am not the best with computers, but I do not know how to post pictures directly on this site.  I do have 181 pictures that I took today around downtown Atlanta and a few shots in Midtown and SoNo.  Many have nothing to do with rehabbed hotels, but quite a bit do since that was what I set out to photograph.  There's a Residence Inn, Indigo Hotel, the Georgia Terrace, the Artmore Hotel, a Mariott, and other newer hotels.  I will add labels to the pictures later.

They are at

http://s916.photobucket.com/albums/ad1/jsimms3/?previewTheme=79&track=addtheme&previewCancelUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fs916.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fad1%2Fjsimms3%2F%3Faction%3Dthemeadd

Once again, sorry.

Atlanta has done a wonderful rehabbing buildings and creating new uses for buildings, as well as making their downtown more pedestrian friendly with lots of pocket parks, street level retail and eateries, maps and convenience stands, easy and often free parking at certain hours and in the weekend, police presence, etc.  Almost all parking is pay by space using solar powered pay stations every half block.  More to follow.

[Timkin]

And we could do the same in Jacksonville.

[mtraininjax]

This is not the affordable housing thread, so not going to reply, I am sure there are others to discuss.

The only people who benefit from the Time/Temp are the people in Springfield and on the NW side of town, since the B of A building blocks access to the southside, unless they make it so that it revolves around (Left to Right).

Poppy Loves Smoke is OK for Jazz, but Fusion is better, imo. What's wrong with competition? The more the merrier.

The downtown restaurants, to survive with young people, NEED OUTDOOR seating. The Brick thrives with outdoor seating in Avondale. Allowing people to sit out, shows that the place is thriving. Brick has great atmosphere, and to succeed in a fickle market, you need outside available. Marble could easily do this, and they could eliminate parking spaces around the Marble building to accomodate. As they fix Laura street, do this and expand the sidewalks to allow for this on both sides of the street.

[stjr]

The downtown restaurants, to survive with young people, NEED OUTDOOR seating.

One option is to just close certain streets altogether at times, such as weekends.  The tables go out on the sidewalks and the street becomes the pedestrian thoroughfare.  New York does this in Little Italy and the restaurants are packed the entire day.

[mtraininjax]

Sadly, Laura street is a major street in downtown, I'd rather shut it down all together and run north south rail up and down the street and remove the cars, like they do in Denver. But you have to get the restaurants there and thriving before we can justify light rail. Once LR is in place, more restaurants will come and downtown will really begin to thrive, with or without 9-5 workers.