Exclusive: Renderings of Barnett Living Spaces

[thelakelander]

Here was the old 2010 plan:


click to see original photo size with readable uses here: http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/gallery/12309708_zAk2h#!i=878714687&k=sJf5E&lb=1&s=O

[BridgeTroll]

looks about right though.  My sister Bella and I lived in an 850 square foot apartment while she finished up High School during my one and only period living in Baymeadows/Mandarin.  It was a two bedroom and only slightly bigger than this rendering.

The views from these spaces are going to be tremendous.

Yes they are... I couple of years ago I got a short 30 minute tour and was able to ride the elevator to few of the floors and went all the way up.

[Captain Zissou]

What I want to know is, what student can afford $1,000 a month in rent? Are these going to be 2 bedroom units? Given the wealth of cheap housing on the SS, I don't see a huge audience for these units initially. Are these exclusively intended to be for students, or was that just the intended resident they had in mind while designing the units?

[jaxjaguar]

I'd be very surprised if they were 1 x 1's.... $1000 a month would be really steep for student housing if they weren't 2 x 2's. Unless there is some sort of crazy incentive involved like meal plans / parking / all inclusive rent.

[fsujax]

Looks pretty cool. This will be such a big boost for Downtown. By the way does anyone know if they are planning on restoring the old clock/temperature sign on top of the building?

[thelakelander]

What I want to know is, what student can afford $1,000 a month in rent? Are these going to be 2 bedroom units? Given the wealth of cheap housing on the SS, I don't see a huge audience for these units initially. Are these exclusively intended to be for students, or was that just the intended resident they had in mind while designing the units?

LOL. I was thinking the same thing but maybe I was the only college student around who was broke.  During my college years, the amount of rent I paid hovered between $250 - $350/month, depending on the amount of roommates. My guess is, that the average undergrad would not be the core market here.

[urbanlibertarian]

$1k/mo. for a 1/1 sounds like a JU student price, not UNF.

[funwithteeth]

Even if that's $1k for two bedrooms, that's still gonna be steep for students who aren't receiving subsidies (from parents or otherwise). As has been mentioned, there's plenty of significantly cheaper housing closer to the city's universities.

[edjax]

I really do not believe these apartments are exclusively student housing.  I looked back at all of the articles on it on JBJ and they all refer to it simply as 80 apartments.  A Times-Union article referred to the 80 apartments to be 'geared' to students, again indicating they will not be exclusive to students.

[BackinJax05]

I want one on the 16th floor.

[Tacachale]

This is clearly not going to be in everyone's budget, let alone students. Out by UNF there are student-focused apartments that rent for less than $600 bucks for an apartment this size (and some of them are two bedroom). On the other hand, they're not in walking distance of anything, even really the school, and they certainly don't have all of downtown as their back yard. And you can certainly get apartments that are a comparable size and price in Southside and it doesn't seem to be hurting their prospects. These won't be for everyone, but I'm sure there's a market for housing of this type and pricepoint in the heart of downtown.

[edjax]

They really aren't priced much different than Carling/11E.  Per their website a 1/1 with 718sf rents from $880-$1150.

[Tacachale]

^Good point, those don't have any problem staying full at their current prices.

[urbanlibertarian]

I would think that this new supply coming online should keep rents from increasing for a while.  Good news for renters, bad news for developers.

[Tacachale]

That's very true. But ultimately it will be good for them, as there'll be more people in the area to support retail in their buildings and making the area more desirable to live in.