Ikea coming to Jacksonville

[coredumped]

Jax is still 'underachieving, resting on our laurels, and getting left in the dust' because this IKEA isn't gonna be downtown, amirite???

dumb.

Stephen, this comment contributes nothing. I would expect more from you, especially being a mod. You did one of these responses earlier.

[I-10east]

It was a joke, relax...

[coredumped]

meh.  the comment is dumb.--not the poster. I 10 is a troll posting on an urban development new urbanist website coredumped.....sheerly for the purpose of refuting urbanism itself (which he doesn't apparently understand).  In the process, anyone who believes that fiscally responsible development is a good thing is subject to similar posts by him----implying that urbanism itself is negativity and therefore pointless.  Its dumb.  My reactions to this won't change, but if you would like to discuss it, send me a pm.

Well sounds like yall have some history - it just seems to contribute nothing, and maybe be off-putting to some lurkers. Anyway, I'll stay out of it.

Back on topic, gate parkway is going to become (more of) a hell-hole. Especially if the WD family sells some land across the way. if they do it would be nice if COJ made a large park out of some of it. It's basically surrounded by booming areas (beachs east, town center west, butler/unf north, nocatee south).

[spuwho]

DCPS did have discussions about acquiring the land in the SE quadrant of JTB/295 for a new high school but acquired the property farther south. That is Atlantic Coast HS today.

Before SJTC was born, a major mall developer tried to get that SE corner, but for reasons I am not aware of it died.

[Ralph W]

Gonna need a new people mover to connect all the dots. Skyway #2.

[coredumped]

Some rail would be nice.
Unfortunately, FDOT only knows how to build roads, and JTA only knows how to drive busses.

Transportation means more than concrete in other parts of the country, just not jax/FL.

[jaxdan3]

So now that Ikea is coming will that push stores such as Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Macy's to consider Jacksonville more seriously? Do you think one or more of those stores be in Jax in the next 5-10 years? I'm thinking Saks would be the most likely since they have stores in a lot of cities smaller than Jax and an outlet in St. Augustine.

[Adam White]

So now that Ikea is coming will that push stores such as Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Macy's to consider Jacksonville more seriously? Do you think one or more of those stores be in Jax in the next 5-10 years? I'm thinking Saks would be the most likely since they have stores in a lot of cities smaller than Jax and an outlet in St. Augustine.

It seems possible. It seems like the more that area (SJTC, etc) shows grows and shows itself to be a successful shopping district, the more likely it is to draw retailers.

But I don't really know what I'm talking about and that is purely conjecture.

[coredumped]

I also admit I don't know what I'm talking about, but unless things change for Macy's I wouldn't expect them any time soon. They've announced they're going to be closing a bunch of stores over the coming months.

[simms3]

Neiman Marcus and Saks are pipe dreams, I think (and frankly, for at least one of them, who cares - it's for stodgy old rich white ladies).  Particularly Neiman Marcus is a dream but they'd be way more exciting than Saks.  They don't need the ~2 million general people that Ikea says it does (and I'm sure that has evolved, frankly).  But they do need to prove out seriously big *disposable* income, something Mountain Brook and that whole side of Birmingham still have over any single area in Jax.  Perhaps if you aggregate the different parts of Jax, the Beaches, SS, Ortega/Avondale, then you'd get a Mountain Brook equivalent or better (but that becomes difficult from an investment committee pitch - it forces people who don't know and don't care about lil ole Jacksonville to connect dots and see a bigger picture when it's up against a town that is incredibly segregated so that all the rich people live on one side and they can easily and mathematically check a box).  Can't really compare Sarasota or Naples to Jax - those areas of FL are pure high disposable income on a different level (very wealthy retirees and snowbirds in serious numbers resettling their lives from wealthy places up north to that part of FL).  Also, if you consider population, from Sarasota down to Naples that is more people than NE FL, and it's A LOT more wealthy retirees sitting on $$$$.

I would be more hopeful for a Barneys Co-op or a Bloomingdales.  Barneys Co-op would in my opinion offer up a higher level of fashion (by far) than anything currently in the city.  Bloomingdales is perhaps a tad nicer than Nordstrom, but is still affordable.  I've been a Bloomie's rewards member since college, so it's doable from the $ standpoint, yet also still fashion forward with good service.  I will be switching to Barneys the day I can justify it financially - for young people, it's tops by far, though some would argue Neimans.

Honestly, if I were a young guy in Jax, I'd clamor more for things like Zara than anything else.  Zara fits slim people really well and is inexpensive, and is frankly more fashionable than just about anything in Jax now, but for Banana Republic prices.  It could easily fit into SJTC with current demographics...I wonder why it's not there yet!  These retailers DO look at the whole picture and not just demographics on paper.

They have their people visit the city and spend time to gather shopping habits, anecdotal evidence, per se.  They can easily look around and see what people are buying.  Zara is on the fashion forward side, so while their on-paper boxes might already be checked in a city like Jax, perhaps they've seen anecdotal evidence from other stores that sell some similar merchandise that didn't sell as well, or their representatives didn't get the best vibes that their store would fit in well with the local population.  Frankly, you need a lot of gay guys to make Zara work, but there's a reason gay guys like it so much!

Playing into this, not every Banana Republic or Nordstrom is the same.  A Banana Republic in Chicago is going to be very different and sell different things than the one in the Avenues or Birmingham.  Maybe the Avenues every now and again goes out on a limb and tries to sell some of the things that the one in South FL sells or the one in Dallas, and it just doesn't work.  Industry knowledge is widely available (and turnover across these retailers is high, each person taking this kind of knowledge with them as they hop around).

I really wish I worked in retail real estate as much as I used to, it's at least as interesting as anything else!

[blfair]

Will the new Ikea have a kayak dock?

[thelakelander]

Why would it have a kayak dock?

[CityLife]

Why would it have a kayak dock?

Apparently you haven't met the Baltimore guys yet, Lake.

[jaxjags]

Seems Simms has forgotten about Ponte Vedra and St John's County as well as some area's not far from SJTC when it comes to purchasing power and disposable income. As for Macy's I agree with other comments. They are not what they used to be and are not as financially strong as the past. In today's world they don't seems to know where they fit. Are they upscale, middle of the road or just a discounter.

[simms3]

Seems Simms has forgotten about Ponte Vedra and St John's County as well as some area's not far from SJTC when it comes to purchasing power and disposable income. As for Macy's I agree with other comments. They are not what they used to be and are not as financially strong as the past. In today's world they don't seems to know where they fit. Are they upscale, middle of the road or just a discounter.

Huh?  no, haven't.  These pockets are all spread out, are not as much as you probably think they are, and all of this is the reason why I mentioned retailers needing to really understand the area well so they can aggregate these areas to get the demographics they need.  Just putting a dot on a map in Jax and trying to come up with the demographics of *disposable* income necessary to check a box for Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue is literally impossible *because* you have Ponte Vedra and then 35 miles away you have Ortega and you have small points in between like a string of households along the river.

Consider that other cities have whole entire sides of town where these so-called wealthy people live.  Birmingham is one of these cities.  Birmingham has a PVB+AB+Deerwood+SanMarco+Avondale+Ortega all consolidated, and that's where they have a Saks as well.

To add to this, this is why SJTC is where it is and not smushed up in northern SJC/PVB.  It is central to all the spread out wealth areas of NE FL.