Developer proposes 13-story Southbank apartment tower

[Ken_FSU]

Sale complete!

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2020/03/18/apartment-builders-close-on-southbank-riverfront.html?iana=hpmvp_jac_news_headline

[thelakelander]

Hopefully since they are this far along, they'll get going soon.

[heights unknown]

That rendering or conception does not look like a 13 story building. How many stories? I see 7 or 8 in the rendering.

[thelakelander]

It is no longer 13 stories. People complained about the density, so it was chopped in half.

[heights unknown]

Assholes; oops, excuse me, I'm sorry for my foul Sailor ass mouth.

[howfam]

Assholes; oops, excuse me, I'm sorry for my foul Sailor ass mouth.
[/quote

Yes Heights Unknown, I felt the same way about the height reduction when I first heard a while back on this thread. Seems like there's been several projects in the Jacksonville area that have been cut down in height recently. When first proposed, these projects showed renderings of high rise buildings , then somehow soon thereafter they mysteriously got reduced in height. Recall these projects:  the apts at Bishopgate in Riverside, proposed for 16 stories, ended up 5 stories; high rise apts at Jax Beach "The Waterfall" proposed for 11 stories, now sign at the site shows shorter 6-7 story structure; the hotel planned for "The District" project, planned as a high rise in all early renderings is now planned to be only  5-6 stories; and very recently the Ford on Bay (old courthouse site), anticipated to be high rise will be approved as a meager 5- story development.   This is a disturbing trend that casts suspicion on the motivation for these changes. Somebody in power seems to not want this city to have high rise buildings thereby depriving it of that "big city" look.  Shameful!!!

[jcjohnpaint]

Seen them on site a few days ago taking down the lights and prepping. 

[Seraphs]

It's not the glimmering glass and steel-St. John, but oh well.  The St John would've been iconic.  Poof, gone!

[howfam]

It's not the glimmering glass and steel-St. John, but oh well.  The St John would've been iconic.  Poof, gone!

I remember the St. John proposal, 51 or 52 stories.  Would've been a great visual addition to the south bank skyline.

[jaxjaguar]

In 12 years Jacksonville went from having a promising future with several new sky scrapers, to falling down a sky scrapers worth of stairs behind downtown Orlando, knocking down several iconic buildings with no replacement plan. Whoda thunk it?

[thelakelander]

A realist could see it coming a mile away. It's just disappointing to see the worst case scenario around projects like the various demolitions and the major pipe dreams appear to be in the process of happening. Potentially a decade blown.

[bl8jaxnative]

It is no longer 13 stories. People complained about the density, so it was chopped in half.

More likely, it's really expensive to build up.  For a project like this we could easily be talking 50% - 60% or more per sq foot.   Jacksonville isn't exactly a market full of people making 6 figures.  IIRC it has one of the smallest percentages of the 50 major metros in the US.   

On top of that, there's been a lot of high end rentals coming online downtown.  How many more can this small market support in the near future?   I'm not saying it can't.  Just that this is a question investors and others creating a project like this are going to be asking.

[simms3]

Under construction now; taken this afternoon.  Workers and excavators on site.

[heights unknown]

Don't know whether I should leap for joy, or burn in the deepest part of a pit.

[marcuscnelson]

It's something.