VyStar Credit Union applies to build $21 million Downtown parking garage

[thelakelander]

The city is reviewing a permit application for VyStar Credit Union to build a proposed parking garage at 28 W. Forsyth St. Downtown at a cost of $21 million.

The seven-level, 807-space structure is planned on 1.04 acres behind Regions Bank. It includes shell tenant spaces.

Danis Builders LLC is shown as the contractor. Dasher Hurst Architects is the architect.

Atlantic Engineering Services is the structural engineer and Almond Engineering is the civil engineer.

Full article: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/vystar-credit-union-applies-to-build-dollar21-million-downtown-parking-garage

[Tacachale]

Nice to see movement on this.

[Jagsdrew]

I was at dinner at Estrella Cocina and saw that area from above and thought when there will be progress..now I know!

[heights unknown]

What a waste! Don't 40 story 580 foot tall skyscrapers cost about that much? After 2 stories, 8 stories of parking garage, then 30 stories of office space. Oh, almost forgot, they're already in a nice scraper.

[MusicMan]

How was dinner?

[jaxlongtimer]

What a waste! Don't 40 story 580 foot tall skyscrapers cost about that much? After 2 stories, 8 stories of parking garage, then 30 stories of office space. Oh, almost forgot, they're already in a nice scraper.

If you want to see a monster parking garage 8 stories tall, check out the one FIS is completing for its new HQ's  .

[heights unknown]

I understand, though, that the market and the economy does not justify building such a scraper (40 stories, 580 feet tall) in downtown Jacksonville.  It just seems to me everytime I turn around, they're either building a parking garage, or demolishing buildings, and turning them into empty lots in downtown Jacksonville. The west end of downtown Jax on the Northbank resembles Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

[acme54321]

What a waste! Don't 40 story 580 foot tall skyscrapers cost about that much?

LOL.  A 40 story highrise for $21m?  Not even close.  You'd probably need to make the first number a three then add a zero. 

[Ken_FSU]

What a waste! Don't 40 story 580 foot tall skyscrapers cost about that much? After 2 stories, 8 stories of parking garage, then 30 stories of office space. Oh, almost forgot, they're already in a nice scraper.

If you want to see a monster parking garage 8 stories tall, check out the one FIS is completing for its new HQ's  .

It is quite the monstrosity from Riverside Boulevard.

Almost completely blocks the view of that beautiful new HQ from the street.

[thelakelander]

I really would have loved to see the parking structures at FIS and JTA actually integrated into these structures. Both would have added another 8 stories of height to these projects, enhancing our skyline, and also saved land for additional infill and density. It's sad that our market can't support this type of development while every other major city in Florida can.

[jaxlongtimer]

I really would have loved to see the parking structures at FIS and JTA actually integrated into these structures. Both would have added another 8 stories of height to these projects, enhancing our skyline, and also saved land for additional infill and density. It's sad that our market can't support this type of development while every other major city in Florida can.

Well, I can think of one big reason for not putting the garage under an office or other building... security.  Ever since terrorists set off a bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993, and maybe, too, accounting for the Oklahoma City bombing by a truck bomb,  I would think every tower owner today would have to seriously consider allowing vehicles to park under any significant building.

No doubt the FIS building prioritizes security given their line of business so they probably didn't spend two seconds looking at putting parking under their building.

It is indeed a sad state of affairs that we have to think this way today but, unfortunately, we live in a world where security has risen to the top of considerations in designing buildings.

There may be other considerations as well such has future proofing a tower... that is, maybe within the life of the tower, cars are not so important to people being transported to it.  With a detached garage, they could always remove it but if it is under a tower, it might be near impossible to repurpose that part of the structure.  Far fetched in this city today, but not necessarily in several decades from now. 

Another reason might be, if they wanted to expand their office campus in the future, to be able to move parking to another, more remote location.  Look what Baptist did in tearing down their older garage to build a new one elsewhere on their property so they could build a new tower adjacent to the existing medical buildings.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_World_Trade_Center_bombing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing

[thelakelander]

If the OKC bombing 28 years ago is the core reason, that's a poor one. I say that just because structures are still going up all over the country that do have these uses integrated. In Jax alone, all three residential towers in the Southbank and TIAA Bank on Riverside Avenue are examples that were built this century. If truck bombing from 1993 became a core issue, wouldn't there be a much larger trend of such design occurring across the state and the rest of the country? Because even entities like utility companies have constructed buildings in recent times with integrated parking, it leads me to suspect it has more to do with construction and relatively cheap land costs than what took place in OKC.

[heights unknown]

What a waste! Don't 40 story 580 foot tall skyscrapers cost about that much?

LOL.  A 40 story highrise for $21m?  Not even close.  You'd probably need to make the first number a three then add a zero. 

Just use paper mache instead of concrete and steel; be imaginative. (just playing).

[Ken_FSU]

Just curious (read: totally ignorant), if you're going to build say a 120k sf office tower and a 700-spot garage, what specifically makes building them separately cheaper than building them stacked? Extra reinforcement for the garage? Longer constriction timeline because you can't build them concurrently? Something else?

[thelakelander]

If you have the option to do this in downtown, it would suggest that the land costs are significantly cheaper than similar properties in many peer cities. In dense CBDs, the land acquisition costs and the limited ability to assemble land would make this option less viable. In such a market, the land saved would also hold value for revenue producing infill as well.