Seven major projects seeking DDRB review and approval

[thelakelander]

The Downtown Development Review Board's (DDRB) May 12, 2022 meeting will be a busy one. Here are seven major downtown developments seeking conceptual or final DDRB approval.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/seven-major-projects-seeking-ddrb-review-and-approval/

[acme54321]

It's a shame that 404 Julia can't have it's original facade restored.  I'm sure the economics of that really don't make sense though.

4 Seasons looks amazing if it actually ends up like that rendering.

[fsu813]

Our cup runneth over.

[vicupstate]

Quite an agenda there. A lot of new stuff that was under the radar too. The Brooklyn project did ask or receive an incentives right?  If so, that is a good sign as well.

[fieldafm]

Quite an agenda there. A lot of new stuff that was under the radar too. The Brooklyn project did ask or receive an incentives right?  If so, that is a good sign as well.

They will ask for a REV grant, an abandoned right of way, things like that. Columbia Ventures has been assembling those parcels over the last couple of years now since before the pandemic.

None of these projects have really been flying under the radar.... they just don't send out press releases and renderings every few months about what they are going to do some time down the road, like what the general public has been used to.

[fieldafm]

I think the Brooklyn property is particularly nice, as it will have a nice transition into Park Street with retail setback on the corner. Park St will become the primary, walkable artery of Brooklyn over the next five years (essentially the antithesis of what Riverside Ave became).

For a couple of years, the broker of the River Region site at the corner of Park/Forrest was really pushing for a Wawa or similar type of convenience station at that corner... which would have been less than ideal, to say the least.



The Den has an opportunity to create a nice retail area along the corner of Hogan/Beaver (Beaver is likely to receive a road diet in the near future) as the Emerald Trail will be building a wide sidewalk on Hogan.  Beyond the bland aesthetics, I hope that they'll reconsider how they are treating that corner.  Would be an excellent location for a very nice fitness center that interacts well with the sidewalk with some rolltop doors that lets workouts spill out on to the street (not everything can be a restaurant). 


It will be interesting to see how the Augustin design is received by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.  It doesn't appear to comply with what that org will desire.   The floor/window heights may be tough to replicate from a cost perspective, but there is room to improve the design in other ways and still keep costs in line.  For instance, those columns above floor 3 somewhat try to mimic the columns on the bank building, and are certainly less expensive than creating more balconies... but you could easily paint murals on the columns instead of just leaving them white.  That would have the effect of making that feature a little more bolder, and still be cheaper than adding more balconies.   

I like the transition from the bottom 3 floors to the floors above (frankly that would be nice to have throughout downtown), but it doesn't match the floor/window heights or even the building height at the adjacent bank.  My guess is the first 3 floors in the apartment building are concrete, and thats why that transition begins at the 4th floor instead of the 5th floor.  Simply increasing the ceiling heights on those first 3 floors (looks like they are maybe 12-14 feet versus the bank building which may be 18-ish feet high?) would at least replicate the building height of the bank (which has higher than normal floor/window sizes). While this increases the cost, you would still have off-the-shelf-sized windows on the apartment building, instead of having to fabricate windows that match the height of the bank windows (which is $$$ and A LOT of production time). That at least matches the building heights together.  And getting rid of the white/grey color schemes would also help.  All that has the effect of doing is to dull down every architectural feature on the bank and the apartment buildings. 

[jcjohnpaint]

I would say that is a good thing in this town.

Quite an agenda there. A lot of new stuff that was under the radar too. The Brooklyn project did ask or receive an incentives right?  If so, that is a good sign as well.

They will ask for a REV grant, an abandoned right of way, things like that. Columbia Ventures has been assembling those parcels over the last couple of years now since before the pandemic.

None of these projects have really been flying under the radar.... they just don't send out press releases and renderings every few months about what they are going to do some time down the road, like what the general public has been used to.

[acme54321]

Sure would be nice if that ramp taking up half of a block at the Cathedral Commons site wasn't there.

[Charles Hunter]

Brooklyn project
I hope they can get rid of the garage access from Park Street, and bring everyone in via Price and Chelsea. Which brings up a question -  What will Park Street look like here? Does the Park Street road diet extend this far from the viaduct?

Cathedral Commons
Is the intent to pick one of those design concepts? Or use different designs on the two parcels? Anyway, I vote for "Gable" or "Hip".
Some of the exhibits (the ones not based on aerials) omit the Hart Ramp ... foreshadowing? (Please?)

Toll Brothers
Loses points for putting north at the bottom of their maps. 

[Steve]

Brooklyn Mixed Use: I really like this, though I don't get the point of that small parking lot near the intersection of Myrtle and Forest. Were we short 5 spaces in the building itself? I don't really get it.

JWB: I like it for the area. I also like how the plan "deals" with the stupid Hart ramp as best as it can.

The Den: Overall I like though it's a lot of parking on the ground floor. That said depending on the building out of scope in the corner that could be mititgated

Toll Brothers Townhomes: Fine

Furchgott's: I REALLY like this one. Great recovering use for this building.

404 Julia: I don't like the parking at the corner of Pearl and Church, but I can't see a way to make up for it besides one more floor in the garage, which is obviously expensive. I'm also a little surprised to see the units on the ground floor at Duval/Pearl, but I suppose they could get more revenue for the residential versus the retail.

Shipyards: I don't love how this addresses Gator Bowl Blvd, and the vehicle access in/out looks like a mess. That said no one is going to say anything and they'll approve it before they even present.

[fieldafm]

Brooklyn project
I hope they can get rid of the garage access from Park Street, and bring everyone in via Price and Chelsea. Which brings up a question -  What will Park Street look like here? Does the Park Street road diet extend this far from the viaduct?

Park Street road diet will occur between the viaduct (actually on the viaduct, as the Emerald Trail will take out a lane and increase sidewalk width and add bike lane) and Forrest Street.

https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/plans-filed-for-park-street-road-diet/

I don't mind the three entrances. Price is a pretty narrow street, not really designed for a lot of auto traffic.. further Price/Park will not be signalized, there will be a roundabout. It gives options for residents.  The next complaint will be 'where are people going to park?' for the retail?  Well, the Park Street entrance to retail parking on the first floor of the garage is about as transparent as possible. 

The staff report for this project wants them to remove the Park Street entrance.  I'm personally not of the opinion that a walkable street can't also have context-sensitive driveway entrances.  Here is Gaines Street in Tallahassee, which is what Park Street's plans were modeled after.  There is a vehicular entrance in this picture splitting the buildings on the left where the traffic masts are. This garage entrance doesn't detract from the cafe seating and pedestrian zones among the wide sidewalks, and is still functional.



You can even have drive-thru businesses along walkable commercial streets if done right. Here is a White Castle drive-thru along High Street in Colombus' Short North neighborhood. Jax's urban core would be so lucky to have that scene duplicated here.

Cathedral Commons
Is the intent to pick one of those design concepts? Or use different designs on the two parcels? Anyway, I vote for "Gable" or "Hip".
Some of the exhibits (the ones not based on aerials) omit the Hart Ramp ... foreshadowing? (Please?)

The point is to not have one long super-block building, and re-introduce some architectural variance in whatever new infill is built.  That's how the neighborhood was originally built (you can still see the mix of historic housing stock along a stretch of Church Street that once defined this area), and that's what the Cathedral District Overlay seeks to encourage.

I believe the 'ramp removal' is simply so you can better understand the scale of the various buildings.

[fieldafm]

Brooklyn Mixed Use: I really like this, though I don't get the point of that small parking lot near the intersection of Myrtle and Forest. Were we short 5 spaces in the building itself? I don't really get it.

When the historic street grid of a neighborhood is cutoff and replaced by cul-de-sacs, this is the result.  Its been awhile, but I believe there is an easement or some type of stormwater pipe that has to be maintained in that particular cul-de-sac.

[Steve]

Brooklyn Mixed Use: I really like this, though I don't get the point of that small parking lot near the intersection of Myrtle and Forest. Were we short 5 spaces in the building itself? I don't really get it.

When the historic street grid of a neighborhood is cutoff and replaced by cul-de-sacs, this is the result.  Its been awhile, but I believe there is an easement or some type of stormwater pipe that has to be maintained in that particular cul-de-sac.

I get that, and perhaps it's not vertically buildable (so glad we did that stupid Forest-Riverside widening project), but is 5 parking places the best use or would some sort of park-type thing? Just seems weird to have parking there.

[fieldafm]

Brooklyn Mixed Use: I really like this, though I don't get the point of that small parking lot near the intersection of Myrtle and Forest. Were we short 5 spaces in the building itself? I don't really get it.

When the historic street grid of a neighborhood is cutoff and replaced by cul-de-sacs, this is the result.  Its been awhile, but I believe there is an easement or some type of stormwater pipe that has to be maintained in that particular cul-de-sac.

I get that, and perhaps it's not vertically buildable (so glad we did that stupid Forest-Riverside widening project), but is 5 parking places the best use or would some sort of park-type thing? Just seems weird to have parking there.

I think its technically six spaces   but its a fair question.  Again, I seem to recall that there is something to be preserved underneath that land, but I could very well be mis-remembering that.  There are residential units along the ground floor there that will have quite a bit of buffer from the street via this cul-de-sac setback feature (which is likely warranted as that's a busy intersection to live directly on top of- and Code would require an entirely different set of rules for the creation of public realm areas if those units are positioned at the edge of the property line).  Perhaps there are several things at play- the City/developer doesn't want to pay for park space, its a bad location for a park anyway, and since the developer is adding a variety of trees at the intersection per the existing landscaping requirement... maybe they felt that they may as well make some use of the land, versus just an open lawn.  Its also an extension of Chelsea, so perhaps those easements issues that I may or may not be correct about, have something to do with that.  Just spitballing, probably find out more next week at DDRB.

[Jagsdrew]

A good clustering happening DT with 404 Julia St & 211 W Ashley St along with Jones Bros Development so that's probably 400+ units.  Let's get it all going, ...please.