Urban Infill: Urbana

[TheProfessor]

The project has good form with little street setbacks and rooftop parking, it just lacks any interesting design intent unfortunately.  In this economy I am glad to see things progress with construction.  I think this is a positive progress.  They just need to fill in the storefronts!

[ralpho37]

Yeah you tell 'em, I-10east!  Let's be happy SOMETHING is getting built around here!  I mean they could've just said "screw this" and scrapped the whole project.

[blizz01]

the same old design

But it's really not.  Maybe the elevation in the rendering seems like it at first glance, but the constant activity & prospect of headlight beams shooting off of the roof seems kind of cool - there must be some type of railing that will provide additional aesthetics & functionality as well.  Show me another "strip mall" with rooftop parking in North Florida.  I think it's pretty innovative considering the alternative - having a footprint 1/2 the size with surface parking.  With the original design (which I concede does look nicer at first glance, btw), what was the expectation with regard to parking? 

[JaxNative68]

The rooftop parking is a good idea, but the renderings don't appear to show the parapets high enough to screen the vehicles parking at the perimeter of the building.  Maybe that is their design element, a bunch of redneck 4X4's looming overhead . . . Git 'r done Jacksonville developers!

[Jason]

What's wrong with 4x4s?  And what make you think a retail development a the beaches will be overrun with them?  This isn't on the westside or Huguenot park... 

[avonjax]

Well when you guys have a little bit of money and want to risk it on a project, then I am sure it will be perfect.  It will have all of your heart's desire!

No but really, these people would have stuck with the original plan if they could.  Everyone here who is whining STFU!  I would love to see some crazy modern Architectonica mixed use whole block to the sidewalk development, but nobody has that kind of line of credit with the banks right now.  Even if this developer had cash, they would lose money on a grander scheme.

I am tired of people trashing private development if it does not fit their bill, because it is well known that investing money into real estate or a project in a down market is one of the biggest risks one can take.  They will not recover this investment even just from fully leased retail for a while, let alone an empty office/condo building.

If you complainers have invested millions of your money into a project that fit your demands and was successful, even in a depressed market, then speak up and let other developers know how you did it.  But somehow I do not think anyone here has invested millions of their own on anything, so why dont you leave the hard work up to people who are really trying to make a better difference in the urban environment while not losing too much money and dont bash them for trying.

This board sometimes sounds like a bunch of immature whiners.  Done with rant.

The reason everyone is whining is because almost EVERY project in Duval county has suffered the same fate. Some even before the economic downturn. In the last few years we have seen some really exciting plans and almost every one has been watered down to mediocrity. The list is too long for me to count them all.

[Ocklawaha]

I don't like the change, but what ever turns them on... The current inventory of forclosures is starting to move pretty fast. Mortgage companies are running full tilt to close as many loans as possible, (believe me I'm in the middle of it and it just keeps dragging on due to traffic). So end of story, when the inventory of repossessions starts to dry, prices will (and are) starting to level out then climb again. By the time this thing is built they might well wish they had the condos in it.

OCKLAWAHA

[avonjax]

I'm trying to figure out what some of you guys want; They built SJTC with upscale shopping, and yall complain about that; They bring a nice shopping center (RCMP), with a movie theater to the Northside, and yall complain about that; When they tear down Lerner, a small and rather insignificant building, and it's like they just tore down the Modis building or something. Okay, I get it, bitch about everything that's positive, and negative towards the city, and us J-ville peeps are the only uncouth, non-upscale, and simple-minded people; Everyone else in the USA is lightyears ahead of us with progress; Yeah, yeah, yeah, yall have beaten that dead horse to death again. I see nothing wrong with Urbana. Nothing will satisfy some of yall.

I'm a J-ville peep and I think most J-ville peeps ARE uncouth and will settle for crap. And as far as RCMP what a joke. Yes it's great to have some shopping on the NS, but what a HORRIBLE deisgn. NOBODY walks there except to their cars, and putting a 4 lane speedway down the middle of a shopping area is more than a little crazy.

[copperfiend]

I'm a J-ville peep and I think most J-ville peeps ARE uncouth and will settle for crap. And as far as RCMP what a joke. Yes it's great to have some shopping on the NS, but what a HORRIBLE deisgn. NOBODY walks there except to their cars, and putting a 4 lane speedway down the middle of a shopping area is more than a little crazy.

Why does it matter if people walk. It is a spread out suburban strip mall. Just like hundreds of others in the outskirts of every other city in America.

[mtraininjax]

The current inventory of forclosures is starting to move pretty fast. Mortgage companies are running full tilt to close as many loans as possible, (believe me I'm in the middle of it and it just keeps dragging on due to traffic)

Ock - Housing will shut down if the Bond Mavens continue to push rates up past 5.5%. We only saw 4% for a moment back in March, and if rates go higher due to a "jobless recovery", we will have a much longer recovery because we all know we need the housing market to come back for us to get out of the recession.

Citi, one of the largest mortgage holders, just changed, made it harder for people to get loans, but changing the valuations on homes. Our property appraiser does not make it easier as well. We still have a lot of disconnected cars on the track and we need them to all line up and get connected to get us out of the recession, but I digress, we are discussing buildings looking the same.

[I-10east]

I'm a J-ville peep and I think most J-ville peeps ARE uncouth and will settle for crap. And as far as RCMP what a joke. Yes it's great to have some shopping on the NS, but what a HORRIBLE deisgn. NOBODY walks there except to their cars, and putting a 4 lane speedway down the middle of a shopping area is more than a little crazy.

Why does it matter if people walk. It is a spread out suburban strip mall. Just like hundreds of others in the outskirts of every other city in America.

Thank you Copper. If RCMP was downtown, and it had all of those parking lots, then I could see the problem; It's a surburban shopping center in Jax, not Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

[avonjax]

I'm a J-ville peep and I think most J-ville peeps ARE uncouth and will settle for crap. And as far as RCMP what a joke. Yes it's great to have some shopping on the NS, but what a HORRIBLE design. NOBODY walks there except to their cars, and putting a 4 lane speedway down the middle of a shopping area is more than a little crazy.

Why does it matter if people walk. It is a spread out suburban strip mall. Just like hundreds of others in the outskirts of every other city in America.

Thank you Copper. If RCMP was downtown, and it had all of those parking lots, then I could see the problem; It's a suburban shopping center in Jax, not Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

YOU MY MAN are dead wrong. It is a series of strip centers in a sea of asphalt. The reason it sucks in it's suburban setting is it claims to be a lifestyle center. Love it or hate it SJTC is at least a decent place to shop where you don't have to MOVE YOUR CAR anytime you want to go to several shops. So bottom line it would suck anywhere you put it. The stores are okay, the layout HORRIBLE.

[I-10east]

YOU MY MAN are dead wrong. It is a series of strip centers in a sea of asphalt. The reason it sucks in it's suburban setting is it claims to be a lifestyle center. Love it or hate it SJTC is at least a decent place to shop where you don't have to MOVE YOUR CAR anytime you want to go to several shops. So bottom line it would suck anywhere you put it. The stores are okay, the layout HORRIBLE.

How am I dead wrong? Lifestyle center, Strip center, Shopping center; C'mon Avonjax,  I know that you're not gonna split hairs like that; BTW, if you go to Ramco Gershenson's (the company that owns RCMP) website, the option says "go to a shopping center" not lifestyle center. Then I can't believe that you actually said that at the SJTC you don't hafta move your car to go to several shops. Many on this board will disagree with that statement; I personally don't give a damn about "walkability"; You might hafta walk in the blazing sun, or the rain. And as for the "4 lane speedway" at RCMP, I love it; In and out baby! It's all about ADAPTING to your environments.

www.ramcogershenson.com   

[JaxNative68]

What's wrong with 4x4s?  And what make you think a retail development a the beaches will be overrun with them?  This isn't on the westside or Huguenot park... 

that section of jax beach isn't called mutation beach for no reason.  It is where all the westsiders collect.

[avonjax]

Somehow I missed my reply to I-10.
AGAIN  YOU ARE COMPLETELY WRONG!!!!!!
(Or as I really suspect just disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing.)