Southside Construction Update - June 2015

What is an Edge City?


Over the Southside's Blue Cross Blue Shield campus.

The term, Edge City, was popularized in the 1991 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Joel Garreau, who established its current meaning while working as a reporter for the Washington Post. Garreau argues that the edge city has become the standard form of urban growth worldwide, representing a 20th-century urban form unlike that of the 19th-century central downtown.

Edge Cities typically consist of mid-rise office towers surrounded by massive surface parking lots and manicured lawns. Instead of a traditional street grid, their infrastructure networks consist of winding parkways (often lacking sidewalks) that feed into arterial roads and freeway ramps. They develop at or near freeway intersections and airports and they rarely include heavy industry.  They are large geographically because they are built at automobile scale.

Edge Cities are impossible without the automobile. In Jacksonville, the Southside, specifically the JTB corridor, has developed into our first true Edge City. Because the Southside is our only emerging Edge City in the midst of a development boom, we have decided to expand our monthly construction updates to include this area of Jacksonville.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_city


June 2015 Construction Update


1. Skinner Parcels S-1 and S-14 Site Clearing & Fill

Site clearing and filling efforts are underway at two high profile Skinner parcels straddling Gate Parkway near Deerwood Park Boulevard and Downshire Way.












2.Spyglass

Fort Family Investments is developing the Spyglass apartment complex at Baymeadows Road East and Sweetwater Parkway.
When complete, the development will add 220 apartments to the Southside's inventory.

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3. Vistakon Inc.

Jacksonville-based Vistakon is developing a $4.6 million solvent tank farm at it's disposable contact lenses manufacturing complex in Deerwood Park. The 8,640 square foot tank farm is expected to be completed in 2015. In addition, Vistakon is planning to invest $300 million to expand the manufacturing complex over the next seven years. The expansion project is expected to create 100 high-wage jobs and add 35,000 square feet to the manufacturing complex.

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For more information: http://www.visionmonday.com/latest-news/article/vistakon-218-million-expansion-will-increase-acuvue-contact-lens-production-and-add-100-jobs/




4. Old Still

AV Homes, an Arizona-based development firm, is building a 120 home single-family community called "Old Still."  The 80-acre development is being built as an urban enclave featuring an urban park and homes lining the street in a pedestrian-scale setting. The project is located just east of I-295 Beltway, along East Baymeadows Road.

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5. Lake Lofts at Deerwood

Construction continues on Lake Lofts at Deerwood. The project will add 130 apartment units on an infill site adjacent to Deerwood Lake. Developed by Inland Diversified Real Estate Services, LLC. of Oak Brook, IL, the four story development will include a five-story parking garage.

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6. Clarity Pointe Jacksonville

Construction continues on BCDC BrightPointe Jacksonville LLC's Clarity Pointe memory care center. The 60-bed, 44,899-square-foot center is being developed on 3.43 acres off East Baymeadows Road.

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For more information: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=541234