Southside Construction Update - November 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


November 2015 Construction Update





1. Baptist Health/Wolfson Children's Hospital Emergency Center

Site preparation is underway on the new Baptist Health/Wolfson Children's Hospital Emergency Center near the St. Johns Town Center. The Baptist/Wolfson Children’s Emergency Center at the Town Center will house two emergency centers under one roof, staffed 24/7 by board-certified emergency medicine physicians. While sharing a common entrance, the Emergency Center is specially designed to meet the needs of two very different patient populations. One side of the Baptist/Wolfson Children’s Emergency Center will have a dedicated waiting area and eight adult emergency beds. The other side of the building will be completely dedicated to meet the unique needs of Wolfson Children’s patients and their families, with a separate waiting area and eight children’s emergency beds. Located near the intersection of I-295 and Town Center Parkway, the 17,030 square foot structure is expected to open in the summer of 2016.

September 2015


November 2015




For more information: http://www.baptistjax.com/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/work-starts-on-new-baptist-health-and-wolfson-childrens



2. Brooks University Crossing

Construction continues on Brooks University Crossing, a 111-bed skilled nursing and rehabilitation center near Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital at Beach and University boulevards. The $13.6 million construction project comprises a three-story, 81,267-square-foot structure on 8.34 acres at 6210 Beach Blvd. The construction timeline is expected to take 12 months.

September 2015




November 2015









3. Vistakon Inc.

Jacksonville-based Vistakon recently completed a $4.6 million solvent tank farm at it's disposable contact lenses manufacturing complex in Deerwood Park. Vistakon is now investing $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. The new manufacturing space will include five new production lines, the tank farm, a 3D printing center and a site for medical device laboratory test method development.

September 2015




November 2015




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.

September 2015


November 2015










5. Lake Lofts at Deerwood

Construction is nearing completion 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 includes a five-story parking garage.

September 2015


November 2015