The Markets at Town Center

[Metro Jacksonville]

The Markets at Town Center



The area around the St. Johns Town Center continues to grow.  The Markets At Town Center is the latest retail complex scheduled to rise at Southside's JTB   Gate Parkway.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/745

[second_pancake]

Ugh.  Just what we need, more stores.  I'm moving to South Dakota to live in what's left of nature before the bulldozers come in and put up a slutty-clothing-for-little-girls store (Justice).

Btw, have you every tried riding your bike in the bike lanes around that place?  Hell, even riding your bike into the place to go shopping is a nightmare.  People are speeding, weaving, cutting, and dodging all over.  And, really folks, do we need another Starbuck's there???  Let's see, there's one in the Barnes and Nobles, then there's the one across from the park, then there's the one next to Publix...oh, and let's not forget the one inside the Target store.  So, we need a fifth???  Sounds to me like someone's been drinking a fifth.

[downtownparks]

I just got back from Maine, there is plenty of wilderness up there too, and your only a few hours from places like Boston and NYC.

BTW, Bangor would be an interesting city to see a comparison of. Its got a large blue collar/industrial thing going on, and Maine has a very large percentage of people dependent on social services in general, but downtown Bangor seemed to have some life, at least during the day, and they have done a great job of saving the old buildings.

[JeffreyS]

More Sprawl but Jax still has time if we could get an administration that is serious about infill.  We do have a lot of wonderful natural space left. We do have our work cut out saving the river. As for SJTC this area has been claimed by the developers if we have to have more mall stores this is where we want them.

[jeh1980]

Great development. Maybe someday, the downtown area (particularly the LaVilla or Brooklyn section will be next in line for something like this.

[DemocraticNole]

I'm glad to see that Nordstroms and Neiman Marcus are coming to town. There really is no reason that Jax should have waited this long with out some high end retailers.

Downtown is never going to be anything without leadership from the mayor's office and some big venture capitalist investing big bucks down there. I hate to pin this on the Republicans, but as conservative as this town is, a lot of those conservaitves could care less about developing downtown. It is just farther away than where they live out in the suburbs and exurbs. We all know John Peyton isn't going to do squat and I doubt anything would happen without some Democratic leadership in the mayor's office, which ain't happening in Duval County.

It isn't going to be too long before more money will have to be spent to fix the intersection of JTB and Gate Pkwy. It is already a traffic mess now at peak times and more stores won't help it. The completion of the JTB/295 interchange will help some, but not enough.

[jeh1980]

I'm glad to see that Nordstroms and Neiman Marcus are coming to town. There really is no reason that Jax should have waited this long with out some high end retailers.

Downtown is never going to be anything without leadership from the mayor's office and some big venture capitalist investing big bucks down there. I hate to pin this on the Republicans, but as conservative as this town is, a lot of those conservaitves could care less about developing downtown. It is just farther away than where they live out in the suburbs and exurbs. We all know John Peyton isn't going to do squat and I doubt anything would happen without some Democratic leadership in the mayor's office, which ain't happening in Duval County.

It isn't going to be too long before more money will have to be spent to fix the intersection of JTB and Gate Pkwy. It is already a traffic mess now at peak times and more stores won't help it. The completion of the JTB/295 interchange will help some, but not enough.

Well, I hate to disagree, but I think that the JTB/295 interchange will help a lot, especially when it comes to easing the traffic on I-95. And I know that there will be big changes around downtown even when Mayor Peyton is in the office. We all due respect, but I think we had been saying a lot of things about the Mayor. Of course, there were some things we say are true, but in my opinion, I think we had shown a lot of disrespect to him and his ideas. Despite of the bad decisions he might have made, I still believe in the Mayor and he will do a better job to help develop downtown.

[reednavy]

Somewhat like our version of Orlando's Mall at Millenia, just outdoors. What all will Phase 3 have, other than NM and Nordstorm?

[copperfiend]

Somewhat like our version of Orlando's Mall at Millenia, just outdoors. What all will Phase 3 have, other than NM and Nordstorm?

Except we don't have an IKEA. I was just down there a few weeks ago. I noticed they have a BJ's Brewhouse, which is part of the Markets at SJTC.

[JeffreyS]

Downtown is never going to be anything without leadership from the mayor's office and some big venture capitalist investing big bucks down there. I hate to pin this on the Republicans, but as conservative as this town is, a lot of those conservaitves could care less about developing downtown. It is just farther away than where they live out in the suburbs and exurbs. We all know John Peyton isn't going to do squat and I doubt anything would happen without some Democratic leadership in the mayor's office, which ain't happening in Duval County.

You know we bag on Peyton a lot because he has made obvious mistakes and lies.  Downtown however has seen a lot of development and infill during his watch maybe in spite of him. The projects that have stalled or slowed I think have been more systematic of the national housing problems.  I think we need more progressive leadership but more important is less crony ism.

The Prime Osborn as the center of a mass transit system would the best springboard I can picture.     

[thelakelander]

What the core needs is connectivity and density.  Both the Peyton and Delaney administrations have flopped big time on these issues.  What's the use of "developing horizontally" if all you're connecting is vacant plots of land and surface parking lots.  Regardless of the market and how much money is put into something, if it doesn't connect and interact well with its immediate surroundings the chance for vibrancy is diminished.

As for the Markets at Town Center, it should complement the SJTC nicely.  If we had to compare this with Orlando's Mall at Millenia, this would rival the strip shopping center across the street thats anchored by the Target and Home Depot Expo.

[reednavy]

It really does rival that "high-class" strip center. The whole SJTC area is like Millenia on crack, as soon as we land IKEA, which will probably be around 2015,  . I like it thought, Chipotle for lunch, BJ's for dinner, sounds good.

[avonjax]

Lakerlander is very correct. The real problem with downtown is people. When there is residential density downtown the services and shopping will follow. I do believe though that if the right retail goes into Brooklyn and the Water Street project, the surrounding neighborhoods will utilize them. I know there are people who post here that dislike SJTC, but we really need that kind of retail in Jacksonville. Maybe years in the future with many more downtown residents, we may get a high end department store, but at this time the average Jacksonville resident would not support it.

[I-10east]

Well, if we're decades slow because we don't have an IKEA, then places like Detroit, Las Vegas, and St Louis are slow too. What is so great about IKEA? Maybe I'm in the minority, but looking at the website, that furniture looks rather ugly to me. 

[coredumped]

I would love to see a Macy's here. I'd prefer to see it in the Avenues, but anyone is jax would be nice. If we had burdines before they were bought out by macy's we'd have one.

Burdines slogan was "the Florida store," so I guess we really are the southern-most city in GA