Beaches Construction Update - January 2014

[Metro Jacksonville]

Beaches Construction Update - January 2014



After a brief hiatus in 2013, Metro Jacksonville's monthly Beaches construction update is back and ramping up for 2014.  Here's a look at a few new business openings and construction projects currently underway in the Jacksonville - Neptune - Atlantic Beaches area.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-jan-beaches-construction-update-january-2014

[pierre]

6. 102 6th Avenue N

I am glad that they changed this into an actual commercial space. Having the tax collector office across from the ocean seemed like a waste.

[hightowerlover]

Finally some strip malls have come to Jax Beach.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

These buildings are extremely dull and all look like they below along Southside Blvd.

Maybe one day, the people of Jax Beach will build innovatively designed buildings to give Jax Beach a sense of place that is unique as the people who live there.

By looking at these buildings, one would get the impression that the beach people are dull suburbanites from Clay County.

[finehoe]

^^^Not only dull, but downright ugly.  Even those residences lack the tiniest bit of style.  Is this really the best we can do?

[simms3]

Jax Beach is pretty much an embarassment.  Filthy, rundown, horrible architecture, clearly no planning or vision, auto-congested, chain city, etc etc

How do you take out of towners to see the beach in Jax?  I suppose you take them to Atlantic Beach or PVB only...the former requires an ugly drive on Atlantic, though, and the latter is fine, but what if they want Jax's "version" of Miami Beach, St. Pete, Clearwater, Naples, or Destin?  We don't have any.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

I once wanted to live in a laid back beach town filled with trendy people, exciting nightlife & in a house or condo that made me feel that I'd be living in paradise.

I'VE FOUND NONE OF THAT IN JAX BEACH.

Ponte Vedra just feels like a suburb.

[Tacachale]

One of the things I hate about how the Beaches have developed is there's very little will to continue the kind of environment that made the area attractive in the first place. There's too little attention paid to things like walkability, density and mix of uses, street-fronting retail, and connectivity between different areas. The new homes have none of the feel of the older ones. The Beach feels "neighborly" because the older homes have touches like front doors facing the sidewalk instead of the driveway, porches, and garages to the side if they're there at all, and you can walk or bike to places you want to get to. I've never understood why they don't want more of this. I guess it's probably an affect of so many out of towners buying the properties as second homes or rentals rather than as a place they actually live. They've done great jobs with the Town Center and Jax Beach downtown area, but they haven't applied it anywhere else.

..but what if they want Jax's "version" of Miami Beach, St. Pete, Clearwater, Naples, or Destin?  We don't have any.

And thank God.

[copperfiend]

I have lived at the beach for a few years. Alot of the people I have met essentially want to live in a suburb near the ocean. They don't want or care about walkable. They get up on Sunday morning, pack their kids into their SUV and drive to church and then pack everyone in and drive to Metro Diner and then pack everyone in and drive to watch their kid's soccer game. They live a 10 minute walk from the beach and drive.

[tufsu1]

Jax Beach is pretty much an embarassment.  Filthy, rundown, horrible architecture, clearly no planning or vision, auto-congested, chain city, etc etc

dude, that is really harsh and unnecessary.  Fact is there have been major improvements in the Jax. beach "downtown" streetscape and environs.  And those efforts were led by the long-time planning director

[Tacachale]

Jax Beach is pretty much an embarassment.  Filthy, rundown, horrible architecture, clearly no planning or vision, auto-congested, chain city, etc etc

dude, that is really harsh and unnecessary.  Fact is there have been major improvements in the Jax. beach "downtown" streetscape and environs.  And those efforts were led by the long-time planning director

It's not just harsh and unnecessary, it's also uninformed and silly. Par for the course, though.

I have lived at the beach for a few years. Alot of the people I have met essentially want to live in a suburb near the ocean. They don't want or care about walkable. They get up on Sunday morning, pack their kids into their SUV and drive to church and then pack everyone in and drive to Metro Diner and then pack everyone in and drive to watch their kid's soccer game. They live a 10 minute walk from the beach and drive.

This has been my perception too. People who live there, or move there, are necessarily used to driving for work and the things they need, sometimes great distances, so they don't mind driving even to stuff that's nearby. Of course, until relatively recently when Downtown Jax Beach and the Town Center started coming back, there wasn't a whole lot for most people to walk to even if they wanted to. The success of those two projects is hopeful, though.

[Bill Hoff]

I once wanted to live in a laid back beach town filled with trendy people, exciting nightlife & in a house or condo that made me feel that I'd be living in paradise.

I'VE FOUND NONE OF THAT IN JAX BEACH.

Ponte Vedra just feels like a suburb.

Atlantic Beach is the closest thing, I'd suspect.

[ben says]

The beaches are a mixed bag, IMO. Atlantic Beach is the most unique and "post card"-ish.

PVB does have a suburbia vibe, but there's no doubt about it: it's nice. Some really beautiful homes, and PV Boulevard is a beaut.

Jax Beach deserves a lot of the trash talk, but I think they've progressed in leaps and bounds from what it was 5-15 years ago. At least where my dad lives (34th, one block from ocean), the houses going up are unique, interesting, and make for great neighborhood vibes. I think it just depends where you are in Jax Beach. The area around JTB (30th-36th avenues, I think), architecturally, is getting nicer. The rest of Jax Beach doesn't have a 'wow' factor, but it's getting better in terms of places  to eat, things to do, places to shop, etc.

And yeah, I bet if you polled residents of the Jacksonville Beaches, 99/100 wouldn't give a damn about walkability. Most of the people I know who live at the beach walk within a 4-block radius of their house, at sunset, with a glass of wine. That, or they're walking on the beach closest to their home. Everything else requires a car, and I think not only have they accepted that, but they're OK with that. To each his/her own.

[Chuck McCue]

The Jacksonville Beaches area is coming alive! Don't forget the new Golf club taking the place of Selva Marina in AB. jacksonvillebeaches dot info

[Chuck McCue]

Former George Moore location: