Nocatee Town Center: Northeast Florida's Next Downtown?

[Metro Jacksonville]

Nocatee Town Center: Northeast Florida's Next Downtown?



In 2008, Metro Jacksonville ran a story revealing plans for the Nocatee Town Center. Readers were asked for their opinions on if the development would truly become the urban downtown core of a new city. Since that time, Nocatee has become the third fastest growing master planned community in the country. Now that seven years have passed, Metro Jacksonville takes a visit to Nocatee Town Center.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jun-nocatee-town-center-northeast-floridas-next-downtown

[avonjax]

The houses seem nice but the town center has zero appeal to me. At the rate it's being developed Nocatee will just be another huge housing development. Nothing more.

[finehoe]

Was the developers goal to make it look as generic as possible?  If so, they certainly succeeded.

[mbwright]

Sure looks like any other new development these days.

[pierre]

That whole community is very emblematic of modern Jacksonville.

[jaxjaguar]

Looks idyllic and pretty and all, but just not somewhere I'd want to live. I'd rather spend about the same, maybe get a little less square footage, and live in San Marco, Riverside, Ortega, or Avondale.  Unless you work in St. Johns County, I can't imagine why you'd want to live there.

Although I agree with you, it's a much better place to raise a family. The schools are unquestionably better, the area is drastically safer and traffic isn't really a problem anywhere in PV aside from TPC week. Between the water park, beach, Davis park, and tight knit social system for "soccer moms" it's the logical choice for "the best place to raise your kids".

For people like us who enjoy the urban feel of the neighborhoods you mentioned, PV seems like an oddball, far away, boring place. To families with slightly more income it's a safe nest away from all of the "bad", old and more diversified neighborhoods.

As someone who grew up in PV I can say first hand that the perception people have of downtown and it's surrounding neighborhoods is not good. In some of my first posts here I talked about how wrong my preconceptions about Jacksonville's urban areas were. Unfortunately, I'm one of few to realize that. The vast majority of millennials / 2000's kids from their would much rather move to the town center or the beaches because they're newer, more hip and the places your familiar with since they're close by.

[CityLife]

Nocatee initially got hit hard by the crash and they changed directions quite a bit. I can't remember the exact number, but they made a substantial number of modifications to the originally approved PUD (50+ IIRC). It's a much less cohesive development now, basically a scattered area of subdivisions, instead of an interconnected community.

Since the market started coming back a few years ago, it has exceeded expectations and had a ton of homes built. In the short term, the alteration of their original plans may have made sense, but I think over the long term, I believe it will prevent Nocatee from ever being a truly special community. Its basically Eagle Harbor East, but closer to the beach, St. Augustine, and with more conservation area.

All that said, the continued rapid growth of Northern St. Johns County should be a wake up call to Jacksonville. You could revitalize all of Springfield and Murray Hill (and probably more) with the amount of people that have built in Nocatee. Durbin Crossing and other Northern St. Johns County developments are also doing well. Reasons: 1. Schools. 2. Better Parks and Recreation 3. Minimal crime 4. Affordability. Big factors Jax has in its favor: 1. Better food. 2. Better shopping. 3. More culture. 4. Cooler neighborhoods. 5. Jobs.

Four of the things Jax has in its favor can be accessed by SJC residents (with a commute). Three of the things SJC has in its favor can't be accessed by Jax residents. So essentially you can live in SJC in a crime free area, send your kids to better schools, and pay less for more, and simply drive a little more to work, or to a night out. COJ has to start investing more in its schools, parks, and reducing crime if it wants to start tipping the scale back the other way.

[Downtown Osprey]

Reminds me of the Truman Show.

[fsquid]

I have an old work colleague who moved here from Charlotte who settled there.  I don't see how you can buy a home there with any hope of good resale since they will be building in that place until at least 2025.

[jaxjaguar]

I have an old work colleague who moved here from Charlotte who settled there.  I don't see how you can buy a home there with any hope of good resale since they will be building in that place until at least 2025.

That's the thing, most people who move there aren't planning to sell within the next 10 years. They either move there with younger kids or with the intent of having kids soon.

[ben says]

Reminds me of the Truman Show.

I was just about to say that...

Anyone here been to ION, SC? It's a similar, planned development (TND) near Charleston SC. Scratching my head wondering why ION looks so much better than this.

Seriously, go to a Google image search for 'ION South Carolina' and have your mind blown at the difference.

I'd rather someone shoot me than move to Nocatee.

[bigcraiginjax]

I have an old work colleague who moved here from Charlotte who settled there.  I don't see how you can buy a home there with any hope of good resale since they will be building in that place until at least 2025.

You'd be surprised.  In my neighborhood of Austin Park, (which is completely built out, a smaller neighborhood, and directly across from the new K-8), resales are booming.  Houses are under contract in less than two weeks. Yes, I drive 45 minutes downtown everyday, but when I get home, I'm 10 minutes from the beach, my kids are in great schools, and they have multiple places to swim and play.  I moved to Nocatee in 2010 when it was really a ghost town, after living in East Arlington for 7 years.

[finehoe]

Nocatee initially got hit hard by the crash and they changed directions quite a bit. I can't remember the exact number, but they made a substantial number of modifications to the originally approved PUD (50+ IIRC). It's a much less cohesive development now, basically a scattered area of subdivisions, instead of an interconnected community.

So did they have to have their PUD re-approved?  If not, it seems that the first approval was obtained under false pretenses.

"Yeah, we're going to built a cohesive, interconnected development.  Oops, we can't do it now, so we're just going to build another bland subdivision instead.  Sucker."

[CityLife]

Nocatee initially got hit hard by the crash and they changed directions quite a bit. I can't remember the exact number, but they made a substantial number of modifications to the originally approved PUD (50+ IIRC). It's a much less cohesive development now, basically a scattered area of subdivisions, instead of an interconnected community.

So did they have to have their PUD re-approved?  If not, it seems that the first approval was obtained under false pretenses.

"Yeah, we're going to built a cohesive, interconnected development.  Oops, we can't do it now, so we're just going to build another bland subdivision instead.  Sucker."

In St. Johns County (and many other places) you can modify PUD's by small adjustment, minor modification, and major modification. Small adjustments are very minor and can be approved by staff, minor modifications can be approved by the Planning Board, major modifications have to go before the County Commission. The developers of Nocatee made numerous tweaks through these means, completely legally. However, when you look at the original PUD and what it is now, it has had so many tweaks done it is drastically different from what was originally approved.

[thelakelander]

I have an old work colleague who moved here from Charlotte who settled there.  I don't see how you can buy a home there with any hope of good resale since they will be building in that place until at least 2025.

You'd be surprised.  In my neighborhood of Austin Park, (which is completely built out, a smaller neighborhood, and directly across from the new K-8), resales are booming.  Houses are under contract in less than two weeks. Yes, I drive 45 minutes downtown everyday, but when I get home, I'm 10 minutes from the beach, my kids are in great schools, and they have multiple places to swim and play.  I moved to Nocatee in 2010 when it was really a ghost town, after living in East Arlington for 7 years.

Yeah, selling a house in this area is not an issue. There's a lot of demand.