Jacksonville Landing To Transform Itself Wednesday

[Metro Jacksonville]

Jacksonville Landing To Transform Itself Wednesday





Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-feb-jacksonville-landing-to-transform-itself-wednesday

[UNFurbanist]

Hopefully some of this stuff proves useful and becomes permanent. Honestly in the short and medium term stuff like this could help a lot in making it more attractive and "cool"

[Marle Brando]

Anyone think it's time for Art Walk to explore moving the event to a  Friday or Saturday night during the summer months? I would like to see the numbers thus could do when able to free itself of the rather restrained Wednesday night hours and lend itself to an all day regional event over the summer. I think the crowds would at least double. Art walk after dark and the bars, restaurants, and entertainment in the core would definitely reap the benefits of those who don't have to work the very next morning.

[UNFurbanist]

Anyone think it's time for Art Walk to explore moving the event to a  Friday or Saturday night during the summer months? I would like to see the numbers thus could do when able to free itself of the rather restrained Wednesday night hours and lend itself to an all day regional event over the summer. I think the crowds would at least double. Art walk after dark and the bars, restaurants, and entertainment in the core would definitely reap the benefits of those who don't have to work the very next morning.

+1 I think this is an idea worth trying! Although why not Fall or Spring when it's not quite so hot? Either way could be a good idea. Friday would be the best I think.

[Charles Hunter]

Not having been part of the decision making process, my guess is they chose Wednesday to give a midweek bump to DT businesses. Weekends are probably doing OK.

[RWNeal]

Not having been part of the decision making process, my guess is they chose Wednesday to give a midweek bump to DT businesses. Weekends are probably doing OK.

A large chunk of downtown businesses are closed on the weekend. You need people coming out of work to add to the foot traffic coming in from the burbs. Many downtown workers get off early on Fridays. Others just want to get the hell out of there to start the weekend. Those folks would have to make a special effort to stick around for Art Walk.

[fieldafm]

Looks like the clouds will be lifting this afternoon, should be a great night to hang out on the front porch

[FlaBoy]

I think the Front Porch has done very well.

I know we have talked about what the Landing could be for awhile including a Market feel. Anybody think Sleiman would ever consider bringing the Jacksonville Farmers Market off Beaver to the Landing?

[tufsu1]

I know we have talked about what the Landing could be for awhile including a Market feel. Anybody think Sleiman would ever consider bringing the Jacksonville Farmers Market off Beaver to the Landing?

The farmer's Market is owned and opearted by Beaver Street Fisheries.  I'm not sure they would be interested in selling/relocating

[FlaBoy]

Maybe the Mayor can get Sleiman and Frisch in a room together to talk? 

I think it would be good business for both. The location on Beaver St. is out of sight and mind a lot of time.

[thelakelander]

The Farmers' Line is located on the east side of the Jacksonville Farmers Market. Here, farmers mostly sell wholesale off their trailers or trucks direct to Jacksonville Farmers Market and other area vendors, restaurants, and produce stores.

Putting a real farmers market in the middle of downtown would be pretty difficult to do. The market off Beaver gets a lot of truck traffic, something the Landing site and the Laura Street roundabout aren't ideally designed for. I imagine, for a vendor, renting at the Landing would be higher than renting a stall in the middle of an wholesale/market district. Also, parking proximity between the building and shoppers would certainly be an issue. Then there's the financial reality of the situation. The property the market is on is owned by BSF. They also own a former grocery store next door that they've discussed expanding as an indoor market to accommodate the outdoor stalls.

Edwards: Beaver Street Fisheries bought the market in 1986 from the original family. We bought the property thinking we might have use for the land one day to expand our company, but as long as the market took care of itself, and there was an interest in the community in the market, we would keep it open, and see what happened. And that’s what happened. In 2007, we had an opportunity to develop most of the original land and we had bought land adjacent to that property.

We took advantage of that with support from the City of Jacksonville and we rebuilt the market, all new, in 2007, on part of the original land and part of the adjacent land.

That was a big change because the market is actually bigger in terms of number of vendors and parking spaces, but it’s in a much more compact area, so it’s much easier to walk, and much more user-friendly.

We have the drive-up parking. People really appreciate the ability to drive up and park in front of a vendor.

And it’s very walkable, very easy to navigate. People really appreciate that.

We currently have 9 acres and we’re using most of it. We have one building of 28,000 square feet that’s a former grocery store that we haven’t put into use yet. We do have plans for that, for perhaps indoor stalls or maybe some additional types of vendors. We get a lot of requests for meat vendors, or bakery-type vendors, and we’re looking at that to expand the market. We already have a seafood vendor and from time to time, other vendors. There are a lot of other options that we haven’t fully explored yet, so we see that as a growth opportunity.

full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=535586

[Ivegotasecret]

What a great idea! I'd pay ten bucks for a cucumber, wouldn't you?

[FlaBoy]

The Farmers' Line is located on the east side of the Jacksonville Farmers Market. Here, farmers mostly sell wholesale off their trailers or trucks direct to Jacksonville Farmers Market and other area vendors, restaurants, and produce stores.

Putting a real farmers market in the middle of downtown would be pretty difficult to do. The market off Beaver gets a lot of truck traffic, something the Landing site and the Laura Street roundabout aren't ideally designed for. I imagine, for a vendor, renting at the Landing would be higher than renting a stall in the middle of an wholesale/market district. Also, parking proximity between the building and shoppers would certainly be an issue. Then there's the financial reality of the situation. The property the market is on is owned by BSF. They also own a former grocery store next door that they've discussed expanding as an indoor market to accommodate the outdoor stalls.

Edwards: Beaver Street Fisheries bought the market in 1986 from the original family. We bought the property thinking we might have use for the land one day to expand our company, but as long as the market took care of itself, and there was an interest in the community in the market, we would keep it open, and see what happened. And that’s what happened. In 2007, we had an opportunity to develop most of the original land and we had bought land adjacent to that property.

We took advantage of that with support from the City of Jacksonville and we rebuilt the market, all new, in 2007, on part of the original land and part of the adjacent land.

That was a big change because the market is actually bigger in terms of number of vendors and parking spaces, but it’s in a much more compact area, so it’s much easier to walk, and much more user-friendly.

We have the drive-up parking. People really appreciate the ability to drive up and park in front of a vendor.

And it’s very walkable, very easy to navigate. People really appreciate that.

We currently have 9 acres and we’re using most of it. We have one building of 28,000 square feet that’s a former grocery store that we haven’t put into use yet. We do have plans for that, for perhaps indoor stalls or maybe some additional types of vendors. We get a lot of requests for meat vendors, or bakery-type vendors, and we’re looking at that to expand the market. We already have a seafood vendor and from time to time, other vendors. There are a lot of other options that we haven’t fully explored yet, so we see that as a growth opportunity.

full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=535586

In the short term, most of the Landing retail is empty so maybe just to help some foot traffic they could consider it. I certainly don't think they should get rid of their facility on Beaver St. Just do something in the Landing like the do in the markets in Charleston or so many other cities.

[Tacachale]

There used to be a market day at the Landing and IIRC it didn't work out. Before that, it was in Hemming Park, which probably makes more sense location-wise. At any rate, Jacksonville has too many farmer's markets already compared to the number of actual farms. Most of the markets we have, Jax Farmers Market included, don't rely on local goods. That has its place but the demand for markets is tapped already. What really need are more farms, and people to support them.