Inside the Southbank's new Tallest: The Peninsula

[Dapperdan]

Thanks for all the suggestions Stephen. I love the weather out here. May we should all just relocate to San Francisco. I think we would have a better time with life.

[wsansewjs]

If I lived in San Francisco, I would NEVER get tired of smelling and eating that sourdough breaed! MMMmhmmm!

-Josh

[danem]

Haha! San Francisco is more of a walking / public transit city than a driving city.

-Josh

I agree. Maybe I should have specified that I am actually in San Jose and was describing the traffic here and on the 880. BART comes close to here, but there are still tons of people using cars and gas is about 4.29 per gallon! Its just a  different kind of driving. Speed limits are painted on the road. It took me a while to realize that. Also, there are no simple turns. Every tunrn has like 3 or 4 turn lanes. The strangest thing I saw, was while driving on the highway, there are little stoplights on the entrance ramps that lets one car go through at a time onto the highway. I actually like it, as the on ramps are not backed up forever, and there is only one or two cars trying to merge onto the highway ata  time.

I drove in San Francisco ONCE. That was an adventure!  The rest of the time I walked or rode some transit thingy everywhere and watched people in cars honking at and tailgating each other, being glad that I wasn't them.

I love driving but I'd trade it in for walking more any day.

[ChriswUfGator]

Actually, my hotel is San Jose, so unfortunately to get to San francisco, I have to take the 30 minute drive. I may try out the BART system while I am here. CalTrain is not doing so good. On the news they were talking about raising the rates and having to close numerous stations.

Definitely try out BART, you will be amazed at how easy it is to get around.  MUCH easier than using a car.  Most of the BART stations have easy access to a colocated MUNI stop as well (its the san francisco only train---BART is the entire Bay Area)

Don't be afraid to take Caltrain up from San Jose, just close your eyes through the city of South San Francisco.  Its the Jacksonville version of SF.

Just don't sit in the back of the rearmost car after dark...you'll usually get more of a show than you paid for.

[fieldafm]

I'll add to my unwavering love of the BART.  San Fran is second only to NYC as to the best public transportation system in the country.

I will also second the recommendation for Pancho Villa's Taqueria.

Now I am craving a good bahn mi, pho, carne asada tacos and some L&L Hawaiin BBQ. 

If you go to Pho Garden, you will see my picture on the wall as having proudly conquered the pho challenge:



That's not me, I'm a Dodgers fan 

[timothyj67]

.hate to be a damper....But I come from a developed major city....And these are great condos..But in order for a 90% + sell rate they actually need to be affordable to alot of people not just a select few..Lets face it...Sure there is redevelopment in DT going on..But its still pretty damn vacant. No major retail or restaurants. No major foot traffic. No major events beside  ..football...Not everyone in Jville likes football..So..This is a start in the right direction..But DT jax has a LONG way to go!

[Jagsdrew]

$40 million exterior renovation for the Peninsula https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2023/05/25/southbanks-peninsula-tower-to-begin-39m-in-exte.html

A few images of the proposed updates can be found on their site (scroll down a little on the site)
https://www.thepeninsulaofjacksonville.com/

[thelakelander]

Will the coffee bar in the lobby be open to the public?

[lsteif]

Will the coffee bar in the lobby be open to the public?

Peninsula resident here! It's just a little dispenser machine that makes black coffee -- nothing to get excited about, lol.

The vacant space on the ground floor facing the Riverwalk is being used as the field office for the construction company doing the work so no hopes for that to be anything cool for another few years at least. 

[vicupstate]

$40 million exterior renovation for the Peninsula https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2023/05/25/southbanks-peninsula-tower-to-begin-39m-in-exte.html

A few images of the proposed updates can be found on their site (scroll down a little on the site)
https://www.thepeninsulaofjacksonville.com/

Other than some uplighting, I don't see any differences. The article is behind a paywall.

[marcuscnelson]

Looks like they're replacing the red cladding on the parking garage with a grey cladding. Maybe also the rest of the building's cladding too.

[acme54321]

$40 million exterior renovation for the Peninsula https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2023/05/25/southbanks-peninsula-tower-to-begin-39m-in-exte.html

A few images of the proposed updates can be found on their site (scroll down a little on the site)
https://www.thepeninsulaofjacksonville.com/

Other than some uplighting, I don't see any differences. The article is behind a paywall.

The main work is putting the veneer back onto the parking deck.  The original red brick veneer was pulled off like 5 years ago because it was failing due to improper install iirc.  The condo had been in litigation with the builder for a long time and recently won that case.

[lsteif]

They also have to go through and replace every window in every unit throughout the building due to construction defects. Residents have to vacate their unit for 3-4 weeks while their portion of the building is being repaired. We face the northeast corner and get terrible water intrusion through our kitchen window every time we get a storm -- through Ian my husband and I had to stay up all night mopping the water up with towels. We couldn't dry them in the dryer fast enough for how quickly the water comes through.

[marcuscnelson]

That sounds awful! I hope they're at least covering the cost of that, especially for that long.

[Charles Hunter]

Do they have enough vacant units to shuffle people around? Or, will they have to go to hotels - that I sincerely hope the building owners are covering.