Five Major Projects For November's DDRB Meeting

[thelakelander]

November 2019's Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB) meeting promises to be a busy one. Here is a brief look at five major new construction and adaptive reuse projects included in the meeting's agenda packet.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/five-major-projects-for-novembers-ddrb-meeting/

[acme54321]

Seems like the stuff at ReddiArts could use some tweaking.  Why didn't they put the building on the street with the parking behind it as a start...

[marcuscnelson]

Much simpler design for the Florida Blue garage. Bigger retail space seems like a plus too.

[Kiva]

New design for Florida Blue garage looks better. And 60ft retail is a big improvement.

[Steve]

I'm actually okay with all of them except the Reddi Arts redevelopment. The right building layout is totally suburban.

 - I wish the Florida Blue garage actually had retail, but now it could genuinely accommodate retail versus before when it clearly was done to check a box.
 - It would be nice for Ashley Square to have some sort of retail, but I get it - that'a a REALLY tough place to try to make retail work. Plus if the future of the Cathedral District is limited retail and almost exclusively church and residential I'm actually okay with it. To think Downtown would actually have the demand for retail on every street and corner downtown is not realistic.
 - No brainier to approve That Bar. I hadn't heard about the project but who could possibly object? Same with the old Independent Life building. I'm still curious about the market viability for a grocery store downtown (though perhaps depending on square footage a Walgreens or CVS would work there too), but if they want to build it let's do it!
 -

[MusicMan]

So Chase Properties CLOSED on the Reddi Arts parcel? Please share the price if you know what it was. I was under the impression it was 'contingent' not closed yet.

[Captain Zissou]

Acme- I agree. When i saw these the other day i was pretty surprised. Hopefully DDRB pushes back. 

[thelakelander]

For the Reddi-Arts project, flip the south building to front Hendricks and put the parking in the rear. That seems like an easy fix.

[Tacachale]

For the Reddi-Arts project, flip the south building to front Hendricks and put the parking in the rear. That seems like an easy fix.

For real. It's encouraging that all five are either fine, have improved over previous designs, or could be fixed easily.

[thelakelander]

According to the workshop material, the north building is existing. It would be retrofitted into a 200 seat, 4,457 SF restaurant space. The south building exists already as well (which explains the parking lot placement). Basically, the concept razes the central section of the existing Reddi-Arts buildings and leaves two for adaptive reuse. The south space would be 6,100 SF restaurant with  338 seats.

[Tacachale]

According to the workshop material, the north building is existing. It would be retrofitted into a 200 seat, 4,457 SF restaurant space. The south building exists already as well (which explains the parking lot placement). Basically, the concept razes the central section of the existing Reddi-Arts buildings and leaves two for adaptive reuse. The south space would be 6,100 SF restaurant with  338 seats.

Gotcha, that makes sense.

[acme54321]

They must be pretty loose with their definition of retrofit then based on those renderings.  Are they going to keep the back wall or something? 

[thelakelander]

There appears to be four buildings there now. The plan shows them tearing down the building facing Kings Avenue and a small building in the center of the property. They'd keep the two larger buildings facing Hendricks. I'll upload the plan and post in a few minutes.

[Steve]

According to the workshop material, the north building is existing. It would be retrofitted into a 200 seat, 4,457 SF restaurant space. The south building exists already as well (which explains the parking lot placement). Basically, the concept razes the central section of the existing Reddi-Arts buildings and leaves two for adaptive reuse. The south space would be 6,100 SF restaurant with  338 seats.

Wow, I didn’t realize it was the same. If it’s truly the existing building then I think they should be given some leniency. I’d be curious if they’re just stating it is to get around something.

[thelakelander]