Storage Center Proposed For Murray Hill's First Block

[thelakelander]

Steve Orman, the commercial broker whose company is overseeing the project disagrees. He wants to add more than 48,000 square feet of new retail space and more parking, with the storage facility in the back. Orman believes this will not detract from the neighborhood’s character.

Is this a typo? 48,000 square feet of retail? No way. Maybe 4,800 square feet as a second phase in the outparcel indicated in the site plan at Edgewood and Plymouth?

[thelakelander]

Who is going tonight. Sounds like they are expecting a big crowd. It is a shame it could not be in a bigger venue.

I saw this on News4Jax. I wonder what exactly he means by this.

He (Steve Orman, the commercial broker whose company is overseeing the project) adds there are misconceptions about the project and he’s hoping to clear them up at Monday's meeting.

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/jacksonville/murray-hill-storage-wars-heats-up-monday

What misconceptions??

The biggest misconception... and by a wide margin... is the claim going around that Trader Joes wanted to put a grocery story in this location, and the owner instead chose to sell to a developer of a storage unit facility.

Confirmed. Grocer rumor killed.

[thelakelander]

Steve Orman, the commercial broker whose company is overseeing the project disagrees. He wants to add more than 48,000 square feet of new retail space and more parking, with the storage facility in the back. Orman believes this will not detract from the neighborhood’s character.

Is this a typo? 48,000 square feet of retail? No way. Maybe 4,800 square feet as a second phase in the outparcel indicated in the site plan at Edgewood and Plymouth?

Confirmed. 48,000sf of retail was a typo. It's 4,800sf proposed at Edgewood and Plymouth and a self storage box behind it.

[thelakelander]

DCoop is designing the retail building. An architecture firm from outside Jax will design the self storage building. There are no concept drawings to show at this point.

[thelakelander]

COJ will not meet to discuss the project on May 24th. COJ needs more info from the applicant.

[thelakelander]

COJ meeting will be either June 7th or the 21st at 10am.

[thelakelander]

Steve Diebonow just stated that self storage is the best use for the property after a year and of half of listing. Real estate rep says lot size prohibits most types of uses.

[thelakelander]

The self storage building is expected to support the retail component. Retail leasing rates for new construction are more than Murray Hill's market can support.

[thelakelander]

The retail building and self storage building will be built at once.

[thelakelander]

Developer will meet with MHPA to show concept plans on June 3rd.

[copperfiend]

Not sure they really changed any minds. It seemed like most residents were not impressed by the attorney they sent.

And not having the plans available did not help.

We'll do this again in June.

[thelakelander]

It would have been better if Steve Diebenow could have at least shared some best practices examples of what they have proposed. A picture speaks a thousand words with a contextual setting and involved community like this. Professionally, I'd be surprised if they didn't already have a rough concept of what they have proposed. I'm also surprised they did not anticipate this kind of push back. It suggest even though being local, there's still a learning curve related to understanding the quirks of individual neighborhoods. Nevertheless, I'm not sure public buy in truly matters unless a logical and rational argument can be made to keep the desired administrative deviations from being granted. The zoning code is so jacked up and out-dated, it allows the use already.

[Bill Hoff]

I think Lake needs to craft an article titled "Is Murray Hill Ready for Storage Units?" as a homage to his article about the controversial car wash that opened in Springfield.

I watched last nights live stream of the meeting.

Seems like a good project, as the storage facility will front the railroad tracks & highway overpass (a difficult space), while new retail space will front Edgewood Ave (prime real estate).  Plus additional parking spaces for everyone. Dcoop is a fantastic architectural firm, as well.

Send it over here to Springfield if Murray Hill doesn't want it : )

[thelakelander]

^If Springfield would be willing to change it's overlay along Main Street from CCG-S back to CCG-1, it would probably land a few. However, as of today, this is a use that is prohibited in CCG-S. I'm not necessarily opposed to a mixed use project with self storage on the upper level, although that concept is not being proposed in Murray Hill. A few of these projects look great in cities that have crafted zoning ordinances to regulate where they go and how they fit into their surroundings. Jax isn't there yet on a lot of uses when it comes to zoning.

[ProjectMaximus]

I may have mentioned this in a thread a few years back, but one of the first places I ate at in Doral (this is way before we moved down here) was a Cuban restaurant called Sergio's. It is your standard suburban restaurant with setback and sea of parking, albeit with a longhorns on the outparcel. What's special about it? Sergio's has 4 floors of mini storage on top of its ground floor location. So if a restaurant+mini storage works in suburban Doral, it should work in an inner-ring suburb, right? (Granted Doral's pop density is probably higher than Murray Hill's)

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7880747,-80.3368513,3a,75y,269.34h,81.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1soF4V-5F0GKqIx0KPlekuxQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192