Renderings: Florida Blue’s Forest Street Parking Garage

[Tacachale]

A long blighted retention pond serving as the gateway to Brooklyn from Interstates 95 and 10 will soon disappear, as Florida Blue moves forward with its plans for a new parking garage.

Read more: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/renderings-florida-blues-forest-street-parking-garage/

[Captain Zissou]

Can't wait to see all the tenants lined up to take a 14 foot deep retail space!!!

[thelakelander]

Lol, yeah seriously doubt you ever see retail replace those parking spaces. In general, anything under 70 to 80' in depth starts to get questionable for retail.

[CityLife]

Prime for a 2 lane boutique bowling alley, The Ball & The Pin. Profit.

[jaxlongtimer]

Minor correction...

The parking lot has 869 spaces, not 689 as stated in the article.  See the number on the project description slide.  I had recalled that number from the other articles I had read so knew to double check it  .

[Ken_FSU]

DDRB hates it, apparently.

Not happy with the facade, orientation, retail space, or traffic flow.

But - you guessed it - they approved it anyway.

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2019/10/11/unimpressed-ddrb-approves-concept-of-florida-blue.html?iana=hpmvp_jac_news_headline

[Captain Zissou]

WHAT?!  What is the point of that board??  The facade is terrible, that retail will never work, and it's a terrible use of prime real estate at Forest and Park.  Between this and the hotel that is yet to materialize, that intersection will look more like Gate Parkway than the urban core. 

[Steve]

What I don't understand is what is really meant by, "conceptual".

Florida Blue, "pledged" to improve it, but how much more can really be expected between these phases? My impression: If they don't approve it conceptually, then it holds the entire Project Sharp process up which impacts Florida Blue and creates other issues.

That's not to say what was done was right. My guess is there will be some more "lipstick" put on the pig but this isn't going to be some revolutionary concept.

Man, all involved with downtown should be embarrassed at what could have been at Forest and Park and what it's becoming. Suburban style garage, suburban style gas station, and suburban hotel. Terrific.

[thelakelander]

WHAT?!  What is the point of that board??  The facade is terrible, that retail will never work, and it's a terrible use of prime real estate at Forest and Park.  Between this and the hotel that is yet to materialize, that intersection will look more like Gate Parkway than the urban core.

I feel that RS&H has the personnel to design better. The facade is a bit confusing but I don't lose much sleep over it. I'd be more concerned about ground level interaction and retail. The urban plaza will be a homeless magnet without something to activate it (sorry a static selection of artwork isn't going to seriously attract pedestrian movement). There's also no reason for an urban plaza with Unity Plaza across the street. An easy modification would be for that entire triangular left over portion of the property along Magnolia, to be presented and marketed for future infill retail/development, similar to what was done to the Parador/Suntrust/VyStar garage, which was since resulted in the food truck court and Hyatt Place infill project. Also, without a major modification of the garages internal traffic flow, that 14' deep slot for future retail on Park will struggle to get a depth of more than 25' or so.

[tufsu1]

What I don't understand is what is really meant by, "conceptual".

DDRB has a two stage approval process. Conceptual approval is also given with minimal design data, and just general massing, zoning, and such. Design details are presented prior to Final approval. Sometimes these is a design workshop between the project team, city staff, and board members between the two approvals.

[Steve]

What I don't understand is what is really meant by, "conceptual".

DDRB has a two stage approval process. Conceptual approval is also given with minimal design data, and just general massing, zoning, and such. Design details are presented prior to Final approval. Sometimes these is a design workshop between the project team, city staff, and board members between the two approvals.

That's sort of my point. Conceptually, I can see why it was approved. On paper it's a parking garage replacing a retention pond with retail facing Park Street. All of that is good....until you get into the details and see that the design looked like a bunch of ideas thrown on a wall, the retail space isn't practical and it looks like it was included to check a box, and the urban park is boxed in and is destined to be a homeless shelter.

My concern is this - are they too far along to fix these things now that they got conceptual approval?

[thelakelander]

My concern is this - are they too far along to fix these things now that they got conceptual approval?

Looking at the ground floor plan, I don't see how that retail space on Park can gain realistic depth without increasing the height of the garage, which would increase the costs. Other than some facade treatment, I wouldn't expect much to change.

[thelakelander]

Sort of like the Parador garage from a few years back, the area (highlighted in yellow) where they're proposing a park (why, since Unity Plaza is across the street and needs all the density and people it can get?) could potentially be reserved for infill development. In addition, the space along Forest Street may be wide enough for temporary sidewalk kiosks. Both are ways to activate the site without changing the layout or cost of the garage itself.

[JaxAvondale]

My guess is that the park is for a place Blue Cross’ employees to hang out during lunch. While, the retail space is small, I could see a Nacho Taco type place working in that space.

[thelakelander]

They could just hang out in Unity Plaza since its directly across the street. My guess is the park is there because the garage is the shape of a rectangle and that triangle is a left over piece of property the design team didn't know what else to do with. A quick look around downtown suggests these types of left over spaces tend to become "plazas" of some sort.