Final Renderings: Pearl Street District | Block N-5

[thelakelander]

A look at a plan to renovate an existing five story parking garage to include more than 10,000 square feet of ground floor along Beaver Street. A part of Gateway Jax's proposed Pearl Street District development, the Block N5 garage project will seek Downtown Development Review Board final approval on October 10, 2024.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/final-renderings-pearl-street-district-block-n-5/

[Steve]

For what it is currently (a drab parking garage with no life), this is badly needed. Really cool retrofit as this - with the retail spaces fully built out - will be much more positive for the area than the 120-ish spaces that we're losing here.

[Zac T]

I badly wish something similar would happen to the garage across from the Jessie at Forsyth & Ocean. It's such an eyesore

[BridgeTroll]

Would love to see it... but have seen soooooooooo many of these over the years I'm just skeptical. Color me jaded...

[jaxlongtimer]

From the renderings and drawings, it looks to me like they will be expanding the 3rd and 4th floors of the garage out over the retail area to add more spaces on those levels.  Am I seeing this correctly?  If so, a trade off to the street level retail will be that the upper part of the parking structure will be more imposing on W. Beaver Street.

[acme54321]

I badly wish something similar would happen to the garage across from the Jessie at Forsyth & Ocean. It's such an eyesore

That piece of garbage needs to be scraped from the earth.

[Charles Hunter]

From the renderings and drawings, it looks to me like they will be expanding the 3rd and 4th floors of the garage out over the retail area to add more spaces on those levels.  Am I seeing this correctly?  If so, a trade off to the street level retail will be that the upper part of the parking structure will be more imposing on W. Beaver Street.

It is hard to tell, but from the Floor Plans, it doesn't look like floors 3-5 are being expanded.

[Alex Sifakis]

The garage isn’t being expanded. We are losing some spaces on the first two floors and in place of those spaces adding on a significant amount of ground floor retail (some of which is outside the envelope of the current garage) and a new stair/elevator core so it will be closer to the residential using the garage.

[jaxlongtimer]

The garage isn’t being expanded. We are losing some spaces on the first two floors and in place of those spaces adding on a significant amount of ground floor retail (some of which is outside the envelope of the current garage) and a new stair/elevator core so it will be closer to the residential using the garage.

Alex, thanks for the clarification.  I considered that might be an option but figured it unlikely as it would be too hard to implement or that you would not want to give up any parking spaces already in place.  Apparently not .

[urban_]

Seems very strange that they'd be adding a lane for on-street parking for the "activation" of a parking garage. This would make West Beaver Street a 5-lane road, retaining the 4 lanes on the corner. I'd love to see that existing rightmost westbound lane turn into the new parking lane (if any parking lane is necessary adjacent to a parking garage), allowing for a curb extension to facilitate pedestrian crossings, which will likely be extremely frequent assuming their plans come to fruition for the district.
Seems to me that there's already so much focus on automobile travel given that the parking garage will remain a parking garage. Where is the space for anyone outside of a car to move? For instance, should bicyclists and pedestrians be mixed on the already-cramped sidewalk, or should they be at risk of being doored riding adjacent to parked cars on this 4-lane road? This block is not far at all from the Hogan corridor in which the city is focused on facilitating ped/bike travel.

[Charles Hunter]

Good catch, I had not noticed the added parking lane.  Perhaps those spaces are to serve the new businesses going into that face of the garage.

Interestingly, the Draft 2050 Cost Feasible Plan from the North Florida TPO includes a project to construct "Context-sensitive improvements: Safety, Bicycle, Pedestrian and [intersection upgrades*]" with $1,650,000 proposed for Construction in 2029 or 2030. The project limits are from I-95 to Liberty Street.

* the table cell with the project description is cut off, but similar context-sensitive projects include "and intersection upgrades."

[Alex Sifakis]

Beaver street will be going from four lanes (two in either direction) to two lanes (one lane in either direction) with on street parking and a bike/ped path.

[jcjohnpaint]

From 95 to Liberty? I didn’t know that. Great news

[Charles Hunter]

Beaver street will be going from four lanes (two in either direction) to two lanes (one lane in either direction) with on street parking and a bike/ped path.

A rendering showing that would be helpful. Or, is the 'context-sensitive' conversion to 'iffy' a project?

[Ken_FSU]

Really love this project. Great retrofit, and great placemaking in general.