Great Ideas; No Action: 10 Projects That Never Happened
Over the past 100 years, Jacksonville has been an epicenter of economic opportunity. It's also been a place where dreams have come to die. Here's 10 proposals with some merit that, for a variety of reasons, ultimately failed to materialize into reality.
Published April 6, 2016 in History - MetroJacksonville.com
This Ocean Street fish market would have been in the center of Simons' proposed Jacksonville Quay.
Proposed by Jacksonville city planner George W. Simons, Jr. in 1929, The Quay would have been a public owned riverfront market, taking up three blocks of the Northbank between Main and Market Streets. It would have been a centralized place where goods from at least 17 surrounding counties would have been traded and sold to the public. The site was seen ideal because it had good road, rail, water access and it was central to the city's residents. It was also viewed as something that would economically enhance the downtown waterfront.
In fact, the Florida Times-Union stated "the creation of the quayage would greatly improve the appearance of the waterfront in that area and would enhance the value of the adjoining property."
So what ended up happening? Nothing. Like many great ideas throughout time, the Quay never made it off the drawing board. Today, this site is occupied by the Hyatt Regency Riverfront hotel and the Jacksonville Landing's riverfront parking lot.
Today, this site is occupied by the Hyatt and the Landing's parking lot.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-may-the-jacksonville-quay
2. The Park That Got Away
Shortly after being elected, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in 1933. The WPA was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads during the Great Depression.
In 1934, to put Jacksonville residents back to work, the WPA offered to develop a 14-mile, 3,500-acre metropolitan park system for the City. The urban green space would have begun at the mouth of the Ribault River, moving west until reaching Cedar Creek. From that point, the park would have followed Cedar Creek and the Ortega River, ending where the Ortega meets the St. Johns, forming a greenbelt around urban Jacksonville. A major part of this plan would have been to connect the Ribault and Ortega Rivers at their headwaters, thus virtually converting urban Jacksonville into an island. In addition to this, miles of driveways, walks, bridle paths and picnic shelters were to be constructed. In total, the continuous green space circling the city's core would have been over four times larger than New York's Central Park.
The WPA saw this urban park system as something that would stimulate economic development throughout Jacksonville. Jacksonville financier Ed Ball went as far as to claim it would generate $30 million annually in economic impact. To entice the city to move forward with the park plan, the WPA offered to provide $735,000 to purchase the property needed to construct the urban greenway.
However, what could have been Jacksonville’s version of San Diego’s Balboa Park would not happen. City leaders did not see the value of spending their money on a park this size when residents could already visit the woods anytime on their own.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-dec-the-park-that-got-away
3. The Timuquana Bridge
Tired of sitting in rush hour traffic on the Fuller Warren and Buckman Bridges? Today's congestion isn't the result of an oversight made by those in the road building industry. 51 years ago, Governor Claude Kirk, Jr. planned to resolve the city's river crossing problems with his 16-year road building program. One of the most expensive items in the program was the proposed Timuquana Bridge and Tunnel project.
Estimated to cost $75.7 million, the river crossing would have directly connected Venetia, Westconnett, ans San Jose with a two mile tunnel and one-mile low-level bridge. The tunnel segment would have started in the vicinity of the CSX "A" Line railroad tracks paralleling Roosevelt Boulevard, pushed under Venetia and a portion of the St. Johns River, before surfacing to a low-level bridge. Its construction would have made a drive from Jacksonville Beach (via Butler Boulevard), to Cecil Field (via 103rd Street/Timuquana Road), a straight shot.
While the project had merit from a regional connectivity standpoint, its construction of the would require the destruction of many houses in exclusive neighborhoods on both sides of the river. Accordingly, there was little to no political support for the idea from the start. This decision will forever leave us struggling to get the upper hand on our river crossing traffic congestion situation.
The $39.4 million 8th Street bridge plan would have possibly ripped apart Springfield and East Jacksonville to connect Arlington with the Westside. It was included in Governor Claude Kirk, Jr's 16-year road building program.
4. Freedom Commerce Centre Mall
In the late 90’s, during a booming real estate market, plans began to develop for two mega retail centers: the familiar St. Johns Town Center and the Freedom Commerce Centre by West Palm Beach-based Goodman Company. Goodman's $200 million lifestyle center would have been located off I-95 between Baymeadows Road and Philips Highway. The project was to include 1.2 million square feet of retail space and 2.5 million square feet of office space. Goodman's plans for Freedom Commerce Center also included extending Sunbeam Road from Philips Highway to Southside Boulevard by building an overpass spanning Interstate 95.
Plans called for the initial phases of the project to open in early 2002, a few years before the then proposed St. Johns Town Center. According to Goodman's senior vice president of development John Dowd, " it never hurts to be able to be the first in the market."
It was a race against time and money. Both entered development in the early 2000’s. At the time, the economy was teetering on the edge of a steep cliff, threatened by the premise of war and a declining stock market. Co-existence was a gamble that could destroy the side with the losing hand. One would snag the high-end retailers and the other would be left with the scraps. St. Johns Town Center eventually became reality while controversy over filling in hundreds of acres of wetlands doomed Goodman's Freedom Commerce project.
In 2006, an agreement was reached that resulted in Goodman being given 357 acres in northern St. Johns County in exchange for turning over 665 acres at the commerce center to the St. Johns River Water Management District.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-nov-exploring-freedom-commerce-center
5. Trilegacy Group, LLC.'s The Shipyards
Image courtesy of the Times Union.
"Time flies when you're having fun"... blogging? Back in 2003, when the forum that would grow into Metro Jacksonville started up, the pending development of the Shipyards was the talk of the town.
It's hard to believe that if the original redevelopment plan for the Shipyards was successful, it would have been built-out five years ago. In 2001, after acquiring the former shipyards, TriLegacy Group, LLC. announced plans for a ten-year development that would include two office towers totaling 1 million square feet of first-class space, 662 residential units, 150 boat slips and a 350-room hotel, along with a 16.8-acre city park. These plans came as a result of Mayor John Delaney convincing the Spence family to redevelop the site as a mixed-use property. Prior to this, the family had acquired the site to expand their cold storage logistics business.
A public private partnership, the City of Jacksonville provided $40 million in tax-exempt bonds for the $865 million Shipyard's proposed public improvements. Things got off to a great start with the groundbreaking of the 99-unit One Shipyard Place in 2004. That same year, Fidelity National Financial considered building an 18-story, 500,000 square foot office tower as a part of TriLegacy's development.
Fidelity eventually decided to expand on Riverside Avenue and the relationship between TriLegacy and the City fell apart, despite the first phase of the development, One Shipyard Place, already being under construction. Today, over a decade later, the future of the Shipyards site is still in doubt.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-mar-the-different-faces-of-the-jacksonville-shipyards/page/1
6. The City of New Duval
40 years ago, long before the rise in popularity of developments like Nocatee and Oakleaf, the Mid America Corporation announced their plans to construct the city of New Duval. Situated outside the I-295 West Beltway and north of I-10, New Duval was approved as a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) in 1973.
Plans for New Duval called for 1,700 acres of industrial development, 43 acres of commercial land uses, and 13,000 residential units. It was to include its own downtown with skyscrapers and an internal monorail system. In addition, Sawgrass and the Tournament Players Club were anticipated to be held at New Duval. At the time, the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) was brought in to provide rail service to the industrial areas of New Duval. Recessions, later that decade, put an end to Mid America's dream, but not before NS had constructed a five-mile industrial spur to the property off their main line. Rather than let the development fall apart, NS acquired the entire property, growing pine trees, while waiting for development to reach their vicinity.
After decades of waiting for growth to reach New Duval's rural location, the land was developed into the 3,298-acre Westlake Industrial Park. Today, Westlake is anchored by the major logistics hubs for BJ's Wholesale Club and Southeast Toyota.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jul-westlake-and-westside-the-nocatee-of-jax-industry
7. The Downtown People Mover
Since the Skyway actually exists, it being on this list might confuse a few people. However, the Skyway system we have today is not what was initially proposed for Jacksonville's urban core four decades ago. The concept of a downtown people mover was originated in the early 1970's as part of a comprehensive mobility plan. In those days, it was proposed to be a 4.6 mile people mover that would serve as the first phase of a 42-mile, $800 million regional rapid transit system carrying 57,000 riders each day.
The Downtown People Mover itself would have had two distinct lines. One connecting UF Health Jacksonville with EverBank Field and another tying the Southbank with the old Jacksonville Terminal (Prime Osborn Convention Center). By the time funding materialized, Jacksonville's ambitious plans for mass transit had already been castrated. By this time, in an effort to concentrate only on downtown, the system's total length had been reduced to 2.5-miles. By the time the system was completed in 2000, transit planners had found a way to spend $184 million to miss the stadium, the medical center and Springfield's residents. The city had also successfully killed off much of the vibrant downtown environment that led to the Skyway being proposed in the first place. Needless to say, the much maligned train is no where close to meeting its initial projections or delivering transit riders to where they live or want to go. Sometimes its best to not deviate from your initial plans.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2006-oct-downtown-frankenstein-the-skyway-screwing-up-the-idea-of-mass-transit
8. River Watch Tower
Jacksonville is a city that loves her sugar daddies, so when Orlando businessman Cameron Kuhn flew into our world, he entered with great fanfare. Known for being in the forefront of downtown Orlando's late 1990s/early 2000s revitalization, Kuhn was expected to quickly become downtown Jacksonville's savior. Early on, Kuhn Companies of Orlando lived up the hype snapping up several high profile downtown buildings and properties. However, it was his River Watch Tower proposal in 2006 that had the potential to immediately reshape the look of the city.
River Watch was envision to have a prominent place in the Northbank skyline when it was originally proposed in 2006. River Watch replaced a plan by Capital Partners to develop a 12-story, 197-unit Westin Hotel at the intersection of Hogan Street and Independent Drive. Proposed by the Kuhn Companies of Orlando, the 33-story building would have included a four star hotel, 187 residential condominium units and street level retail adjacent to the Jacksonville Landing. With the residential condominium market softening, Kuhn eliminated the residential component in mid-2007. The hotel plan would die before coming reality as well when Kuhn went belly up in 2008, declaring bankruptcy. Determined to see development on this site, Jacksonville settled for a parking garage, which was recently completed in 2015.
9. Amtrak: Flagler Line Will Happen
On July 31, 1968, the last passenger rail train on the Florida East Coast Railway completed its run. Ever since passenger rail advocates have been lusting for the day that riding a train between Jacksonville and Miami would a realistic activity again. In 2013, it appeared these dreams were well on their way to reality. With $118 million committed in FDOT's 2013 work program budget, plans for an Amtrak passenger rail service to begin operating between Jacksonville and Miami were alive and well. In 2012, Amtrak went as far as to tell the corridor's potential 8 million annual passengers that they were coming.
"This is a new year, and it's going to happen. We are committed to making this happen," Michael Latiff, Amtrak's senior officer for station programming and planning.
Their 326-mile "Flagler Line" was to include new train stations between Jacksonville and Miami, in St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, Titusville, Cocoa/Rockledge, Melbourne, Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, and Stuart. Initial plans call for two trains per day in each direction with the potential to expand to corridor service (a hybrid of intercity and commuter rail) in future phases. Service was anticipated to be up and running as early as February 2013.
So what happened to a project expected to create 2,100 construction jobs and 6,300 jobs through 2025 that even the Treasure Coast wanted? We're still trying to figure that out. Let's just say Amtrak couldn't come up with their side of the cash, All Aboard Florida materialized and FEC's priorities changed. Unfortunately, right now the loser in this situation is Jacksonville.
For more information: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-jan-amtrak-flagler-line-will-happen
10. The St. John
In January 2004, a group led by Krook Douglass Development of Boyton Beach and Renaissance Realty Associates of Palm City acquired the Aetna Building for $39 million. Within a month, they (the South Shore Group) announced plans to bring add a bit of Dubai to the city's skyline with the addition of twin 48-story condominiums in the Aetna's parking lots. In addition to adding 550 residential units downtown, the 750-foot towers were destined to become the city's tallest.
In 2005, Houston-based Hines Interests LP, swooped into town, taking over and modifying the proposal into a 43-story, all glass tower with 261 condo units and 15 penthouses. Claiming no public incentives would be needed, Hines jump-started pre-construction sales with condominium prices ranging from $380,000 to $1.3 million. Ground-breaking was scheduled for the second quarter of 2006 and construction was anticipated to finish in 2008.
As the theme of this article goes, what was anticipated did not materialize. With Jacksonville's economy quickly going down the tube, Hines put the breaks on the project in October 2007, saying it would delay the all-glass tower's construction until real estate conditions in Northeast Florida were more favorable. Nine years have passed and we're still waiting.
Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com
This article can be found at: http://dev.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-apr-great-ideas-no-action-10-projects-that-never-happened
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