initially looked at the Southbank at the DCPS HQ<\/a>, but that deal didn’t happen so they’ve set their sights on the old Haskell building on Riverside Avenue in Brooklyn.<\/p>\nOn Thursday, Jacksonville’s Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB) approved a conceptual design for a 32-story senior living tower on the Northbank.<\/p>\n
The plan prompted a central debate at the meeting about whether adding hundreds of seniors to Brooklyn will be a benefit for the businesses right nearby<\/p>\n
“We’ve been a staple in the community for a long time, so it’s actually a great thing to see the growth in the community,” said Hollywood Cuts Owner Kofi Rashid.<\/p>\n
Rashid brought Hollywood Cuts to Brooklyn six years ago, and says he has generally welcomed the additions to the neighborhood to bring more clients his way.<\/p>\n
With that said, a 32-story senior living facility right across Riverside Avenue isn’t exactly what he envisioned.<\/p>\n
“We need to capitalize on a lot more family friendly entertainment other than parks, drive more dollars to the community,” said Rashid.<\/p>\n
He expressed his concern the demographic won’t be a major boost for his business or some of the ones around to the DDRB.<\/p>\n
Several members acknowledged where he’s coming from, but see it differently.<\/p>\n
“Active seasoned adults will contribute to downtown’s vibrancy to the Brooklyn neighborhood,” said DDRB Chair Linzee Ott.<\/p>\n
“There’s a bunch of parks out here. If I could visit my parents and take my kids to the park, what a wonderful opportunity,” said DDRB Member Joana Berling.<\/p>\n
The board approved a conceptual design so Fleet Landing could flesh the plans out some more.<\/p>\n
That may not be the only new tower coming to the riverfront, as Baptist Health presented its plan for a 15-story hotel next to the hospital on the Southbank.<\/p>\n
“We really think it’s maybe a third would be probably a stretch for our patients,” said a spokesperson with Baptist Health. “Two thirds of this is more likely amenity to our visitors.”<\/p>\n
The DDRB also voted to move that plan forward.<\/p>\n
“I think there’s a quality hotel desert on the Southbank, so this is a great addition,” said DDRB Member Frederick Jones.<\/p>\n
Fleet Landing representatives said they needed the conceptual design approval to get cracking on a more in-depth proposal, which they hope to have in about three months.<\/p>\n
The Baptist hotel is farther long, but both projects will eventually need to reach city council for the final say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fleet Landing has made it clear they’re looking for space for a demographic that needs it – seniors.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19137,13338,88786,88787,88790,23936,88788,116,118,117,88789,22398,6987],"class_list":["post-189997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-baptist-health","tag-brooklyn","tag-conceptual-design","tag-ddrb","tag-development-review-board","tag-fleet-landing","tag-hollywood-cuts","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-riverside-avenue","tag-senior-living","tag-southbank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}