15 West 6th Street
image courtesy of Meetro Jacksonville

I had a chance to speak with Ennis Davis of Metro Jacksonville fame about his project at 15 West 6th Street in Springfield. I asked him a few questions about this exciting new work/live developement project coming to Springfield. If you have any additional questions on this project please leave a question in the comment area. Thanks so much to Ennis for taking the time to answer these questions.

Where there any unique challenges to this project?
There were several challenges to overcome. They included rezoning the land to allow a use never mentioned in Jacksonville’s zoning code and trying to convince local banks on a unique project in a neighborhood that several were still not sold on. However, the most unique challenge was trying to develop the concept of a contemporary structure, with all the modern characteristics of urban living, such as roof terraces, exposed HVAC systems and polished concrete floors, yet still fit within the historical vibe of Springfield and the site’s immediate surroundings.

Would this project qualify as an “urban infill development”? Please describe the concept and how does it benefit the neighborhood.
Yes, this would be considered urban infill, because we’re building a new structure on a piece of land that’s been used for surface parking, for the last 40 years. When complete, outside of the Masonic Lodge’s fenced in parking lot, that entire of block of 6th Street will have a continuous building edge with a diverse mix of uses fronting the sidewalk.

The live/work concept makes it possible for someone to operate a small business on the bottom floor of their residence. 100 years ago it was a necessity and a major component in creating vibrant street life. The difference between then and now is yesterdays live/work residents ran grocery stores and repair shops, while today’s residents are more apt to be web designers, real estate brokers, writers, artists and sculptors.

The live/work concept benefits the community by bringing back the spice of residential interaction, comfort, diversity and security all within a walkable environment, which is what Main Street was during it’s glory years.

How do you feel about the fact that so many planned developments (8th and Pearl, Lofts on Main) are moving painfully slow. So slow in fact some residents feel these projects will never happen?

One thing I’ve learned with this project is the development process takes time. During the course of rezoning and permitting to sales and financing, if one simple thing goes wrong, it can set you back a few months and in most circumstances, things will come up to slow you down. My advice to residents is to be patient. Knowing a little about some of these developments, I believe 2007 is the year we’ll see construction finally start on a few of these.

Why Springfield and not Downtown, Brooklyn or Riverside?
My educational background is urban architecture and planning. A large percentage of my college days were spent exploring the architecture, development patterns and vibrant scenes of several of the countries most urban cities. One thing those places had in common was a historical feel and vibe that couldn’t be recreated from scratch. In the summer of 2003, I came up to Jacksonville for a friend’s wedding, took a drive around town and discovered Springfield. With it’s architecture, gridded streets, mature landscape, urban parks and central location it had that unique urban vibe I had longed for after living in Central Florida for a few years. Four months later I put my house up for sale and made the move to Jacksonville, with an intent to one day become apart of Springfield’s renaissance.

The post on Metro Jacksonville describes this as “a new trend of urban and pedestrian oriented infill development that will soon become a major player in Springfield.” Why do you use the term trend? It implies more developments like this are coming.
From my past experience, Jacksonville, in general, is a few years behind most cities of similar size, in regards to the urban development trends currently sweeping the nation. With people from other areas moving to this city on a daily basis, it’s only a matter of time before the developments they’re familiar with take off here.

In addition to this, Springfield’s land values have risen rapidly in the last few years. You combine the current zoning overlay with small lots and high asking prices in commercial corridors such as 8th & Main and the only thing truly viable is dense compact pedestrian friendly mixed-use projects. Since we first purchased the 6th Street property, this idea has held true with announcements such as Cesery’s development and 8th & Pearl.

Do you think this development will spur any me-too developments? Or maybe kick some of the other player into action?
Yes. The rowhouse concept, is just as old as sliced bread, but new to Jacksonville has several advantages over traditional Jacksonville multifamily uses. For the developer, you can get more individual units on a piece of property, get around traditional local financing methods and it makes it easy to build additional units, based on the market’s demands. For the end user, the zero lot line concept eliminates common areas and eliminates home owner’s association fees in the process. This means you can purchase a newly constructed decent size unit at an affordable price, compared to what’s currently being offered in the market. There’s a reason, this type of development has become trendy across the country and it’s only a matter of time before it takes Jacksonville by storm.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 9:28 am and is filed under Interview, Springfield. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.