Urban Jacksonville

I spoke with Logan Rink, a partner at Design Cooperative, LLC, and asked him a few questions about Uptown Market, the grocery component of the 3rd and Main development.

This is the most exciting project going on in the core right now. Springfield has not seen new retail development on Main Street in 50+ years. I just made that number up, but it’s something like that. In addition, this project is progressing rapidly and already changing the skyline of Main Street.

Tell me a little about the company you work for
Design Cooperative, LLC is our Architecture and Interior Design firm and we’re trying to service the urban design niche. Obviously that is where our passion is and we think that we have a good understanding of the urban design market and the specific challenges related to urban projects.

More of the standard issue info is on our website www.designcooperativefla.com, clearly we are not the standard issue design firm. The traditional “how many hours is this going to take and when I have reached the hours budgeted for the project I give no more effort” does not work for us. We like to approach the project with the idea that we are going to give the job the attention it deserves to get it done properly. We have the benefit of being a small lean firm with the resources to scale ourselves properly for the task at hand and still control the quality of the design.

Describe the project you are working on for the 3rd and Main project. How is this project different from City Market downtown and how is it the same
Uptown Market is a tenant of the 3rd and Main mixed use development. The project is being developed by the Cesery Companies. We have designed the Uptown market to have a connection to City Market (The Library).

The connection is both aesthetic and operation. In other words the Uptown market should feel like and operate much like a scaled down version of the City Market, thought the program is slightly different. The space is approximately 2,600 sqft. with a full kitchen, deli and grocery components.

The kitchen will serve breakfast and lunch with cafÃƒÂ© seating for 40 and outdoor seating for an additional 28. The deli will serve the standards plus prepared foods (rotisserie chicken, sandwiches, salads and some other special creations from Eddie Escriba, Burrito Gallery chef). The deli items can be eaten in or taken out. The grocery component will carry wine, beer, dairy, dry goods as well as some specialty items like sauces, spreads and some Uptown Market proprietary items.