What is an Edge City?

Over the Southside’s Blue Cross Blue Shield campus.

The term, Edge City, was popularized in the 1991 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Joel Garreau, who established its current meaning while working as a reporter for the Washington Post. Garreau argues that the edge city has become the standard form of urban growth worldwide, representing a 20th-century urban form unlike that of the 19th-century central downtown.

Edge Cities typically consist of mid-rise office towers surrounded by massive surface parking lots and manicured lawns. Instead of a traditional street grid, their infrastructure networks consist of winding parkways (often lacking sidewalks) that feed into arterial roads and freeway ramps. They develop at or near freeway intersections and airports and they rarely include heavy industry. They are large geographically because they are built at automobile scale.

Edge Cities are impossible without the automobile. In Jacksonville, the J. T. Butler Boulevard corridor, represents the city’s first true example of an Edge City. Because it stands as the region’s only emerging Edge City, we have decided to highlight the continued densification of the corridor on a quarterly basis.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_city

Spring 2018 Construction Update

1. 7987 A C Skinner Parkway

300 apartment units are being built on a 15-acre site being developed by Killashee Investments and A.C. Packer at 7987 A C Skinner Parkway.

For more information: https://jacksonville.com/business/2014-07-07/story/southeast-jacksonville-apartment-boom-continues-plan-new-complex-skinner

2. Vistakon Inc.

Jacksonville-based Vistakon recently completed a $4.6 million solvent tank farm at it’s disposable contact lenses manufacturing complex in Deerwood Park. Vistakon is in the process of investing $300 million to expand the manufacturing complex over the next few years. The expansion project is expected to create 100 high-wage jobs and add 35,000 square feet to the manufacturing complex. The new manufacturing space will include five new production lines, the tank farm, a 3D printing center and a site for medical device laboratory test method development.

3. JTB Apartments

JTB is a 350-unit complex being built by Killashee Investments near the southwest quadrant of the Southside/Butler Boulevard intersection. Featuring four five-story buildings and seven two-story carriage houses at the cost of $50 million, site work on the 13-acre luxury apartment development is underway.

For more information: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/jtb-vera-apartments-top-63-million

4. 9722 Touchton Road

Touchton Building LLC. is in the process of developing a 12,015 commercial shell building at 9722 Touchton Road for $961,000.

For more information: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/development-today-1116

5. The Jaxson Apartments

Construction continues on The Jaxson. The $94 million Tribridge Residential apartment community will contain 287 units on 9.06 acres at Tropea Way. The development is located in Core Property Capital’s Town Center Promenade near the intersection of Town Center Parkway and River Marsh Drive. For more information: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/tribridge-building-49-million-apartment-community-town-center-promenade

6. Tru by Hilton

Construction continues on Jacksonville’s first Tru by Hilton. The $9.7 million 4-story, 98-room hotel brand is designed to attract leisure and corporate travelers, particularly millennials. The project is located in Core Property Capital’s Town Center Promenade development across the street from St. Johns Town Cetner.

For more information: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/tru-hilton-coming-town-center-promenade-brand-targets-millennials

7. Freddy’s Steakburgers

Vertical construction is underway on Jacksonville’s third Freddy’s Steakburgers restaurant. The $800,000, 3,213-square-foot restaurant construction site is located across from the St. Johns Town Center in Core Property Capital’s Town Center Promenade development.

For more information: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/freddys-approved-for-town-center-promenade