Adams Street Development Update!

[bobliocatt]

On Saturday, I parked my car and decided to walk along Adams Street to personally see the progress being made on each proposed project. Here's the results of what I noticed.

Jacksonville Bank Building (white 10 story tower on the left)

Jax Bank is in the process of moving their headquarters into the tower, as well as, opening a 3,000sf bank branch there. Construction has also already started on a Japanese restaurant named Shogun.

New Restaurants

a couple of new restaurants have also already opened or will be opening soon along the block of Adams, between Laura St. & Hogan St. Zodiac Grill has moved to the corner of Adams & Hogan, while a seafood joint called Fish Finz has opened in Zodiac's old location. The Mudville Grill (old Gordo's location) looks like it could be opening any day now. Also work is still underway on the Ieyasu Japanese Restaurant in the Knigh Building. I noticed that every dining establishment along the stretch offers a different type of food, which I found pretty interesting.

The Burrito Gallery & Bar

This building, across the street from the existing library, is looking pretty good. It now has a cool urban mural on the side of it. A copy of the floor plans, tape to the front window, shows that this bar will also have an outdoor patio & stage, in the back, a sidewalk dining area, and space for another restaurant or bar on the second level. Hopefully, someone will by the vacant building, just east of it, and put something offering nightlife entertainment there. That would help connect the area to the popular London Bridge Pub, on the corner of Ocean and Adams.

The Carlington

Crews have now painted the sides of the building a brick red color to match the front brick facade. Also, retail store fronts are now taking shape. However, no work on the parking garage, on Monroe St., has begun yet.

The Lerner Shops Building

Talk about starting construction quick, crews were already in this building on Saturday morning doing what appeared to be plumbing work on the first floor. From what I saw, that building does look to be already gutted and in pretty good shape, meaning construction won't take as long as some of the other adaptive reuse projects.

Public Library

The library is just about topped off and construction crews are no working on interior walls and mechanical systems. It still looks like they have a long way to go.

11 East Forsyth

downtown's first historic loft restoration project is now 98% full. Its developers are planning to convert it into condos in the future to make even a larger profit. Negotiations are also under way for an Atlanta Bread franchise to open a location on the corner of Main St. & Forysth in the building. Parking would be available in on the first floor of 11 East's parking garage off of Adams Street.

[Dale]

Good job ? And it looks like they've replaced the streetlamps at Hemming Plaza ?

[bobliocatt]

yeah, it looks like they have slowly been replacing street lights through out downtown.

[vicupstate]

Great pics as always Lakelander. I really appreciate seeing these since I am not there yet.

Adams St. has so much potential going on, it is really exciting to see. There is still more potential to be realized, ie. the Furchgotts bldg at Adams & Hogan (Zodiac) and the Wachovia bldg on the opposing corner, that Wachovia just sold.

Dale, yes the tacky 70's light fixtures in Hemming Plaza have been replaced with the city's historic replica posts. Hemming Plaza really is a great urban park now. It has come a long way from the pre-St. James renovation days. Virtually every bldg facing the park has had significant changes since then.

[DavePaulk]

I had not heard about the Burrito Gallery and Bar, but it already has me excited about it's completion. It sounds like a really great place.

[Urban_Legend]

Those pics are awesome! I'm actually typing this post from the current main library (yuck) on Forsyth. It's so retro in here. They have a model on display, showing the new library. I can't wait for that to open. I didn't know Atlanta Bread Co. was opening in 11E, but that's really cool. It'll be awesome when all the ground level retail finally fills up!

[bobliocatt]

Here's the last article concerning Atlanta Bread opening an outlet at 11 East, back on May 3, 2004, in the Times-Union.

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Downtown bread

Atlanta Bread franchise owner Keith Pakbaz said Friday that he is working with the chain's main office about opening a restaurant at 11 E. Forsyth St. downtown and expects to know within a month whether a deal would work.

"We are working on that right now," Pakbaz said.

The time-frame matches that of Mark Farrell, president of Vestcor Cos., which redeveloped the building into 127 apartments. Farrell said Friday that he was "not at liberty to say" which restaurant groups were interested in the ground-floor location, but that "we are hoping to have decisions made within 30 days."

Farrell said that he was talking with three groups and declined to identify any of them.

Once a decision is made, "then the group would have to come in and do their tenant finish, which might take 90 days. Hopefully within six months, we'll have somebody operating."

Farrell said he was talking with both franchise and independent groups, and said all were "high quality."

He prefers that the restaurant serve breakfast, lunch and dinner to serve residents and the neighborhood, although a full day of meals is not a requirement for the lease. The space is 4,500 square feet and the number of seats depends on the operator, he said.

Farrell would like to see a lease of at least five years. Customer parking would be available on the first floor of the parking garage behind the building and on the street.

Pakbaz, who owns the Atlanta Bread on San Jose Boulevard, said that he was not aware of any other restaurant groups negotiating with Vestcor.

If it opened at 11 E. Forsyth St., Atlanta Bread would open for breakfast, lunch and dinner "and see how it works," Pakbaz said. "We're going to stay open as long as we make money."

Pakbaz said that Atlanta Bread corporate decisionmakers would need to approve the location. In addition to market demand and costs, security is another factor, he said.

Pakbaz said some of the operation's 20 to 25 employees would work after hours. "Once we close, we bake all night," he said.

Farrell confirmed in October that Atlanta Bread was one of several retail operations in discussion for the space, and declined to identify the others.

However, Farrell sent an e-mail to the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission in September saying that Atlanta Bread was interested in incentives from the city for tenant improvements to the space.

[wolfdawg54]

Those are neat projects. which ones will be ready by the Super Bowl?

[bobliocatt]

^all of them will be completed before the super bowl.

[wolfdawg54]

That is good news!