A rezoning application filed late Friday shows that Preferred Growth Properties plans to develop a large mixed-use project next to the St. Johns Town Center and intends to pay for traffic improvements for better access.
Rogers Towers attorney T.R. Hainline Jr., who filed the application, said this morning the Birmingham, Ala.-based developer will pay for construction of additional turn lanes and a multiuse path for bicycles, pedestrians and joggers.
The Town Center/Gate Parkway Planned Unit Development summary filed Friday outlines 61.35 acres for the project, comprising 45.02 acres of uplands that can be developed and 16.33 acres of the lakes that border the development.
Preferred Growth Properties, a subsidiary of Books-A-Million, has a contract to buy the property from the Skinner family. The Skinners also sold the land for development of the 240-acre St. Johns Town Center, which opened a decade ago this month.
The Town Center/Gate Parkway project, which doesn’t have a formal name, is large.
According to a summary, the densities permitted include up to:
Access to the property will be at Gate Parkway and Town Center Parkway and/or Gate Parkway and Skinner Lake Drive, said the summary.
The current land use designation is CGC and RPI; no comprehensive plan amendment will be needed.
To ease traffic, improvements will be constructed at the intersection of Gate and Town Center parkways and to Town Center Parkway, said the summary.
Hainline said a lane will be added from Gate Parkway right onto Town Center Parkway, creating dual continuous right-turn lanes.
Also, dual left-turn lanes from Gate Parkway onto Town Center Parkway will be configured that don’t conflict with the dual right turn lanes, he said.
The developer will add access lanes at Gate and Town Center parkways into the now undeveloped land at that intersection.
There also will be several cuts for right-turns in and out in the area.
“We have done a traffic study that resulted in these lanes being added,” Hainline said.
The traffic improvements would be completed before building permits were issued for vertical construction he said.
Hainline said the application will be reviewed by the Jacksonville Planning Department staff and the Office of General Counsel. Once the application fee is calculated and paid, legislation will be drafted and introduced to City Council.
Hainline said legislation could be introduced in April or May and the hearings would take place in May-June, if the process continues on track.
Hainline referred questions about the timeframe of construction to Books-A-Million Real Estate Vice President Jay Turner, who was not available this morning.
He said the property sale could be completed this year.
Spokeswoman Misty Skipper with the Dalton Agency said previously there were no details about building sizes, potential retailers or whether the multifamily units would be apartments or condominiums.
Hainline said Preferred Growth Properties would develop the land and then lease or sell it to the users, although none are yet identified. He said Preferred Growth likely would sell the multifamily property to a developer.
The Cantrell & Morgan Inc. real estate firm, which has been working with Preferred Growth Properties, had posted a map on its website that showed the developable property among three parcels: 15.7-acre and 20.58-acre sites along Town Center Parkway and bordering the lake, and a 9.29-acre site along Gate Parkway.
St. Johns Town Center opened a decade ago this month on about 240 acres at Butler Boulevard and what is now the Interstate 295 East Beltway.
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