An artist's rendering of the Artea at Southbank apartment community.
DYNAMIK Design is the architect.
EnVision Design + Engineering and landscape architecture/planning firm Marquis Latimer + Halback also are working on the project.
Corner Lot wants to break ground in the second quarter of 2022.
The east elevation of the apartments.
| The north and south elevations.
The east elevation of the apartments.
In addition to the parking garage, the apartment structure will wrap around three outdoor courtyards and a pool.
The apartment site is the wooded area south of the Duval County Public Schools
The 3.87-acre site bounded by the Prudential Financial building’s surface parking lot, Broadcast Place, the Fuller Warren Bridge and Montana Street.
The community will have 340 units.
The connectivity plan for the site.
The view of the apartments from the Fuller Warren Bridge.
Corner Lot Development Group’s plan to build a 340-unit, four-story apartment building on land leased from the Jacksonville Transportation Authority on the Downtown Southbank is a step closer to construction.
The Downtown Development Review Board voted 7-0 on Oct. 14 to award the estimated $80 million project conceptual design approval.
Board member Joseph Loretta was absent for the vote.
A DDRB staff report says would include a four-level, 425-space parking garage on the 3.87-acre site bounded by the Prudential Financial building’s surface parking lot, Broadcast Place, the Fuller Warren Bridge and Montana Street.
Board members appeared underwhelmed by what J. Brent Allen called Artea’s “cookie-cutter” design. Brenna Durden said the architecture is “less than thrilling and inspiring.”
Allen and other board members agreed with Corner Lot representatives that the property’s long and narrow dimensions could make planning the complex challenging, but the board used Artea as an example of several like-designed apartment projects trending Downtown.
DDRB staff recommended the board members push design quality standards while the Downtown Investment Authority works to redraft the Northbank and Southbank’s policy guidelines this year.
“I think us as a board, we have a responsibility to do. And that is not pack Downtown — in the immediate areas of Downtown — with cookie-cutter apartment complexes. And with all due respect, that’s exactly what this is. We passed a couple others very recently as well, and I think we’re flirting with danger on that,” Allen said.
The project must return to the DDRB for final design approval before the project can break ground.
Corner Lot CEO Andy Allen said Oct. 7 that the company likely will seek a Recapture Enhanced Value Grant tax refund from the city through the Downtown Investment Authority for what will be a market-rate apartment project.
Board members praised the project for its plan to connect residents with JTA’s nearby transportation infrastructure.
JTA documents show it signed a 99-year ground lease with the Jacksonville-based developer.
The property is northeast of JTA’s Kings Avenue parking garage and Skyway Station and southwest of the RiversEdge master development site, formerly called The District.
Artea is south of the Duval County Public Schools headquarters and northwest of WJXT TV-4.
Andy Allen and JTA officials say the Artea project is part of the transportation authority’s Transit-Oriented Development Program.
The idea is to combine residential, office, retail or mixed-use projects with direct or nearby access to public transportation options.
A JTA news release said Corner Lot’s Southbank proposal is the third Transit-Oriented Development project since 2020.
In May 2020, the JTA opened the Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center at LaVilla, which brings all JTA public transportation services together in a centralized hub and administrative headquarters.
In September, JTA and KIPP Jacksonville held a ribbon-cutting for the KIPP Voice Academy transit-oriented development on the First Coast Flyer Green Line in Jacksonville’s Brentwood neighborhood.
Andy Allen said Oct. 7 that Artea has been in the works for 18 to 24 months, including a pause during the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the lease documents, Corner Lot will pay a partial base rent of $100,200 per year when it starts horizontal construction.
That bumps to $272,000 annually after the company receives its certificate of occupancy from the city with a 10% increase every four years. At year 12, the increases level off to 2% annually.
The lease says Corner Lot will develop a connection to Prudential Drive with “walkability” to JTA’s Kings Avenue Skyway Station and nearby bus rapid transit and parking garage facilities.
Corner Lot will pay up to 50% of the costs to build the connection but not more than $75,000, according to the lease terms.
The lease also limits the project to a residential project and does not allow a mixed-use like retail or restaurant.
The JTA board voted in January to allow CEO Nathaniel Ford to negotiate the deal with Corner Lot.
Corner Lot wants to break ground in the second quarter of 2022.
DDRB documents show the property will be developed through the development group’s Corner Lot Living and DYNAMIK Design is the architect.
EnVision Design + Engineering and landscape architecture/planning firm Marquis Latimer + Halback also are working on the project.
The renderings show a covered rooftop terrace for residents.
In addition to the parking garage, the apartment structure will wrap around three outdoor courtyards and a pool.
The apartment would feature a 7,000-square-foot leasing office and indoor resident amenity space facing Broadcast Place.
Real estate law firm Driver, McAfee, Hawthorne & Diebenow is representing the development team for the Artea apartments.
