The city, through its Capital Improvement Plan, is making improvements required by Major League Baseball to the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, soon to be called VyStar Ballpark.
At its meeting Dec. 19, the Downtown Development Review Board watched a presentation of an addition oriented north-south and parallel to right field.
The stadium, at 301 A Philip Randolph Blvd., is the home of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp Triple-A baseball team, a Miami Marlins affiliate.
The two-story, 9,150-square-foot building will house an additional Jumbo Shrimp team merchandise store, hospitality area overlooking the field, a commercial kitchen, storage space and administrative offices.
The building is part of Project Next, the city’s $31.8 million upgrade plan for the ballpark scheduled to be completed by the season’s opening day April 1, 2025.
The property, part of the Better Jacksonville Plan, is zoned Planned Unit Development.
As such, the DDRB does not have jurisdiction to modify the design, providing the design fits requirements specified in the zoning that went into effect in 2001.
The zoning requires that “there will be common unifying elements in the architectural design,” and “materials and colors will complement the character of East Jacksonville with the simple use of undecorated, but durable materials such as steel, glass and brick.”
According to the staff report submitted with the presentation, “Essentially, the PUD states that buildings are to have an industrial character with the utilization of undecorated brick, steel and glass. There are no instructions given on utilization of glazing as a percent of ground floor façade or other, entrance locations, façade differentiation and other design standards DDRB is used to using for review.”
Referring specifically to the new structure, the report states that the “simplicity of the building and its materiality, with the use of red brick and painted steel together with a subtle use of the Jumbo Shrimp logo, particularly along Georgia Street, provides a unifying design to the existing baseball grounds, adjacent garages and the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.”
The project is designed by OSPORTS Sports & Entertainment Architecture, based in Cleveland. Jacksonville-based Birken Construction is the general contractor.
The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, then 121 Financial Ballpark, will be known as VyStar Ballpark subject to Jacksonville City Council approval.
The naming rights to the city-owned baseball facility are part of VyStar Credit Union’s merger agreement with 121 Financial Credit Union and will run through 2040, according to a Dec. 5 news release from the Jumbo Shrimp.