The Jacksonville Landing will be unique, walkable, open air, and energized- if the vision of the newly named developer is realized.
“We think this could be a really, really special place for Jacksonville,” says Wakefield Beasley & Associates CEO Lamar Wakefield.
WBA was selected by Jacksonville’s Professional Services Evaluation Committee to redevelop the Jacksonville Landing. They were ranked second among 14 proposals based off their bid- which spoke about vision, financing, and more. Following interview with the top three firms, WBA was tied with Cooper Carry- both firms are based out of Georgia.
Leading up to Thursday’s vote, representatives from Wakefield Beasley had not publicly disclosed the details of their bid. After a decision was made, however, WBA’s CEO spoke one-on-one with WOKV to give us insight in to their vision.
WBA has an office location in Ponte Vedra Beach, and that local connection helped give them the winning vote.
“Create this great, happening place where people just want to go hang out,” Wakefield says.
He says the project needs to start with tearing down the existing Jacksonville Landing. Wakefield says the site is uniquely positioned between the urban, office feel on one side and the river on the other- but the current structure blocks them from each other.
Instead, their vision is to capitalize on the St. Johns River and make the entire site open air and walkable.
The core is a “green, public venue” that is open air, walkable, and would be programmed 250-300 days a year with festivals, markets, concerts and more. Wakefield says they want to “energize” the site 16 hours a day by making it a location people are “drawn to dwell in”. The goal is to keep the flow of people consistent enough that the venue supports retail, food and beverage, and possibly residential space to be built in as well- and those services in turn sustain the venue.
They’ve intentionally stuck to concepts and core values- like open air- until now because moving forward, Wakefield says it’s up to Jacksonville to decide what they want.
“Public input, first and foremost- what are they really looking for. I mean, that’s who’s going to make this project successful,” he says.
Over the next four months, WBA will get input from the public, City, and Sleiman Enterprises- which owns the Jacksonville Landing. Along with their development partner, Urban Design, they’ll then review existing waterfront structures and work on new concepts to put together a site plan.
“It’s a very intense process over that four month period, but at the end of the day, we have something that we know is financeable, is going to be successful, and we know we’ve got a great public and City buy-in,” Wakefield tells WOKV.
As for what the financial buy-in will be, Wakefield says the plan will ultimately be a public/private partnership, but he couldn’t put a price tag or cost breakdown on the project yet. If all pieces- including financing- fall in to place, he hopes to see construction begin within the year.
While he doesn’t know exactly what architectural style they will ultimately pursue, Wakefield says it will be special.
“We’re not trying to blend in with anybody, it’s just going to be unique to itself from a style perspective,” he says.
Wakefield says they are humbled to be selected for the project and excited to get to work.