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The Coastal
  • Development
    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: South Moon Under coming to SJTC

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop coming to Mandarin

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Scramblers coming to Deerwood, Lakewood

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Gucci to SJTC; Taverna debuting new concept

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Dolly Llama to PVB; Lowe’s, Wawa to CR-210

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Vestcor planning Lofts at San Marco East

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Rockler Woodworking coming to SJTC

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

    Building Up Jax: Sportsman’s Warehouse coming to River City Marketplace

    Building Up Jax - Jacksonville Construction and Development Updates Each Saturday

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  • History
    • All
    • Jax Evolved
    Florida Times-Union building

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    Edgewood Bakery

    Remembering Edgewood Bakery: Once a Murray Hill Staple, Now an Empty Building

    jacksonville university

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    Green Turtle Restaurant in Jacksonville, fl

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    San Marco Theater, San Marco, Jacksonville, FL

    Story of a Building: San Marco Theatre

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    JAX EVOLVED: San Marco Preservation Society Now Occupies South Jacksonville City Hall

    JAX EVOLVED: San Marco Preservation Society Now Occupies South Jacksonville City Hall

    Old St. Luke's Hospital jacksonville fl

    JAX EVOLVED: Old St. Luke’s Hospital Building Now Houses Jacksonville Historical Society

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    JAX EVOLVED: Paul Davis Restoration Gives Life to Old Chevrolet Parts Depot

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    Novel Coworking / Groover-Stewart Drug Company Building, 25 N. Market Street, Jacksonville, FL - Image copyright 2020 Google

    JAX EVOLVED: Groover-Stewart Drug Company Building Now Houses Novel Coworking

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    JAX EVOLVED: From Brewster Hospital to North Florida Land Trust

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From “Central Park” to Empty Park: The Unity Plaza Story

by The Coastal
April 13, 2018
in Development, Featured
Unity Plaza, Jacksonville, FL
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When initially proposed, Unity Plaza was supposed to be the new central park for the Riverside and Brooklyn neighborhoods.

But in the three years since its launch, it has still failed to deliver on what was expected.

The plaza’s history began in 2005, when NAI Hallmark Partners acquired the land surrounding a city retention pond. The city and NAI Hallmark entered a partnership wherein the city would let the developers build a new multi-use space around their retention pond, and NAI Hallmark would also develop a multifamily apartment complex as part of the project.

Around the turn of the decade, the city began work on expanding the retention pond and adding a fountain. NAI Hallmark, meanwhile, began preparing their vision, studying successful parks from other major cities.

In 2012, plans for 220 Riverside and Unity Plaza gained city approval and development moved forward. A nonprofit group was created by NAI Hallmark, and the city donated the retention pond and its surrounding land to the group. Construction was completed by 2014, and Unity Plaza opened to the public in early 2015.

The plaza featured several amenities including the reconfigured pond with a central fountain, prominent signage, public restrooms, an ATM, green space, and an open-air amphitheater. Three restaurants sat adjacent to the park on the ground level of 220 Riverside, with two upscale eateries including a concept from Top Chef winner Kevin Sbraga.

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The project cost just over $10 million to complete, with the city kicking in around $3 million for both development and the nonprofit group’s formation.

NAI Hallmark promised “thousands” of events to come at Unity Plaza, and professed their ambitious belief that millions of people would venture through the plaza each year.

At launch, several proposed aspects of the plaza were missing; this included a beer garden, floating decks on the pond, retail kiosks, and a bike station. And soon it would be clear that those thousands of events were missing, as well.

The plaza hosted, and continues to host, popular events such as morning yoga on the lawn. Weekly live music events in the amphitheater showed promise but failed to deliver on big acts.

And it soon became clear that NAI Hallmark had guessed wrong on which tenants to sign for its retail space. In an area inundated primarily with young people, they opted to bring in two expensive, executive-lunch options (Sbraga & Co., HOBNOB) and a relatively milquetoast pizza place (Brixx Wood Fired Pizza).

Within little more than a year, Sbraga & Co. shut down abruptly – so abruptly, in fact, that all of its furniture still remains where it was.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit group shed staff members and tried to focus on planning events – but still, no big events came through.

Then, last year, the plaza was dealt another blow when HOBNOB first cut back its dining hours, then closed its dining room altogether. It now operates for private events only, utilizing an adjacent unit it had taken over for private events and galleries.

Today, Brixx remains as the only tenant in Unity Plaza. Live music events have become fewer and farther between. Rather than thousands, it would be more appropriate to describe the plaza as having “dozens of events.”

There’s still hope left for the struggling plaza, though. The surrounding area continues to grow, with work on a new distillery continuing just across the street and Brooklyn Station about to expand. And the addition of a pedestrian pathway on the Fuller Warren Bridge, plus eventual Skyway expansions, should bring more foot traffic to Riverside Ave. in the coming years.

But for now, while 220 Riverside is a lively apartment complex filled with young professionals, Unity Plaza is pretty dead.

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The Coastal is a local magazine in Jacksonville, FL, founded in 2015 to bring you stories about the past, present, and future of the First Coast.

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Comments 2

  1. Karen says:
    5 years ago

    Unity Plaza is a dud. I went there once for a walk and found it very uninviting. The concrete amphitheater is uncomfortable and dangerous. In fact, during that event,an older women mistepped trying to walk down the steps and fell flat on her face. Two steps down. EMT had to be called and I know she had broken bones. Not inviting, no trees, not well orchestrated.

    Reply
  2. Merwyn F. says:
    5 years ago

    Another failed good time Charlie rock n roll liberal attempt at utopia wasting $3M of taxpayers’ money.

    Reply

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