Jacksonville: Where Florida Begins

Not to be outdone, South Florida's Krook Douglas Development is seeking approval to build twin 48-story residential towers on either side of the Aetna building in the 800 block of Prudential Drive. The $10 million project, called Riverpointe, would include 550 residential units and 65,000 square feet of retail space.

Another Southbank landmark in the making is Riverplace Development's San Marco Place, a 21-story condominium project that would include 141 units. Ground was broken in January and presales are under way.

Older commercial buildings are also being rehabbed and converted to residential use. The former American Heritage Life Building, for example, was one of several skyscrapers built during the ill-fated Florida land boom of the 1920s. Now renovated and named for its address, 11 E. Forsyth, the historic structure contains 127 moderately priced rental apartments and lofts.

Near San Marco, the former Luther Rice Seminary building is now called Home Street Lofts, offering 12 luxury loft-style condominiums, while on West Adams Street the circa-1911 Lerner Building is being reborn as a mixed-use project with loft apartments as well as office and retail space.

Also on West Adams, the circa-1926 Carlington Hotel is being adapted for residential use, offering 100 rental apartments.

And just blocks away the former Barnett Bank building will be renovated to include 125 luxury loft apartments, a bank and a restaurant on the first floor. The project will be dubbed The Barnett, in honor of the now-extinct financial institution that was founded in Jacksonville.

Similar projects to watch this year include rehabs of the Marble Bank, Bisbee and Florida Life buildings at the corner of Laura and Forsyth streets.

The three historic structures have been bought by the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund, which plans to redevelop the Bisbee and Florida Life buildings for residential use and the Marble Bank, which later housed Florida National Bank, for commercial use.

And there's more. A yet unnamed mixed-use project is slated to rise on the 42-acre tract where downtown's Southside Generating Station once stood. Jacksonville-based St. Joe Towns and Communities will build the $40 million complex, which will encompass of 900 condominiums, retail space, restaurants and offices.

At the outskirts of downtown, new residential development is reinvigorating distressed areas.

"Our city is experiencing a rebirth of the historic downtown district," says Dave Crawford, a retired builder who bought a Plaza unit last year. "As a result, living down here has become an exciting proposition.

MANDARIN

When Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of the anti-slavery classic Uncle Tom's Cabin, settled rural Mandarin in the late 1870s, she was attracted by the area's natural beauty and its suitability for growing citrus.

Stowe certainly wouldn't recognize today's Mandarin, which contains some of Northeast Florida's most affluent riverfront developments as well as virtually every kind of business imaginable.

When the native of Litchfield, Conn., moved to Florida in 1866, she purchased the old Laurel Grove plantation near what is now Orange Park. Ironically, the plantation once had been owned by Zephaniah Kingsley, a land baron who made his fortune in the slave trade.

The following year, Stowe purchased 30 acres in Mandarin and built a large home overlooking the river. Assisted by other family members who followed, she became a small-scale citrus grower and established a school to educate former slaves.

Stowe later wrote about her life in Mandarin, which she termed "a tropical paradise," in a book called Palmetto-Leaves. This modest series of sketches, which was widely read in the North, did much to promote Florida's charms and encourage relocation. In fact, Palmetto-Leaves is considered to be among the first, and certainly the most literary, of Florida's ubiquitous promotional brochures.

Despite more than a century of uninterrupted growth, the community's history has not been forgotten. In 1997, the Mandarin Museum & Historical Society completed restoration of the Walter Jones Store and Post Office, a circa-1911 structure that once served as the community's focal point. The building, which is still used for meetings and other functions, also displays artifacts of the region's original inhabitants, the Timucuan Indians.

A new facility for the Mandarin Museum and Historical Society has been completed at the Walter Jones Historical Park, a lush riverfront park that includes the restored Jones family home as well as outbuildings such as barns and storage sheds.

Also generally considered to be part of Mandarin is Loretto, nestled between San Jose Boulevard to the west and Philips Highway to the east. The community, formed by the Diocese of St. Augustine following the Civil War, was clustered around a convent and a school where nuns educated both residents and freed slaves.

Today Loretto is the site of relatively affordable homes, many on cul-de-sacs, as well as parks and nature preserves. Along bustling San Jose Boulevard can be found virtually every kind of restaurant and retail outlet.

NORTHSIDE

The Northside has been described as Duval County's last frontier for development. It's a huge, still sparsely populated expanse that boasts stunning scenery and such ecological wonders as Huguenot Memorial Park, Big Talbot and Little Talbot islands and the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve.

Increasingly new subdivisions are cropping up-at least 80 projects in the past two years-spurred in part by plentiful, relatively affordable land and adjacency to Jacksonville International Airport.

As a result, the sprawling Northside, which comprises almost one-quarter of Jacksonville's 850-square-mile area, now rivals the Southside as the busiest sector for development, according to city records.

Responding this rapid growth, in 2003 the city completed a $500,000 study called the North Jacksonville Vision and Master Plan. The plan calls for development of seven village-center-style projects around which growth can cluster.

The first such center will be the River City Marketplace, now under way at I-95 and Duval Road. It is slated to include 900 residential units as well as a regional shopping and entertainment center.

Buyers also like the Northside's accessibility. Downtown is an easy drive via the Dames Point Bridge, which opened in 1989. Two major arteries, Florida 9-A and I-95, also run through the heart of the Northside. And the Florida department of Transportation has proposed some $229 million worth of additional Northside road projects, including a new east-west connector road.

But there's more to the Northside than convenience.

So much property abuts lakes and marshes that homebuyers enjoy spectacular views. The St. Johns takes an easterly turn at the Northside's southern boundary, but its tributaries, including the Trout River, wind through the Northside landscape.

And in the Black Hammock area, homebuyers can gaze across the Nassau Sound to all the way to Amelia Island.

ORTEGA

Ortega is Jacksonville's quintessential old-money enclave. The neighborhood is a peninsula that boasts stately old homes, a small retail district and two private clubs: the Florida Yacht Club and Timuquana Country Club.

How rich is Ortega? Worth magazine recently ranked it among the 50 wealthiest neighborhoods in the country.

Drive along the tree-lined streets and that lofty assessment seems reasonable. The lovely old homes feature an eclectic mixture of architectural styles and the neighborhood is dotted with parks, including Cortez Park, site of Ortega's annual Fall Festival. A charming shopping district, Ortega Village, boasts a drugstore with an old-fashioned soda fountain.

Another neighborhood claim to fame is the 1920s Ortega River Bridge, one of the oldest functioning drawbridges in the state.

RIVERSIDE/AVONDALE

For a neighborhood steeped in history, Riverside/Avondale is bustling with activity. Posh new condominium and town home projects are taking shape along the St. Johns while architects and remodelers are carefully restoring some of the region's most beautiful old homes.

And with the opening of the $8 million Riverside Market Square retail center in 2002, residents are now able to walk to a new Publix supermarket as well as to restaurants and shops. The project was built on the site of the demolished Riverside Hospital.

Designation of the area as a historic district six years ago signaled the dawning of a new golden age for Riverside/Avondale, which first blossomed at the turn of the century, when captains of industry began building signature showplaces along the St. Johns.

Indeed, this three-mile swath of handsome homes is described as "a laboratory for aspiring architects" by Wayne Wood in his indispensable book, Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage.

In fact, Riverside was started following the Civil War by Northern real estate speculators who sought to transform the vast plantation acreage overlooking the St. Johns into a neighborhood for the elite. By the turn of the century, Riverside Avenue was the city's most elegant residential street.

Its first heyday lasted from about 1895 to 1929, when architects and builders sought to outdo one another with ever more impressive Colonial Revival, Georgian, Queen Anne and Tudor residences. Even proponents of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School found expression in Riverside.

In 1920, a group of investors bought property immediately south of the neighborhood and subdivided it into 720 lots. Avondale, as the development was called, boasted 16 parks and an equally eclectic array of architectural styles.

Eventually, the two neighborhoods grew together and are now all but indistinguishable from one another. The Riverside/Avondale Preservation Group keeps careful watch over proposed new projects and renovations to make certain that the integrity of the increasingly popular area is maintained.

Although there's no land available for significant single-family home development, there are a handful of boutique multifamily projects either recently completed or under way.

VillaRiva, for example, is a 12-story, 66-unit luxury condominium development on Riverside Avenue offering every imaginable amenity. Construction is set to be completed in May, and the project is approaching sellout.

"Living in the historic district is a big allure," says developer Bryan Weber of Flagship Communities LLC. "But here, you can do that and enjoy a maintenance-free lifestyle and all the amenities you'd expect in a luxury condominium."

Also on Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville-based Midland Development Group is building The Residences at 1661 Riverside, a 90-unit town home and loft project that will include 12,800 square feet of retail space and a four-level parking garage. Although construction won't be completed until next year, buyers have been reserving units since last May.

Shopping and dining in Riverside/Avondale is also an adventure. The nearby Five Points retail district is one of the most eclectic in the Southeast, consisting of funky boutiques, ultra-hip nightspots and a musty, New York-style newsstand offering daily papers from around the world and a seemingly infinite assortment of magazines.

The neighborhood's appeal is reflected by escalating real estate prices. After several years of 6 percent to 8 percent appreciation, last year the average home price jumped 22 percent.

SAN MARCO

In the 1920s, developer Telfair Stockton and his family vacationed in Venice, where they visited the elegant Piazza San Marco. Fortunately for Northeast Floridians, Stockton was so enchanted by its quaint beauty that he sought to recreate it along the banks of the St. Johns.

Today, with its graceful homes and welcoming business district, San Marco is one of Jacksonville's neighborhood treasures.

When Stockton first began selling San Marco lots in 1925, he envisioned a community with a Mediterranean motif. That would have been a marked contrast to his successful Avondale project, which was notable for its array of housing styles.

But by the time San Marco began to blossom, public fascination with all things Mediterranean had faded. Although cigar magnates John Swisher and his son, Carl, built two magnificent Mediterranean Revival mansions side by side on River Road, others adopted Tudor, Georgian and Colonial styles.

Likewise in the business district, which had been dubbed San Marco Square despite its triangular shape, a variety of architectural styles emerged. For example, the 1930s Art Deco facade of the San Marco Theater and the neighboring Little Theater were decidedly avant-garde for the time.

San Marco also encompasses some of Jacksonville's most popular eateries, including romantic Matthew's, the city's only four-star, four-diamond restaurant. Newcomer Daniel's is making a name for itself with tableside preparation of classic French dishes while b.b.'s lures sweet-toothed patrons with obscenely proportioned desserts. Cafe Carmon offers casual outdoor dining, and more adventurous diners swear by Pom's Thai Bistro, where sea bass in green curry sauce is a favorite.