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Buffalo appears to be going through a transition from what I've seen.
Buffalo is going through a huge transition right now!! Google really is people's friend but I can guarantee the naysayers here won't want to look up the truth
Jacksonville does have things going on. There are definitely developments and changes happening in its core, not as dramatic as the Grand Rapid's or the Louisville's. Jacksonville is more going through a cultural shift where the core is becoming the most important part of the metro. In my opinion that's more important than just infill in the core. It's got a couple of awesome urban neighborhoods in San Marco and Riverside that a lot of people don't know about.
Jax is kinda in the middle. I can see why it would be on this list. Imo Jacksonville's main issue (with regards to major revitalization) is the high cost of rehab of old structures. We rightfully are seeking/fighting to preserve historic architecture after much of the rich downtown history was demolished in the 80s-00s, but rehabbing these buildings that are falling apart costs so much money it's kinda not worth it at this stage. EG, there are two DT apt buildings that are fully leased and have a long waiting list...but the development company's operation has been more or less at break even that they haven't even started paying back the loan they got from the city about 8 years ago to rehab the buildings in the first place. The rents are not super low...they're a good bit higher than average...but it seems the only way to make anything financially feasible for private development in downtown Jax is to go super high end and that's a chicken and egg issue. Downtown is not yet desirable enough to lure high end residents, and those attractive supporting services aren't coming because the resident base isn't there yet. Another example: a very successful local restaurant group purchased an iconic building at the entrance to downtown, which they are turning into a very fancy steakhouse. I believe the estimates are somewhere in the $5-6 million range for acquisition, rehab and buildout. FOR A STEAKHOUSE!!! I really hope they're successful...theyre doing this in many ways cause they love this city, but man, those have to be some expensive steaks. If we had kept a lot of our building stock (Jax was a super dense city back in the early 1900s) and kept it from falling into disrepair, the cost of opening a business in DT Jax would be far lower than building new or rehabbing. And then when that momentum grows for businesses and residents, new construction would make sense.
The other issue with Jax is it's much smaller than South FL or Tampa. That's the simple fact so the insane stuff we see going up in Miami, proposals in Tampa...and even Orlando...are just farther out of reach for Jax. Shad Khan has huge plans for the Shipyards, very similar to Vinik in Tampa, but Khan's plans are just totally unrealistic unless he also expects to relocate 50,000 jobs from elsewhere around the world.
Anyway, Jax has undergone a transformation of late and will likely continue, but it's not as obvious as other cities. It's mostly happening in the gentrifying urban core neighborhoods and not yet connecting to downtown itself. We likely won't see the Jax skyline, for example, change at all in the next decade. I think best-case scenario for Jax over the next 5 years from an urban advocate's perspective is that we 1) figure out what we're doing with the skyway and either expand it as is or turn it into a light rail system and expand it, thereby connecting all the urban core neighborhoods to downtown via fixed rail. 2) hopefully see about half of the mixed-use proposals currently on the table break ground. If just half break ground in the next 5 years Jax will be in a very good place in 10 years. We're so behind much of the rest of the country...
Does Jacksonville, FL not have new devopments going on? That is pretty hard to believe given its water front location, decent size, decent population growth, and all the grand developments happening elsewhere in the state.
New developments? Yes. Is it undergoing a major revitalization? No.
Baltimore. It hasn't really captured any of the growth experienced by nearby DC. Some of the Baltimore suburbs are very rich and have experienced growth in the past decade, but Baltimore's City population has actually decreased in recent years.
Baltimore. It hasn't really captured any of the growth experienced by nearby DC. Some of the Baltimore suburbs are very rich and have experienced growth in the past decade, but Baltimore's City population has actually decreased in recent years.
Baltimore's population has actually grown in recent years. The city is also in the midst of a building boom as well. With regards to DC's growth, it really has no effect on Baltimore.
Baltimore's population has actually grown in recent years. The city is also in the midst of a building boom as well. With regards to DC's growth, it really has no effect on Baltimore.
The population in Baltimore City has decreased since 1990 according to the census bureau: 736,000 in 1990; 649,000 in 2000 and 622,000 in 2013. It has remained more or less steady the past few years, which I guess could be seen as a positive.
I wouldn't say that Baltimore is in a building boom. The construction projects seem to be concentrated in just a few areas, and large parts of the city remain extremely poor and full of boarded homes.
I hope I am wrong regarding Baltimore, it has the potential to be a great city, but I don't see it as experiencing a revitalization right now.
The population in Baltimore City has decreased since 1990 according to the census bureau: 736,000 in 1990; 649,000 in 2000 and 622,000 in 2013. It has remained more or less steady the past few years, which I guess could be seen as a positive.
I wouldn't say that Baltimore is in a building boom. The construction projects seem to be concentrated in just a few areas, and large parts of the city remain extremely poor and full of boarded homes.
I hope I am wrong regarding Baltimore, it has the potential to be a great city, but I don't see it as experiencing a revitalization right now.
Jacksonville does have some things going on, mostly across the river, but yea for it's size and sunbelt location, you have to wonder why Jax is so stagnant.
Stagnant? Jacksonville is the 13th fastest growing MSA over the past 10+ years and it's GDP growth has doubled the national average for growth with a healthy 5% increase in 2014. And unlike the rest of Florida (outside of Miami) is doing so via sustainable/diversified growth versus primarily service sector growth.
The population in Baltimore City has decreased since 1990 according to the census bureau: 736,000 in 1990; 649,000 in 2000 and 622,000 in 2013. It has remained more or less steady the past few years, which I guess could be seen as a positive.
I wouldn't say that Baltimore is in a building boom. The construction projects seem to be concentrated in just a few areas, and large parts of the city remain extremely poor and full of boarded homes.
I hope I am wrong regarding Baltimore, it has the potential to be a great city, but I don't see it as experiencing a revitalization right now.
No KodeBlue is actually correct according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Baltimore City increased by 1,100 residents between July 2011 and July 2012 coming off six decades of population decline. I beg to differ if there is an considerable amount of activity going on in a dense area that is a development/building boom. Also the construction projects in the city are all over and most construction happening is actually re-adaptive construction on existing buildings then building new ones from scratch like in Harbor East and Harbor Point. The conversion of commercial buildings, parking garages, etc into residential units has been happening in large around the downtown area for the last three years or so. As a whole is the city experiencing revitalization NO. But in certain areas like downtown I would say YES because it is the fastest growing residential neighborhood in the city. Granted this is nothing your average poster would know about any city really but the city is making some strides.
Stagnant? Jacksonville is the 13th fastest growing MSA over the past 10+ years and it's GDP growth has doubled the national average for growth with a healthy 5% increase in 2014. And unlike the rest of Florida (outside of Miami) is doing so via sustainable/diversified growth versus primarily service sector growth.
I think he probably meant development-wise compared to a lot of other cities.
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Google really is people's friend but I can guarantee the naysayers here won't want to look up the truth 
