The Downtown Development Review Board could approve final designs May 12 for Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s proposed Four Seasons hotel and office building near TIAA Bank Field.
The city released the latest renderings May 5 for the estimated $321 million project in the review board’s meeting agenda materials.
Iguana Investments Florida LLC, Khan’s development arm, needs the DDRB’s final approval before it can break ground on what the company says will be a 176-room hotel with 25 for-sale luxury condominiums and a separate six-story Class A office building.
The plans by the Dallas-based HKS Architects show a 12-level hotel and residences including a proposed rooftop restaurant and amenities.
The Four Seasons brand flag continues to be included in the project renderings, although Khan and the Jaguars have not announced a naming rights agreement with the five-star hotel chain.
Jaguars President Mark Lamping told the Downtown Investment Authority board in June 2021 that Iguana expects “a longer-term agreement” from the Four Seasons in Jacksonville.
The development site south of TIAA Bank Field.
Khan owns a Four Seasons hotel in Toronto.
In its report, the city review board’s staff recommends final approval and describes the hotel and office building designs like this:
“The hotel and office tower are contemporary in design with curved lines, broad roof overhangs, rounded forms, and large expanses of glazing. The curved lines of the office tower along with the bold lines of the hotel create architectural interest but also a perceptible unity.”
The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. May 12 at the Jacksonville Public Library Downtown at 303 N. Laura St.
DIA officials expect to close on a land deal with Iguana by the end of May to build the Four Seasons-anchored project on the former Kids Kampus park on the Northbank Riverfront.
The renderings say the public would have access to the Four Seasons restaurant and bar terrace on the 11th level; riverfront food and beverage amenity deck; dining terrace; fire and cascading water features; Riverwalk entrance; and “beach lounge.”
The Jacksonville Four Seasons also would feature a spa and an event ballroom with a terrace at the northeast corner of the building.
The office building.
A narrative included in the HKS renderings says the Four Seasons property has “numerous enlarged spaces for seating, points of pause, access to restaurants and retail and an enlarged plaza space.”
The report addresses Downtown design overlay deviations that City Council and the review board granted to the projects in 2021. Those will allow the Four Seasons site to have a wider distance between river view corridors than the code typically allows.
The overlay says a development parcel on the river cannot be wider than 250 linear feet. Iguana wants the hotel parcel to be 384 linear feet on the riverfront, otherwise the required view corridor would split the parcel.
Council granted the deviation in October 2021 as part of a $114 million public incentives bill.
Site plans show the Iguana development will have a combined 80 feet of mandatory JEA utility easements to the east and west of the office and marina support buildings that will act as river view corridors as well as Metropolitan Park to the east.
A DDRB report from September 2021 agreed with Iguana that the easements combined with the mandatory river view corridor are a constraint on the development but cautions to maintain as much river visibility for the public as possible.
The report released May 5 notes that the plan calls for changes to the site’s elevation to make the land more resilient to flooding and extreme weather events. That could further impact the river views from Gator Bowl Boulevard.
The staff report asks Iguana and the project designers to continue working with the DIA to preserve the public view corridors of the St. Johns River “to the greatest extent possible.”
HKS designed a 12-foot-wide multiuse pedestrian path along Gator Bowl Boulevard along the project site.
The site plans show Iguana also accounts for a dedicated lane for autonomous public transit vehicles, part of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s Ultimate Urban Circulator project.
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