Fleet Landing at Nocatee continues taking shape.
The city issued a permit Oct. 28 for the assisted living memory care facility at a project cost of $19.8 million.
The permit is among the more than $148 million in projects approved or pending at the residential Life Plan Community campus for adults ages 62 and older, an expansion from the original Fleet Landing in Atlantic Beach.
Brasfield & Gorrie LLC is the contractor for Fleet Landing at Nocatee on 35.44 acres at 555 Cross Town Drive. Perkins Eastman Architects DPC is the architect.
The campus is on the Duval County side of Nocatee near the border with St. Johns County.
The city issued a site-clearing permit June 23 for the site at a project cost of $9.8 million. That included clearing, grading, stormwater management, utilities and paving.
The permitted projects comprise:
• A $72 million nine-story, 107,969-square-foot, 107-apartment independent living building with three dining venues and a cafe for residents. Amenity spaces include a classroom, library, art room, bridge room and gallery on the ground floor; a performing arts center connected to the tower; and support spaces that include administration, marketing and staff offices.
• The $21.173 million West Flats, a three-story, 64,105-square-foot building with 17 independent living apartments. The ground floor includes resident parking, storage, building support spaces and an entry lobby. The upper floors are residential units with screened balconies.
• A $21.173 million East Flats, similar to the West Flats.
• The $19.8 million Fleet Landing at Nocatee ALMC, a three-story, 53,755-square-foot assisted living memory care building with 25 one-bedroom and 19 two-bedroom units along with amenity spaces that include a dining room, living room and entry lobby along with staff support space.
• A swimming pool at $2 million.
• A mechanical permit at $1.6 million.
• A site-work permit for $650,286.
The city continues to review permits for:
• A gathering pavilion at $298,000.
• A guardhouse at $126,000.
• A spa at $76,700.
The community
Fleet Landing announced in January 2020 that it bought 35 acres for the campus to provide single-family homes and apartments for independent living along with assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing.
The facility will include resort-style amenities, activities, services and programs.
Fleet Landing said in 2020 it decided to build the Nocatee campus in response to the more than 400 families waiting to join the first Fleet Landing developed in 1990 in Atlantic Beach.
The city issued a permit Feb. 6, 2024, for Brasfield & Gorrie to build a 2,400-square-foot sales and marketing office on 0.38 acre at 575 Cross Town Drive at a project cost of $1 million.
The Fleet Landing at Nocatee website says it will offer senior independent residential living for adults age 62 or older, providing services, amenities, and long-term care. A one-time entrance fee guarantees lifetime residency, amenities and access to on-site care. Entrance fees start at $395,000.
The site says construction will begin in 2025 and will be completed in phases through 2027.
It will include tower apartments, flats and cottages. The 30 floor plans are from 849 square feet to 2,964 square feet.
Amenities include dining options, a fitness center, pool, tennis and pickleball courts, a dog park, bike share and a walkable central greenway with paths that connect to the Nocatee Greenway Trails.
There also is a performing arts center, game rooms and art studio.
Fleet Landing’s first campus in Atlantic Beach was established by a group of military officers in 1985. The not-for-profit’s mission is “to enrich the lives of older adults through high-quality programs and services to support successful aging.”
It offers independent, assisted and supported living, skilled nursing, rehabilitation and health care services.
The Naval Continuing Care Retirement Foundation Inc., doing business as Fleet Landing, is the developer.
Downtown
Fleet Landing proposed a Downtown Southbank community that has been rejected by the Duval County School Board.
The school board rejected a proposal Oct. 7 to sell its administration building and property at 1701 Prudential Drive and another proposal to buy an office building in Prominence Park in Baymeadows.
Fleet Landing proposed to acquire the school district’s riverfront headquarters for $20 million, demolish the building and build a high-rise senior living community on the site.
The school board was considering purchasing a Baymeadows building for $13.65 million and moving its administrative staff there.
FleetLanding.com responded on its blog that its vision for the Southbank remains unchanged.
CEO Josh Ashby and board Chair Ari Jolly wrote that Jacksonville’s Southbank “is one of the city’s greatest untapped assets, a stretch of riverfront that should invite life at every hour of the day. Since the beginning, the St. Johns River has shaped Jacksonville’s identity, but too often we’ve let it separate where we live, work, and gather. “
It says the Duval Public Schools district headquarters site “offers the chance to reconnect the city with its river.”
“Fleet Landing’s proposal sought to do exactly that: create a landmark community that combines architecturally distinctive design, inviting public spaces, and year-round economic activity. The project would have generated millions in annual property tax revenue for local schools and the city, supported hundreds of new jobs, and delivered riverfront amenities open to everyone without requiring a single dollar of taxpayer funding.”
It said that the school board chose not to move forward, “a decision we respect.”
It said that the board “is right to be cautious when stewarding public assets. Yet some of the conversation surrounding the vote revealed a deeper civic challenge: the quiet notion that older adults should be kept apart from the city’s most visible and dynamic spaces.”
Ashby and Jolly wrote that the people who would call Fleet Landing Southbank home “are entrepreneurs, patrons of the arts, volunteers, and mentors, people who attend community events of every kind, dine downtown, and give generously to local causes. To suggest they don’t belong on the riverfront is not simply ageist; it is economically short-sighted.”
They wrote that when the board “elects to revisit the site’s future, we stand ready to partner in realizing that promise: a downtown where every generation has a place at the water’s edge.”