Station 1: Orange Park
Station 1: Orange Park
The BRT Southwest Corridor begins in Downtown Jacksonville at future site of the Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center (JRTC) and runs 12.9 miles south to finish the route at the Orange Park Mall located in Clay County. The station is accessed via Orange Park Northway Road, the mall ring road, and enters the parking lot from the south side of the mall. The station is located between the Sears Auto Center outparcel and the main mall structure. The Orange Park Mall opened in 1975 and is still the largest mall on the west side of the St. Johns River. The mall has been renovated three times and each time added square feet to accommodate new users including a 24- screen movie theater. The total area of the mall is 953, 000 square feet with several key anchor and tenants. As this era of mall is obsolete and developers are now trending toward lifestyle centers, Orange Park Mall continues to draw a significant number of consumers. Washington Prime Group, the retail real estate investment trust, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, owns the property.
The land use within the ½ mile radius of the mall is primarily low and medium density single-family residential with multi-family complexes integrated in the neighborhoods closer to Blanding Boulevard. Development along Blanding Boulevard is a mix of strip-centers and big box retailers with outparcel developments and large parking areas abutting the road. South of the mall is aJacksonville Memory Gardens Funeral Home and Cemetery that encompasses 70 acres.
Orange Park Medical Center and Orange Park High School are located a mile south of the BRT station on Kingsley Road. The surrounding residential communities are very stable and the older strip centers continue to be redeveloped with outparcels maximizing the developable land area.
Blanding Boulevard (State Road 21) is a highly traveled road that is a high priority area in the North Florida Transportation Planning Organizations (TPO) Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan that closely parallels the BRT route. Just as the City of Jacksonville and JTA are integrating complete street practices in new and retrofitted development, the 2025 Clay County Comprehensive Plan includes polices for mixed-use, walkable development in close proximity to commuter parking and transit.
The Orange Park First Coast Flyer Station has great potential to further develop a Station Area Plan and to lay the foundation for apremier, well-planned Transit Oriented Development (TOD). The following schematic concept is for planning purposes only and illustrates potential development considerations for JTA, Clay County, Community leaders and business owners.
