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Staircases at FCCJ Deerwood Center wind past rooms devoted to Socratic teaching methods.

Florida’s Grand Boulevard Mall gets new life as community college

By Donna Mitchell

In an apparent paradox, the spacious halls of Grand Boulevard Mall that were once touted as “Not for everyone” have become the opposite: The mall has been converted into an extension of the Florida Community College system, to more easily accommodate all its students.

The dramatic shift from exchanging money and goods to exchanging ideas occurred gradually, but by the end of 1999 Grand Boulevard Mall had reopened as the Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) Deerwood Center. Final renovations were completed in February.

FCCJ Deerwood Center now offers courses for those earning credits for a degree or leisurely enrichment. Instead of exuding an air of exclusiveness, FCCJ officials keep the campus open 24 hours a day and have launched distance learning programs.

Schools have taken over mall space before. Anne Arundel Community College plans to build a four-story $10 million satellite campus at the Arundel Mills mall in Hanover, Md.; and more than 30 years ago, Tunxis Community College completely took over a former shopping center site in Farmington, Conn. In some cases, struggling malls can turn unproductive retail space over to academic institutions as a means of survival. In late August, for instance, managers of the Galleria London, in Ontario, Canada, began negotiations with the D’Youville College in Buffalo, N.Y., to open a campus there.

FCCJ Deerwood Center, which at one time was Grand Boulevard Mall, has an entrance that resembles a Greek colonnade.

First opened in 1983, Grand Boulevard Mall was supposed to cater to Jacksonville, Fla.’s growing upscale population. The 225,000-square-foot center was anchored by an 80,000-square-foot Jacobson’s Department Store.

“They had a lot of exclusive shops, but they never filled up,” said Carol Spalding, president of the Open Campus at FCCJ, which began renting space inside the mall in 1986. “As they contracted, we expanded.”

Its retail component has not entirely disappeared, however: Jacobson’s still operates its store at the former mall site, next to the Deerwood Center’s student lounge center, Spalding said. Moreover, the store continues to thrive, thanks to its name recognition nationwide, with a steady stream of shoppers year-round. It attracts the so-called snowbirds who travel from the northern section of the United States and tourists, said Frederick Marx, a store spokesman.

“Anyone who drives by the place would have thought that nothing had changed from the exterior,” Spalding said.

But appearances are deceiving, and the numbers demonstrate the severity of Grand Boulevard Mall’s demise. According to the National Research Bureau, the mall was owned by National Capital Investments, Clearwater, Fla., and S.C.B. Investments, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. They spent some $16 million developing the property, according to Spalding. FCCJ tried to buy the property in 1990 for $6 million, she said, an offer the owners rejected, though they eventually sold it to FCCJ for $4 million in 1994.

Deerwood Center’s architecture reflects its mission as an inclusive school. Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates (TVS) of Atlanta incorporated the center’s Socratic learning methods — systematic questioning to arrive at conclusions — to design the new academic areas, said Robert Balke, a principal at the Atlanta firm, who worked on the Deerwood Center.

“It offers a lot of open space in the interior,” said Balke. “The space becomes like a quad on a traditional campus; the students see each other, and they bump into faculty.”

A sweeping staircase leads into FCCJ Deerwood’s student lounge.

Spalding said the design theme was inspired by the Oracle at Delphi, a landmark in Ancient Greek mythology frequented by those seeking answers. FCCJ put a new roof on the building, incorporating skylights into the design, and there are two funnel-shaped areas inside the Deerwood Center containing four classrooms dedicated to the Socratic teaching method. Spalding said the rooms “are designed like hurricanes.” The computer laboratory, for instance, is circular, with a hole in the ceiling to liven up the space. Elsewhere, the FCCJ kept the old store windows, escalators and common areas to keep an open feeling at the center.

FCCJ took full advantage of the spacious walking areas in the former mall, treating the thoroughfares like the busy streets and open marketplace of an old Greek village. The student lounge on the lower level features carpeting with a fluid blue and green pattern in reference to a nearby river, said Spalding. Sets of stairs wind past the four classrooms, and lead to the second-level walkway; on the floor there are bright yellowish linoleum patterns resembling the sun. The renovation includes a fragmented circular stone pattern at Deerwood Center’s entrance. Complete with columns, colorful accents and palm trees, the entrance area is a variation on a Greek colonnade; it puts a welcoming face on a former shopping center that Balke said resembled a fortress.

“It wasn’t very welcoming, it was dated, and had a vacant look to the interior,” he said.

Aside from the apparent snobbishness of its advertising tag line, “Not for everyone,” Grand Boulevard Mall had a hard time attracting shoppers to the center. According to Martin Stein, chairman and CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers, an enclosed specialty mall did not work in that area. “Jacobson’s was the only anchor, and it was located in the middle of the mall,” he said. “There was no real reason for people to go into the mall; it was not well-conceived.”

Stanley Eichelbaum, president of Marketing Developments Inc., a Cincinnati-based consulting firm, noted that shopping centers rarely succeed with single, higher-end specialty stores as their singular attraction.

 

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