Good Jacksonville Apartments?

[poobear24]

Hello fellow warriors,
I just completed Primary and selected P-3s. I'm set to leave for Jacksonville in a few weeks, but I haven't found any gouge on the best places to stay. The optimum place would be somewhere close to the base, decent rental rates, and generally a nice place to stay. I visited yesterday on house hunting leave and visited a few. I looked towards the south side near Orange Park, upper northwest, and briefly checked out the east side across the bridge. So far, I'm leaning towards two apartments: Oaks at Normandy and Holly Cove.

Oaks at Normandy is very nice and includes some utilities and washer/dryer. The only downside is the drive. It's in the upper northwest in the suburbs about 15 miles away from the front gate, but I've heard traffic is Hell in the mornings.
Holly Cove is located in Orange Park about 5 miles away. It's in a great location with a mall, restaurants, and movie theater within walking distance. The only downside is the apartment itself. It's definitely not a 5 star complex, but you can't beat the location.

Has anyone stayed at either of these apartments? Please feel free to recommend some additional places. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[statesman]

Lots of people live in the Town Center area... Lots of 'luxury' apartments over there. Town Center is about as central as it gets in Jax.

Riverside/Avondale is also pretty popular. Orange Park, Mandarin, pretty much everywhere apart from Riverside/Avondale/Ortega is suburban hell. Town Center is manufactured "uptown" living hell.

 

[scoolbubba]

Live at the beaches, avondale, or south side. You don't want anything to do with the northwest side.

 

[statesman]

SchoolBubba put it much more eloquently than I could.

Beaches - Party time. Weekends are awesome and this will be where all your buddies will be going. Its about a 30 min drive to work.
Avondale / Riverside - A little quieter, neighborhood bar/restaurant scene, a little hipsterish but its not bad.

Cant speak much to south side as I dont spend any time there.

 

[MasterBates]

You could always move to the north side, and have my dad yell at you for taking more than .2 seconds to turn into the new complex by his house at Airport Center.

Sent from my PH44100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[cameron172]

I used to live near the beaches closer to the Mayport side of town, but I spent a lot of time in Avondale/Riverside and really enjoyed the Five Points area. Definitely a hipster hub though. From what I've seen and heard, anything south of 295 is just miserable.

 

[poobear24]

Great! Thanks for the quick responses. I just received word that Big Navy pushed my PCS to next week, which means I will be scrambling to find a place even sooner now. : P

 

[samlobo]

If you are interested, I just put my Avondale home up for rent again. Available April 1st for move-in. 7 minutes to the NAS JAX gate. I have it posted here in the classified section at: http://www.airwarriors.com/communit...t-friendly-avondale-house-near-nas-jax.40035/ Contact me if interested. I have rented to two other AirWarriors from this site and they can attest to the home's beauty, location, and the terrific neighborhood.
Jen

 

[NavAir42]

I also have a house that might be coming available for rent starting in January. It's just north of 295 off Old St. Augustine and about a 10 minute trip across the bridge to the front gate.

If you're looking for an apartment, I would go with the Southside/Town Center area. There are several good apartments there. It's a 15-20 minute ride to work and generally opposite direction of rush hour traffic. We lived in a place right across Southside Blvd from the Tinseltown Movie Theater that we really liked. Avondale/Riverside is also a nicer, older neighborhood with good restaurants and bars. We had a couple guys who lived out at the beach who loved it but it seemed like an awful long commute in the morning.

 

[HAL Pilot]

If you are interested, I just put my Avondale home up for rent again. Available April 1st for move-in. 7 minutes to the NAS JAX gate. I have it posted here in the classified section at: http://www.airwarriors.com/communit...t-friendly-avondale-house-near-nas-jax.40035/ Contact me if interested. I have rented to two other AirWarriors from this site and they can attest to the home's beauty, location, and the terrific neighborhood.
Jen

If you're a guy, just check your masculinity at the door.....

 

[sickboy]

Anyone know anything about Otter Run up by Mayport?

 

[PenguinGal]

I can't speak to those, but I do not recommend Marsh Oaks over on A1A. A little further down the way, off of Atlantic on San Pablo is Banyan Bay. They were decent. No major complaints on getting to/from work over at Mayport either. If you haven't been out of Mayport before, I would recommend not staying right on Mayport Rd. Get someplace off of Atlantic as it will be just as easy to get to/from work but will also make it easier to get to the fun places--like the beaches.

 

[sickboy]

I can't speak to those, but I do not recommend Marsh Oaks over on A1A. A little further down the way, off of Atlantic on San Pablo is Banyan Bay. They were decent. No major complaints on getting to/from work over at Mayport either. If you haven't been out of Mayport before, I would recommend not staying right on Mayport Rd. Get someplace off of Atlantic as it will be just as easy to get to/from work but will also make it easier to get to the fun places--like the beaches.

Any particular reason you didn't like Marsh Oaks?

 

[zianac]

Any particular reason you didn't like Marsh Oaks?

I personally liked Marsh Oaks when I lived in Jax. I can see how someone might dislike it. When I lived there, I was an AT3 and it seemed like a lot of the apartments were taken up by "kids" stationed at Mayport. This was in 2005-2007 so a lot may have changed since then. It was really nice to be really close to base and have the straight shot to the back gate via A1A. The apartment manager is most likely different by now as well, but the lady that ran the apartments when I lived there was very professional and didn't hesitate to fix/take care of any issues I had.

 

[PenguinGal]

PenguinGuy lived in Marsh Oaks as an O1 from 2009-2010. While it was a great, direct shot to the back gate (something he did miss once we moved), that did not make up for poor service and really annoying people living in the complex. The rare times that he had issues in the apartment resulted in having to fight management to get anything done. The apartment was also always crawling with bugs. I know it is Jax and bugs are a way of life there, but they were REALLY bad and management kept blowing him off about it. Add that to the fact that there were always rowdy kids running around and playing around the parked cars, including throwing balls and hitting said parked cars, and it just was not a fun living environment. From a wifely perspective, the apartment was also rather small for the rent. We were able to find a larger and nicer place for barely an increase which in my mind makes MO not worth the cost. Seriously, the kitchen in MO was TINY!!!! I hated cooking there. Zero counter space. However, as Zianac points out, there are benefits and your mileage may vary.