J Magazine Spring 2019

THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN 

F u t u r e 

I S S U E 

MOSH 2.0 

DISPLAY THROUGH MAY 2019 

$6.50 

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY 

MAKES PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 

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SPRING 2019

In 2018, we served 112,307 people and 

provided $2,106,259 in financial assistance 

to strengthen our First Coast community. 

Join us in our efforts this year as we become one of the most military-friendly Ys in the country, 

provide hunger relief for families experiencing food insecurity, make kids of all ages safe in the 

water, and help teens become leaders. Your support is vital to the important work we are doing 

across the First Coast. Thank you. 

LEARN MORE AND DONATE TODAY AT 

FCYMCA.org

WE’RE MAKING A GREAT PLACE TO WORK 

EVEN BETTER. 

Better Wages. Better Benefits. Better Work-Life Balance. 

We value our employees and appreciate all that they do for our members. And we believe that our employees deserve the very 

best when it comes to workplace satisfaction and personal benefits. 

In addition to being eligible for excellent medical, dental, vision, life, disability and best-in-class company-matched 401(k) 

benefits shortly after the first day of employment, our employees will now enjoy brand new benefits, including: 

• Increased minimum wage of $15 per hour 

• Childbirth and Family Care Leave 

• Child adoption assistance 

• Student loan payoff stipends 

• A day off to celebrate your birthday 

• Enhanced, up-front tuition reimbursement 

• A day off to volunteer and a donation to the organization 

• Free medical insurance options 

• Fitness membership reimbursement 

• New waterfront workspace with employee lounge, gym and more 

If you have a passion for helping others and the desire to provide outstanding service 

to the community, we encourage you to browse through our current career offerings 

at vystarcu.org and consider joining our team. 

Programs, services, rates, terms and conditions are subject 

to change without notice. ©2018 VyStar Credit Union. 

vystarcu.org

THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH 

OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN 

GREATER 

TOGETHER 

H 

THE MAGAZINE OF 

THE REBIRTH OF 

JACKSONVILLE’S 

DOWNTOWN 

H 

PUBLISHER 

Bill Offill 

GENERAL MANAGER/ 

CREATIVE DIRECTOR 

Jeff Davis 

EDITOR 

Frank Denton 

ADVERTISING 

Liz Borten 

WRITERS 

Michael P. Clark 

Roger Brown 

CONTRIBUTORS 

Carole Hawkins, Charlie 

Patton, Denise Reagan, 

Lilla Ross, Marilyn Young 

MAILING ADDRESS 

J Magazine, 1 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32202 

CONTACT US 

EDITORIAL: 

(904) 359-4307, frankmdenton@gmail.com 

ADVERTISING: 

(904) 359-4099, lborten@jacksonville.com 

DISTRIBUTION/REPRINTS: 

(904) 359-4255, circserv@jacksonville.com 

WE WELCOME SUGGESTIONS FOR STORIES. 

PLEASE SEND IDEAS OR INQUIRIES TO: 

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contents 

Issue 1 // Volume 3 // SPRING 2019 

40 

A WAREHOUSE 

OF CREATIVITY 

BY FRANK DENTON 

16 24 34 46 51 

WHAT’S NEXT 

FOR MOSH 


OKLAHOMA CITY 

TRANSFORMED 

BY MIKE CLARK 

ACTIVATING 

THE RIVER 

BY LILLA ROSS 

LURING ARTISTS 

TO THE CORE 

BY CAROLE HAWKINS 

CULTURAL 

REVOLUTION 

BY CHARLIE PATTON 

64 70 76 82 88 

MYSTERY OF 

MAXWELL HOUSE 

BY MIKE CLARK 

THE GREAT 

HOtEL BOOM 


RISE AND 

GRIND 

BY CAROLE HAWKINS 

THE URBAN 

PIONEERS 

BY ROGER BROWN 

REMAPPING 

DOWNTOWN 

BY MARILYN YOUNG 

BOB SELF 

6 

J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019

J MAGAZINE 

PARTNERS 

DEPARTMENTS 

9 FROM THE PUBLISHER 

11 BRIEFING 

12 PROGRESS REPORT 

14 RATING DOWNTOWN 

32 THE BIG PICTURE 

54 12 VIEWS DOWNTOWN 

60 CORE EYESORE 

93 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 

98 THE FINAL WORD 

THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN 

F U T U R E 

I S S U E 

DISPLAY THROUGH MAY 2019 

$6.50 

MOSH 2.0 

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY 

MAKES PLANS FOR THE FUTURE 

P16 

SPRING 2019 

ON THE COVER 

The new master plan for the 

Museum of Science and History 

envisions a cutting-edge campus for 

experiencing, learning, exploring 

and family fun. // SEE PAGE 16 

STORY BY FRANK DENTON 

ILLUSTRATION BY GYROSCOPE

Excellence in motion. 

Dames Point Bridge 

today 

yesterday 

Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center at LaVilla 

tomorrow 

Ultimate Urban Circulator 

autonomous vehicle 

jtafla.com

FROM THE PUBLISHER 

Jacksonville on 

the threshold of a 

great revitalization 

Bill Offill 

PHONE 

(386) 681-2276 

EMAIL 

boffill@ 

gatehousemedia.com 

n early January, my wife Stephanie 

and I moved to Jacksonville. 

I 

As recent empty nesters (except 

for our beloved 12-year-old puppy, Sammie), 

we chose for the first time in our lives 

to live in a high-rise. We have an incredible 

view of the beautiful Downtown skyline 

that seems to rise up out of the St. Johns 

River. It’s a short walk to numerous excellent 

restaurants. 

We’ve attended shows at the Florida Theatre and 

Daily’s Place. We’ve visited the amazing beaches on 

Amelia Island and at Atlantic Beach. We’ve shopped 

at the St. Johns Town Center. Almost daily, we walk the 

Riverwalk. Maybe the greatest attribute of Jacksonville is 

the people who are so friendly and welcoming. 

Our introduction to Jacksonville could not have gone 

better. We’re sold, we love Jacksonville. 

I spent most of my career in Houston, where I 

worked for the Houston Chronicle. During the 1980s 

and ’90s, downtown Houston was not a great place 

to visit. It was a place people worked. By 6 p.m., the 

sidewalks could be rolled up because the place emptied 

out. Today, downtown Houston is a vibrant place. Bars, 

restaurants, shopping, entertainment — it’s a fun place 

to visit. 

Downtown Jacksonville seems to be on the verge of a 

great revitalization. I’ve lived through it once, and I am 

looking forward to living through this kind of resurgence 

again. I believe that J Magazine contributes to that resurgence. 

We will continue to chronicle the transformation 

of Jacksonville’s Downtown and point out obstacles 

and solutions. 

J Magazine is a unique publication in that it is an 

extension of the editorial page and not the newsroom. 

This allows the staff and free-lancers to take a point 

of view and be analytical in pushing for Downtown 

revitalization. I am very appreciative of the sponsors 

and advertisers who make this magazine possible. As 

you flip the pages of this issue, please take notice of 

these fine companies. They are not only supporting this 

magazine, but they are huge cheerleaders of Downtown 

Jacksonville. 

When GateHouse Media bought The Florida Times- 

Union, the Times-Union building was not a part of that 

purchase, and a search was made for a new home. We 

chose to be a part of the redevelopment of Downtown, 

and in April we will be moving into the Wells Fargo 

Center in the heart of Downtown. This move has our 

employees energized. We can’t wait to move into our 

new digs. Our reporters will be within walking distance 

of City Hall, the Courthouse and other important 

functions. All of our employees will be supporting the 

numerous restaurants that serve lunch. 

Being in the newspaper business these days is challenging, 

but I love what we do. I felt the same way when 

I started in this business 35 years ago, and all these years 

later, I love and appreciate it even more. I can’t think of 

anything that I’d rather do to earn a living. 

For the past 5½ years, my wife and I lived in Daytona 

Beach where I was the publisher of The Daytona 

Beach News-Journal. In October, I was promoted to 

group publisher overseeing Daytona, The St. Augustine 

Record and The Florida Times-Union. With each visit to 

Jacksonville, we became more intrigued by this city, so 

much so that Stephanie and I decided that this would 

be the place to be headquartered and to call home. We 

have two boys, Matt and Austin. Matt is a senior at The 

University of Texas, and Austin is a junior at Texas A&M. 

Both have already visited us in Jacksonville and can’t 

wait to come back to this “cool city.” 

Thank you, Jacksonville, for the warm welcome. 

Thank you to my new co-workers, the talented people at 

the Times-Union. Thank you for supporting J magazine, 

the Times-Union and journalism. Hello, Jacksonville! 

Bill Offill is the publisher of The Florida Times-Union 

and T-U Media. He is also group publisher overseeing 

The St. Augustine Record and the Daytona Beach 

News-Journal. He lives Downtown. 

SPRING 2019 | J MAGAZINE 9

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$516,060,000 

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»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» 

««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««« 

DIGITS 

The amount of 

ground coffee 

sales Maxwell 

House had in 

2018, trailing 

only Folgers who 

sold $1.09 billion. 

Starbucks was 

the third largest 

performer, selling 

$448 million in 

ground coffee 

last year. 

BRIEFING 

By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board 

Thumbs down to the 

Duval County 

school district’s 

relative lack of interest 

in even looking into 

moving its administrative 

offices elsewhere 

and putting its current 

building, on prime 

Southbank waterfront 

property, on the market. 

Thumbs up to the 

partnership between the 

City Hall, the JSO, 

the Sulzbacher 

Center and the 

Mental Health 

Resource Center 

to create the Urban Rest 

Stop, a facility inside the 

Sulzbacher’s Downtown 

campus that will provide 

a welcoming daytime 

location for the city’s 

transient population. 


reality that it will be 

a long time before 

Downtown Jacksonville 

will once again host a 

Super Bowl. Jaguars 

President Mark Lamping 

said we’ll need to see 

major Downtown 

development projects 

like Lot J, the District 

and others come to life 

first before the National 

Football League would 

consider our city as a 

future Super Bowl site. 

HITS & MISSES 


progress being made to 

convert historic Brewster 

Hospital in 

LaVilla — once the 

city’s hospital for African-American 

citizens 

and a school for black 

nurses — into the new 

headquarters for the 

North Florida Land Trust. 


planned expansion of the 

Winston Family 

YMCA on Riverside Avenue. 

Plans are to build 

an 8,000-square-feet 

rooftop addition to keep 

up with the Winston 

YMCA’s phenomenal 

membership growth. 

Thumbs up to another 

great edition of The 

Longest Table, the 

annual Downtown event 

that brings people from 

all over the community 

to sit, talk and eat together 

at a table that extends 

along Independent 

Drive from Main Street 

to Newman Street. Some 

600 people took part in 

the latest Longest Table, 

which is sponsored by 

the JAX Chamber. 

Thumbs up to DT10K, 

an initiative being 

undertaken by JAX 

Chamber with the goal 

FIRST PERSON 

of having at least 10,000 

residents living Downtown 

in the next two 

years. Now, according 

to JAX Chamber CEO 

Daniel Davis, there are 

about 4,000 to 4,500 

residents. 


fact that while there is 

plenty of parking Downtown, 

there isn’t enough 

information that easily 

points motorists to 

where it is. The lack 

of parking information 

is part of the 

disconnect that holds 

Downtown back. 

Thumbs up to the fact 

that when VyStar 

completes its process of 

converting the SunTrust 

Tower on South Laura 

Street into its new headquarters, 

it will bring 

some 900 more workers 

into Downtown. 


efforts by Axis 

Hotels, a St. Augustine-based 

development 

company, that is working 

to transform the 

long-vacant Ambassador 

Hotel on North Julia 

Street into a site that 

includes a 120-room 

hotel and a 220-unit 

apartment complex. 

“(MOSH can be a) destination for learning unlike 

anything in this region: hands-on learning, intergenerational 

experiences, technology and ideation processes.” 

MARIA HANE, MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY PRESIDENT (PAGE 16) 

WINTER SPRING 2018-19 2019 | | J J MAGAZINE XX 11

J MAGAZINE’S 

PROGRESS REPORT 

MONROE 

BREWSTER 

HOSPITAL 

Jacksonville’s first 

hospital for African- 

Americans was built in 1885. The city 

spent $2.3 million restoring and moving 

the building to 843 W. Monroe St., then 

leased it to North Florida Land Trust. 

STATUS: DIA and DDRB approved 

renovation plans costing $540,000, and 

work has begun. 

AMBASSADOR HOTEL 

A St. Augustine developer is restoring 

the historic Ambassador Hotel into 

a La Quinta and, on the rest of the 

block, plans to build 200 apartments and retail space. 

STATUS: Work is underway and the hotel expects 

to open in 12 months. 

HEMMING 

PARK 

BEAVER 

ASHLEY 

CHURCH 

DUVAL 

ADAMS 

HOUSTON 

FORSYTH 

LAVILLA 

DAVIS 

Laura Street Trio & 

Barnett Bank Building 

A $79 million renovation of the iconic 

MADISON 

JEFFERSON 

BROAD 

buildings into residences, offices, a Courtyard 

by Marriott, commercial/retail and a UNF campus. 

STATUS: UNF opened its space, and the entire building is to 

be finished by the early second quarter. The Trio renovation 

is still BAY getting permits but should begin by this summer. 

CLAY 

PEARL 

JULIA 

HOGAN 

LAURA 

MAIN 

OCEAN 

OAK 

PARK 

OAK 

PRIME OSBORN 

CONVENTION 

CENTER 

BROOKLYN 

STATION 

The “jughandle” that 

allowed big trucks access 

to the Times-Union will be removed, 

and a land swap with the city at Leila 

and May streets will allow expansion of 

the shopping center anchored by the 

Fresh Market. 

STATUS: The redevelopment agreement 

has cleared the DIA and City Council. 

N 

MAY 

BROOKLYN 

FOREST 

MAGNOLIA 

UNITY 

PLAZA 

RIVERSIDE 

JACKSON 

WATER 

RIVERSIDE AVE. 

RESIDENCE INN 

A six-story, 135-room hotel 

is planned for Oak Street 

near Forest and Magnolia in 

Brooklyn, across from Unity Plaza. 

STATUS: The land has been purchased, 

and DIA and DDRB have approved. 

Construction pending. 

HYATT PLACE hOTEL 

Main Street LLC bought the parcel at Hogan 

and Water and plans to build a nine-story 

hotel with 128 rooms and a rooftop 

restaurant and bar. 

STATUS: The Downtown Development Review Board has 

approved the design. The developer is now seeking an air 

rights easement, as the balconies will extend over sidewalks. 

MCCOYS CREEK 

The city’s capital 

improvement plan calls for 

$15 million over five years to 

restore and improve 2.8 miles of the creek 

ending at the St. Johns, with greenways, 

kayak launches and a new pedestrian bridge. 

STATUS: Planners are contemplating a 

partnership to include the Times-Union site. 

ACOSTA 

BRIDGE 

TIMES- 

UNION 

CENTER 

ST. JOHNS 

RIVER 

TIMES-UNION 

As the T-U offices 

move to the Wells Fargo 

Center, the previous 

owner is planning redevelopment 

of the 19-acre site at 1 Riverside Ave. 

Tentative thinking is for green space 

along McCoys Creek, two 12-story 

apartment buildings, retail, a hotel 

and offices. 

STATUS: Representatives are talking 

to the city about infrastructure 

issues, says the Daily Record. 

PRUDENTIAL DR. 

JACKSONVILLE 

LANDING 

MAIN STREET 

BRIDGE 

FRIENDSHIP 

FOUNTAIN 

SAN MARCO BLVD. 

JACKSONVILLE LANDING 

Finally! After years of sparring and suing, Sleiman Enterprises 

agreed to give up its long-term lease to the city for $15 million. 

The city plans to buy out tenants’ subleases for $1.5 million. 

STATUS: City Council will be asked to approve that deal and another 

$1.5 million to raze the copper-topped structure and prepare the site for 

redevelopment, perhaps the park the mayor suggested last year. 

RIVERPLACE 

MARY 

12 

J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019 

FULLER WARREN BRIDGE

JONES BROS. FURNITURE 

An $11 million adaptive reuse of 

the historic building would bring 28 

apartments plus retail space and office 

space to a block of Hogan Street near City Hall. 

STATUS: The DIA approved almost $2.4 million in city 

assistance, and City Council approved the development 

agreement. The developer is going through permitting 

and has started cleaning up the property. 

SPRINGFIELD 

PALMETTO 

Lot J & Shipyards/METRO PARK 

Shad Khan’s proposed Shipyards/Met Park development will 

begin on Lot J next to the stadium with an entertainment 

complex, office towers and a hotel. 

STATUS: Work on taking down Hart Expressway ramps to make room 

for the project may be delayed until after football season. The deadline for 

Khan’s Iguana Investments to produce a redevelopment agreement for the 

Shipyards was extended to June 30, 2020. 

NEWNAN 

MARKET 

LIBERTY 

NORTHBANK 

HEMMING PLAZA APARTMENTS 

Downtown pioneer Ron Chamblin plans to 

renovate the building next door to his Chamblin’s 

Book Mine into a ground-floor restaurant and four 

apartments above, two with balconies overlooking Laura Street. 

STATUS: DDRB approved. Work should start this month and 

finish in about eight months. 

WASHINGTON 

BAY 

CATHERINE 

VETERANS 

MEMORIAL 

ARENA 

ADAMS 

Old city hall & 

county courthouse 

The city spent $8 million to raze the 

empty buildings and clear the site for a 

possible new convention center, though that has been 

placed on hold. 

STATUS: The old City Hall Annex was imploded, and 

the old courthouse is being dismantled floor by floor. 

A. PHILIP RANDOLPH 

BASEBALL 

GROUNDS 

GEORGIA 

FRANKLIN 

SPORTS 

COMPLEX 

USS ADAMS 

The Adams, a retired U.S. Navy 

GATOR BOWL BLVD. 

TIAA 

BANK FIELD 

DAILY’S 

PLACE 

guided-missile destroyer, was to be 

anchored as a museum ship in the St. 

Johns off Berkman II, connected to the proposed family 

entertainment center. 

STATUS: The Navy sank the donation of the Adams, and 

proponents said they are looking elsewhere for another 

ship, maybe one that another city no longer wants. 

FLAGLER 

BERKMAN PLAZA II 

The new owners plan a $150 million 

312-room hotel, 500-car parking garage 

and a “family entertainment center.” 

STATUS: A lawsuit has been settled and the skeletal 

structure cleared for reuse. The redevelopment 

agreement with the city is almost resolved. 

KIPP 

HENDRICKS 

KINGS 

SOUTHBANK 

HOTEL INDIGO 

A developer bought the old Life of the 

South building at 100 W. Bay to convert 

it into a seven-story, 89-room boutique 

hotel with a rooftop restaurant and bar. 

STATUS: The developer says he is finalizing design and 

financing. The hotel is to open this year. 

ONYX 

MONTANA 

ST. JOHNS RIVER NODES 

City Council member Lori Boyer is leading the effort 

to activate the river, including a nightly sound and light 

show framed by Friendship Fountain, the Times-Union 

Center and the Main Street and Acosta bridges, as well as live-stream 

event projections of T-U Center events or movies on the CSX facade. 

STATUS: The Moment Factory, which produces such shows, is 

planning the sound-and-light program, but first the fountain and the 

bulkhead next to the T-U Center have to be repaired. 

The District 

Peter Rummell’s community concept will have up 

to 1,170 residences, 200 Marriott hotel rooms and 

285,500 square feet of office space, with a marina 

and public spaces along an extended Southbank Riverwalk. 

STATUS: Engineering and design work is being done. The developers 

are studying options for retailers and housing. They expect the 

bonds for financing will be nailed down and construction started 

late spring or early summer. 

JEA HEADQUARTERS 

JEA is planning to build a new HQ, and six Downtown 

proposals have been reduced to three. 

STATUS: Three companies are submitting final offers, 

and the JEA board plans to pick the final site the week of April 8. 

SAN MARCO 

DOWNTOWN 

JACKSONVILLE 

TRACKING DEVELOPMENT IN THE URBAN CORE 


POWER 

RATING DOWNTOWN 

By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board 

Downtown development drives 

strong opening quarter of 2019 

7 

8 

6 6 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

PUBLIC SAFETY 

LEADERSHIP 

HOUSING 

INVESTMENT 

Serious crime remains low, and 

Hemming Park has virtually 

eliminated even minor offenses 

(at least until late night). Soon 

all those new apartments will fill 

up and put more and more solid 

citizens on the streets. 

PREVIOUS: 7 

A search firm is looking for a new 

DIA CEO, who will have a much 

needed larger staff. Meanwhile, City 

Council member Lori Boyer leads 

on river activation and simplified 

zoning. And Mayor Curry fulfilled 

his promise to resolve the Landing. 

PREVIOUS: 7 

All those new apartment buildings, 

open or under construction or 

credibly planned, will close in 

on the critical mass of 10,000 

people we need living Downtown. 

We want more of them to be 

unsubsidized. 

PREVIOUS: 6 

Local investors are being joined 

by long-distance money as 

they perceive that Downtown 

Jacksonville is finally on a fast 

rise. Public subsidies are making 

investment decisions easy. 

PREVIOUS: 6 

5 5 5 

4 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

DEVELOPMENT 

EVENTS & CULTURE 

TRANSPORTATION 

CONVENTION CENTER 

Retail? Keep an eye on 

Brooklyn Station. On one side, 

the 10-story Vista Brooklyn 

will include 14,000 square 

feet of retail. On the other, 

more retailing will replace the 

“jughandle” at Leila. 

PREVIOUS: 4 

We lost the USS Adams to 

Navy nervousness, and the Landing 

restaurants soon will be gone. 

Top acts still fill Downtown venues, 

but we’re looking forward to 

Lot J and the family entertainment 

center planned for Berkman II. 

PREVIOUS: 6 

A road diet will make the 

Southbank more walkable and 

bikeable, while the North Florida 

Smart Region Coalition is pushing 

forward on what it calls the 

BayJax Innovation Corridor to 

revolutionize Northbank traffic. 

PREVIOUS: 4 

The old City Hall and courthouse 

are down and being 

cleared, but the city has put the 

whole idea of a convention 

center on hold, whether there 

or at the Shipyards. 

PREVIOUS: 4 

OVERALL RATING 

It’s really 6.5, but we’re rounding up in honor of 

the soon-to-be complete Barnett Bank, the 

ubiquitous construction cranes and those new 

apartment complexes everywhere. Demolition 

of the Landing will be a great symbol. 

PREVIOUS: 6 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

JEFF DAVIS 

14 


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16 J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019

FIRST LOOK: 

What’s next 

for MOSH 

The Museum of Science and History 

has grand plans to transform itself into 

a cutting-edge museum of the future 


ILLUSTRATIONS BY Gyroscope 


magine the Southbank blooming and booming, 

from the stolid, almost waste of a riverfront whose best appeal might be its view 

of the Northbank, into a grand campus teeming with people of all ages exploring, 

experiencing and learning. 

Imagine that big concrete monolith of the Museum of Science and History 

expanding, opening up to the park surrounding Friendship Fountain and 

creatively embracing the grand river that virtually defines this city. 

Imagine that place, as the new MOSH master plan does, becoming “an ideas 

lab that nurtures innovation, as a dynamic platform for learning, a center of 

Icommunity and a champion of social and environmental stewardship.” 

18 


Imagine … Well, first imagine for a moment 

being a child in Jacksonville in the 1930s when there 

was no MOSH. You couldn’t conceive of anything 

like television, and there was not even a sciencefiction 

notion of an internet. You learned what you 

could about your world from stale textbooks and 

word of mouth. 

All else you had was looking forward to going 

Downtown once a month and experiencing 

the displays in the windows of the Barnett Bank 

building, produced by three school teachers 

dedicated to finding a new way to stimulate 

children’s learning. 

Creating a real museum 

Even for the time, it was very limited and static, 

so the teachers interested a group of people who 

created the Jacksonville Children’s Museum in a 

small space on the second floor of the Duval County 

Armory. 

After World War II broadened Americans’ 

horizons, the Jacksonville Journal reported that “the 

museum had grown to such an extent and attracted 

so much community interest (that) it was able to 

open its own building,” taking over a 44-year-old 

former private home in Riverside. By the early 1960s, 

the museum was drawing 80,000 visitors a year. 

So, again, the community responded and raised 

$1 million to build a much larger and modern 

museum on MOSH’s current site overlooking 

Friendship Fountain on the Southbank. 

At the opening in 1969, one national authority 

called it “the finest, most modern, beautifully 

equipped children’s museum in the entire United 

States.” 

Quickly, its community appeal broadened to 

include all ages, so in 1977 its name was changed 

to the Museum of Arts & Science, then in 1988 to 

MOSH, reflecting that Jacksonville already had two 

art museums nearby and really needed a museum 

dedicated to helping us understand where we came 

from and the world we live in. 

MOSH had a major expansion in 1988, including 

the planetarium, and various renovations, and 

today the museum stands as ... an awkward 

building offering exhibits and experiences that are 

interesting, educational and fun, even fascinating 

and important, but collectively fall short of 

appropriately stimulating a major 21st century city 

and a Downtown with our ambitions. 

Now the community is being asked to buy into 

a vision worthy of those ambitions. The new master 

plan envisions MOSH transforming into a campus of 

experiencing, learning, exploring and family fun that 

will cost $80-90 million. 

Consider some context 

Before you roll your eyes at that price tag and 

change the subject, think about how museums have 

changed since the first one you visited, at a time 

when, according to the Association of Children’s 

Museums, “exhibits were only static displays, not 

interactive engagements; education meant exposure 

to edifying examples and occasional curios, not 

the sparking of true learning and the introduction 

to wonder; the display of the collections was more 

important than the experience of the visitors.” 

Today, among national trends identified 

by museum consultant Jeanne Vergeront, 

museums are finding new ways to engage visitors; 

accommodating informal learning; collaborating 

with others; utilizing technology throughout; 

displaying real-world, authentic objects and 

developing “maker spaces” in which visitors can 

create their own learning. 

Vergeront emphasized the power of place: 

“As daily life becomes more global, museums are 

recognizing that being local is increasingly valued. 

Experiences grounded in place connect with what 

an audience finds distinctive and meaningful, 

build on local knowledge and deepen a sense of 

connection and identity.” 

MOSH, in hindsight astoundingly, was designed 

as a virtual fortress, with its entrance off a side street 

“As daily 

life becomes 

more global, 

museums are 

recognizing 

that being 

local is 

increasingly 

valued. 

Experiences 

grounded in 

place connect 

with what 

an audience 

finds 

distinctive 

and 

meaningful, 

build on local 

knowledge 

and deepen 

a sense of 

connection 

and identity.” 

JEANNE 

VERGERONT 

MUSEUM 

CONSULTANT 

WINTER SPRING 2018-19 2019 | J MAGAZINE 19 57

and its massive concrete walls isolating it from the 

city. Though they are contiguous, you can barely 

see the fountain, the park and the river from the 

museum, and vice versa. You pretty much have to 

walk around MOSH to find the riverfront park and 

fountain, and not that many people do. 

As for the museum itself, “MOSH has outgrown 

its facilities, limiting its capacity to serve,” the master 

plan says. “But even more important, the museum 

has outgrown its service model. Today’s audiences 

demand something different than visitors of 

previous generations. 

“Those who have grown up with social media 

expect to be actively engaged in shaping their own 

learning. The old model of museum as textbook 

will no longer suffice. The new model envisions the 

museum as the center of a community of lifelong 

learners that reaches from the museum’s youngest 

visitors through the region’s amateur naturalists to 

its professional scientists and engineers.” 

Developing a 

strategic plan 

Over the past five years, recognizing that MOSH 

was falling short of its opportunities, its leaders 

worked through a series of analyses and plans, 

including community workshops. As a whole, 

they recommend: integrating MOSH, the park, 

the fountain and the river; expanding MOSH 

into a cultural anchor to increase and broaden 

its audience; making MOSH a “visual beacon” 

“MOSH has 

outgrown 

its facilities 

... Today’s 

audiences 

demand 

something 

different 

than visitors 

of previous 

generations.” 

MOSH 

MASTER PLAN 

and activating the park with programming and 

amenities to draw people. 

“MOSH has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity 

to develop Friendship park with family-oriented, 

fun, educational experiences, and in doing so, will 

increase its own visibility and attendance,” the 

master plan says. 

By expanding its building and programming 

and integrating the park and riverfront, the plan 

says, “MOSH will draw a broad local and regional 

audience that will benefit Jacksonville culturally and 

economically. With careful planning and financial 

resources, MOSH can become a world-class 

destination.” 

Here are the six strategies the master plan 

proposes to transform MOSH: 

Place-based learning. MOSH would 

use the river to develop “authentic, place-based 

environments and experiences,” including an 

outdoor/indoor “river” into the museum. 

Indoor and outdoor connectivity. 

Complete integration of the museum, the park, 

the river and the fountain would provide “multiple 

perspectives” and create “an emotional connection” 

to the 15-acre site. 

Making as a way of knowing. MOSH 

would join the Maker Movement and provide tools 

and space as a learning environment for people 

to participate in “open-ended problem-solving 

through the process of creating something original 

with one’s own hands.” 

20 


Platforms for change. The museum 

would develop physical platforms that are flexible 

to allow different uses for different experiences at 

different times — for example, a river platform to 

offer “many different types of experiences such 

as experimenting with buoyancy, fluid dynamics, 

board design, river currents and many others.” 

Human-centered design. Museums 

are learning to offer what visitors need and want 

as opposed to what curators think they need to 

know (such as those Barnett Bank windows). It 

means listening to visitors and offering “a wide 

range of experiences from traditional, collectionsbased 

displays to demonstrations, immersive 

environments, full-body activities, hands-on 

exhibits” and art installations that integrate music, 

popular culture and technology to connect to young 

people. 

Partnerships. MOSH would expand 

its collaboration with other public and private 

organizations to create a “community of learners” 

around subjects of common interest. 

Especially, MOSH says the expansion will 

“amplify service to schools, teachers and students 

through a dynamic range of new educational 

programs and interactive learning environments.” 

To accomplish all that, the master plan proposes 

an ambitious and dramatic development of MOSH 

into a true campus with an expansion, renovation 

and reorientation of its building, integrating it with 

the parking surrounding Friendship Fountain. 

“With careful 

planning 

and financial 

resources, 

MOSH can 

become a 

world-class 

destination.” 

MOSH 

MASTER PLAN 

Now the city is giving MOSH a leg up by its 

own plans to repair, upgrade and transform 

St. Johns River Park, the real name of the park 

commonly known as Friendship Park because of the 

prominence of the fountain. (See the story on page 

34.) 

For its part, MOSH proposes a redesign, a 

three-story expansion and renovation of the current 

building, from 78,000 square feet now to 120,000- 

125,000 square feet with a “glass building” addition 

fronting the park and an imposing new public 

entrance. 

A visit to the 

envisioned MOSH 

Museum visitors now find the front door off 

the corner at Museum Circle. After the expansion, 

visitors would enter the newly integrated campus 

via an outdoor “river zone” that leads to a grand 

new entrance with a large curved façade facing the 

park and the river. They’d be greeted by “vibrant 

signage, landscaped public way, highly visible art 

installations, wayfinding and landmark architecture.” 

Whereas now MOSH is an incognito building, the 

new, three-story façade would stand proud of itself, 

with “monument signage” visible from the Main 

Street bridge and a “large LED video sphere with 

programmable graphics visible from the Northbank.” 

The envisioned museum would be designed 

around ecosystems. Visitors would enter through the 

natural ecosystem, with the river and experiences 


around the interdependence of water, plants, 

animals and people. 

The expanded second floor would house the 

innovation ecosystem, featuring the “Makerspace” 

and Jacksonville’s entrepreneurial culture, and 

major traveling exhibits. 

The third floor would offer the cultural 

ecosystem, which includes history, diversity and 

pop culture and more makerspace. Recognizing 

the size of Jacksonville, “250 neighborhoods” 

would be “an ongoing visitor-contributed display 

that showcases the unique qualities of each 

neighborhood — the people, cultures, foods, 

festivals and ceremonies that shape each area.” 

The third floor also would open out onto a “green 

roof event space” overlooking the park, the fountain 

and the river. 

Of course, the expanded MOSH would maintain 

its planetarium, which it bills as “one of the largest 

single-lens digital dome planetariums” in the U.S. 

The expansion would double the space available 

for exhibits, quadruple the outdoor program area 

and increase the areas for school groups by 185 

percent. 

The price of progress 

All that would cost between $80 million and $90 

million. Museum President Maria Hane believes 

$60-70 million of that can be raised from federal 

“The 

museum 

experience 

will be 

transformed 

into the 

way we’re 

going to use 

museums in 

the future.” 

MARIA HANE 

MOSH PRESIDENT 

grants, state and city grants and appropriations, and 

perhaps revenue bonds. 

That leaves $20 million to be raised from 

donations, and MOSH is powering up its fundraising 

capability. 

If you kick in, she says, you’ll be helping build 

“a new museum destination for learning unlike 

anything in this region: hands-on learning, 

intergenerational experiences, technology and 

ideation processes … The museum experience will 

be transformed into the way we’re going to use 

museums in the future.” 

She said the larger benefits of the new MOSH 

will be to help develop the 21st century workforce, 

add another major “complementary” component 

to Downtown development and enhance tourism 

and our own quality of life. 

“This will be an iconic symbol of Jacksonville’s 

aspirations.” 

Or the symbol can remain the city’s last major 

public building project, the $350 million Duval 

County Courthouse whose function is to deal with 

the downside of life — criminal justice and civil 

disputes. 

Are we willing to invest a fourth of that into an 

institution of learning for our future? 

Frank Denton, retired editor of The Florida Times-Union, is 

editor of J. He lives in Riverside. 

22 


24 J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019 TRANSFORMED 

DOWNTOWNS 

If Oklahoma City 

can be revived, 

it can happen 

anywhere

Meet Mick Cornett, the former mayor of 

Oklahoma City, who, with leadership, 

determination and vision, transformed his 

midsize city into a thriving community 

BY MIKE CLARK 

CHRIS LANDSBERGER 


During Mick Cornett’s 15 years as Oklahoma City mayor, the city was transformed into a vibrant, growing community. 

If Oklahoma City can be revived, it can happen anywhere. 

That’s the message of Mick Cornett, mayor of Oklahoma City from 2004 to 2018. 

In his book “The Next American City: The Big Promise of our Midsize Metros,” Cornett 

tells the Oklahoma City story as well as success stories of other mid-size metros. 

Cornett makes a convincing case. Oklahoma City was little more than a truck stop, 

battered by an oil recession with the locals feeling pretty bad about themselves. 

A series of mayors persuaded the citizens to vote for temporary sales taxes to start 

making visible improvements to the city’s facilities and schools. Cornett, however, took 

Ithe local improvements to a new level. 

THINKSTOCK 

26 


extend image 

CHRIS LANDSBERGER 

Listening to a local activist, he agreed to turn 

a dry creek bed into a canoeing, sculling and 

kayaking hotbed. Suddenly a place that once 

was being mowed was playing host to national 

activities. And then it became a magnet for 

redevelopment. 

This isn’t an accident. Cornett sees great 

opportunities for midsize cities to attract the smart 

young people who are turned off by the high cost of 

living in cities like New York and Los Angeles. Give 

them some amenities, and they will come. 

A Brookings Institution study showed that from 

2010 to 2016, New York City lost 900,000 people, 

Los Angeles lost 375,000 and Chicago lost 400,000. 

Richard Florida, the proponent of attracting 

the creative class, describes this in a forward to 

Cornett’s book. 

“The 20th Century was the century of suburbanization: 

the flight from cities of people and industry, 

commerce and jobs as far from downtowns as 

our cars and highways could take us. 

“But now, shockingly, the 21st Century has been 

deemed the ‘century of the city.’ The creative class has 

streamed back to cities in ways no one anticipated. 

And even start-up companies are abandoning their 

tech-driven ‘nerdistans’ in suburban office parks for 

the vibrancy and hubbub of urban centers. 

“And as our largest urban centers become 

increasingly expensive, unaffordable and divided, 

they price out and drive away the very diversity that 

powered their innovativeness and growth to begin 

with. … Smaller places that cultivate innovation and 

creativity, have abundant natural or urban amenities 

and connect to larger centers in the United States 

and the world are thriving.” 

Successful cities must mobilize, of course, but 

Cornett’s point is that every city has something to 

work with, you just need to find it. 

“Large and small, they create a genuine quality 

of place that all can see and feel,” Cornett writes of 

cities on the move. 

“This is a story about finding a hidden asset 

and unleashing its potential. … Sometimes the 

missing link is the passion of the person with the 

idea. Take another look at the most recent crazy 

idea to emerge in your community. Maybe it’s not 

so crazy.” 

“Old-fashioned buildings, eyesores and oldfashioned 

industries can be refreshed to make your 

city great again. Sometimes traditions are the best 

foundations to build on. Your city has its untold 

stories that need to be told. … And believe it or not, 

the world is listening.” 

One of the things former 

Oklahoma City mayor Mick 

Cornett will be remembered 

for is the arrival of the National 

Basketball Association’s Thunder. 

“When (the NBA) selected us for 

a permanent franchise, it sent a 

message to the rest of the country 

that something special was going 

on here,” Cornett said. 


Just a short walk from downtown 

Oklahoma City, Bricktown is a 

former warehouse district filled 

with restaurants hotels, event 

venues and attractions. 

Here is how Cornett describes Oklahoma City: 

“What was once a hopeless place on the brink of 

collapse has become a vibrant, growing, diverse 

American city. … The reinvention of Oklahoma 

City has been nothing short of a miracle. We rebuilt 

every school in the inner city. We revived the 

‘downtown ditch the grownups called the river.’ We 

redesigned our city and downtown around people 

rather than the automobile, constructing enough 

sidewalks and trails to walk to Dallas. We changed 

in a matter of years from a wounded city with no 

national brand to a truly big league city.” 

It took determination first, then a vision, then 

activation. 

“When times are tough, good places with great 

people dig deep and find a way to blaze a trail to the 

future.” 

Oklahoma City, like Jacksonville and so many 

others, had been built with the automobile in mind. 

It was a great place if you were a car, Cornett wrote. 

“Downtown was dead. People got in their cars 

and flew down the one-way streets to the onramps 

and the interstate highways, and made the 

20-minute ride to their homes.” 

So Oklahoma City deliberately started changing 

its one-way streets to two-ways in order to make 

people the priority, not their cars. Jacksonville 

has plans for converting one-way streets, but little 

action. 

The people of Oklahoma City are conservative, 

but they agreed to a series of temporary sales tax 

increases that invested over $5 billion in public 

and private money in a new baseball park, rebuilt 

every school, built a new main library, rebuilt the 

performing arts center, built a convention center 

and fairground and produced the Bricktown 

entertainment district. 

During his 14 years as mayor, Cornett helped 

lure the Oklahoma City Thunder pro basketball 

team, created a world class venue for canoeing, 

First, it takes leadership. 

Built in the Boathouse District, 

RiverSport Rapids is Oklahoma 

City’s whitewater rafting and 

kayaking center. The area features 

an abundance of outdoor fun 

including whitewater rafting and 

kayaking, adventure courses, zip 

lines, rock walls, cycling, high speed 

slides, flatwater kayaking and stand 

up paddle boarding. 

28 J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019 

enticed 20 hotels downtown, expanded corporate 

headquarters and attracted nearly $6 billion in 

private money. 

Oklahoma City has a tradition of pragmatism. 

After all, the shopping cart and parking meter were 

invented there. 

But the energy crisis hit hard. Then the bombing 

of the Murrah federal building in 1995 seemed to 

put a tombstone on the city. 

Marketers studied the Oklahoma City image 

and discovered that outsiders really didn’t have one 

but the people of Oklahoma City did — and it was 

negative. 

“Brands are great for cities but personalities are 

better,” Cornett wrote. “And the personality of a 

place grows from a city’s history and informs a city’s 

posture toward the present and future.” 

When Cornett looked around, he discovered 

that every city has a story, it just needs to be told. 

“I see a great future for this country and for the 

millions of Americans who call fast-growing cities 

like mine home.” 

“The middle is where the action is.” 

“Our country’s middle class is moving from 

megametros to smaller, more livable and manageable 

places. … The pragmatic, productive, visionary 

politics in smaller cities like my own is getting things 

done and raising standards for millions of public 

servants at the local level.” 

“Better housing prices, lighter traffic and the 

ASASASASASAS Oklahoma City Convention & Visitor Bureau (TOP); CHRIS LANDSBERGER (BOTTOM)

Oklahoma City Convention & Visitor Bureau 

proliferation of top-tier restaurants are all part of 

the story.” 

Cornett also realized that the people had to be 

energized, too. When Oklahoma City was named 

the fattest city in America, he began a weight loss 

campaign for residents to lose 1 million pounds. It 

took about four years, but it worked. 

Honesty is one of the keys to urban 

redevelopment. Cornett and his constituents had 

to lose some pounds, so they admitted it and went 

to work. 

Sounding like a civic evangelist, Cornett 

preaches that any city can be reinvented. He has 

seen it elsewhere. 

“I assure you the reinvention of Middle America 

is real,” Cornett writes. “We are in the early days of 

a new golden age for the American city, where 100 

cities, maybe more, will find their way to a future 

brighter than they could have imagined. How it 

works, who’s in charge and where it is happening 

fastest may surprise you just as much as it has 

surprised me.” 

What are the lessons for 

Jacksonville? We have been 

preaching them in our eight 

editions of J magazine as well as 

the Sunday Reason section. 

Jacksonville has been great at planning but 

poor at execution since the Better Jacksonville Plan 

of 2000. Peer cities like Charlotte, Nashville and 

Oklahoma City have passed us in redeveloping 

their downtowns. 

Cornett’s book offers obvious prescriptions 

Bricktown has become Oklahoma 

City’s premiere entertainment 

district with the Bricktown Canal 

serving as the area’s focal point. 


BEAUTIFUL. 

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Oklahoma City Convention & Visitor Bureau 

for Downtown redevelopment that relate to 

Jacksonville: 

• Tell our story, honestly: Jacksonville has a great 

story to tell but we have been too shy or ashamed 

to admit that it has not always been Chamber of 

Commerce material. Much of it involves race. 

Other Southern cities have turned their civil rights 

histories into tourist attractions. Jacksonville has 

great nationally known civil rights leaders. All we 

need to do is embrace their history. 

• Turn from cars to people: Planning for urban 

trails is underway by Groundwork Jacksonville. 

That should be impetus to create more twoway 

streets Downtown to foster more retail and 

services. 

• Cut red tape: Redevelopment is underway 

Downtown, but developers must slog through a 

swamp of regulatory hurdles. We need to bring a 

group of agencies into one room and work out the 

regulations in a more efficient manner. It’s mystifying 

that a Republican-dominated city still is hampered 

by regulations. 

Cornett is convinced that if Oklahoma City 

can redefine and rebuild itself, any city can do it. 

Jacksonville, a similar city, should be making more 

progress than it is. 

Mike Clark has been reporting and editing Downtown for 

the Jacksonville newspapers since 1973. He and his family lived 

in San Marco for most of that time and now live in Nocatee. 

The Oklahoma City National 

Memorial honors the victims, 

survivors, rescuers and all who 

were affected by the Oklahoma 

City bombing on April 19, 1995. 

“We have taken a city that had 

been branded by tragedy and 

built it into a cosmopolitan, 

job-creating powerhouse, that is 

also known for its compassion,” 

former mayor Mick Cornett said. 

LOWCOUNTRY 

CHOW DOWN 

A brand new community designed for playful living 

in the heart of the Florida Lowcountry 

wildlight.com 

SPRING 2019 | J MAGAZINE 31 

RAY-025a_chow_down_ad_7.25x4.875.indd 1 

2/14/19 12:24 PM

THE BIG 

PICTURE 

FORMER CITY 

HALL ANNEX 

IMPLODED 

PHOTO BY WILL DICKEY 

At 8 a.m. on a cloudy morning 

on Jan. 20, Jacksonville’s 15-story 

former City Hall Annex building was 

reduced to a pile of rubble in less 

than 10 seconds. The mid-century 

modern building at 220 E. Bay St. 

opened in 1960, a time when it was 

the fifth-tallest building in Jacksonville. 

That site along with the one 

next door, the former Duval County 

Courthouse, are being cleared for 

eventual Downtown redevelopment 

along the riverfront. 

TIMES-UNION ARCHIVE 

Construction of the City Hall Annex ] 

was completed in 1960. 

32 



From Montreal’s colorful Jacques Cartier Bridge 

to breathtaking outdoor ‘wallcasts’ in Miami 

Beach, Jacksonville is looking at similar ways 

to invigorate the Downtown river experience 

ACTIVATING 

THE RIVER 

BY LILLA ROSS // PHOTO BY julien perron-gagné 

34 XX J J MAGAZINE | | SPRING 2019

Montreal’s Jacques Cartier Bridge, 

is illuminated each evening with 

lighting that changes with the 

season and how often Montreal is 

mentioned on Twitter. 

SPRING 2019 | | J J MAGAZINE XX 35

There’s been a 

lot of talk in 

recent years 

about making the St. 

Johns River central to 

the city’s identity and 

brand, developing its 

recreational 

and economic opportunities and valuing it as 

a natural resource that needs to be protected. 

And now, we’re starting to see some action. 

Much of the focus has been on multimillion-dollar 

developments to add 

residential and retail establishments like The 

District on the Southbank and Shad Khan’s 

vision for the Shipyards on the Northbank. 

But another effort — low-budget in comparison — has been 

in the works, spearheaded by City Councilwoman Lori Boyer, to 

rethink the ways existing components are used. Rather than brickand-mortar, 

these projects are about structural creativity. 

Starting this spring and for the next two years, work will be underway 

on the Northbank and Southbank Riverwalks and McCoys 

Creek to help people connect with the river. Some of the work — 

bulkheads and plumbing, for instance — isn’t very sexy, but it will 

set the stage for the creation of a multimedia entertainment zone 

between of the Acosta and Main Street bridges. 

Think of it as a Wow! Zone. 

It will be part of Boyer’s legacy. The two-term District 5 

councilwoman, who represents San Marco, has championed the 

activation of the river as chair of the Jacksonville Waterways Commission, 

chair of Waterway/Waterfront Activation, member of the 

Tourist Development Council and council liaison to the Downtown 

Investment Authority. 

Her goal has been to make the river easier to get to and to give 

people — residents and tourists — more reasons to get there. Boyer’s 

term on the City Council ends in June, but she leaves knowing 

that her efforts to activate the river are bearing fruit. 

Better access to the river 

To improve access, a new shared-use path is under construction 

on the Fuller Warren Bridge. When it is completed by the fall 

of 2020, pedestrians and cyclists will be able to cross the river via a 

12-foot-wide path with ramps at the Riverside Arts Market on the 

Northbank and Nemours Children’s Hospital on the Southbank. 

NEW WORLD SYMPHONY 

36 


SoundScape Park in Miami Beach broadcasts movies and live concerts — including this one by the New World Symphony — on a 7,000-square-foot projection wall. 

It’s a major piece of a loop that is planned to meander through 

San Marco, linking the Northbank and Southbank Riverwalks. 

There are some gaps in the path — notably The District on the 

Southbank that will eventually include a Riverwalk extension — 

but it will give walkers and cyclists better and safer access. 

Cross-river transportation also will improve with the addition 

of docks at Jackson Street in Brooklyn and Post Street in Riverside 

and a kayak launch at Ed Gefen Park. Finger docks also are going 

in on the Southbank near the Riverplace Tower. 

This spring, wayfinding signs are being installed along the Riverwalks. 

These will provide “you are here” type information, Boyer 

said, but they will include the necessary wiring so that interactive 

signage with more information can be added later. 

Riverplace Boulevard on the Southbank is undergoing a road 

diet to slow down traffic, create more green space and improve 

access to the Southbank Riverwalk. The $6 million project will 

reduce the street from five lanes to three and add bike lanes, 

crosswalks and wider sidewalks and 36 on-street parking spaces. 

And 200 parking spaces will soon be available under the Acosta 

Bridge. 

All of those projects will make the Riverwalks easier to find and 

navigate, and soon people will have new reasons to come. 

But first things first. The aging Northbank bulkhead, which 

was further weakened by Hurricane Irma, will be repaired and 

upgraded starting this summer. The $3 million project is expected 

to be completed in 2021. 

As that project winds down, work will begin on a new riverfront 

Visit Jacksonville welcome center in the southeast corner of 


“Friendship 

Fountain is 

in our front 

yard, and 

the way our 

building embraces 

the 

park creates 

connectivity 

both visually 

and 

programmatically 

to 

Downtown.” 

MARIA HANE 

PRESIDENT OF 

THE MUSEUM 

OF SCIENCE 

AND HISTORY 

the Times-Union Performing Arts Center, paid 

for with $850,000 from the Tourist Development 

Council. 

‘Wallcasting’ on 

the Northbank 

Visitors to the welcome center will have reason 

to linger. Just outside will be a sensory garden and 

children’s space highlighting Northeast Florida’s 

diverse musical heritage. The various components 

of the musical garden will develop over time, as 

funding is available, Boyer said, but the plan is 

to make it interactive. Visitors might hear music 

by Frederick Delius, whose “Florida Suite” was 

inspired by his time in North Florida; James Weldon 

and John Rosamond Johnson, composers of 

“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” and Southern rockers 

Lynyrd Skynyrd. 

The TDC has allocated $1.2 million to create 

a “wallcast” venue. Never heard of a “wallcast?” 

Think of a more sophisticated version of a drive-in 

movie with the facade of the CSX building serving 

as a livestream screen. It’s being done in Sound- 

Scape Park in Miami Beach where the New World 

Symphony broadcasts live concerts and movies 

on an outdoor 7,000-square-foot projection wall. 

Boyer envisions people watching movies or 

concerts from lawn chairs or boats and ordering 

food and drinks from food trucks or a proposed 

café in the Performing Arts Center. 

Activating Friendship 

Fountain 

That’s the plan for the Northbank. The plan for 

the Southbank will begin shortly on plumbing and 

wiring repairs and upgrades to Friendship Fountain, 

which already are in the city budget. 

The fountain has needed repairing for years, 

but Boyer wants to use the opportunity to make 

the fountain and surrounding St. Johns River Park 

more of a destination. 

The fountain will become an entertainment 

venue for synchronized light, music and projection 

shows. Fluidity Design of Los Angeles, which 

specializes in water and music projects, is designing 

the fountain upgrades. Boyer said work should 

begin in late spring and be done by fall. 

The area around the fountain will be transformed 

into a garden echoing naturalist William 

Bartram’s exploration of Florida in the 18th century. 

Expect landscaping with native plants and a 

picnic area. 

A play area will harken to the 16th century and 

the adventures of French colonizer Jean Ribault, 

who explored the St. Johns River and established 

Fort Caroline. The centerpiece of the playground 

will be a 16th century French galleon, a Timucuan 

hut and a splash pad. 

Some of the inspiration for the park comes from 

the new Gathering Place in Tulsa, Okla., a 100-acre 

riverfront park that was voted USA Today’s Best 

New Attraction. Funded by philanthropist George 

Kaiser, the park is billed as a playground for all 

ages with trails, a concert venue, restaurants and a 

European-style playground that engages children 

of all ability levels. 

The funding is in place for the garden and picnic 

area, and work on those elements could begin 

this spring, Boyer said. The playground design is in 

the bidding process. 

Maria Hane, president of the adjoining Museum 

of Science and History (MOSH), said the 

plans for the Friendship Fountain will enhance the 

museum’s plans for expansion. See story page 16) 

“Friendship Fountain is in our front yard, and 

the way our building embraces the park creates 

connectivity both visually and programmatically to 

Downtown,” Hane said. “Synergy is happening at 

the site. The city’s investment and our investment 

are so cohesive, and they will create a seamless 

experience whether you start in the museum and 

go to the park or start in the park and come to the 

museum.” 

Sound and light show 

But that’s only two sides of the quadrangle. Miller 

Electric and the Moment Factory, a multimedia 

studio based in Montreal, are working on developing 

a light and music show using the Acosta 

and Main Street bridges, the fountain and the T-U 

Performing Arts Center. 

The Moment Factory has developed productions 

all over the world but none more spectacular 

than the one it did in its own backyard — the 

Jacques Cartier Bridge. The iconic bridge, which 

opened in 1930, is illuminated each evening 

with lighting that changes with the season. The 

intensity, speed and density of the light changes 

depending on how often Montreal is mentioned on 

Twitter. 

The Downtown Investment Authority has contracted 

with Miller Electric and the Moment Factory 

to develop a concept for a multimedia show 

highlighting Jacksonville’s unique history, culture 

and ecology. The design proposal and estimate 

of operating costs are expected this spring, but an 

early estimate puts the annual operating costs at 

between $250,000 and $500,000. For Downtown 

that’s a pretty affordable wow! 

The Performing Arts Center and Friendship 

Fountain projects are the first of about a dozen 

“nodes” that are proposed along the Riverwalks 

that will serve as green space, activity zones and 

transportation access points. They are envisioned 

from the Sports Complex to Riverside and will be 

developed as plans for new development firm up. 

Jewel in the 

Emerald Necklace 

Another element of the river activation is the 

restoration of McCoys Creek. What it lacks in glitz, it 

more than makes up for in impact both social and 

environmental. 

McCoys Creek is a neglected waterway that 

38 


Don Burk 

empties at the St. Johns River under the Florida 

Times-Union building and meanders for almost 

three miles through the Lackawanna, North Riverside 

and Brooklyn neighborhoods to Hollybrook 

Park. Once upon a time, it was a place to fish and 

swim, but then industry took over the area and the 

creek was bulkheaded and channelized, cutting off 

its natural flow. The creek is polluted, overgrown 

and prone to flooding. 

Shannon Blankinship of the St. Johns Riverkeeper 

said they are hoping the McCoys Creek 

project will help improve water quality, enhance 

the natural environment and provide recreational 

opportunities. 

“This is a tremendous opportunity. That whole 

area will look different and there could be real ecological 

benefits,” she said. “There would be better 

public access. You could put a kayak in at Stockton 

Street and paddle to the river.” 

Groundwork Jacksonville has partnered with 

the city to spearhead the redevelopment of McCoys 

Creek as part of its Emerald Necklace project that 

will connect the S-Line, Hogans Creek and the Riverwalks. 

Groundwork recently received a $250,000 

grant for the project. 

Groundwork’s goal is to clean up and naturalize 

the creek and create bike and walking trails while 

the city focuses on infrastructure improvements to 

reduce flooding. 

McCoys Creek restoration has been on the 

city’s agenda for at least a decade. The stormwater 

management and flood mitigation plan divides 

the project into two phases east and west of Myrtle 

Avenue. 

The work would include demolishing two bridges, 

raising the Stockton and King street bridges, 

restoring the bulkhead and reshaping the banks to 

improve water flow, removing McCoys Creek Boulevard, 

performing ash remediation and providing 

economic incentives for development. 

The entire project is expected to cost about $60 

million. The funding is in place for the design of 

Phase 1, demolishing the bridges and doing the 

ash remediation. Work is expected to begin before 

summer. 

The one unknown is plans by Morris Communications 

for the Times-Union property. Organizers 

of the McCoys Creek restoration are hoping the 

company is open to “daylighting” the creek so that it 

can be restored as a waterway that will help activate 

the river. 

Lilla Ross was a reporter and editor at The Florida Times- 

Union for 35 years. She lives in San Marco. 

Plumbing and wiring upgrades 

to Friendship Fountain on 

Downtown’s southbank are 

already in the city’s budget. 

Other enhancements call for a 

synchronized light and music show 

along with a landscaped garden and 

play area. 


Built in 1912, the Union Terminal 

Warehouse was for decades, 

Jacksonville’s largest industrial 

building. The warehouse originally 

supplied service to Jacksonville’s 32 

wholesale grocery firms. 

40 


Tucked away in a little-visited industrial corner of Downtown, a 

massive warehouse is undergoing a transformation that developers 

hope leads to a thriving live-work-play community of creators 

BY FRANK DENTON // PHOTOS BY BOB SELF 


Byron Caplan works on his piece, “Venus No.4,” in his fourth-floor studio space inside the Union Terminal building. 

Driving out East Union Street from the 

Downtown core, you have to be careful to 

take the Union exit, or you’ll find yourself 

on the Mathews Bridge into Arlington. So 

take the exit, then an unmarked left and a 

right to stay on what’s left of Union. 

There, in a gritty, grimy, obscure 

industrial corner of Downtown 

cattycorner from the rundown Old 

City Cemetery with all its Confederate 

graves, you’ll find the massive Union 

Terminal Warehouse, a piece of 

Jacksonville industrial history that 

could become part of its creative future. 


In 1986, the 320,000-square-foot Union Terminal building was on the market for $2.7 million. 

TIMES-UNION ARCHIVES

IONIA ST. 

JEFF DAVIS (MAP) 

Behind its aged steel doors, scores of pioneer 

artists and makers have carved out their own 

studios in creating the third piece of what one 

called the “golden triangle” of arts districts, joining 

CORK in Riverside 

and the Phoenix Arts 

PIPPIN ST. 

UNION ST. 

Hogans Creek 

District in Springfield. 

Now they’re waiting, 

with a mixture 

of eagerness and 

nervousness, as new 

owners envision the 

warehouse as the next 

piece in Downtown 

revitalization, on the 

eight acres alongside 

Hogans Creek between 

the Cathedral District 

to the west and the 

Sports Complex to the 

east, within walking 

distance of Veterans 

Memorial Arena and 

even TIAA Bank Field. 

Despite those neighbors, 

the warehouse is just outside the official 

Downtown boundary. 

The century-long link between the warehouse 

and its planned adaptive reuse into a live-workplay 

community of artists, crafts people and other 

creators is the powerful concept of authenticity. 

As you read in the fall issue of J, urban centers 

that have authentic charm and sense of place are 

especially effective at attracting new residents, 

particularly millennials. Richard Florida, in his 

2012 update to his important book The Rise of 

the Creative Class, said people in his research defined 

authentic as the opposite of generic. “They 

equate authentic with being real, as in a place 

that has real buildings, real people, real history. A 

place that’s full of chain stores, chain restaurants 

and chain nightclubs is seen as inauthentic. Not 

only do those venues look pretty much the same 

everywhere, they offer the same experiences you 

could have anywhere.” 

“Places are … valued for their authenticity and 

uniqueness,” Florida wrote. “Authenticity comes 

from several aspects of a community — historic 

buildings, established neighborhoods, a distinctive 

music scene or specific cultural attributes. 

It especially comes from the mix — urban grit 

alongside freshly renovated buildings …” 

A piece of 

industrial history 

While many of Jacksonville’s historic buildings 

were lost to the Great Fire of 1901 and to 20th 

century “urban renewal,” the Union Terminal 

Warehouse is a living part of local history. Highway 

signs now proclaim Jacksonville as “America’s 

Logistics Center,” and that may have had roots in 

this warehouse that was innovative in its time and, 

N 

ARLINGTON EXPRESSWAY 

PALMETTO ST. 

Veterans 

Memorial 

Arena 

UNION 

TERMINAL 

WAREHOUSE 

700 E. Union St. 

Baseball 

Grounds 

DUVAL ST. 

A Philip RANDOLPH BLVD. 

for decades, the city’s largest industrial building. 

The warehouse was built in 1912 by C.B. Gay as 

a supply service to the city’s 32 wholesale grocery 

firms, Kristen Pickrell wrote for metrojacksonville. 

com in 2014. Before the 

invention of the tractor-trailer, 

groceries — 

and, later, other goods 

— were shipped to this 

central warehouse on 

adjacent rail lines and 

via water on Hogans 

Creek connecting to the 

St. Johns River. 

Gay’s facility saved 

its tenants money by 

reducing their insurance, 

shipping and 

distribution costs. 

The building, Pickrell 

wrote, featured more 

than 3,000 feet of rail 

siding, two subways, a 

sprinkler system, freight 

elevators, an internal 

phone system and the Union Terminal Lunch 

Room for employees. 

“In its glory days,” she wrote, “the Union Terminal 

Warehouse Company originally offered a 

plethora of amenities to railway users,” including a 

“pool car distribution system” allowing shippers to 

save money through efficient sharing of cars. 

Today, the rail sidings are gone, and the aged 

building is reduced to simple warehouse space, 

occupied by a number of diverse small businesses 

— Hof’s Printing, A&B Asphalt Repair, Jacksonville 

Reclaimed Wood — and those eager and nervous 

artists. 

There are about 10 large art studios in the 

building, each subdivided for individual artists, 

plus individual studios for another 10 independent 

artists and craftspeople, making a total of 

“The idea 

of the loft 

would be 

to do what 

you want 

so long as 

you’re not 

bothering 

your 

neighbor.” 

DILLON BAYNES 

DEVELOPER 

Artist Nathan Eckenrode works 

inside his studio space on the 

third floor of the Union Terminal 

complex. Eckenrode enclosed a 

space inside a larger space used by 

a number of artists in the historic 

commercial building.

Artist Nathan Eckenrode inside perhaps 100 creative people occupying about 45 

his studio on the third floor of percent of the warehouse space. 

the Union Terminal complex. 

The building now houses rental 

A renaissance, 

offices, warehouses and artists’ 

minor or major 

studio space. The owners plan 

It is the authentic combination of the historic 

to develop it into retail, dining 

and entertainment location for building, the almost-Downtown location and the 

creatives. 

native energy of the creators already staking a claim 

that has led to a plan by an Atlanta-based developer 

to redevelop the warehouse for residences, 

commercial, retail and maybe dining and entertainment. 

Columbia Ventures, which calls itself “the 

Southeast’s premier social impact developer,” 

bought the building in December, using a $4.5 

million loan from the Jacksonville branch of LISC, 

the Local Initiatives Support Corp., and may invest 

more than $30 million in the project, with federal 

Historic Tax Credits. 

Dillon Baynes, managing partner, said Columbia, 

with a local architect, will spend the first six 

months of this year planning, including studying 

the venerable building and its considerable deferred 

maintenance to determine whether to do a 

minor or major renovation. 


If the latter, he said there could be three floors 

of residential, probably workforce apartments, one 

floor of “makerspace” and one of commercial. “But 

we would be agnostic as to the use; we wouldn’t 

ban anyone from a certain floor. The idea of the loft 

would be to do what you want so long as you’re not 

bothering your neighbor.” 

A loft is different from an apartment in that it has 

an open floor plan with a bathroom and a kitchen 

but otherwise open space for the occupant to organize 

and use as he or she wishes, for living or work 

or both. Think of a section of a warehouse, with the 

original big windows restored. 

“For people who are merely looking for a new 

apartment, there are lots of places in Jacksonville,” 

Baynes said. “We will create a loft experience.” 

For a comparable project, he pointed to Studioplex 

in Atlanta, where Columbia renovated an old 

industrial building into rental lofts, with commercial 

and restaurants. (www.studioplexlofts.com) 

“In Studioplex today, we have restaurants, we 

have artists, we have doctors and lawyers, we have 

an entire creative class of people. We just finished 

adding 30,000 square feet of retail to the community, 

and we’ll continue to add over time. We have

three separate buildings with different identities.” 

Studioplex was rental from its redevelopment in 

1998 until 2007, when the units were converted to 

condominium ownership. “Our vision for the Jacksonville 

project is rental,” Baynes said. “Perhaps that 

could change in a decade, perhaps not. All of the 

renovated spaces we’ll refer to as ‘lofts,’ and yes, if 

we add residential, we’ll target workforce incomes.” 

The artists now 

in residence 

You can understand the artists already working 

at the Union Terminal Warehouse having mixed 

emotions about such grand plans. 

Nathan Eckenrode, who works on large abstract 

“motion paintings” via splatter techniques 

(akin to Jackson Pollock), found the loft idea 

compelling. “I hope we get to stay here,” he said. 

“I’d love to live here and create, have raw space, 

with a bedroom and a kitchen and a little bitty 

space to sleep.” 

He said the warehouse is ideal because what 

artists need is “space. And some place to wash 

your brushes. Space is a really big thing for an 

artist. You got to have space. You have to create 

separation from the messy creative stuff and 

home.” 

Eckenrode earns his living as a union stagehand 

and thinks all the creators in the warehouse 

have regular jobs to support themselves and 

afford the rent, commonly $75-150 a month for 

their parts of the space. 

One floor above, Byron Kaplan does cut-out 

“dazzle painting,” derived from a technique to 

camouflage British and American ships during 

the world wars (look it up; it’s fascinating). He 

makes his living as a TV news videographer and 

said, “Most people here have regular jobs. They’re 

here mostly weekends and nights.” 

Kaplan said he values the working arrangement 

because of the creative environment and 

opportunity to collaborate. “Other artists and I 

can bounce ideas off each other.” 

His hope for the new owners: “Not raise rent. 

And I hope our group can get air-conditioning,” 

the lack of which can stifle summertime creativity. 

Eckenrode’s studio landlord is Tammy McKinley, 

a real-estate agent as well as a photographer 

who rents one of the large studios then sublets 

spaces to 12 other artists, with a waiting list of 35. 

She said the artists and other creative people 

who have settled in the warehouse have established 

a real arts district. “We are Jacksonville’s 

dirty little secret. Everybody has been there, but 

no one wants to admit it. 

“We love it, we absolutely love it.” 

McKinley said she has discussed Columbia’s 

plans with Dillon Baynes, and “I’m keeping my 

fingers crossed he’ll make it possible for us to stay 

there. I’m absolutely keeping my fingers crossed.” 

Investment in the warehouse could lead to 

a rent increase. “I am a little concerned about 

that. Artists, we don’t make a lot of money. What 

attracted us to the building in the first place was a 

large amount of square footage for low rent. But if 

the property becomes more of a cultural destination, 

that would increase our profits and help pay 

for any rent increases.” 

As for Baynes himself, he is careful about being 

too firm, until Columbia’s study over the next 

few months shows what needs to be done and can 

be done with the warehouse. 

But he said, “We recognize the importance of 

having artists and craftspeople in the community. 

They’re already there. And this is an era where 

people focus on artisanal products.” 

Not a new idea 

It must be said that the Union Terminal Warehouse 

project is not a new idea. Other companies 

proposed very similar developments for the big 

building in 2015 and 2017, only to have them fall 

apart. 

And Columbia Ventures itself looked at the 

property five years ago but decided it and Jacksonville 

weren’t ready then. 

Now, both are. “Jacksonville’s Downtown and 

in-town neighborhoods have had amazing growth 

over the past few years,” Baynes told the Times- 

Union. “We … wanted to get in and be part of 

Jacksonville’s growth path.” 

“We love what’s happening next door in Springfield 

on Main Street and love the quality of emerging 

businesses there,” Baynes told J. “We would 

want to target a restaurant or café.” 

Asked for his degree of certainty that the project 

will happen this time, Baynes said: “Highly likely.” 

Union Terminal Warehouse is a tired, deteriorated 

structure in a rundown, forgotten subsection 

of town, but it is filled with creative and caring 

people and now with ideas and, apparently, capital. 

Underneath the big projects like The District and 

the Shipyards, it is focused projects like this that will 

bring Downtown to life. 

Frank Denton, retired editor of The Florida Times-Union, 

is editor of J. He lives in Riverside. 

“I hope 

we get to 

stay here. 

I’d love to 

live here 

and create, 

have raw 

space, with 

a bedroom 

and a 

kitchen and 

a little bitty 

space to 

sleep.” 

NATHAN 

ECKENRODE 

JACKSONVILLE 

ARTIST 


George Saoud outside the Bryan 

Building at Hogan and Monroe 

streets he is transforming into an 

artist’s collective called The Lark. 

46 


Local real estate investor George Saoud 

wants to see art studios in the heart of 

Downtown. That’s exactly what his latest 

venture – The Lark – aims to accomplish. 

Drawing 

artists 

to the 

heart of 

the core 

By CAROLE HAWKINS // PHOTOS BY BOB SELF 

Take one look at Five Points, Riverside, 

with its bohemian cluster of 

vintage shops and eclectic eateries, 

and you’ll know you’re in a creative 

urban neighborhood. Punctuating 

that point is CORK on Riverside’s King Street, with 

its 80,000 square feet of warehouse space converted 

into artist studios. 

Take one look at Downtown Jacksonville, and 

you’ll see public art — ground-to-rooftop murals 

painted on parking garages and high-rise buildings 

— showing off the urban core’s own unique 

character. 

Soon, that street art will be joined by an enclave 

of artists working in studio space just off Hemming 

Park. Punctuating the core as a creative urban 

district too. 

Owner George Saoud is undertaking a $120,000 

renovation of the second floor of the historic Bryan 

Building at the corner of Hogan and Monroe streets 

for a collective studio space for a dozen working 

artists. The Downtown Investment Authority contributed 

a $55,000 grant to the effort. 

“There’s not been a city that I’ve worked in that 

didn’t have an arts community that helped to drive 

its downtown revival,” former CEO Aundra Wallace 

said prior to the DIA grant last September. “I think 

this particular project is about as creative as you 

could probably get.” 

The renovation will open up the second floor’s 

bricked-in windows and refurbish the building’s 

antique elevator. Movable walls will create individual 

as well as collaborative workplaces, easily 

reconfigured for exhibitions. The downstairs lobby 


will offer temporary display space for featured 

artists. 

“There’s 

Construction began early this year, and Saoud 

hopes to finish by April. The new venue will be 

a grilled 

called The Lark, and under an agreement with the 

city, it will open for public events twice a month. 

cheese shop 

Saoud, a musician, real estate investor and 

Jacksonville native, said he can’t imagine a better 

beneath 

place for a Jacksonville artist to make the leap from 

hobbyist to professional. 

me and a 

“It gives you a Downtown address,” he said. 

“You’ll be right there at Hemming Park and have 

bar around your name attached to a space that’s tied to Art 

Walk. I don’t think you could beat that anywhere.” 

the corner. 

The Bryan building has been used by artists 

before, albeit less formally. 

There’s a 

In 2013 at the first One Spark festival, the same 

229 Hogan Street storefront and second floor 

museum, 

became exhibition space for a random collection 

of local artworks that meandered up the stairs and 

there’s a 

tumbled into a dozen or so partitioned rooms. 

After One Spark fizzled, most of the artists scattered. 

Two stayed. 

library. 

Rob Middleton and Meleese Bremer have been 

People say 

quietly using the second floor as a studio. Middleton 

opens the doors to Art Walk each month, just to 

Downtown keep the venue active. 

Both Middleton and Bremer said getting a larger 

Jacksonville community of artists to join them will be a way 

of keeping a little piece of One Spark alive. One 

is lame, 

Spark brought the community together, and it also 

brought others into the community, Bremer said. 

but there’s 

She met one artist who moved from Pennsylvania 

to Jacksonville because of the event. 

something 

“It was a stage for everyone, and it worked,” she 

said. “The innovations were real things, not just 

going on 

someone trying to sell you. It was real, and I miss it.” 

from 5 a.m. Bremer is a mixed-media abstract artist, 

definitely a professional, but with 

until 2 or 3 

a day job. Her hope is for her artwork 

to come to occupy a more central 

a.m. most of 

place in her life. 

Having a studio settles a lot of problems that 

the time.” 

artists face, she said. It’s a place to concentrate, a 

dedicated space she doesn’t have to set up and 

ROB MIDDLETON break down every time she wants to work. And 

DOWNTOWN 

connecting with other artists raises her professionalism. 

ARTIST 

“It pushes you outside of yourself,” Bremer said. 

“I’m very introverted, and I tend to get closed off if 

I’m too busy. You need other people to stay sharp, 

for that inspiration.” 

Middleton is a lifelong artist who’s built a local 

following for his emotive abstract expressionist 

paintings. There are other studios he could work 

out of: CORK, the Union Terminal Warehouse, 

Springfield’s Phoenix Arts District. But the Hogan 

Street studio fits his style. 

“It’s where I like to make artwork,” he said. 

“There’s a grilled cheese shop beneath me and a 

bar around the corner. There’s a museum, there’s a 


library. People say Downtown Jacksonville is lame, 

but there’s something going on from 5 a.m. until 2 

or 3 a.m. most of the time.” 

One day Middleton would like his work to be 

known outside Jacksonville, selling in South Florida, 

Atlanta and other places. These days, getting 

that outside reach no longer means having to leave 

Jacksonville. 

“I think things have changed here. I am constantly 

meeting young creative people, connecting 

through Instagram and in person too,” he said. 

“Jacksonville is a place that’s becoming strong 

enough to retain all of those young creative people 

who in the past all moved away without question.” 

It’s a place that’s accumulated an impressive 

collection of unique public art. And now too, a 

place strong enough to support local artists who are 

working to define Downtown’s emerging culture. 

Carole Hawkins is a freelance writer 

who lives in Murray Hill.

Artist Rob Middleton adjusts a 

painting in his studio on the second 

floor of the Bryan Building. To keep 

the venue active, Middleton has 

been opening the doors to Art Walk 

each month. 

Mixed-media, abstract artist Meleese 

Bremer stands in her Bryan Building 

studio space. “I’m very introverted, 

“ she said. “And I tend to get 

closed off if I’m too busy. You need 

other people to stay sharp, for that 

inspiration.” 

J MAGAZINE 49

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Joy Young is the new executive director of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville. Young spent the past 14 years with the South Carolina Arts Commission. 

CULTURAL 

REVOLUTION 

WILL DICKEY 

The Cultural 

Council’s new 

leader takes 

on role of arts 

ambassador 

BY CHARLIE PATTON 

Joy Young, who began her new job as executive director of the Cultural 

Council of Greater Jacksonville last month, is the first person chosen to 

head the organization who wasn’t a Jacksonville resident before being 

chosen. 

“I love that she is an outsider,” said Ryan Ali, who spent three years as 

the Cultural Council’s director of development and is currently a mayoral 

appointee to the council’s board of directors. “She is coming in with a fresh eye and 

a fresh perspective.” 


“She’s a great people person, a great 

communicator,” said Ann Carey, chair of the 

“I’m here 

Cultural Council board. 

Young comes to Jacksonville from the South 

because I 

Carolina Arts Commission, where she served 

14 years as director of administration, human 

want to be 

resources and operations. 

“I accepted the position for the opportunity 

challenged 

to actively contribute to enriching the quality 

of life in Northeast Florida,” she said. “I’m here 

and I 

because I want to be challenged and I embrace 

change. And let’s be honest, the weather, a 

embrace 

growing city and a vibrant arts scene add to a 

great quality of life here.” 

change. 

And let’s be 

honest, the 

weather, a 

growing city 

and a vibrant 

arts scene 

add to a 

great quality 

of life here.” 

JOY YOUNG 

EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTOR OF 

THE CULTURAL 

COUNCIL 


The Cultural Council 

The Cultural Council, founded in 1973 as 

the Arts Assembly, is not a city agency. It is an 

independent nonprofit. But it administers two 

important city programs and is paid with city 

funds to run those programs. 

One is the Cultural Services Capital Program. 

Since 2001, the city has been providing a lump 

sum to fund arts organizations in the city, 

and the Cultural Council has administered 

the program and made decisions about what 

funding will be given to each participating arts 

organization. 

Since 2006, the Cultural Council also has 

administered the city’s Art in Public Places 

program. Under an ordinance first passed in 

1997, the city can set aside 0.75 percent of the 

cost of any project costing more than $100,000 

to spend for public art. 

The Better Jacksonville Plan, approved 

by voters during Mayor John Delaney’s 

administration, generated about $2.5 million 

for public art. Funds for Art in Public Places 

can also come from other sources such 

as discretionary funds from City Council 

members. 

The Cultural Council currently has about 

$1.45 million in unspent Art in Public Places 

funds; $866,667 is money that resulted from 

construction of the Duval County Courthouse. 

That money has remain unspent in part because 

the vast overruns in the cost of the courthouse 

made spending funds for public art at the 

project controversial. 

But in recent years city officials have been 

critical of the Cultural Council for not spending 

enough on public art. 

Young acknowledge she was aware of the 

issue. 

“The board made it clear there were 

challenges in programs [such as] public 

perception related to Art in Public Places,” she 

said. “But we know perception can change for 

the better when information is provided and 

results are evident.” 

Carey, whom Ali praised for her “incredible 

vision,” said the issue has already been 

addressed. Plans are underway for five public 

art projects budgeted at about $663,000 over 

the next couple of years, and planning on how 

to spend the courthouse money will begin this 

year. 

Besides administering the Cultural Services 

Capital Program and Art in Public Places, the 

Cultural Council’s other most visible project is 

giving arts awards each spring during its annual 

fundraising dinner, formerly a luncheon. 

The Cultural Council also runs a number of 

less visible projects including arts advocacy. 

Carey said the Cultural Council needs to 

evaluate what other roles it should play, a task 

she is looking to Young for assistance. 

“I saw this organization as one that knew its 

mission and was eager to explore possibilities 

above and beyond its present standing,” Young 

said. 

Young, who in addition to being the first 

Jacksonville outsider chosen to lead the Cultural 

Council is also the first African American to lead 

the Cultural Council, succeeds Tony Allegretti 

as executive director. 

Allegretti, who had taken the job in 2014, 

made a surprise announcement last June that 

he would resign. Originally the plan was that he 

would stay on the job until his replacement was 

hired. But eventually it was decided he would 

leave when the fiscal year ended in September 

30. Carey, the board chair, has been filling the 

role since Allegretti left. 

The council board of directors and other 

community leaders unanimously chose Young, 

one of 22 people who applied who for the job, in 

November and announced the decision in early 

December. 

Artist from the start 

Young grew up a self-described “Army brat,” 

who was born in Oklahoma and lived on three 

different Army bases in Germany. Since her 

father was usually stationed at Fort Jackson in 

Columbia, S.C., between overseas duty stations, 

she said she considered South Carolina home. 

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree 

from Columbia College, Young enrolled in the 

Manhattan School of Music with the goal of 

becoming a “grand opera diva.” When she saw 

a performance by soprano Leontyne Price, she 

was inspired. 

Then she learned what it took to be Leontyne 

Price. It required “expert language proficiency 

in Italian, German and French, skills in music 

theory to identify augmented sixth chords from 

those same countries, and full dedication to the 

practice room,” she said. 

She adjusted her goals. 

“Although I completed my masters in 

Voice Performance, I graduated with a clear 

understanding that the realities of life in 

performance were not for me,” she said. “I’m

confident I made the right choice to move into 

administration rather than performance.” 

David Engdahl, a sculptor who retired as 

chief architect of The Haskell Co., recently left 

the Cultural Council board. But he was involved 

in the search for the new executive director. 

“I have a lot of confidence in Joy’s ability,” he 

said. “I felt like she had the right background to 

really be a leader.” 

City Council member John Crescimbeni, 

who has been City Council liaison to the 

Cultural Council in recent years, said Young 

impressed him as “very articulate and 

intelligent.” 

“I think she is going to be a good fit,” he said. 

Robert Arleigh White, who was executive 

director of the Cultural Council from 2000 to 

2013, said he and Young have many mutual 

friends and he believes she is “very, very sharp.” 

Money always the issue 

The greatest challenge she faces “continues 

to be adequate funding,” White said. 

That’s a view shared by Allegretti. 

During his tenure “we didn’t have increased 

funding but we had increased demand,” 

Allegretti said. 

In 2002-2003, the City Council put slightly 

more than $4 million into the Cultural Services 

Capital Program. It hasn’t matched that total 

since. During last fiscal year the Cultural 

Council sought slightly less than $4 million but 

received $2.89 million. 

That’s just not adequate arts funding for 

a city Jacksonville’s size, a city on which the 

arts has an estimated economic impact of $80 

million annually. 

Preston Haskell, one of Jacksonville’s most 

generous supporter of the arts, said last year the 

city should be giving $8 to $10 million a year to 

arts organizations. 

Retiring Baptist Health CEO Hugh Greene 

said about the lack of city funding for the arts: 

“Really progressive cities are not letting that 

happen.” 

The lack of adequate city funding has been 

compounded by the fact that the state, once a 

generous supporter of the arts, has eliminated 

almost all arts funding. 

Allegretti said that convincing the City 

Council to be more generous with arts funding 

was something at which he just wasn’t very 

successful. 

Based on her track record, Young might be 

the person to convince City Council it needs to 

increase funding for the arts in Jacksonville. 

“She knows how to develop relationships,” 

Carey said. 

Allegretti said he hasn’t met or spoken with 

Young but has “heard she’s a coalition builder.” 

Allegretti faulted himself for failing to bring 

“people together like I wanted.” 

Crescimbeni, who is leaving the City Council 

and running for tax collector this spring, was 

critical of Allegretti’s performance as executive 

director. 

“I don’t feel like the executive director was 

as passionate as I would have liked him to be,” 

Crescimbeni said. 

Asked how she’ll deal with City Council 

members on whom the Cultural Council is 

dependent for a large portion of its funding, 

Young quoted Stephen Covey, author of 

the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective 

People.” Covey, she said, “talks about 

engaging in active communication, which 

supports synergy. Synergy rises above conflict, 

surpasses compromises. It leads to new ideas, 

approaches and perspectives. I look forward to 

communicating with City Council on behalf of 

the arts from a place of synergy.” 

Young said what she enjoys about being an 

arts administrator is “collaborating to create 

programs or inviting people to experience the 

arts … I enjoy seeing how the arts can be used 

for good in the lives of individuals as well as a 

collective benefit.” 

As for the challenges her new job will pose, 

Young noted that “any new job requires time to 

adjust to the realities of the environment and 

culture. However, right now, I just don’t know 

what I don’t know.” 

As for opportunities, she said “the Cultural 

Council is ripe for change … It appears to 

me that arts organizations seem to want 

to collaborate around a unified voice. The 

Cultural Council has an opportunity to provide 

leadership in developing the city’s overall arts 

and cultural landscape.” 

Young still sings on occasion, including 

performing in “Porgy and Bess” during the 

Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C., in 2016. 

“Prior to that, I occasionally performed 

classical recitals,” she said. “I paid my dues over 

the course of 20-plus years as a church soloist 

and wedding singer. Every now and again, I will 

take a gig as a soul, R&B background vocalist. 

It was fun. In 2017 I enjoyed a short season 

with a professional choir called the Sandlapper 

Singers.” 

As for hobbies, she considers herself a 

“foodie” and plans to check out Jacksonville’s 

restaurants. She’s also completing work on a 

doctorate in organizational leadership. 

“So when I’m not with family or at work, I’m 

reading, researching and writing,” she said. “I 

stay busy doing what I love and loving what I 

do.” 

Charlie Patton retired in September after 

more than 41 years with The Florida Times-Union, 

spending his last nine years covering the arts. 

He lives in Riverside. 

JOY YOUNG 

Director of the Cultural Council of 

Greater Jacksonville 

Age: 51 

Hometown: An Army brat, 

she lived in many places growing 

up but considers Columbia, S.C., 

her home town. 

Education: Bachelor’s 

degree from Columbia College; 

studied voice performance at 

the Manhattan School of Music; 

earned a master’s degree in 

voice performance from the City 

University of New York’s Hunter 

College. 

Work experience: Taught 

music as an adjunct professor 

at Benedict College; opened 

her own music studio; served 

as AmeriCorps Promise Fellow 

with Communities in Resources/ 

Employee Law Relations; was 

director of training and technical 

assistance with the South 

Carolina Association of Nonprofit 

Organizations; spent the last 14 

years with the South Carolina 

Arts Commission as director of 

administrative services, human 

resources and operations. 

Family: Three children aged 25, 

24 and 20; one grandchild. 

Quote: “I opened my own 

music studio. This entrepreneurial 

endeavor is how I learned 

the ins-and-outs of small 

business administration. In 

retrospect, I don’t know that 

arts administration became a 

focus until I gained quite a bit 

of experience in non-profit 

administration and governance. 

I found my sweet spot in arts 

administration as a nexus of 

education, business and the nonprofit 

sector.” 


After Downtown’s historic Bostwick 

Building was saved from the wrecking 

ball by Jacques Klempf in 2014, he turned 

it into the upscale Cowford Chophouse, 

complete with a swanky rooftop bar. 

54 


TWELVE 

VIEWS 

DOWN 

TOWN 

DOWNTOWN’S 

BEST VIEWS 

OF THE RIVER 

By DENISE REAGAN 

For several decades, no one wanted a 

view of the St. Johns River. 

Jacksonville was dumping millions 

of gallons of raw sewage and industrial 

waste into the river every day. Who 

would want to see that? It certainly 

wasn’t an appetizing site for a meal or 

happy hour. 

In any other city, the riverfront would 

be prime real estate. Jacksonville chose 

to crowd it with municipal buildings, 

like the old city hall and courthouse and 

the jail. 

That began to change in 1969 when 

Mayor Hans Tanzler started cleaning up 

the river, then a new attitude emerged 

when the Southbank Riverwalk opened 

in 1985 and the last section of the 

Northbank Riverwalk in 2005. 

Now, finally, after decades of 

clean-up efforts and some frustrating 

environmental setbacks, the St. Johns 

River is getting new life from a series of 

views that are popping up on rooftops 

along the urban core. 

New views are on the horizon. The 

District, on the Southbank where the 

JEA plant used to be, should include a 

riverfront restaurant. With the staff of 

The Florida Times-Union relocating 

to the Wells Fargo Tower in the spring, 

1 Riverside Ave. could become a hot 

commodity, particularly if plans to 

unearth McCoys Creek as part of the 

Emerald Necklace come to fruition. 

If — when? — JSO vacates its current 



11 

10 

FULLER WARREN 

BRIDGE 

ACOSTA 

BRIDGE 

A DOZEN RIVER 

VIEWS IN THE 

URBAN CORE 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

Cowford Chophouse 

101 E. Bay St. 

The River Club 

1 Independent DRIVE 

River City Brewing 

Company 

835 Museum CirCLE 

Chart House 

1501 Riverplace Blvd. 

Ruth’s Chris Steak House 


DoubleTree by Hilton 

Jacksonville Riverfront 


Museum of Science 

and History 

1025 Museum CirCLE 

Intuition Ale Works 


Burrito Gallery at 

Brooklyn Station 

90 Riverside Ave. 

River & Post 

1000 Riverside Ave. 

Black Sheep 

1534 Oak St. 

The Jacksonville Landing 

2 Independent DrIVE 

9 

2 

12 

MAIN ST. 

BRIDGE 

3 

7 

1 

5 6 

4 

8 

ST. JOHNS RIVER 

N 

location, perhaps William Morgan’s original 

design of the Police Memorial Building could 

return, which included a rooftop garden with 

multiple terraces, plant beds, and a fountain. 

Years ago, the publicly accessible rooftop park 

was declared a security hazard and closed, 

undercutting Morgan’s original vision. 

It’s frustrating that there aren’t more public 

places where you can eat or drink on the river in 

Downtown Jacksonville. 

“That’s the thing that bugs me,” said Heather 

Adams, a resident of the Berkman Plaza condos. 

“I live on the river, but there aren’t many places 

where I can have a cocktail and a meal while 

overlooking the river.” 

The private University Club closed in 2016 

after 48 years at 1301 Riverplace Blvd. The main 

dining room and lounge on the 27th floor had 

some of the most breathtaking 180-degree vistas 

of the river. Now, only Ameris Bank executives 

enjoy those views. 

The night before I got married, we held 

our rehearsal dinner at Crawdaddy’s on the 

Southbank, one of the few restaurants with river 

view at the time. A few years later, the shabby chic 

shack was gone. 

Construction to rebuild a portion of Coastline 

Drive where it runs in front of the Hyatt Regency 

has blocked what used to be a street-level river 

view from Morton’s The Steakhouse inside the 

hotel. I hope the outdoor seating at the corner of 

Market Street and Coastline Drive will get its river 

view back later this year. 

For now, there are at least 12 places where you 

can eat and drink in Downtown with a view of 

the river. Some barely pass with scant view of the 

water; some are eye-popping showstoppers. Each 

one is rated on a scale of one to 10 on the quality 

of the river view. 

The Jacksonville Landing 

Only three restaurants with river-level views 

remain at this 32-year-old venue — Chicago Pizza, 

Fionn MacCool’s and Hooters — and not for long. 

Landing owners and the city recently announced 

an agreement: If City Council approves, the city 

will pay $15 million to terminate the owners’ longterm 

lease, clearing the way for demolition and a 

new use for that prime location. Stay tuned for a 

possible new view of the river. 

River view: H H H H H H H H H H 

Price: $30 and under 

River & Post 

This is the highest restaurant glimpse of the 

St. Johns River the public can enjoy without a 

membership, and it is breathtaking. On the ninth 

Perched high above the St. Johns 

River in Five Points, River & Post’s 

ninth-floor terrace offers stunning 

views along with delicious cocktails. 

BOB MACK 

56 


floor of the building at Riverside and Post streets, 

you’ll find deep, comfy sectional couches, firepits 

surrounded by vivid blue glass pebbles, and a 

retractable roof. The attached indoor bar also has 

seating so you can enjoy the view even when the 

weather is less than ideal. Appetizers of ceviche, 

seared ahi tuna and charcuterie pair well with 

wine or cocktails while you admire the dazzling 

view up and down the river. 



Cowford Chophouse 

Jacques Klempf purchased the endangered 

Bostwick Building at auction in 2014, then 

lovingly restored the 1902 historic structure, 

including the arched windows, exterior bricks, 

metal cornice and 300-year-old heart of pine that 

is seen throughout the building today. When you 

emerge from the top of the stairs onto the roof, 

you feel transported to a metropolitan city in 

Jacksonville’s future. Rooftop happy hour draws 

Downtown office-dwellers and visitors from 

near and far for the views and the tasty tacos, 

sliders, and oysters. The revelry continues into the 

evening, as chilly nights take on the glow of toasty 

space heaters. 


Price: $50 and over 

WILL DICKEY 

The River Club 

For a $500 initiation fee and monthly dues of 

$125 ($250 and $58 for those younger than 40), 

you, too, can soar high above the city at the top 

of the Wells Fargo Center. The Vue34 lounge, 

the St. Johns Dining Room and multiple event 

spaces provide 360 degrees of Jacksonville skyline, 

including a spectacular bird’s-eye view of the 

Main Street Bridge. I’m not a member, but I was 

invited there once. The food is serviceable and 

the décor feels a bit dated, but you’ll probably be 

too busy gazing outside to notice. The service is 

fabulous, as you might expect at a private club. 


Price: $30-$50 

Chart House 

I couldn’t wait to go to this restaurant when 

it opened in 1982. The exterior looks like a 

weathered seashell washed onto the riverbank 

and partially sunk into the earth. Designed by 

Kendrick Bangs Kellogg who was inspired by 

Frank Lloyd Wright, the Southbank building 

is a distinctive example of modern organic 

architecture with its weathered copper-clad ribs 

and concrete barnacle cones. Inside, wooden 

laminate ceilings undulate to smooth concrete 

columns like you’ve entered the interior of a snail 

shell. The windows curve from the floor to the 

ceiling, revealing stunning views of the skyline 

across the river. The décor finds the sweet spot 

at the intersection of hippy couture and George 

Jetson, as if you’ve walked onto the set of Woody 

Allen’s “Sleeper.” During a recent happy hour visit, 

the restaurant and lounge were both fairly full as 

twilight washed over the restaurant and the Main 

Street Bridge reflected in the river. 


Price: $31-$50 

River City Brewing Company 

This is the only place in the urban core where 

you can sit outside within spitting distance of the 

river (but please don’t spit in the river). When the 

Acosta Bridge had to be rebuilt in 1990, the city 

agreed to designate nearly half of the renovated 

Friendship Park for a restaurant and parking. That 

led to the boondoggle that was Harbormasters, 

which River City Brewing Company (RCBC) 

The River Club, located at the top 

of the Wells Fargo Center in the 

heart of Downtown, offers stunning 

views of the St. Johns River and city 

skyline. 


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eplaced in 1993. RCBC signed a 99-year lease 

with the city on the property in 1998, but it looks 

like no improvements have been made to the 

property since then. The dining room and decks 

have gorgeous riverfront skyline vistas next to a 

marina. Happy hour in the Brewhouse Lounge 

and Sunday brunch are popular. 



Ruth’s Chris Steak House 

Inside the DoubleTree by Hilton Jacksonville 

Riverfront, the oversized windows provide 

sweeping views of the water and Downtown, 

particularly at night. White tablecloths, candles, 

high-quality food and impeccable service come 

with a steep price. Some happy hour deals can 

be found in the lounge, but the view isn’t as 

remarkable. 


Price: $31-$50 

Burrito Gallery 

at Brooklyn Station 

The third installment of the local burrito 

chain has become an instant classic and favorite 

gathering place, and its rooftop is a big reason 

why. The mix of tables, lounge seating and bar 

top surrounded by open air on three sides creates 

a beachy vibe in the urban core. The restaurant 

serves its signature “Jax Mex” in burritos, tacos, 

quesadillas, tortas, enchiladas and salads, washed 

down with margaritas and local beer. The river 

view is barely there, but the surrounding Riverside 

Avenue scene is vibrant. 


Price: $11-$30 

Museum of Science 

and History 

One often forgotten gem is the rooftop at 

MOSH. Although it’s not open on a regular 

basis, several ticketed events are held there 

each year. The impressive views of the bridges 

and Friendship Fountain, particularly at night, 

contribute to a memorable evening. MOSH 

has hosted events such as rooftop yoga and 

GastroFest. 


Price: N/A 

is visible in the distance and includes vistas of 

Riverside at a height you don’t usually find in that 

neighborhood. The open-air bar, cozy fireplace 

and couches, built-in high-top tables and ample 

table seating provide plenty of options, and a 

new retractable roof makes being outdoors easier 

year-round. 



DoubleTree by Hilton 

Jacksonville Riverfront 

On Wednesday evenings, the DoubleTree 

hosts live music and happy hour specials on the 

terrace. The poolside vibe breathes new life into 

the river view; you can almost imagine a cabana 

in L.A. 



Intuition Ale Works 

The renovation of this industrial space 

produced a headquarters for one of Jacksonville’s 

favorite breweries and home to some of the best 

beer in the city. The rooftop provides a fabulous 

vista of the sports complex buildings and a very 

narrow view of the river if you squint your eyes. 

Once the ramps from the Hart Bridge come down, 

that view will become a real bonus, at least until 

development takes off along Bay Street. Sitting 

along the edge of the rooftop looking down on 

fans scurrying to football games, baseball games 

or concerts provides a feeling of exclusivity. The 

fresh air, the breeze from the “Big Ass Fan” and 

an endless supply of locally crafted beer from the 

outdoor bar make it a chill place to catch the Blue 

Angels flybys during Jaguars games. 



Denise M. Reagan is a former editor at 

The Florida Times-Union, currently senior manager 

of public relations at Brunet-García and a life-long 

advocate of Downtown Jacksonville. 

“That’s the 

thing that 

bugs me. I 

live on the 

river, but 

there aren’t 

many places 

where I 

can have a 

cocktail and 

a meal while 

overlooking 

the river.” 

HEATHER 

ADAMS 

DOWNTOWN 

RESIDENT 

While there are arguably better 

views of Downtown, it’s hard 

to beat the beer and terrace 

at Intuition Ale Works near the 

stadium. Plus, where else can you 

do yoga before sipping a frosty 

brew? 

BRUCE LIPSKY 

Black Sheep 

When restaurateur Jonathan Insetta decided 

to build this unusual triangular building at the 

corner of Oak and Margaret streets in Five Points, 

he must have known the rooftop view would 

wow people. Not only does this restaurant (one 

of the first rooftop establishments in Jacksonville) 

have great roots — the Insetta family also owns 

Restaurant Orsay in Riverside and Bellwether 

in Downtown — but the triangular tip takes 

advantage of the bend in the river. The water 


60 J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019

CORE 

EYESORE 

DILAPIDATED 

BUILDINGS A 

BLIGHT ON AREA 

521-523 West Forsyth St, 


They stand there unsteadily, seeming 

to lean on each other and, framed 

by vapid parking lots, present in stark 

contrast to the massive and grand new 

courthouse looming behind them. 

They are two gap-toothed old geezer 

buildings, decrepit by all appearances 

with painted-over and boarded-up exteriors, 

minus some tiles that have been 

pried off and spirited away. 

If you go Downtown looking for the 

new Jacksonville, you’ll wince at the 

sight of 521-523 West Forsyth St., on a 

major thoroughfare into Downtown. 

Both date to 1905, four years after the 

Great Fire. 

At least 521 has an interesting social 

history, having in recent decades served 

as a succession of food and drink establishments. 

Notably, in the 1990s, it was 

JoAnn’s Chili Bordello where, according 

to JoAnn Perschel’s obituary in The 

Times-Union, “Reflecting her cheeky 

sense of humor, the decor was bordello 

red, Ms. Perschel dressed as a New Orleans 

madam, and the waitresses dressed 

in corsets and garter belts.” 

At other times, the building housed 

a succession of bars — The Sinclair, 

PHOTO: BOB SELF 

Spot a Downtown eyesore and want to know why it’s 

there or when it will be improved? Submit suggestions 

to: frankmdenton@gmail.com. 


Secrets, The Voodoo and finally Duke’s Place Blues Bar & Lounge, 

whose management bravely told Yelp in 2014: “Duke’s Place … has 

quickly become the destination spot for Jacksonville’s professionals 

and young entrepreneurs. With lavish décor and a large 

selection of sofa seating, it’s a great venue for social networking 

or celebrating a significant life event. Week nights feature live jazz 

and neo-soul bands, poets and comedians that include both locals 

and tourists alike entertaining the crowd. Duke’s provides a blend 

of high energy you’d expect from a nightclub but with the refined 

elegance of an upscale lounge. Fun and flirty signature drinks and 

bartenders filled with personality keeps patrons at the bar. Some 

of our patrons say its takes them back to DC or Philly and while we 

take it as a compliment, we’re good being Duuuvallllll!” 

A ragged sign on the building says it is for lease. 

Apparently the last tenant of its bigger neighbor, 523 West 

Forsyth, was Bailey’s Camera Corner, which opened in 1963 and 

moved to Hogan Street in 1993. You can still make out the store’s 

name, painted on the bricks in front. 

For a while, 523 was on the market, and the listing emphasized 

FREE, SELF-GUIDED TOUR | 5-9 P.M. 

that the main attribute of the gutted building was its proximity to 

the new Courthouse, then under construction: “The new owners 

Explore Downtown’s musuems and theatres, galleries 

of the building will have a constant reminder of the location with a 

and shops, murals, restaurants and bars on the 

view of the Courthouse façade for decades to come and is an ideal 

first Wednesday of the month. 

building location for a firm to renovate the existing structure to 

serve its true capacity to the new Courthouse.” 

According to tax records, 523 is owned by LGS of North Florida, 

whose principals are Lisa Salloum and Hadi Karaa, who live in 

ILOVEARTWALK.COM 

Monclair, a Southside suburb. Calls to Salloum, a Jacksonville 

DOWNTOWN JACKSONVILLE ART WALK periodontist, were not returned. According to a 2018 legal filing in 

Texas: “Hadi, a cardiologist and Lisa’s husband, lives primarily in 

Beirut but also lives in Florida three months out of the year.” 

The sidekick 521 is owned by Rim Properties, whose president 

is Rivka Barav and vice president Maoz Barav of Ponte Vedra 

Beach. 

Rivka Barav said she understands 523 is about to be redeveloped 

but her 521 building is in such bad shape because of “what’s 

happening Downtown. Why would I want to put money in that 

building where it would not thrive? Is there reason for anybody 

to invest money in it?” She said she’s owned the building 12 or 13 

years and has invested a lot, but there’s “no market for leasing or 

sale.” 

Barav blames the city for lack of support. She said she didn’t 

get a response from the Downtown Investment Authority after she 

offered a plan to improve the building. “The city is totally inflexible. 

They make everything difficult. There is no incentive and no 

assistance. I asked for a loan to renovate the exterior, and there 

Jacksonville has a long history as one of 

was nothing. The city does not function as a breeding ground for 

the leading commercial centers in Florida. 

business, for initiative. 

“If the city is offended by the way the building looks, fine, let 

Holland & Knight is proud of the contributions our 

them help me in the form of a loan or whatever. The city needs to 

lawyers have made in promoting the business and 

be a partner in every available way.” 

community interests of Downtown Jacksonville. 

Barav intends to hold onto 521 “until investing in it makes 

sense or I get a fair price for it.” 

So the owners of 521 and, presumably, 523 W. Forsyth are waiting 

for the Courthouse and other Downtown revitalization to drive 

up the value of their investments for sale, which we hope will be 

soon. While the owners live in the suburbs or in Beirut, Downtown 

residents, workers and visitors have to look at their disheartening 

www.hklaw.com 

buildings. 

904.353.2000 | Jacksonville, FL 

Frank Denton, retired editor of The Florida Times-Union, is editor of J. 

He lives in Riverside. 

Copyright © 2018 Holland & Knight LLP All Rights Reserved 


PRODUCED BY

Urban Living 

in Downtown 

Jacksonville 

100% 

occupied 

100% 

occupied 

coming fall 2019

The iconic neon Maxwell House 

coffee sign glows from the side 

of the company’s Jacksonville 

production facility on Bay Street. 

64 


The 

Maxwell 

House 

Mystery 

Situated along Bay 

Street near the 

Shipyards, Maxwell 

House Coffee has 

been a mainstay of 

Downtown since 

opening more than 

100 years ago. We set 

out with a notebook 

full of questions 

about the company’s 

Downtown role. 

We came back with 

very few answers. 

BY MIKE CLARK 


M 

axwell House, with 

its iconic presence on 

the riverfront, needs 

to be more active Downtown. 

You shouldn’t have to be an investigative 

reporter to find out what 

Maxwell House has been doing to be 

a good corporate citizen in Jacksonville. 

Of course, Jacksonville is proud 

to have this manufacturing facility 

here. And we’re proud that Jacksonville 

won the 1990 competition with 

Hoboken, N.J., to “Keep Max in Jax.” 

And we’re happy that Maxwell 

House employs about 200 people 

with good jobs. 

But come on, folks, we need you 

more involved in a revived Downtown. 


In search of this story, I set out to break 

the mystery of Maxwell House in Jacksonville. 

Why is this placed guarded like a top-secret 

security site? 

Why wouldn’t the security guard give 

me the name of the plant manager? All I 

wanted was to schedule an interview. 

It took an email to Kraft Heinz corporate 

headquarters to produce an answer 

from the local plant manager 

to my questions. 

My concerns as a writer for a publication 

that advocates for a better Downtown 

are simple: Why isn’t Maxwell House 

more active Downtown? I certainly don’t 

want to produce defensiveness; instead I 

would hope to persuade the leaders of this 

important Jacksonville asset to step out of 

their shell. 

The idea came from a recent meeting of 

the Downtown Investment Authority. The 

boundaries for the special taxing district 

for Downtown Vision stopped short of the 

Maxwell House plant. 

Hmmm. So Maxwell House isn’t paying 

the special millage assessment of businesses 

in the Downtown Vision plan. And the 

plant isn’t even a member of Downtown 

Vision. 

Further checks documented that 

Maxwell House is not a member of the JAX 

Chamber or of First Coast Manufacturers. 

BELOW: Bags of green coffee beans sit 

on pallets inside Jacksonville’s Maxwell 

House coffee plant in April of 1980. 

ABOVE: A forklift driver moves pallets filled with cans of 

Maxwell House coffee in January of 1983. 

ABOVE: A worker looks over the top of the Maxwell House sign that stands 

100 feet above the entrance to the plant in January of 1992. 

LEFT: Maxwell House workers can and box coffee during a shift in October of 1973. 

TIMES-UNION ARCHIVES 

66 


What a shame. Maxwell House has been 

an integral part of Jacksonville for over 100 

years. 

The Jacksonville plant opened in 1910, 

employing about 30 people. By 1992, it employed 

420 people. But a slowdown in coffee 

consumption led the company’s owners 

at the time, General Foods, to consolidate 

plants, with the competition between Hoboken 

and Jacksonville. 

A $4.8 million incentive package was 

developed to “Keep Max in Jax,” along with 

promises to build a bridge over Hogans 

Creek and extend Forsyth Street for a new 

entrance off Bay Street. There have been 

more incentive packages provided by the city 

since then. 

There was a big rally of about 700 people 

at Metropolitan Park featuring Mayor Tommy 

Hazouri and U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett. 

Oliver Barakat, a member of the Downtown 

Investment Authority questioned the 

incentives in 2016, saying Maxwell House 

should be more involved “in the tapestry 

of Downtown,” reported the Jacksonville 

Business Journal. 

In contrast, Jim Bailey, the current chairman 

of the Downtown Investment Authority, 

said in an interview that Maxwell House was 

“wonderful” during the 2005 Super Bowl. 

Many of the Super Bowl’s activities occurred 

in streets surrounding the plant. 

A Times-Union story described Maxwell 

House as a good supporter of many nonprofit 

organizations. In response to my query, 

Maxwell House did provide a list of local 

MAXWELL HOUSE COFFEE: TIMELINE 

1897 

The first Maxwell 

House plant opens 

in Nashville. 

1892 

Cheek convinces Nashville’s posh 

Maxwell House to serve his brand. 

1873 

Joel Cheek, a 

grocery salesman, 

develops his 

own coffee in 

Nashville. 

JEFF DAVIS (GRAPHIC) 

1910 

A coffee plant opens in 

Jacksonville under the name 

of Cheek-Neal Coffee Co., 

employing 30 people and producing 

about 40,000 pounds of 

coffee a day. 

1928 

Cheek-Neal is sold to the 

Postum Co., later to become 

General Foods. That 

sale allows the founder’s 

son, Leon Cheek, to build 

a mansion at 2263 River 

Blvd. between Memorial 

Park and St. Vincent’s 

Medical Center. 

1955 

A 95-foot tall illuminated sign – 

with the cup and the drop – is 

erected at the Jacksonville plant. 

Today 

Maxwell House 

employs about 

200 people in 

Jacksonville. 

2016 

Maxwell House announces 

a $36 million expansion 

and receives about a $1 

million grant from the city. 

2010 

Maxwell House reaches its 

100th anniversary in Jacksonville. 

1990 

General Foods announces that due to declining coffee consumption, it would close 

one of its East Coast plants, either Jacksonville or Hoboken, N.J. For Jacksonville, 

it would mean the loss of 400 jobs and a $556 million economic impact in Northeast 

Florida. The successful “Keep Max in Jax” campaign led by Mayor Tommy 

Hazouri, lasts for months. Local and state incentives sweeten the deal. Hoboken’s 

former coffee plant is turned into condos, called Maxwell Place on the Hudson. 


SPRING 

MAXWELL HOUSE 

IN JACKSONVILLE 

Here is the response from Maxwell 

House on volunteer activities 

in the community: 

• Our employees volunteered 

at the Salvation Army Homeless 

Shelter to serve meals. 

• We held a meal packing event 

at our facility for our long time 

charitable partner Rise Against 

Hunger and packed 15,000 meals 

for hunger relief efforts around 

the country and world. Attendees 

were our employees and their families, 

some who are Navy veterans; 

local officials; a member of the 

Jacksonville Jaguars staff. 

• We held a Feeding Northeast 

Florida Food Bank food drive and 

collected over 500 lbs of food. 

• Employees donated gifts/toys 

for the local Jacksonville Comfort 

House wrapping 100+ gifts for 

children in need. 

• We provided one truck of 

supplies from employees for the 

local Hurricane Relief Drive by 

local radio stations. 

• Donated 1½ truckloads of supplies/food 

for the Hurricane Drive 

at the Sulzbacher shelter located 

just behind our facility. 

• We supported and participated 

in the Jacksonville Veterans Day 

Parade honoring veterans with our 

“Old Max” truck. 

• We are sponsors of the Jacksonville 

Jaguars promotion “Coffee 

with the Coach.” 

• “Old Max” went to the Racetrack 

Road Walmart grand opening 

where we had employee volunteers 

serving coffee to the community. 

• We’ve hosted several meetings 

at our offices for the local Navy 

office, Jacksonville Sheriff’s office, 

Fire Department and Jumbo 

Shrimp teams. 

• Maxwell House has recently 

become the coffee sponsor of the 

USO supporting our veterans. 

• We have also partnered with 

the Mike Rowe Foundation to 

fund scholarships to individuals 

in support of technical education 

degrees. 

• The plant has received many 

recent awards and recognition 

for being part of the community 

from community-owned electric 

utility company JEA, the Northeast 

Florida Safety Council, JAX USA 

Partnership and for our participation 

in Breast Cancer Awareness 

from the Department of Children 

and Families. 

House coffee plant. Schmidt told Robinson “If they keep this place open, I’ll kiss you in the middle of this loading dock.” They did, 

near the side entrance on Bay Street after Maxwell House had announced they would be keeping the Jacksonville plant open. 

Kelly Brunson (left) encourages Frederick Robinson (center) and Bill Schmidt to make good on a bet in 1990 at the Maxwell 

volunteer and charitable activities, which is good. Join and support Downtown Dwellers, a 

What is lacking is more involvement Downtown. 

For instance, I asked why Maxwell House is 

group of Downtown residents. 

not more involved in annual cleanups of Hogans 

Creek, which empties into the St. Johns River at 

the plant. Groundwork Jacksonville hosts regular 

cleanup campaigns there. 

Plant Manager Dan MAXWELL HOUSE 

Frisosky responded, 

“If there is a 


COFFEE CO. 

recommended 

group that organizes 

clean- 

Veterans 

Jail 

Memorial 

Jacksonville 

Arena 

up activities of Sheriff’s Office 

Hogans Creek, 

please let us Berkman 

know. We 

Plaza 

know our employees 

would 

be happy to 

St. Johns River 

participate. 

N 

We do clean up 

the banks near our 

XX J MAGAZINE | SPRING 2019 

2019 | J MAGAZINE XX 

facility at various times.” 

social media. 

That’s the spirit. So please meet Kay Ehas, 

head of Groundwork Jacksonville, who would 

be thrilled to have more volunteer activity from 

Maxwell House. 

Mike Clark has been a reporter and editor for 

And in the newfound spirit of openness, 

The Florida Times-Union and its predecessors since 

allow me to suggest a few activities from Maxwell 1973 and editorial page editor since 2005. 

House. 

He lives in Nocatee. 


ADAMS ST. 

MARSH ST. 

BAY ST. 

MONROE ST. 

Hogans Creek 

ADAMS ST. 

HART BRIDGE EXPY 

Join and support Downtown Vision. 

As Bay Street turns into an innovation corridor, 

develop a chic retail outlet with Maxwell 

House wares. While the plant manager says “this 

is not a core competency of the company,” 

they could always partner with 

a vendor. 

DUVAL ST. 

A.P. RANDOLPH ST. 

Do a better job 

of sharing Maxwell 

House’s 

community 

activities. 

Some of this is 

basic public 

relations. As 

Bailey said, 

“They have 

always been 

a silent, quiet 

company.” But 

this is a new era of 

Downtown needs the active participation of a 

major Downtown business. 

WILL DICKEY; JEFF DAVIS (MAP)

The 

Great 

Hotel 

Boom 

With as 

many as nine 

new Downtown 

hotels on the drawing 

board, many are asking if 

the core can support that 

many new places?’ 


J MAGAZINE 

70 



COURTYARD BY MARRIOTT 

ll those grand plans for Downtown developments — from the stadium to 

Brooklyn, from the core to the Southbank — seem to have common, almost 

dutiful components: “mixed use,” “residential,” “retail” and hotels. 

Lots of hotels. 

Add them up, and over the next few years, Downtown could have 

nine — that’s NINE — new hotels. Since we really only have six now 

(two in the core, four on the Southbank) can this town possibly 

support that many new hostelries? 

Sure, given all the other plans for attracting visitors, said Aundra 

Wallace when he was CEO of the Downtown Investment 

Authority and seven of the hotels were proposed. 

“Clearly no,” said Hank Staley, a managing director of 

CBRE, the global Fortune 500 real-estate firm, and a specialist 

in hotel feasibility, based in Jacksonville. “I’m frankly 

Ashocked there are as many hotels proposed as there are.” 

SUBMITTED 

72 


SUBMITTED 

Well, maybe not today, said Michael Corrigan, 

president and CEO of Visit Jacksonville. “We’re 

excited about the possibility of all the new hotels 

coming in.” 

“I don’t think Marriott would have given us 

approval if they didn’t think the answer to that is 

yes,” said Michael Munz of The District. “I think the 

answer is yes.” 

“The business-oriented nature of this market is 

untapped,” with companies bringing in new employees 

all the time, said Bryan Greiner, president of 

Augustine Development Group, which is doing the 

Ambassador Hotel project. “There is going to be a lot 

of activity Downtown.” 

“That’s a great question,” said Steve Atkins, developer 

of the Laura Street Trio which includes a Courtyard 

by Marriott. “The Northbank needs additional 

hotel rooms. We feel comfortable with it.” 

Of course, each of them was looking at the 

scenario from his own viewpoint, background, qualifiers 

and professional optimism. 

The reality seems to be that, if those nine hotels 

opened their doors now, they would flood the market, 

and the weakest wouldn’t last long, even among 

the existing hotels. 

But of course, few of them will be here anytime 

soon, and as Downtown achieves its boldest development 

goals of attractions and residents over the 

next few years, more hotels will pop up to serve the 

new needs. 

And hotels have a way of finding their own markets 

and sorting themselves out. 

First, the cold hard facts 

Let’s start with Staley, a 37-year veteran of hotel 

feasibility analyses, one of only a half dozen such 

consultants in Florida. “Most of what I do is feasibility 

studies for new hotels. I’ve worked in 46 states 

on 2,000 properties, everything from Motel Six to 

Ritz-Carlton and everything in between.” 

He points to CBRE’s proprietary financial report 

on the Jacksonville hotel submarket that covers 

Downtown and Jacksonville International Airport, 

which together include 54 hotels and 7,164 rooms. 

The report for the third quarter of 2018 showed 

that occupancy rose 8.6 percent to 76.6 percent, 

the average daily rate rose 4.2 percent and the key 

criterion of revenue per available room rose 13.2 

percent to $72.31, but those impressive numbers 

masked the most important dynamic of the market: 

Jacksonville hotels are cheap. 

The average daily rate for the Downtown and airport 

hotels was $94.38 — $122.24 for upper-priced 

hotels and $71.40 for lower-priced hotels. 

(For comparison, the national occupancy rate 

for the year ending Sept. 30 was 66.2 percent, the 

revenue per available room was $85.50 and the 

average daily rate was $129.20.) 

“It’s not an occupancy problem, it’s a rate problem,” 

Staley said. “Jacksonville always has been a relatively 

healthy market on occupancy, but it’s always 

had a low rate structure,” aside from the beaches. 

There are several reasons, he said. One is that 

Downtown “hasn’t been very vibrant from an economic 

perspective.” 

Another is the Hyatt Regency (originally the 

Adam’s Mark), which with 951 rooms is “a massive 

hotel for a city the size of Jacksonville. It is the de 

facto convention center for Jacksonville, with more 

meeting space than at the (Prime Osborn) convention 

center. The Jacksonville market simply could not 

support that many new hotel rooms. It pushes rates 

down. … It probably never should have been built.” 

The final factor was the economic collapse of 

2008-9 and the related drop in tourism statewide. 

Miami recovered the fastest, Staley said, and Jacksonville 

the slowest. “When you look at the recent 

numbers, it looks like the growth in demand is really 

strong. But look at where we’re coming from.” 

Staley said he doesn’t see how the low hotel 

rates, even with high occupancy, can cover escalating 

construction costs, especially Downtown. “I’ve 

never seen construction costs increase as fast as 

they have in the past five years, and I’ve been doing 

this 40 years.” 

Staley said he finds the proposed Residence Inn 

in Brooklyn “somewhat intriguing. That whole area 

has really exploded, Riverside and Avondale. It’s the 

place to be.” 

Other than that, he said, “If I had to build a hotel 

Downtown right now and those were the choices, 

the stadium area holds the greater upside, if you 

believe all that stuff is going to happen,” that is, Shad 

Khan’s proposed Lot J and Shipyards developments, 

both of which promise hotels. 

“The Shipyards has the potential to be a real 

game-changer. If that happens, then we might be 

looking at more demand. I can see the focal point 

of the entire Downtown area, for tourism anyway, 

shifting to the Shipyards and Lot J. Similarly, what 

they’re doing with the District is a game-changer for 

the Southbank.” 

The view from 

Visit Jacksonville 

Corrigan, whose agency attracts and accom- 

LA QUINTA 

“The 

Shipyards 

has the 

potential 

to be a 

real gamechanger. 

If that 

happens, 

then we 

might be 

looking 

at more 

demand.” 

HANK STALEY 

HOTEL FEASIBILITY 

SPECIALIST

“We lose 

a lot of 

business to 

neighboring 

counties 

that have 

full-service 

luxury 

hotels – 

the Ponte 

Vedra Inn, 

the Marriott 

Sawgrass, 

the Ritz- 

Carlton 

on Amelia 

Island.” 

Michael 

Corrigan 

CEO of Visit 

Jacksonville 

FULLER WARREN 

BRIDGE 

ACOSTA BRIDGE 

MAIN ST. 

BRIDGE 

ST. JOHNS RIVER 

NEW DOWNTOWN HOTELS IN THE WORKS 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

N 

Courtyard by Marriott 

In the renovated Laura Street Trio. 145 rooms. 

Marriott AC 

The District, Peter Rummell’s innovative “healthy” 

community is to include a 200-room hotel. 

Shipyards 

Five-star hotel to be specified. 

8 

Lot J 

Shad Khan’s planned entertainment complex adjacent 

to TIAA Bank Field and Daily’s Place is to include an 

as-yet-unspecified hotel. 

Hotel Indigo 

The old seven-story Life of the South building at 100 W. 

Bay St. (at Laura Street) will be converted into an 89- 

room boutique hotel, with a rooftop restaurant and bar. 

modates tourists and conventioneers, agreed we 

probably don’t need all those nine hotels now. 

But historically, he said, about 50 percent of 

new hotels that are announced actually get built, 

because they’re usually announced before they nail 

down financing and undergo feasibility analyses like 

those Staley does. Corrigan said of the current list of 

announced hotels, “I can’t believe they’re doing a 

full analysis of long-term financial stability.” 

One factor in favor of more hotels, he said, is that 

some travelers prefer to stay in certain brands. The 

list of nine includes three Marriott sub-brands, a 

Hyatt brand and a La Quinta. 

Atkins of the Trio project points out the Northbank 

doesn’t now have a Marriott, “the largest hospitality 

brand in the world,” and after studying the 

project “very carefully,” his development group and 

Marriott signed an agreement. “We’re committed.” 

The hotel planned for the Shipyards project 

hasn’t been named, but Shad Khan has made clear 

that he wants a five-star hotel there. He owns the 

Four Seasons in Toronto which has that distinction. 

Can Downtown Jacksonville support a five-star 

hotel? “I personally think we could,” Corrigan said. 

6 

5 

9 

1 

6 

7 

8 

9 

2 

7 

Hyatt Place 

A nine-story hotel with 128 rooms and a rooftop bar 

is seeking permitting for its site at Hogan and Water 

streets. 

Berkman Plaza II hotel 

500 E. Bay. New owners plan a $150 million, 312-room 

hotel alongside a 500-car parking garage and a “family 

entertainment center” with a Ferris wheel. 

Residence Inn by Marriott 

A six-story, 135-room hotel at the intersection of 

Forest and Magnolia in Brooklyn. 

La Quinta 

Work is underway on the $15 million renovation of the 

historic Ambassador Hotel, 420 N. Julia St., into a 120- 

room La Quinta Inn & Suites, Inn or Hotel. 

“We lose a lot of business to neighboring counties 

that have full-service luxury hotels — the Ponte Vedra 

Inn, the Marriott Sawgrass, the Ritz-Carlton on 

Amelia Island. The closest I can come is One Ocean. 

It’s seen as our full-service resort hotel.” 

Corrigan noted that existing hotels sometimes 

have to work together. “There are many times we 

look to put a conference at one of the conference 

hotels, and they don’t have enough rooms. So they 

partner with another conference hotel.” 

Munz, a partner in the Dalton Agency, said that 

when his firm hosts out-of-town clients, sometimes 

they have to go as far as Southpoint to find accommodations. 

And from the Downtown 

Investment Authority 

Brian Hughes, interim CEO of the Downtown 

Investment Authority (and chief of staff for Mayor 

Lenny Curry), pointed out that, on one weekend last 

spring during Welcome to Rockville, there also were 

the Spartan Race and well attended events at Veterans 

Memorial Arena and the Baseball Grounds. 

“All the same night. We had 98.9 percent occupancy 

3 

4 

JEFF DAVIS 

74 


SUBMITTED 

hotel-wise. Everything Downtown was booked and, 

at the airport, occupied. That’s a need. 

“Some of our Downtown venues are impacted 

by a lack of urban-core hotel space. People ask: How 

many people can stay how close to the event? We’re 

going to have to have hotel inventory.” 

That’s especially true, he said, as the number of 

people living Downtown continues to grow and as 

attractions like Lot J and the Berkman family-entertainment 

center become real. “The question mark 

is do we have a chicken-and-egg component … 

Ultimately, planning is about making a decision.” 

How the list will sort out 

Inevitably, that list of proposed new hotels will 

sort out, one way or another. Here’s how: 

First, as Corrigan pointed out, most of those proposals 

probably have not yet undergone feasibility 

studies, and when they do, the developers might see 

a different tack. 

Then, consider the time factor. While a few of the 

hotels are well into the permitting process and even 

about to begin construction, some are in the indefinite 

future — the “five-star” hotel at the Shipyards, 

for example, and the hotel at the entertainment 

center promised for the Berkman II site. By the time 

those hotels are built, Downtown revitalization 

should have generated substantially more demand. 

Munz cautioned that, while the number of hotels 

seems large, a more relevant number might be the 

number of rooms. The boutique Hotel Indigo, for 

example, plans only 89 rooms, while the Berkman 

developers are talking about 312 rooms. Atkins noted 

that the Trio Marriott will be a 145-room “limited 

service” hotel, which operates differently from, say, 

the full-service Hyatt. 

As Corrigan pointed out, the list of proposed 

hotels brings more brands and levels of service and 

luxury that will attract their own choosy patrons. 

For people who prefer boutique hotels, the Hotel 

Indigo is going to be very appealing. A five-star hotel 

associated with TIAA Bank Field, Daily’s Place and 

the Lot J and Shipyards developments can create its 

own rich market. 

Shad Khan doesn’t need to rely so heavily on feasibility 

studies. As Staley said, “He can do whatever 

he wants to.” 

Who’s first. The laggards in getting their doors 

open may face a tougher market. “We’re going to be 

one of the first to market,” Greiner said, “so we’re not 

too worried about it.” 

Or rather than figuring the list of proposed 

hotels will sort out, you can choose to be a optimist, 

cockeyed or visionary. If you read Mike Clark’s story 

about Oklahoma City’s revitalization over 14 years 

(see page 24), the then-mayor said 20 new hotels 

were built downtown and in the Bricktown entertainment 

district. Now those contiguous areas list 30 

hotels, compared to our six. 

Frank Denton, retired editor of The Florida Times-Union, is 

editor of J. He lives in Riverside. 

HOTEL INDIGO 

HYATT PLACE 

Residence Inn by Marriott 


With a successful Murray 

Hill location, Will Morgan 

opened Vagabond Coffee in 

Downtown six months ago. 

76 


+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

While successful small businesses 

+ + + + + + 

& 

+ + + + + + + + + + 

often define a downtown’s character, 

+ + the challenges + + + in + Jacksonville’s 

+ + + + + + + + + + 

Downtown can be daunting 

+ 

Rise 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

Grind 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

BY CAROLE HAWKINS // PHOTOS BY BOB SELF 

+ 

Six months into his tenure Downtown at Vagabond Coffee, owner 

+ + + + + + + + + + 

Will Morgan is upbeat about prospects. But the specialty coffee 

+ + + + + 

shop’s hours show how tough the urban core market can be. 

+ + Vagabond + is open + during + business + hours — + 8 a.m. to 5 + p.m. weekdays. + Compare + that + + + + + + 

to the popular Murray Hill location, where weekdays stretch from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and 

where Saturday and Sunday hours run nearly as long. 

+ “In + my opinion, + we should + be + able to open + more, + but the business + just + isn’t there,” + + + + + + + 

Morgan said of his store just a half-block off Hemming Park. “I actually think Downtown 

Jacksonville is one the hardest areas in the city to run a successful business, especially a 

+ + small one.” + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

Morgan’s landlord, George Saoud, sees a similar pattern with his other tenants. Happy 

Grilled Cheese closes at 3 p.m. So does the Desert Rider sandwich shop. 

+ “What + does + that tell + you? Nobody + stays + Downtown + after hours,” + he said. + + + + + + + + 

One block over on Laura Street is Wolf & Cub, a concept store featuring an eclectic mix 

of vintage and new curated clothing, as well as unique products like hand-rolled incense 

+ + from Peru. + Owner + Emily Moody + is no + retail ingénue. + She + ran a similar + store + in Riverside + + + + + + 

for many years. She keeps customers coming into her Downtown shop by surprising them 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 

SPRING 2019 | J MAGAZINE 77 

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

with changes in inventory and engaging them with 

Instagram posts. Wolf & Cub is open noon to 5 p.m. 

weekdays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays. 

Across the street, the Barnett Building and Laura 

Street Trio redevelopments are underway. The city 

granted the mixed-use projects a combined $9.8 

million in incentives. 

They’re beautiful buildings, and Moody is happy 

they’re renovating. But that’s paired with another 

thought. 

“Twenty-five thousand dollars would be huge for 

a small business who’s trying to grow their inventory. 

And it’s just a drop in the bucket for these bigger 

projects,” she said. 

Jacksonville’s Downtown Investment Authority 

has granted Downtown retailers $613,000 in 

renovation grants over the last five years. But that 

seems a small number compared to $9.8 million. 

When it comes to retail, could Jacksonville do more 

to help the little guy? 

The simple answer is yes. There are other 

incentives, assistance programs and retail-friendly 

policies that the city could offer. But there’s little 

consensus on what those ought to be. 

The case for incentives 

Cluster a few mom-and-pop retailers together, 

and you get an urban shopping experience worth 

traveling for — one that’s messy and creative, fast 

and surprising. Around Downtown’s Hemming 

Park there’s a specialty grilled cheese eatery, a 

candy store with Willie Wonka flavors and a used 

bookstore paired with a healthy foods coffee shop. 

Mom-and-pop stores define an urban 

neighborhood’s character, but they also do more. 

They are precursors to national brands. Small 

retailers prove the market is there, triggering the 

bigger players to buy in — Riverside needed a Five 

Points before it could land a Publix. 

Retail is also vital to keep urban neighborhoods 

attractive to residents. And so, cities activate 

shopping districts with retail support programs. 

Jacksonville offers retail support too. 

Renovations for retailers 

Five years ago, DIA created a Retail Enhancement 

Grant, which pays up to half the cost of a retail 

renovation in Downtown Jacksonville. That’s enabled 

a dozen or so retailers to build out or expand, and it’s 

behind some trendy, transitional remodels at places 

like Urban Grind and Super Food and Brew. 

The city replenished the fund during the last 

budget cycle, adding another $922,000. 

“There’s demonstrated value to it,” interim DIA 

CEO Brian Hughes said. “It will continue to be 

available as it continues to demonstrate value.” 

Saoud recently received a partial matching grant 

of $55,000 from DIA to help him restore the secondfloor 

windows and antique elevator at his Hogan 

Street building. A grant isn’t the difference between 

succeeding and failing as a business, he said. But it 

does encourage investment. 

“People are 

still working 

hard to 

create a 

destination 

here. So 

the least 

landlords 

can do is 

offer some 

affordable 

rents, 

especially 

when 

buildings 

are sitting 

empty.” 

EMILY MOODY 

WOLF & CUB 

“I don’t think I would have done as much if I 

didn’t have it,” Saoud said. “Besides putting windows 

back in, I’m now toying with the idea of painting the 

whole building and putting in new awnings.” 

Despite its successes, a Retail Enhancement 

Grant isn’t for everybody, though. 

Morgan did an attractive low-cost DIY build-out 

for Vagabond. That type of work doesn’t qualify for 

a grant. Moody also did a DIY build-out when she 

opened Wolf & Cub. 

Morgan said the grant paperwork looked 

complicated too. 

“It’s a lot of questions. It’s kind of a lot for a small 

business owner to do,” he said. “There are people 

who love coffee, love people and know a lot about 

running a business, but who don’t know a lot about 

filling out forms for grants. And there are other 

people who have bigger pockets who can have 

someone else help them fill out grants.” 

Jake Gordon, CEO of Downtown Vision, praised 

the city’s renovation program, but admitted no 

support incentive can ever be one-size-fits-all. The 

smallest retailers are the ones who have the toughest 

time using it, he said. 

“In terms of the incentives, I think what’s next for 

DIA is an evolution,” Gordon said. “There’s a whole 

list of businesses and owners who were helped by 

the Retail Enhancement Grant. But as the new CEO 

comes on, there probably is an opportunity for the 

investment authority to add even more resources.” 

Lease assistance 

Gordon’s top pick is lease assistance. 

“For me it’s the number one thing that we need,” 

Gordon said. “Rent is the number one cost to our 

Downtown retailers, by far.” 

The city of Dallas in the late 2000s offered lease 

assistance as part of a suite of retail supports for its 

Main Street district. Over three years, the program 

brought eight new stores to open within a six-block 

area, a progress report showed. 

New Jersey currently offers lease assistance for 

low-income retail districts across several cities. That 

program pays 15 percent of the rent for qualifying 

retailers during their first two years in business. 

It’s a way to fill in the gap between what building 

owners need to charge and what a new business 

ramping up can afford, Gordon said. 

Rent is definitely an issue among the Downtown 

owner-operators. Moody said hers is high, and she’s 

hoping to renegotiate better terms. 

“I don’t think the things that people say that 

Downtown has — that it’s lived up to that,” she said. 

“People are still working hard to create a destination 

here. So the least landlords can do is offer some 

affordable rents, especially when buildings are 

sitting empty.” 

Morgan said Downtown rents vary widely, and 

many owners will leave their buildings vacant rather 

than bring their rates down. 

“I have gotten quotes from people Downtown 

that I have literally just laughed at,” he said. 

78 


After running a successful boutique 

in Riverside, Emily Moody opened 

the eclectic Wolf & Cub in 

Jacksonville’s Downtown. 


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Morgan favors a lease assistance program and 

said he would use if it were offered. 

“Fifteen percent is like two free months of rent 

a year for me,” he said. “That’s just huge for a small 

business.” 

But lease assistance is a tougher sell politically 

than a renovation grant. That’s because lease 

programs are harder to run than renovation 

programs, Gordon said. 

“It’s easier to evaluate a capital project than the 

viability of a business,” he said. “What you don’t want 

to do is have the business not succeed and go away 

right away.” 

Hughes at DIA was underwhelmed by the idea. 

“There’s a little bit of political and economic 

philosophy to it,” he said. “The taxpayers would really 

be more dependent on the business acumen of the 

retailer, as opposed to a demonstration of capital 

improvement.” 

Business mentoring 

Also, any lease assistance from the city will 

expire. So owner-operators have to be able to build a 

business that will succeed at the full-rent rate. 

David Barilla, Assistant Director of Orlando’s 

Downtown Development Board, said his city 

doesn’t use lease assistance in isolation. A decade 

ago Orlando established a Minority/Women 

Entrepreneur Business Assistance Program, 

which pairs up to $40,000 in grants with business 

mentoring when an entrepreneur opens a store 

within the city’s disinvested Parramore district. 

To qualify, applicants work with a consultant, 

hired by the city to design a business plan. The 

consultant helps analyze the business, guides the 

setup, and gives marketing tips before making a 

recommendation to a board on whether to fund 

it. 

If approved, the grant can cover any business 

expense, from inventory to rent to renovations. 

“The consultant we work with is very helpful. 

And the applicants are very receptive and openminded 

to the recommendations,” Barilla said. 

“It’s really about getting them on the pathway to 

become successful long-term, while helping them 

get off the ground.” 

Over the course of the program’s 10-year 

history, more than half of the businesses have 

succeeded. It’s a good rate, said Barilla, for an 

at-risk area where most business startups are nonbankable 

deals. 

Lowering barriers 

Another way to support mom-and-pop retailers 

is to lower barriers that are especially difficult for a 

small business to hurdle. 

Barilla in Orlando convinced the developer of a 

new 400-unit apartment complex to offer one-year, 

rather than three-year or five-year leases for momand-pop 

retailers renting space on the building’s 

ground floor. 

“They may not have fully tested their concept yet. 

“There are 

people who 

love coffee, 

love people 

and know 

a lot about 

running a 

business, 

but who 

don’t know 

a lot about 

filling out 

forms for 

grants.” 

WILL MORGAN 

VAGABOND 

COFFEE 

It could be a baker that makes great cupcakes or 

somebody who wants to open a yoga studio,” Barilla 

said. “They’re just trying to get the foot in the game, 

and a longer commitment can be really challenging 

for them.” 

In other cases, regulatory policies written as onesize-fits-all 

can be tough for small business owners 

to comply with. 

In Jacksonville, businesses are required to 

provide a Life Safety plan — a plan that shows 

emergency exit routes — before they can open. The 

cost of compliance is high: The required architect’s 

drawings run $3,000 to $5,000 and can take months 

to complete. 

“To a mom-and-pop renting a place for $1,000 or 

$1,500 a month, that’s a lot,” said Stanton Hudmon, 

a commercial real estate agent at Pine Street/RPS. 

“Most want to move into an existing spot, put a 

couple of coats of paint on it and get some minor 

permits like bathrooms. They don’t require an 

overhaul and a 10-step plan.” 

Adding rooftops 

Views are mixed on what’s next for retail 

assistance in Downtown Jacksonville. But everyone 

agrees there’s one thing that would boost retail 

reliably: more residents in the urban core. 

A population base is why retail has rebounded 

in near-Downtown neighborhoods, like Riverside, 

San Marco and Brooklyn, but not yet in the central 

business district. 

“You can go within a mile or two of those retail 

districts and you’ve got people working as well as 

rooftops,” Hudmon said. “The retail there has a night 

business, where there’s really not night business 

Downtown.” 

The good news is residents are coming. 

According to Downtown Vision, apartment projects 

on the books are set to deliver more than 5,500 new 

residents to the urban core. But there’s a catch-22 in 

that scheme. When the Downtown dwellers arrive, 

how much will they enjoy their new neighborhood? 

Retail needs residents to survive, but residents need 

retail to provide a quality of life that makes them 

want to stay. 

DIA’s Retail Enhancement Grant has been the 

right program for the last five years, breathing life 

into Downtown’s destination retail until apartment 

developers stepped in. But now, with new housing 

on the horizon, it’s time to ramp-up Downtown 

retail incentives. 

The renovation grants have made a strong 

beginning. But as long as Downtown remains the 

“hardest place in Jacksonville to run a successful 

business,” the city should do more to help the owneroperators 

who define much of the urban-core retail. 

Jacksonville needs to be ready for what’s coming 

next. 

Carole Hawkins was a reporter for the 

Times-Union’s Georgia bureau in 2007-10. She 

is a freelance writer who lives in Murray Hill. 


Paul Shockey (left) and Tony Allegretti bought and renovated a vacant, boarded-up building at 21 E. Adams St. in the early 2000s and opened Burrito Gallery in 2005. 

THE URBAN 

PIONEERS 

With only a vision of a revitalized Downtown, early advocates 

shed light on why they went ‘all-in’ before few others would 

BY ROGER BROWN 

Long before Downtown Jacksonville became the attractive, 

enticing place for developers and individuals to 

invest and build in that it’s now become, there were pioneers 

who decades ago saw Downtown’s potential amid 

all of the boarded-up buildings, buzz-deprived streets 

and chronic underachievement. 

These pioneers saw a vision for a better Downtown and backed 

it up by taking real leaps of faith to invest and transform dormant 

properties in the city center into Downtown fixtures that helped set the 

foundation for the great things that are happening today. 

J magazine sought out three of these pioneers and asked what 

drove them to believe in Downtown when so many wouldn’t. 

Law partners and brothers Eddie and Chuck Farah, for example, 

turned a dead Downtown property into the glittering Farah & Farah 

law office. 

John Keane, the former longtime executive director of the Jackson- 

WILL DICKEY 

82 


ville Police and Fire Pension Fund, was the driving 

force behind the fund turning a vacant former 

department store into its eye-catching headquarters 

on West Adams Street, right across the street from 

Farah & Farah. 

Tony Allegretti and Paul Shockey, meanwhile, 

were driven by a shared belief that Downtown 

was a sleeping giant that the “little guys” — small 

businesses and establishments — could help stir to 

life. So the two ignored the skeptics and doubters, 

purchased an old decrepit Downtown building and 

made it the Burrito Gallery restaurant, a popular and 

iconic spot with another beloved eatery — Indochine 

— above it. 

All three of the pioneers offer some interesting 

insights on why they took a chance on Downtown. 

Tony Allegretti 

and Paul Shockey 

While longtime business partners Tony Allegretti 

and Paul Shockey are not brothers, there is a good 

reason why many in town affectionately joke that 

the duo have become Downtown Jacksonville’s 

version of the “Property Brothers.” 

Like “Property Brother” Jonathan Scott, Shockey, 

a longtime area licensed contractor and real estate 

developer, has had the instinctive ability to look at 

a humble building and use his own two hands and 

physical labor to help hammer, saw, drill it into a 

stunning end product. 

And like “Property Brother” Drew Scott, the personable 

and engaging Allegretti has had an uncanny 

knack for using his ability to present to others an 

articulate, compelling vision for a humble building’s 

potential — and for employing his keen people skills 

to hack through the bureaucratic red tape, skepticism 

and other barriers to help make the project an 

impressive reality. 

“We have heard that over the years,” Shockey 

says with a laugh regarding the “Property Brothers” 

comparison. 

“But we definitely don’t have (the Scott brothers’) 

great hair.” 

What Shockey and Allegretti definitely do have, 

however, is the satisfying legacy of buying a ramshackle 

empty Downtown building at 21 E. Adams 

St. in the early 2000s — and turning it into a thriving 

city center site that’s become the iconic home of the 

popular Burrito Gallery restaurant, which opened in 

January 2005, shortly before Jacksonville hosted the 

Super Bowl. 

In the years since, another popular restaurant, 

the Asian fusion eatery Indochine, also has moved 

into the 6,000-square-foot building as an upper-level 

tenant atop Burrito Gallery. 

The duo took a vision as “little guys” who saw a 

slumbering yet promising giant in Downtown Jacksonville 

and in the process became pioneers who 

helped set the groundwork for the great progress 

being made now, through projects big and small, to 

turn Downtown from a dozing giant into a roaring 

Goliath of activity. 

“Tony and 

I had been 

looking at 

that building 

on East 

Adams Street 

for a bit; we 

both saw life 

and renewal 

and potential 

in it as a 

structure and 

Downtown 

overall. So 

we decided 

to go for it. 

The building 

had been 

boarded up 

and vacant 

for some 

time, though. 

It was a 

mess.” 

PAUL SHOCKEY 

BURRITO GALLERY 

“We recognized the potential was there for 

Downtown, but that no one seemed to be anxious 

or ready to take the plunge and make that commitment 

to help fulfill it,” Allegretti said. “I guess we 

felt someone needed to take that plunge, make that 

commitment. Why couldn’t it be us?” 

And Downtown Jacksonville is immeasurably 

richer because Allegretti and Shockey did just that. 

In this engaging conversation with J magazine, 

the two share their observations on their journey as 

Downtown pioneers. 

Q: Was there an “Aha” moment when you knew 

that making such a huge investment in Downtown 

— when few others were — was the thing to do? 

Shockey: Well, what I remember as much as 

the “Aha” moment were the “what?” moments — 

the moments when we would tell people we were 

thinking of buying this empty, messed-up building 

Downtown that had been listed for sale, and they’d 

say, “You want to do what?!” (Laughs) 

I definitely remember a lot of that. 

But Tony and I had been looking at that building 

on East Adams Street for a bit; we both saw life and 

renewal and potential in it as a structure and Downtown 

overall. So we decided to go for it. The building 

had been boarded up and vacant for some time, 

though. It was a mess. 

Allegretti: It was gross! It had 1970s faux-stone 

cladding all across the place. It was really weird. Its 

last commercial use was as a jewelry store, but in 

between that and when we took it over, at one point 

it had a stint as a rave club. So it was really kind of 

creepy being in there excavating that. And it wasn’t 

like Downtown was booming. But we felt like we 

could find a good use for that building, and that we 

could make it work Downtown. 

So it’s really gratifying to know how we started 

and then to realize what we were eventually able to 

do over the years — first with Burrito Gallery and 

then adding a great tenant like Indochine. 

I know I feel a sense of accomplishment every 

time I go Downtown, go into Burrito Gallery and 

Indochine and see the smiling faces, the familiar 

faces. And I realize the jobs that Paul and I have been 

able to create. And I watch all the other great things 

that have been coming into Downtown, and will 

keep on arriving. 

Shockey: I’m really proud of the strides that 

Downtown is making now, and that we’ve had some 

role in that. We always believe that Downtown could 

be a vibrant, cool place, and we’re definitely getting 

there. 

Q: You both took a great leap of faith and 

carried out a vision that few others were seeing 

when you came Downtown when not many were 

rushing to do so. What do you see as the big challenge 

now to getting Downtown to reach its full 

promise? 

Allegretti: The big thing I’ve learned that if you 

have a passion for Downtown and for revitalizing it, 


Attorneys Chuck (left) and Eddie you have to accept early on that there is always going 

Farah stand in front of their 

to be someone who will try to change your mind. If 

32,000-square-foot law office at you say, “Oh man, I’m very positive on Downtown,” 

10 W. Adams St. The Farah 

they will throw out negative after negative at you in 

brothers purchased the deserted 

response. And no matter what you say, that person 

building in 1997 and now have 

more than 200 employees. 

won’t be convinced. 

But here’s the secret: For that one person, there 

are five others out there who do have open minds 

about Downtown and what it can be. They do want 

to work with you on making something positive happen 

Downtown. They are super interested in being 

part of that process. So the thing is to not leave those 

five people behind — don’t overlook opportunities 

to make connections with them to make a difference 

Downtown because you’re spending so much energy 

trying to sway the one naysayer who will never be 

convinced about Downtown. 

You have to focus on turning those five people 

into 10, 15, 20. 

That’s the kind of positive energy I’m seeing now 

when it comes to Downtown. But we have to keep 

nurturing it. 

Shockey: Tony and I were called crazy when we 

got into this. But we were willing to take a risk, and 

the results have really validated what we believed 

in about Downtown. (Let’s) continue to encourage 

those who have a passion for doing something great 

Downtown — a belief in it — that they can and 


should pursue it. The challenge is to keep feeding 

that passion, and not letting it fade. It’s going to be 

that drive that’s going to make Downtown great in 

the years to come. I have no doubt about that. 

Eddie and Chuck Farah 

Strolling into Farah & Farah’s law office building 

on 10 W. Adams St. — smack on the corner of West 

Adams and Main streets — it doesn’t take long to understand 

just how excited law partners and brothers 

Eddie and Chuck Farah are about Downtown and its 

future. 

“Don’t believe any of the naysayers about Downtown, 

man, because this place is on the rise,” says 

Eddie Farah almost instantly upon greeting a visitor 

in Farah & Farah’s spacious, colorful lobby. 

Standing next to Eddie, Chuck Farah is quick to 

agree. 

“The energy in Downtown is already through the 

roof, and it’s only going up,” Chuck Farah says. “So 

I’m so glad we’re down here. I’m really proud that 

we came into Downtown as early as we did. It has a 

soul to it.” 

Adds an energetic Eddie: “Yes, exactly. That’s a 

good way to put it. Downtown has got some soul to 

it — a lot of soul, really.” 

And a big reason why Downtown’s soul vibe exists 

today is because of the Farah brothers’ decision 

BOB SELF

in 1997 to purchase a deserted two-floor building 

on 10 W. Adams St. that once housed an insurance 

company and turn it into a massive law office with 

more than 200 employees. 

The transformation has combined a willingness 

to invest substantially in Downtown along with a 

desire to create something distinctive in Downtown 

— and the end product turned out as impressive as 

the original ambition. 

The Farah & Farah Downtown law office is an 

impressive, light-colored, 32,000-square-foot brick 

site that features: 

n Three expansive stories. 

n Lush lighting. 

n Strikingly high ceilings. 

n An impressive array of artistic features ranging 

from classic to funky eclectic. 

n A serene, outdoor courtyard/mini-park in 

the center of the building that is used for group 

gatherings, law firm events and other occasions — 

and wouldn’t be out of place if it was plopped in the 

center of a trendy urban neighborhood. 

“We believe in Downtown,” Eddie Farah says. 

Man, do they. 

And it’s a sentiment the Farah brothers proudly 

make no effort to conceal during this fun conversation 

with them. 

Q: Was there an “Aha” moment when you knew 

that making such a huge investment in Downtown 

— when few others were — was the thing to do? 

Eddie: We were on the Southbank in the late 

1990s in the Stein Mart building when this building 

came up for sale. We always wanted to be right in 

the center of Downtown. The courthouse was in 

the center of Downtown; we had lawyers in the 

courthouse every day. So many of the things we had 

to do as a law firm were right in the center of the city. 

It just made sense. We wanted to be in the heart of 

the action. 

Chuck: There was an investment company that 

wanted to sell the building. It was all boarded up. 

And the whole street itself was pretty dead, really. 

But when we walked in the building to look it over, 

we fell in love with it right away. I remember saying, 

“Man, this place is beautiful.” 

Eddie: Yeah we made up our minds right then 

we were going to do it. Plus, we’d always been 

Downtown guys, anyway. We’d always felt it was the 

soul of the city. We just felt it was the right move to 

make. And even though there wasn’t much going 

on Downtown overall, we felt like if we came there, 

it would breed other activity. And slowly, gradually, 

it’s done that. The momentum is really rolling now. 

We’re proud of that. We’re proud that we have more 

than 200 employees working, eating, socializing 

Downtown every day. And we have some employees 

who are living Downtown, too. That means a lot 

to us. We feel like we’re making a contribution to a 

better Downtown. 

Q: You both took a great leap of faith and 

“The 

energy in 

Downtown 

is already 

through the 

roof, and 

it’s only 

going up, so 

I’m so glad 

we’re down 

here. I’m 

really proud 

that we 

came into 

Downtown 

as early as 

we did. It 

has a soul 

to it.” 

EDDIE FARAH 

FARAH & FARAH 

carried out a vision that few others were seeing 

when you came Downtown when not many were 

rushing to do so. What do you see as the big challenge 

now to getting Downtown to reach its full 

promise? 

Eddie: To me, the key is that in addition to building 

all of the great projects that are now going on 

down here, we also have to keep working hard to tear 

down all the negativity that some people still have 

about Downtown and its potential. It just takes away 

energy from us being able to accomplish all we can 

here. Now thankfully a lot of that negativity is starting 

to go away. Part of that is because there are more 

people coming Downtown and seeing for themselves 

that all of the perceptions — “Oh, there are a 

lot of homeless people,” “Oh, is it safe?” — aren’t the 

actual reality. But we need more and more people to 

start really believing in Downtown. We need to keep 

building that up along with all of the great projects, 

both big and small. 

Chuck: Downtown is starting to get recognized 

by major people and companies all across this country. 

They believe in what they’re starting to see here. 

Now more of us here have to start believing, too. I’m 

telling you, Downtown is on the move. This is real. 

So that’s what I’d say to people who still don’t believe 

in Downtown. Give it a chance. You will be more 

than pleasantly surprised. Jump on this train now, 

because it’s really starting to roll. 

John Keane, Police 

and Fire Pension Fund 

John Keane devoted 25 years to leading Jacksonville’s 

Police and Fire Pension Fund as its executive 

director before retiring in 2015. 

During that time Keane was the driving force 

behind the pension fund’s bold decision in late 

1999 to buy a long-vacant building that was the 

home of a long-gone department store on West 

Adams Street, a slumbering Downtown site with 

little real buzz or activity, and transform it into the 

organization’s headquarters. 

And Keane’s vision back then — supported by 

the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund’s 

board of trustees — continues to reward Downtown 

Jacksonville some 20 years later. 

Today, the pension fund building on 1 W. Adams 

St., with its eye-catching design and distinctive 

light-gray look, is a symbol that faith in Downtown’s 

promise can pay off. 

In addition to housing the pension fund’s 

offices on the first floor — which feature an airy 

atrium that, as Keane proudly notes, allows “a lot 

of that good, fresh Florida sunshine to come on 

through” — the three-floor building has had an 

impressive roster of tenants over the years. The 

Pace Center for Girls Jacksonville, a prominent 

local nonprofit, is one of the facility’s current 

co-inhabitants. 

“I think it’s worked out pretty well,” Keane said 

with a smile. 

It has, indeed, and J magazine explored the Po- 


As executive director of 

Jacksonville’s Police and Fire 

Pension Fund, John Keane led 

efforts for the group to purchase 

and renovate a vacant building at 

1 W. Adams St. In 1999. 

lice and Fire Pension Fund’s Downtown journey 

in a fascinating Q-and-A session with Keane. 

Q: Was there an “Aha” moment when you 

knew that making such a huge investment in 

Downtown — when few others were — was the 

thing to do? 

Keane: Well, for about four years, we had had 

our headquarters inside an old bank on (Interstate) 

95 and Emerson Street on the Southside. 

One day, like the spring of 1999, I was heading 

down to City Hall for a meeting with (then-Mayor 

John Delaney). I went across the Hart Bridge, 

coming down Adams Street, stopped at the traffic 

light and I saw this banner on this empty building 

at 1 W. Adams St. that said, “Building for sale — 

and parking garage.” 

I thought, “Hmm, that’s interesting.” 

So after my meeting with the mayor, I drove 

back around the block a few times, sized up the 

building a bit. The more I looked at it, the more 

it really intrigued me. I was already familiar with 

the building because it used to be a W.T. Grant 

department store. 

I could just see some potential there. It was 

right in the heart of Downtown. 

So I called the broker and told him that if the 

offer he had already received on the building 

didn’t come through, to call me immediately 

before it went to market again. 

In the meantime, I started to have lots of 

discussions about the building with our board of 

trustees. We talked about what we would do with 

it, how we’d use it — even whether we even needed 

to go Downtown. We had this nice suburban 

place already, after all, with all the parking we 

wanted. Why go Downtown? 

Well, around that time Mayor Delaney was 

following up on (former) Mayor Ed Austin’s vision 

of redoing Downtown Jacksonville. And I just felt 

the mayor’s vision about getting Downtown going 

again really made sense to me. It struck a chord 

with me. 

We really did need to do something about 

Downtown to move Jacksonville forward as an 

entire city, and it was a ghost town down there. 

Plus I felt we could get the building at a good 

price, we could fill the other space with tenants, 

and the parking garage would be a nice, reliable 

revenue stream for us. 

The board of trustees, to their great credit, 

could see that too. 

So when the broker finally called and said 

the people with the first offer couldn’t put up the 

money, we were ready to act. 

It was a quick offer and counter-offer deal, 

WILL DICKEY 

86 


and we ended up buying it for $2 million — a 

45,000-square-foot building and 230-car parking 

garage. 

Within six months of looking at it, we had it. 

After that, it was all about gutting the inside 

of the building, working to really make a beautiful 

place with a great design — and recruiting 

tenants, which wasn’t too hard because there was 

a lot of interest once we started working on the 

building. 

Then we moved in and made it the Police and 

Fire Pension Fund’s new headquarters on Oct. 1, 

2001. 

At that time, it was pretty much just our building 

and the Farah & Farah (law office) building 

across the street that had much of a presence on 

Adams Street. There really wasn’t much else. But 

it was exciting. You could sense even back then 

both of our buildings were starting to put down 

the foundation for other development to come 

around us and all over Downtown. 

And that’s what has happened. 

Q: What were the biggest challenges? 

Keane: Well, developers will always tell you 

that when you’re dealing with an old building, 

it has a thousand secrets — and the walls don’t 

talk and tell you any of them. You have to find out 

those secrets on your own once you actually get 

in the building, and not always in the best ways. 

We certainly had a moment or two like that while 

“Our goal 

was to keep 

Downtown 

moving 

forward 

and to do 

our part to 

rejuvenate 

and 

redevelop 

it.” 

JOHN KEANE 

POLICE AND FIRE 

PENSION FUND 

we were transforming the Downtown building 

into our headquarters. You have to expect the 

unexpected. 

Q: What goes through your mind when you 

see the building these days? 

Keane: I’m very proud in a lot of ways, absolutely. 

We built and redid the Police and Fire Pension 

Fund building without one penny of city subsidy. 

I’m proud of that. 

We built it on time, and we built it under budget. 

I’m really proud of that, too. 

But really, the building is a tribute to the 

outstanding vision that was shown by the board 

of trustees in embracing the idea of moving 

Downtown when I suggested we do that. We were 

blessed to have a board that was not only dedicated 

to the long-term goals of the Police and Fire 

Pension Fund, it knew our success in the long run 

would benefit from having a successful, thriving 

Downtown. 

Our goal was to keep Downtown moving 

forward and to do our part to rejuvenate and redevelop 

it. And whenever I look at the Police and 

Fire Pension Fund building today, I know that we 

accomplished that goal. 

That means a lot to me. 

Roger Brown is a Times-Union editorial writer and member 

of the editorial board. He lives Downtown. 

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REMAPPING 

DOWNTOWN 

L 

A proposal 

to simplify 

more than a 

dozen zoning 

districts could 

be a boost for 

development 

ooking at the existing zoning map for 

Downtown is akin to looking at a piece 

of abstract art — a lot of haphazard 

splashes of color that don’t seem to go 

together. A small green block in a sea of purple. 

A patchwork of colors peppered throughout one 

neighborhood. 

That approach works for art but is terribly 

outdated for the map that details zoning rules in 

Downtown Jacksonville, a growing urban core that 

shouldn’t be governed by a regulatory process last 

updated around the turn of the century. 

City Councilwoman Lori Boyer is leading the 

push for a sweeping change of those archaic zoning 

BY MARILYN YOUNG rules. 

Instead of the current 15 zoning districts 


all with their own rules, Boyer’s proposal calls 

for all of Downtown to be zoned Commercial 

Central Business District. That encompasses the 

Northbank, Southbank, LaVilla, Brooklyn and the 

Sports Complex areas. 

The CCBD designation allows a wide range of 

uses — including mixed uses such as commercial 

and residential — without having to wade through 

a separate zoning approval process or seek a 

variance from the Downtown Development Review 

Board. Those changes alone will automatically save 

developers valuable time and costly legal fees. 

The wide-ranging proposal also addresses 

other issues, such as rooftop activation, setbacks 

along waterways, sidewalks and parking. It allows 

unlimited building heights in most areas, except 

CARSON PULLIAM

LaVilla and parts of Brooklyn, where it’s capped at 

75 feet, and the Cathedral District, where it tops out 

at 65 feet. 

The zoning update will shorten the timeline 

for some, which will certainly make developers 

happy. There has long been talk among some in 

the development community that getting a project 

completed in Jacksonville takes far longer than it 

should. 

But it doesn’t impact other steps in the approval 

process for projects, including with the Downtown 

Investment Authority and a plan review from 

the DDRB. Some also will need to get the OK for 

financial incentives, buying property from the city 

and doing work on historic buildings. 

Those steps likely add to the chorus of complaints 

from some developers that the approval process 

takes too long in Jacksonville. Some of those are 

valid, some are self-induced and some are based on 

outdated perceptions. 

Christian Oldenburg, managing director of 

Colliers International Northeast Florida, definitely 

sees the plan to simplify the zoning process as a 

positive for developer. But economic issues — such 

as the current high construction costs and low rent 

rates Downtown — have much more impact on a 

developer’s decision than zoning improvements. 

“We’re a long way from having developers come 

in to Jacksonville and seeing the cranes go up,” 

said Oldenburg, who grew up here. “So, I’d say that 

(economic) equation needs to get balanced first, 

but that’s 90 percent of the problem.” 

Reasons for the changes 

Boyer began tackling the issue last summer, 

forming a working group to help match zoning 

regulations to current needs. She said the most 

recent update was in the early 2000s, long before 

the DIA was established by former Mayor Alvin 

Brown in 2012. 

“Some of it is outdated because the references 

don’t make sense anymore,” Boyer said. “What 

might have been thought was going to be an 

arterial roadway is now not, or the way the people 

used rooftops 20 years ago is different.” 

She recruited experts like Brenna Durden, an 

attorney who served on DIA’s board and is now 

on the DDRB; Jim Klement, DIA redevelopment 

coordinator; Guy Parola, DIA operations manager; 

Alan Wilson, an architect with Haskell; and Carol 

Worsham, vice president of HDR (an architectural, 

engineering and consulting firm) who served on 

DDRB and is now on DIA’s board. 

Klement compiled a list of all waivers, 

deviations and exceptions sought from 2014 

through May 2018 to illustrate common requests, 

such as parking reductions, building heights and 

sign issues. 

“If there was a particular provision that almost 

everybody had to get a deviation from, we said, 

‘That’s broken. Something is wrong here. It’s always 

granted. What are we going to do?’” Boyer said. 

For example, a current provision requires 

there to be an entrance on every street frontage. 

That caused a security issue for a hotel, which 

said it needed to funnel people through the main 

entrance. “That makes perfect sense,” Boyer said. 

The provision also was a safety concern for 

Dogtopia on Hendricks Avenue, because it would 

have required an entrance for the dog daycare on 

the side along the interstate. 

“What we’re trying to do is bring it up to our 

current standards and say, ‘OK, this is the general 

expectation and here are some ways to not meet 

that expectation and do some alternative that still 

doesn’t require a deviation,’” Boyer said. 

For example, a current requirement is that 

a building has to be constructed to the right-ofway 

line as opposed to having a setback, which is 

common in urban settings. The alternative is to 

provide an “urban open space” for the public in a 

setback area. An example of that is the Baptist MD 

Anderson Cancer Center not building its facility 

to the corner of the site but using that space as an 

extension of the public sidewalk. 

Worsham said she was happy to assist with 

the effort. She felt there were redundancies in the 

code, some criteria were inconsistent and at times 

it was confusing what a developer needed to do. 

“A lot of what we did was consolidate what was 

good in the code and try to eliminate statements 

that were confusing,” said Worsham, who stressed 

the need to create a walkable, pedestrian-friendly 

urban environment where people feel safe and is 

pleasant aesthetically. 

The changes also should help get many projects 

get through the approval process quicker, though 

not as quick as many developers would like. 

Other, necessary 

processes 

Boyer said she perceives that Downtown has a 

taken bad rap of being a place where it takes too 

long, it’s too difficult and you have to talk to too 

many people to get a project approved. 

Some criticize the Request for Proposal process, 

where the city is selling off property, of which there 

is a fair amount Downtown. 

“That is not a simple process, and I don’t care 

if you’re buying it Downtown or if you’re buying it 

someplace else,” Boyer said. “There are processes 

that we have to go through to dispose of a property, 

and we can’t get around those.” 

Those requirements include basic real 

estate transaction requirements, such as getting 

appraisals. 

Another issue that Boyer said impacts a lot of 

Downtown property is soil contamination and 

brownfield designations caused by previous uses. 

“So, we can blame it on Downtown but the 

reality is you’re in an area that was previously 

developed that might have an underground storage 

tank or might have had a dry cleaner or might have 

been a turpentine factory,” she said. “Downtown 

“We’re a 

long way 

from having 

developers 

come in to 

Jacksonville 

and seeing 

the cranes 

go up. So, 

I’d say that 

(economic) 

equation 

needs to get 

balanced 

first, but 

that’s 90 

percent 

of the 

problem.” 

CHRISTIAN 

OLDENBURG 

Colliers 

International 

Northeast 

Florida 


CENTRAL 

CIVIC CORE 

LaVilla 

CHURCH 

CATHEDRAL 

INSTITUTIONAL 

CURRENT ZONING 

OVERLAY DISTRICTS 

STADIUM 

RIVERFRONT 

Brooklyn 

& Riverside 

ST. JOHNS 

RIVER 

SOUTHBANK 

RIVERFRONT 

RIVER PARK 

N 

has that challenge, and none of us can wish it away. 

It’s just there. 

“A lot of 

Neither DIA or the city can make that go away, 

Boyer said. 

what we 

Developers who want to add docks or marinas 

on the waterfront have to follow the rules under the 

did was 

federal government’s Manatee Protection Plan. Boyer 

recalled that Peter Rummell and Michael Munz, who 

consolidate are developing The District on the Southbank, said at 

a Downtown Dwellers meeting that they worked on 

what was 

getting the marina permit for a year. 

There are a certain number of Downtown 

good in the buildings that have been deemed historic, and only 

changes to their exteriors must be approved. If a 

code and try decision by the historic commission is appealed, the 

next stop for the building owner or developer is City 

to eliminate Council. 

“Probably 30 percent of them we (the council) 

statements 

overturned, but a lot of them are kind of self-created 

hardships that are warranted to be turned down,” 

that were 

Boyer said. 

For example, someone in a historic district may 

confusing.” replace the original windows with vinyl ones, then 

ask for forgiveness when they get caught. “Well, you 

Carol 

know. Not so much,” Boyer said. 

Worsham 

She believes generally the people who complain 

about the process are the ones who have been turned 

vice president down for something. 

of HDR 

Incentives are complicated 

The incentives process also can add some time 

to a project Downtown. “That’s the part where I’ve 


heard complaints that it’s too difficult,” she said, 

because many have to go through DIA, the City 

Council and the Mayor’s Office — even though the 

DIA is an independent agency. 

The short answer to that is, particularly in hard 

economic times, it didn’t make fiscal sense for the 

city to put millions of dollars in a DIA trust fund 

where it would sit until a deal was made and the 

incentive funds were needed. That money could 

instead be used for a city park or to fill a gap on an 

immediate need. 

But when DIA makes a deal with a developer 

and incentive funds are needed, such as for Steve 

Atkins’ Barnett Bank and Laura Street Trio project, 

they can go before council to get the money, which 

is signed off on by the mayor. 

That budgeting philosophy doesn’t keep DIA 

from being solely in charge of other economic tools, 

such as the retail enhancement fund money. It also 

has the sole authority to grant Recapture Enhanced 

Value grants up to 75 percent for 15 years, Parola said. 

And it also controls money from the Tax 

Increment Funds for the Northbank and Southbank, 

the latter of which is about $6 million a year, Boyer 

said. 

Durden said she believes the DDRB process can 

sometimes take too long, such as when there are 

unnecessary multiple workshops for a project or 

because of a lack of good communication. 

What happens now 

A draft of the working proposal has been 

JEFF DAVIS

CENTRAL CORE 

PROPOSED ZONING 

OVERLAY DISTRICTS 

CHURCH 

LaVilla 

CATHEDRAL 

SPORTS & 

ENTERTAINMENT 

WORKING 

WATERFRONT 

BROOKLYN 

ST. JOHNS 

RIVER 

SOUTHBANK 

N 

JEFF DAVIS 

circulated among stakeholder groups and has 

been the focus of several meetings. The feedback 

has been constructive and helpful, said Boyer. 

For example, she said, developers constructing 

a new building or renovating a façade must have 

a second-story balcony, awnings or a portico 

over doors or plant trees to provide a certain 

level of protection from the rain and sun. JEA 

had a concern that the required awning height 

was going to interfere with cranes that pick up 

underground transformers that are beneath the 

sidewalk. 

“I’m like, ‘Oh, that makes sense,’” Boyer said. 

So, the solution is to prohibit an awning if there’s 

an underground transformer there. 

She has also presented or will present the plan 

to groups such as NAIOP, a commercial real estate 

development association; the American Institute 

of Architects; the Urban Land Institute; and 

Downtown Vision. 

Oldenburg, of Colliers International, said 

he is concerned with the plan’s proposed 200- 

foot setback before allowing unlimited building 

height along the entire Northbank and Southbank 

riverfronts. 

There is zero height allowance for the first 

50 feet of setback, with the first 25 being for the 

public; 45 feet maximum for 50-125 feet and 75 

feet maximum for 125-250 feet. 

While he understands the aesthetic and civicminded 

reasons for some setback off the river, he 

thinks those restrictions would be best in a smaller 

area, similar to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, versus 

the entire riverfront. 

“It can negatively impact the value of a lot of 

property,” Oldenburg said. 

He pointed out that several buildings, including 

the Peninsula and the Strand condo high-rises on 

the Southbank “obviously would be in violation of 

this” and possibly the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville 

Riverfront. 

“I don’t necessarily look at those buildings and 

go, ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s too close to the water. This is 

horrible,’” he said. 

With all that is good about the proposal, 

Oldenburg said it’s not going to be a driving force 

for developers to choose Jacksonville. Simplifying 

the zoning code and approval process doesn’t 

make up for other, more important negatives. 

Construction costs right now are historically 

high, and low rents Downtown don’t make 

Jacksonville a spot where it makes sense for many 

companies to develop. Plus, he said there is a lack 

of available skilled labor, and the city isn’t home 

to an airport like Atlanta and New York where you 

can fly non-stop to major cities. 

“So, we definitely have some great things going 

for us, and we have some challenges we need to 

address,” he said. 

Marilyn Young was an editor at The Florida Times-Union 

in 1998-2013 and was editor of the Financial News & Daily 

Record in 2013-2017. She lives in north St. Johns County. 

“So, we 

definitely 

have some 

great things 

going for 

us, and we 

have some 

challenges 

we need to 

address.” 

CHRISTIAN 

OLDENBURG 

Colliers 

International 

Northeast 

Florida 


COMPLICATED 

SIMPLE 

No games, just marketing 

made simple. 

(904) 359-4309 | jacksonville.thrivehive.com

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 

By Mike Clark & Roger Brown 

Passion 

projects 

Creating critical mass is 

what drives Downtown 

developer Mike Balanky 

ike Balanky has to be included 

M among the most productive 

and influential developers in 

Downtown Jacksonville. His focus has been 

the Southbank. But 

MIKE 

BALANKY 

WORK: 

President, CEO of 

Chase Properties Inc. 

FROM: 

Jacksonville 

LIVES IN: 

San Marco 

he has a grand plan 

to move many of the 

vacant buildings in 

the Central Business 

District that he has been 

discussing with civic clubs 

and city leaders. Editorial 

Page Editor Mike Clark and 

Editorial Writer Roger Brown 

interviewed him for J magazine. The following 

transcript was edited by Clark for clarity and space. 

WILL DICKEY 

Recalling Downtown’s heyday 

My family has been here since the late 1920s. My dad grew 

up in Brentwood next door to Jake Godbold. 

My dad managed a business on the Southbank where San 

Marco Place is now, Brink’s Armored Car, and my brother and 

sister and I would come down there on weekends to wash 

trucks to make extra money. 

When I was 19, I worked at Cunningham Furniture Downtown 

as a salesman. My girlfriend worked at the old Ivey’s 

Building, which is JEA’s customer service center now. We 

would go to lunch Downtown. That’s when we had Rosenbloom’s, 

Levy Wolf, Furchgott’s, they were all here. We often 

would have to walk in the street because the sidewalks were so 

packed. It was unbelievable. Downtown was dynamic. I remember 

loving to be in that environment. Then to see it all move out 

was heartbreaking. 

MAGAZINE 93

I always thought this would be a cool place to 

live, and then flash forward, we ended up developing 

the San Marco Place high-rise. I live there, my 

office is there and my mom and dad have a unit 

there, not with me but in the same building. 

This has been a passion of mine to help bring 

back San Marco. We started working on the Kings 

Avenue parking garage in 2003, about the same 

time we started working on San Marco Place. The 

rest is history. 

“‘Hey world, 

Downtown 

Jacksonville, 

Florida, is 

A plan to create critical mass 

getting ready 

I kept hearing at real estate conferences about 

which comes first, retail or rooftops. Around to blow up. 

2005, they were talking about spurring activity 

Downtown so somebody came up with a concept: 

Let’s do one street at a time, do a good job, 

... So for a 

and it would grow from there. That was Laura limited time 

Street. They did a good job with Laura Street, but 

nothing ever followed. 

only, we’re 

That’s what my whole plan is based on, critical 

mass, when the rate of development is self-sustaining 

and creates future growth. 

going to give 

You’ve got to have the vision first. The opportunity 

has to be there or it won’t work. You need to 

you some 

create synergies with those opportunities, but just amazing 

as importantly, you’ve got to have execution, which 

is what I’m trying to promote for Jacksonville. 

incentives, 

Right now, Downtown has a lot of surplus 

properties, many of them city-owned. There is a 

but they end 

lot of money being spent on these properties in 

insurance and maintenance costs, and they’re not 

on this date. 

generating any ad valorem taxes. So they are a net 

loss on the city’s books. They’re losing money every 

year. And properties that aren’t inhabited deteriorate 

much faster. It’s a vicious cycle. It makes it 

So take a 

harder and harder to market. quick look.’ ” 

So what’s the answer? The Urban Land Institute 

talks about public-private partnerships as being the 

key component in helping these cities getting their 

growth back. 

Critical mass can help unify our city. A good example 

is the Better Jacksonville Plan. John Delaney 

did an amazing job as mayor. 

Vision without execution is just hallucination. 

It’s not going to happen by itself. 

We’ve got to have inter-agency coordination 

between the city and DIA or whoever will oversee a 

project. We’ve got to identify the properties by their 

highest and best use, whether retail, restaurant or 

office. 

We would get the brokers to identify the highest 

and best use of these properties. They won’t 

charge the city for doing this. They’ll do it for the 

listing, which is how they make their living. You 

want brokers of stature with international reach. 

They can’t get the yields from South Florida so 

they are looking at cities like Jacksonville. I would 

go around the country at real estate conventions, 

and you never heard Jacksonville. It was always 

Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, Austin, Nashville, Charlotte. 

Every conference I go to now, everybody’s 


talking about Jacksonville. The timing is good. 

Streamlining RFPs 

The key is the RFP process. Three years ago, I 

went to Dallas for a public-private-partnership 

conference. The worst RFP I saw in three days is 

better than the best one I’ve seen in Jacksonville. 

That’s not to be critical of anybody, but we haven’t 

refined the process. Now I haven’t looked at 

RFPs lately, but I was awarded an RFP on a project 

and it took 17 months from RFP to contract. 

Most developers will never do that. A developer’s 

time is his most precious resource. They’re 

mostly vague and written that way because the 

municipality wants flexibility, but it’s not going 

to attract much interest. I can understand that 

for big projects like the convention center, but if 

you’re taking surplus properties, you need to take 

the assessed value of these, discount them by 20 

percent, put a 75 percent revenue grant on them, 

and the 25 percent we keep from the grant will 

produce more taxes than today and will stop the 

bleeding. Then to get all this development going, 

you do it properly and use a common template. 

A lot of developers are multi-faceted, they 

might do residential, multi-family, office and 

mini storage. If they have to look at different RFP 

format for every single property, they’re not as 

likely to participate. But if you have three different 

properties and all you have to do is look at the 

numbers because everything else is the same, 

they can be very efficient with the RFPs. There are 

companies that specialize in this; it’s not rocket 

science. It’s critical that we have a well-defined, 

efficient RFP. 

Then if you want to create all of this excitement 

and energy, you’re going to have to incentivize 

it, and the city’s doing a good job of that. This 

administration understands that you’ve got to 

invest in yourself if you want to turn it around. 

Incentives have to have timelines on them. You’ve 

got to create a sense of urgency. So the message 

would go something like, “Hey world, Downtown 

Jacksonville, Florida, is getting ready to blow up. 

We’ve got Shad Khan coming down here, we’ve 

got the District, the Laura Street Trio, and we want 

to finish it off. So for a limited time only, we’re going 

to give you some amazing incentives, but they 

end on this date. So take a quick look. The process 

is going to be easy and efficient, and we’ll commit 

to whatever we show you. When I explained this 

concept to a broker he said, “We can sell that.” 

I’m not huge on doing a whole lot of planning 

because I’ve seen so many plans that were never 

executed. I think we need to let the capitalists get 

involved, and that’s why progress is being made 

now. 

Finally, we need community engagement and 

accountability. It has to be transparent. I would 

envision creating a committee that would have 

a couple key players driving it and let the private 

market get into that pool, too. A lot of private

individuals would like the concept, too. It could 

be open to the public as well. 

It has to be transparent. Then track it. That’s 

how you get accountability, and that’s where you 

keep political will on track. 

Importance of political will 

I can’t overstate the importance of political 

will or this thing will go nowhere fast. To give an 

example, all you have to do is look at what Mayor 

Rick Baker did in St. Petersburg. He totally turned 

that city around. My wife grew up there, and 

she left because she hated it, it was dead. Baker 

said, “I’m turning around downtown. I’m going 

to do some things that may not be very popular, 

like selling things cheap or even giving it away, 

and if you don’t like it, don’t re-elect me.” He got 

re-elected in a landslide, went on to become national 

mayor of the year. He did a masterful job. 

You’ve got to have buy-in from the City of 

Jacksonville first. The Downtown Investment 

Authority is a critical component. 

We took a failing garage at Kings Avenue. The 

Times-Union did some stories about this $14 

million garage, and nobody parked in it. They 

called it the ghost garage. We went to John Peyton, 

who was my next-door neighbor at the time. 

He was chairman of the JTA when the garage was 

approved. So I walked out to my driveway one 

day, and John was reading the headlines, “ghost 

garage,” and he wasn’t happy. I said, “John, why 

don’t you let us work together. We’ll put some 

development in front of the garage, and we’ll put 

cars in the garage, and we’ll have people on the 

Skyway, and it will be beautiful.” And he said, 

“Let’s do it!” Eventually we did get the project. We 

have spent millions of dollars on the project, and 

we plan to have future phases. This was JTA’s first 

transit-oriented development. 

Brown: If all of the elements you mentioned are 

in place, when will you see a dramatic transformation 

of that area? 

That may be the most important question of 

the day. I’ve been thinking about this for several 

months. Now we’re developing a head of steam 

and everybody is receptive to the idea. Depending 

on how fast we can get universal buy-in, RFP 

templates in place, incentives and identifying the 

properties, that might take six months. I’m just 

concerned we might be walking right into a recession. 

I would rather keep this momentum going 

and get buy in, and if it looks like the economy 

is going to stall, get everybody to wait and start 

right after that. I don’t think it’s going to be a deep 

recession or a long recession, but I think we’re in 

for a correction. 

So how long would it take? We put together 

Deerwood Lakes in nine months, $300 million of 

development. If you have the incentives and timelines 

and the international reach and commitment, 

it’s a marketing effort. The way to do this is with a 

“I can’t 

overstate the 

importance 

of political 

will or this 

thing will 

go nowhere 

fast. ... You’ve 

got to have 

buy-in from 

the City of 

Jacksonville 

first. The 

Downtown 

Investment 

Authority 

is a critical 

component.” 

3-minute pop-up video that shows Jacksonville the 

way it is now and then shows the District, Lot J. If 

I’m the developer and all I have to do is check a box, 

I’m in. 

Clark: I’m frustrated by the School Board building 

still sitting there on the riverfront. What can be 

done? 

There is a new superintendent, we have some 

new School Board members. The timing could be 

very good to talk to some of these people. 

I think changes are coming. Some of the people 

are open-minded. I’m optimistic that something 

good could happen there. It’s too good an opportunity. 

It really stands out like a sore thumb now that 

there are new apartments next door. In the School 

Board’s defense, there has not been a financial 

model that worked. They’re reasonable people; they 

need something that is a win-win for everybody. 

They have so much other property in this town, 

you would think they could take some of it and 

make it a redevelopment focus for a neighborhood 

somewhere. I know they have to be careful about 

taking on new debt. 

There is a model out there. The existing building 

is failing. It’s what is called a “sick building.” If they 

stay there, there will be money they will have to 

spend to bring it up to speed, and that is money 

that could be spent on a new facility. That would be 

part of a model that would work. I know there was 

a report that talked about how much it would cost 

to bring it to a first-class condition. It’s functionally 

obsolete. It was designed in the old days when 

everybody had a secretary. It’s very inefficient. And 

their utility bills are probably double what they 

should be. 

Clark: But they’re not looking. They’re hoping 

someone will show up with an offer. 

If you talk to them, they would say they have a lot 

on their plate. 

Brown: What about the Landing? The Laura Street 

development hasn’t worked out so well because 

the Landing is one of the book-ends of that deal. 

I don’t even want to get in the middle of that 

debate. 

Brown: What’s the best use for it? What’s your 

grand vision? 

I saw the J magazine survey that said people 

didn’t want to see residential there. I think mixed use 

makes a lot of sense there. I would live there if it were 

done right. It doesn’t need to be high density. If you 

had a big food hall, that would be an excellent use. 

Clark: To me, that property is too small for apartments. 

The obvious design is something like St. 

Petersburg or Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco 

with a park and an outer ring of shops and restaurants. 

That’s what I envision with apartments on top of 

them. 


Clark: You could get big rents there. 

Or people could buy condos there. What I mean 

by critical mass is the people living there would feed 

the restaurants below them. It helps make everybody 

successful. The Sake House is in my building, and my 

wife calls that her kitchen. Parking is going to be the 

issue, always has been. Not as much now because not 

a lot people are going there. As Downtown develops 

with residential, parking becomes less of an issue 

because people can walk there. That goes back to 

synergy. 

Clark: In every corner of Downtown, there are big 

things going on. 

So imagine you have this international group 

of investors and you send them a 3-minute link for 

the pop-up video. That brings the emotion into the 

transaction. We’ve got to make this an emotional sell. 

That’s the key to it. 

Clark: What do you think of the innovation corridor 

down Bay Street, with JTA’s riderless vehicles? 

And the 5G internet and compression plates that 

deliver energy. It’s amazing. JTA CEO Nat Ford is 

doing a great job with that. He went to Europe for a 

conference, and they are talking about Jacksonville. 

That’s why the timing is good. A lot of these people are 

spending their own money to be part of this because 

they’re looking to monetize this, invest in this and 

get it right to replicate it all over. We’ll combine all of 

these different technologies. 

“I think we 

have the 

right people 

in place, but 

we’ve got to 

stop long 

enough to 

ask, what 

do we need 

to do? What 

needs to 

happen? 

Almost 

every time, 

the answer 

is to get 

everybody in 

the room at 

once.” 

my business, there is an old saying that “if it’s not 

fun, it’s not profitable.” 

Clark: Ostensibly with consolidated government, 

we should be able to do this very easily. 

So I what’s the holdback? 

We just need to bring everybody in the room 

at one time. That’s the hardest thing to do. I had 

another project that went on for 17 months from 

the RFP to the time I signed the deal. And the only 

reason the deal happened is I got frustrated. I had 

spent a lot of money on consultants and lawyers. 

I was fed up. I was dealing with a government 

entity that couldn’t agree on anything. Finally, on 

a Monday, I sent an email that I would be at their 

offices Friday at 10 a.m. and I will leave there with 

a deal or I’m done. At 1 o’clock we had a deal. I 

wanted everybody in a room. Don’t just send a 

lawyer or an engineer or a consultant. 

Clark: We wrote about this 10 years ago, 

rather than run people through a gauntlet, an 

obstacle course. We are ostensibly a Republican 

government that likes to cut red tape. 

Every candidate we interview tells us that, but 

still, here we go. 

That goes back to political will. I think we have 

the right people in place, but we’ve got to stop 

long enough to ask, what do we need to do? What 

needs to happen? Almost every time, the answer 

is to get everybody in the room at once. 

Clark: So to summarize, if you were mayor, you 

Clark: Everybody is frustrated quietly and nothing 

changes. 

would put timelines with incentives to force a sense 

of urgency, streamline RFPs and have a single template 

for all the city property. 

pens. 

Communication is the key but it rarely hap- 

If we have a committee, it gives us strength in 

numbers. When you bring in the right players, they 

Mike Clark has been a reporter and editor 

all have expertise in different areas. It also gives 

for The Florida Times-Union and its predecessors 

cover to everybody because you’re not a Lone 

since 1973 and editorial page editor since 2005. 

Ranger who is afraid of being criticized. As much 

He lives in Nocatee. 

as anything, this needs to be a marketing business 

on steroids. I would have marketing materials on 

Roger Brown is a Times-Union editorial 

HENALOINGEA 

all of these surplus properties that say “buy me.” 

writer and member of the editorial board. 

Multi-media will generate fun and excitement. In 

He lives Downtown. 

READ FLORIDA TIMES-UNION COLUMNIST NATE MONROE AT JACKSONVILLE.COM 

SSIT’SJACKSON 

LEASIERVILLES 

OWHERE?MYINAG 

96 


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Jacksonville, FL 32202 

904.359.4318 

jacksonville.com

THE FINAL WORD 

Making a better 

Downtown for 

all of Jacksonville 

JAKE 

GORDON 

PHONE 

(904) 634-0303 

EMAIL 

jake@dtjax.org 

e all know them. Our friends who 

W live at the beach. We get it, it’s 

beautiful out there. It’s a great part 

of our city. But why no love for Downtown? 

Many people who live in Jacksonville are 

Downtown pessimists. Feet in the sand, 

looking out at the waves, they say, “I never go 

there! Downtown doesn’t matter to me!” 

They’re wrong. Like it or not, Downtown Jacksonville 

matters to every single one of them. Even if they 

never cross the ditch. But don’t smack your beach-side 

buddies with a frisbee, hit them with these four simple 

reasons why a better Downtown means a better Jacksonville 

for all of us! 

Downtown Drives 

Our City Economy 

It’s simple: Downtown is the primary economic 

engine for our region. 

Investing in our “engine” makes it run stronger, 

creating more jobs and more tax dollars for essential 

community needs like roads, parks, police and replacing 

dunes on the beach. 

Sure, we know Downtown is the epicenter of Jacksonville’s 

culture and entertainment. The Jaguars. The 

Jumbo Shrimp. Concerts. Museums. Festivals. Fireworks. 

But perhaps more importantly, it’s where business 

happens. It’s where the skyscraping office towers 

contain millions of square feet of jobs and commercial 

activity, investment capital and taxable value. 

It’s A Proven Model 

Across the U.S., downtowns remain the greatest 

generator of tax dollars. And with more money to invest, 

cities better themselves. 

Investing in downtown is rewarded with economic 

prosperity. In 1996, the city of Minneapolis committed 

to $2 billion of investment in its downtown. In 2011, it 

renewed that pledge with another $2 billion. Today, the 

three square miles of downtown Minneapolis accounts 

for 36 percent of all property tax revenues in the city. 

Even more impressive, more than half of all jobs in 

Minneapolis are now downtown. This story is not 

unique: Tampa, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Nashville and 

many others have drastically improved their economic 

outlook with significant downtown investment. 

If we grow our Downtown tax base, the funds raised 

will be spent in all neighborhoods, all the way to the 

beach. 

The Numbers Don’t Lie 

This all works because healthy Downtowns deliver 

so much value and a much higher return on investment 

than sprawling suburbs. 

Here’s a real-life example: A suburban Walmart in 

Jacksonville on 20 acres pays roughly $280,000 in taxes. 

The Wells Fargo Center skyscraper in Downtown on just 

three acres pays more than $1 million in taxes. In cost 

per acre, Downtown is almost 25 times more valuable. 

Here’s another: Duval County averages $74 million 

in taxable value for each of its many square miles. But 

in Downtown, our half-square-mile business improvement 

district averages $1.9 BILLION in taxable value 

per square mile, again over 25 times more valuable! 

For a city, a dense, healthy commercial urban center 

is almost impossible to duplicate. Even the most expensive 

residential homes can’t compare to the tax-generating 

value of commercial office buildings. In Duval 

County today, commercial real estate parcels make up 

only 11 percent of the total parcels, but already account 

for more than 40 percent of total taxable value. 

Our Face to the World 

Even with the economics tipped heavily in favor of 

Downtown investment, its most important value might 

be something more intangible: our civic identity. 

More than a profit center, a Downtown embodies 

the image and character of a city to the rest of the 

world. A strong downtown indeed helps power a city 

— not just in tax revenue, but also in civic pride and 

recruiting talented people. When you think of a city, 

you usually think of its downtown first. City reputations 

are made on their skylines. 

Downtowns are truly unique in that they are the 

only neighborhood shared by the entire community. At 

Downtown Vision, we want everyone to enjoy Downtown. 

(We even built a website — DowntownJacksonville.com 

— to help.) So tell your beach-loving friends: 

Even if they never come to #DTJax for a Jaguars game 

or MOCA Jacksonville or the Museum of Science and 

History or the Symphony or the Florida Theatre or the 

Jacksonville Jazz Fest, Downtown matters! 

JAKE GORDON has been CEO of Downtown Vision 

since 2015. He lives in San Marco 

98 


Formed to revitalize and preserve downtown property values 

and prevent deterioration in the downtown business district. 

The Downtown Investment Authority is the economic and 

community redevelopment agency for Downtown Jacksonville. 

The Downtown Investment Authority is the governing body for 

the Downtown Community Redevelopment Areas established 

by the City Council of Jacksonville. The DIA offers a variety 

of incentives for businesses to locate Downtown, including 

expedited permitting and economic development incentives. 

Since 2015, the Downtown Investment Authority has leveraged 

approximately $150,000,000 for $800,000,000 in private 

capital investment, incentivizing over 573,000 square feet of 

planned new and renovated commercial/office, 2,900 new 

multi-family units and 900 new hotel rooms.

UPCOMING 

CONCERTS 

KENNY CHESNEY 

04/13 SAT. 7:00PM 

GRETA VAN FLEET 

05/09 THUR. 8:00PM 

BOB SEGER 

05/12 SUN. 7:30PM 

ZAC BROWN BAND 

LEARN MORE: 

DAILYSPLACE.COM 

CONTACT US: 904-633-2000 

10/17 THUR. 7:00PM 

MANY MORE 

COMING SOON! 

FOUNDING PARTNERS: 

BACKSTAGE PARTNER

J Magazine Spring 2019

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