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Mayor John Peyton Addresses the Future of Downtown Jacksonville

February 16th, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Downtown Jacksonville aerialAs the sun rose over the St. Johns River early on a recent Tuesday morning, dozens of Jacksonville’s movers and shakers met to hear Mayor John Peyton discuss the future of Downtown Jacksonville. Overall, the Mayor emphasized that we must invest in our downtown and create a viable place for businesses to relocate or maintain their presence. A few of the program highlights:

  • We must invest in our public spaces – Metropolitan Park, The Southbank Riverwalk, Friendship Fountain
  • Residential will be a huge driving force in the success of Downtown. We currently have 2,500 downtown residents and 10,000 are needed to bring Downtown to the next level. Peyton cited artists as a target for Downtown residential. He offered the example of Soho in New York as an area that originally attracted artists and found its revival with that dedicated group of residents….until Soho rent became too expensive for them. The artists are now migrating to Chelsea.
  • Downtown Jacksonville has the 3rd highest vacancy rate in the US – behind Detroit and Dallas.
  • The Convention Center – for our Convention Center to be viable, it needs a hotel, entertainment and larger exhibition space.

Downtown Jacksonville

So…Why Invest in Downtown?

  • 13 million visitors come downtown each year for sporting events, cultural events and dining
  • We are currently implementing an overhaul of Laura Street to make it the most walkable street in Downtown Jacksonville
  • Peyton gave the example of the Chamber’s recent trip to Kansas City as a glimpse of the possible future of Downtown Jacksonville – alive with restaurants, shopping, residential and commercial. If only we had the $4 billion that Kansas City had to invest in their city.

During the Q&A, one of the questions posed had to do with the cost of parking downtown. Peyton explained that it costs a company $500,000 a year for parking. This is a huge deterrent for companies relocating to Jacksonville. A story in the Jacksonville Business Journal addresses a possible remedy for this http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2010/02/08/daily16.html?ed=2010-02-10&ana=e_du_pub

Downtown Jacksonville WILL become the downtown we all want. It just might take a little longer than we all want to wait. Until then, we’ll keep falling in love with San Marco, Riverside, Avondale, and all of Jacksonville’s other sweet spots.

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