JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville's Museum of Science and History took a big step toward its move to a new riverfront campus this week when the city agreed to $50 million in funding.
Plans call for MOSH to move from its Southbank location near Friendship Fountain, which it has occupied since 1969, to a new $100 million-plus facility where Hogans Creek flows into the St. Johns River, across from EverBank Stadium. Construction on the site is expected to start in 2025, with the new museum scheduled to open in 2027. The construction timeline means workers will be building the new MOSH at the same time others are working on EverBank Stadium renovations just down the street.
The city committed $50 million toward the project as part of its 2025-29 capital improvement plan. The funding will be spread over three years. The city has also agreed to lease the site to the museum for 40 years at a dollar a year. City Council approved the first $3 million in the budget year that started Oct. 1; future funding would still need to be authorized by a council vote but projects in the capital improvement plan that have funding are typically approved.
The museum has already secured $40 million in corporate and private donations and will continue to solicit contributions.
The museum announced MOSH Genesis in 2020, a plan to leave its longtime home on the Southbank and build a new facility on the downtown side of the river. CSX donated $10 million earlier this year to become the museum's title sponsor. The James E. and A. Dano Davis Family Charities and Jed and Jill Davis, from the family that built the Winn-Dixie grocery store chain, donated $1.5 million this year. Other private donations include $5 million from Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan; $2.5 million from VyStar Credit Union; $1.1 million from the Lastinger family, including $1 million from the St. Augustine-based Lastinger Family Foundation and $100,000 from Lindsey Lastinger Riggs and Ryan Riggs; $1 million from the Ponte Vedra Beach-based Neviaser Foundation; $500,000 from PNC Bank and a "significant contribution" from the C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Foundation. The state of Florida has a $5 million appropriation for the museum in its 2024-25 budget.
"Formalizing this next phase of our partnership with the City of Jacksonville reinforces our shared commitment to seeing the new MOSH proceed with development,” said Al Dove, MOSH's chief executive officer.
Dove said projections call for up to 450,000 visitors per year to the new museum once it's opened. It will be part of a renovated Northbank that will include the USS Orleck warship, a Jacksonville fire museum, parkland and Shad Khan's Shipyards West development, plus more than a billion dollars of improvements to EverBank Stadium.
MOSH 2.0 will have almost twice the space as the current facility, in a three-floor, 100,000-square-foot building. Exhibits are to use aspects of the St. Johns River as a navigation guide for visitors, beginning with a two-story water feature representing the 27-foot drop from the St. Johns' headwaters in Indian River County to where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville. Then guests will follow "pathways that mimic the river’s role in connecting the region" interspersed with collections and content "islands" showcasing the area's "nature, innovation and culture," according to MOSH.
