JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Billions of dollars are being poured into projects in Downtown Jacksonville.
The 2023 State of Downtown Jacksonville report projects more people will be moving to Downtown Jacksonville. Downtown Vision is the nonprofit that published the report.
Since 2022, completed projects totaled $723 million. Projects under construction totaled $2.38 billion. Proposals and developments in review, almost $5 billion.
“Overall, I’m positive about it," downtown resident, David Troutman, said. “It’s scary because I’ve seen things in Jacksonville for years that have been on the table and haven’t come together. Jacksonville seems like it's been in a holding position for 20 years."
Troutman is excited for what’s to come and says he loves the convenience of being in the middle of Jacksonville. But, he says in some ways, downtown falls short.
“There’s not enough to do, not enough restaurants and things like that," Troutman said. "I got safety issues to deal with. Never really had a problem in seven years but it’s still a safety issue when you’re walking down the street you look and there’s no one around."
Troutman believes these things will come as downtown develops. The report notes that 26.4 percent of office space downtown is empty, more than Orlando and Tampa.
“Residential is doing great as we just talked about, people want to live downtown," Downtown Vision CEO Jake Gordon told First Coast News. "Office is in a huge period of transition. And you can see, you know, the Downtown Investment Authority, their CEO, Lori Boyer, just did a good symposium on, you know, converting these office spaces into residential, because again, residential kind of on the rise where offices stagnating. So, you might see, you know, investments by the city and the DIA into buildings like that."
Gordon says companies who shifted to hybrid and worked from home during the pandemic, could change how the empty space is being used.
In a statement included in the report, Mayor Donna Deegan says she was pleased with it. Deegan says more than $500 million in projects that were under review by the city in last year's report, have now broken ground.