JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — How can Jacksonville turn downtown renderings into reality faster?
Answering that question is a goal of a new committee that met Monday at Jacksonville City Hall. Now, there are suggestions for how to make it happen, one of which is making the Downtown Investment Authority an independent entity so they may have more authority over their budget.
City council members on the committee Rory Diamond, District 13, and Jimmy Peluso, District 7, agreed making DIA independent could solve problems. Council member Matt Carlucci, at-large group 4, said the idea of independence was thought about when DIA was created.
First Coast News met Jacobi Edwards, a teacher, realtor and entrepreneur, inside a downtown business. He sees how downtown can be better starting not with its buildings, but with its people who are homeless.
“If you don’t address underutilized or marginalized communities then you will get a stain that you can’t just build on top of," Edwards said.
Homelessness was also brought up in the ‘Future of Downtown’ meeting on Monday. DIA CEO Lori Boyer said affordable housing is "key to the city."
Boyer said the RISE Doro apartment building at the sports complex, which has sat vacant since it caught fire in January, will have a certain number of affordable housing units when construction starts over in August or September.
The main focus of Monday’s meeting was how to make developments like the RISE Doro happen faster. Some city council members on the committee, and Boyer believe the DIA should have their own attorney.
“When I was a practicing attorney I always thought, 'If I could understand what their goal was and understand what the other side’s goal was, it’s much easier to get to the finish line,'” Boyer said.
If you ask Edwards, more downtown development is long overdue.
"You’re sort of seeing the revitalization that Jacksonville’s kind of been deserving for a long time,” said Edwards. “You don’t have to go to New York, you don’t have to go to out west. As a teacher, I tell my students, ‘You’ve got to take pride in your city.’”
Boyer also wants Jacksonville’s colleges and universities to build main campuses downtown. City leaders visited Phoenix, Arizona, and said that’s something they learned there that works.
First Coast News reached out to the University of North Florida regarding plans to increase its downtown presence after Boyer mentioned the school. A UNF spokesperson said the school will continue to explore ways to expand its downtown presence.
Jacksonville University and Florida State College at Jacksonville both have presences downtown, and the University of Florida also has plans for downtown.