JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The planned Four Seasons hotel easily won final approval Thursday by the Downtown Development Review Board for a design that features contemporary, curving architecture for its buildings and broad paths for walking and bicycling.
"It’s beautiful," DDRB board member Linzee Ott said. "I can’t wait to see it.”
Jaguars owner Shad Khan's development team, Iguana Investments, made some tweaks to the plan that won conceptual approval last October by doubling the width of the paths for walkers and bicyclists.
The path along the Gator Bowl Boulevard side of the development will be 16 feet wide, which will meet state Department of Transportation standards for being a bicycle-pedestrian path.
Walkers and bicyclists also will have a 16-foot-wide path from Gator Bowl Boulevard through the development to the riverwalk that will be at the front of the planned Four Seasons hotel and luxury residences. Iguana also will build a six-story office building that will have the curving, rounded design of the hotel and residences.
"Truly remarkable job," board member Gary Monahan said.
Board member Matt Brockelman said the development will expand the range of experiences people can have in downtown.
"Very soon, we will have a collective group of experiences that include high-quality affordable housing all the way up to extremely premium offerings like what a Four Seasons would do here, and I think that says a lot about our downtown if we can get there," he said. "There’s still a lot of work to be done but I’m confident Iguana and the rest of the team are up to the challenge.”
Jacksonville City Council approved a development deal last October but the design still needed to get final approval by the Downtown Development Review Board to check off that box.
The development deal required Iguana to spend at least $301 million in private financing, but the cost has since risen to $370 million, the Jaguars and Iguana said this week.
Iguana plans to seek a higher cap on the property tax rebates it would receive from property taxes generated by the new development and also ask for an additional six months to complete the project, setting that deadline at June 2026.
