JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — One of Jacksonville's oldest neighborhoods is getting a facelift. While the Jacksonville City Council considers a multi-million dollar plan to revitalize the Eastside, a different organization is already doing work "Out East".
LiftJax and the Historic Eastside Community Development Corporation are behind a mixed-income initiative, which is a strategy believed to be the first of its kind in Jacksonville. The goal is to create multiple tiers of housing options and prices that attract people to the neighborhood, but also keep affordable housing options for people who have always lived on the Eastside, so they can stay there.
Already, signs of revitalization are popping up around the Eastside.
"It would be amazing as we build these new homes, affordable homes, mixed income homes, that these family members can still continue to stay in the Eastside," said Suzanne Pickett, President of the Historic Eastside CDC.
Pickett gave First Coast News a tour through the neighborhood to show how they work with developers to enhance homes Out East.
"Residents have been here for 60 or more years, which is why we chose this," said Pickett, "there was a lot of roof work, all of the roofs were done, some of them had more extensive repairs on the inside."
The mixed income housing approach revitalizes apartments like the 7th Street apartments as well as modest single family homes and even creates new large single family homes. One of the new builds is owned by a doctor who grew up on the Eastside and moved back to the neighborhood, which is an important strategy for LiftJax President David Garfunkel.
"It's a key pillar of that approach to bring in high quality housing that's accessible to people of lower incomes," said Garfunkel, "but still attractive to people of higher incomes and that's the fundamental driving goal of our housing strategy."
The Historic Eastside CDC and LiftJax are preparing 20 lots throughout the Eastside for future development. Pickett and Garfunkel also toured a new home under construction.
"It's exciting that our renaissance and revitalization of the Eastside is for the current community as well as welcoming new members in the community and fusing those entities together," said Pickett.
This neighborhood backs up to the Jaguars stadium and Garfunkel said he hopes the excitement around the Jaguars news stadium helps continued growth on the Eastside.
"The historic Eastside has been here for more than 150 years, it is still largely intact and it's worth preserving, there's something special and sacred about this neighborhood and it is adjacent to the sports entertainment district," said Garfunkel, "but we believe the development could be complimentary to that and the neighborhood and the stadium both can thrive together."
More information about the Restore and Repair program as well as more information about mixed income housing options on the Eastside are available here.
Applications through the Historic Eastside CDC can also be found here.
