JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As a former Jacksonville staple announces its move to another Florida city, First Coast News is on your side asking what’s next for a historic Jacksonville neighborhood.
The owners of Sun-Ray Cinema announced Thursday they’re officially moving to Tampa. The cinema was one of at least five businesses to close in Five Points this year.
City Councilmember Jimmy Peluso, whose district includes Five Points, and the executive director for Riverside Avondale Preservation said there isn’t one fix-all to help businesses, but they are staying positive about the neighborhood’s future.
In the last four months at least four businesses have closed or announced closures on Five Points' main street.
“It’s a big letdown but hopefully when places close other ones will open up," said Will Hund, walking to a restaurant with his child. "That’s the hope at least.”
That’s also Peluso's hope.
“I think once Bartaco and Five kind of open up, it’s going to bring a new dynamic to the area and it’s really gonna make it more of an attractive place," Peluso said. "On top of that there is the issue of cleanliness, people have talked about that quite a bit.”
The new music venue Five is set to open in Sun-Ray Cinema’s location in January,
Peluso said this year he put $50,000 into the city budget to focus on cleaning up Five Points and is working on legislation so that money goes to the Five Points Merchant’s Association.
Shannon Blankinship, executive director of Riverside Avondale Preservation, is a member of the merchant's association.
“In the past year, we've been able to install new banners, we’ve been able to install new trash cans that help with some of the waste and litter issues that we were seeing as an ongoing issue in Five Points, said Blankinship. "We also painted the crosswalks on the road.”
Though there were plenty of ‘open’ signs hanging from shops Thursday, there’s also now a row of empty businesses on either side of the street in Five Points and some of those businesses have been that way for more than a year.
Peluso said he'd been talking with business owners about creating a business improvement district. He said that would mean creating money for security, marketing, landscaping and helping businesses overall.