Jacksonville's Convention Center Blues: What's Next?

[thelakelander]

Now that the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) has decided to delay investing in a convention center, here area four logical things the DIA and the mayor's office should consider as they ponder what to do next.

Full article: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/jacksonvilles-convention-center-blues-whats-next/

[Charles Hunter]

Excellent article.  It has a fatal flaw, however.  It requires city leaders to use something foreign to them, "logic."

[CityLife]

Great article Lake. You are spot on with the WPB comparison. I'm not sure a DT Jax convention center has one competitive advantage over WPB. If they can make it work with those sizes, you would think Jax can. I just went to the Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival yesterday, which was in the 22k square feet ballroom and it was more than sufficient for the event. The convention center easily accommodated the 2018 APA conference as well.

I'll throw a thought out there. Why doesn't the City partner with Hyatt to expand the existing tiered meeting space building to meet the City's convention center needs? This building would be rendered obsolete by a new convention center, so Hyatt should have a desire to play ball. The City could even consider funding a portion of the expansion with sales of the courthouse and city hall properties, AND hopefully get those properties back on the tax rolls in the future. I would also imagine that Hyatt would love to freshen up the exterior of the architectural atrocity that is the main hotel tower (particularly with new competition coming downtown), so it may be a good time to re-imagine the exterior of the hotel tower and tiered building.

To me it makes no sense to waste valuable real estate when there is a potential opportunity to go vertical a few blocks away. Virtually every real estate development project I work in compact/dense areas, seeks to go as vertical as possible, so as to preserve as much land for future development opportunities.

[vicupstate]

Excellent article.  It has a fatal flaw, however.  It requires city leaders to use something foreign to them, "logic."

The 'logic' is that the administration wants to kill the idea of a Convention center at the courthouse. Ergo, you create an RPF for a Sim City center, so that when the obvious truth becomes evident (that the whole idea is folly) you can justify killing the idea. With that idea now dead, we can proceed to the predetermined choice of building at the stadium. 

   

[Keith-N-Jax]

The best solution is more innovative studies and then wait 20 years before drawing up plans, then wait 10 years for another innovative study, wash , rinse, repeat ,