Councilman Becton Believes Downtown Needs A Vision Plan

[Steve]

Attracting developers to downtown isn't a problem. The problem is city hall.

We better define "developers" because most of the "developers" proposing stuff in Jax are the used car salesmen type.  They don't count in the real world.

Huh? You can't be serious. This has to be a joke.....right?!

Most of the Jax developers actually build with Legos. Being an Urban Planner I assumed you knew this of course.

[thelakelander]

Here are three with active projects taking place in the urban core that aren't asking for public incentives.

Chance
https://www.chance-partners.com/communities

Regency
https://www.regencycenters.com/


Bristol
https://www.bristoldevelopment.com/

All are pretty credible. However, they aren't proposing the gimmicky stuff that excites civic leaders and media, so they don't get as much press coverage.

[Kerry]

Here are three with active projects taking place in the urban core that aren't asking for public incentives.

Chance
https://www.chance-partners.com/communities

Regency
https://www.regencycenters.com/


Bristol
https://www.bristoldevelopment.com/

All are pretty credible. However, they aren't proposing the gimmicky stuff that excites civic leaders and media, so they don't get as much press coverage.

I'm not saying nothing is being built but if this was NASCAR Jacksonville would be black flagged.

[thelakelander]

I think your concerns about what ills downtown may be misplaced. I don't think you can blame DT Jax's issues on the development community. Placing downtown revitalization hopes in businesses built around making profits is never a good recipe for success. Unless you have a billionaire sugar daddy like Dan Gilbert in Detroit (some in Detroit would argue that this has not been equitable...), willing to move all of their businesses to the core to create a market for things to happen, you'll end up screwing taxpayers with little to show at the end of the day.

[vicupstate]

I don't find JAX developers to be risk takers or pioneers or undertaking especially difficult projects as a rule. However, given the govermental environment they are working under, I can't blame them for sticking to safe routine type projects. There is no master plan, no vision, no consistency, no adherence to standards. There is considerable turnover too. Who in their right mind would invest in that environment?

   

[thelakelander]

There is no master plan, no vision, no consistency, no adherence to standards. There is considerable turnover too. Who in their right mind would invest in that environment?

This! Anyone want change with DT Jax's fortunes, start here. Spending time attempting to convince suburbanites to visit or getting residents to tax themselves more for DT development are a complete waste of time and energy if we can't get the "free" ground level and structural things right.