Are JTA's Downtown Amtrak Plans Already Outdated?

[thelakelander]

Hyatt has first dibs on the courthouse annex site when it becomes available.  They're also a convention center hotel and need to find a way to fill those 966 city subsidized hotel rooms.  In the past, there have been articles like this where nearby property owners have considered the concept.  I doubt a 100% privately funded convention center is feasible but perhaps a public/private partnership with multiple entities could reduce the risks and costs for all?

Developer weighs riverfront convention center

By ALISON TRINIDAD
The Times-Union,

Developer Toney Sleiman is floating the idea of building a riverfront convention center between The Jacksonville Landing and the Hyatt Regency hotel downtown.

"Nothing is committed," Sleiman said. "[But] what a helluva place to put a convention center."

Debate about whether Jacksonville needs more convention space, where it should be built and who would pay for it has percolated among city and business leaders for years. Convention center advocates say the Prime Osborn Convention Center, formerly a railroad terminal, is too small and too far from any hotels to attract as many meetings and conventions as a city of Jacksonville's size should. Conventions bring in large blocks of business-minded visitors who spend money in area hotels, restaurants and stores.

Though the convention center debate largely has taken a secondary role to projects such as the city Sports Complex and county courthouse, it seems to be making inroads.

In July, Mayor John Peyton and the Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau agreed to create a task force to study the options for building a larger convention center, whether it be to expand the Prime Osborn or to build a new one. Essentially, the group will conduct a feasibility study. Peyton has said the convention center isn't one of his top priorities, although he has agreed the city needs more convention space.

One option the task force likely will examine is the potential for a privately developed convention center, a model that is becoming increasingly popular across the country.

Sleiman says he is open to all possibilities.

"It'll be whatever the market demands," he said. "If a guy comes in and says he wants a half-million square feet and we need to build to the clouds, then I'm going to the clouds."

Sleiman has met informally with various stakeholders, including representatives of the Hyatt, the CVB and the city.

Phil Tufano, general manager of the Hyatt, said the hotel's owners also are evaluating the possibilities for redevelopment of their property. To make Sleiman's project anywhere near feasible, the hotel's parking garage - which also houses all the hotel's administrative offices, 30 percent of its meeting space and about 70 guest rooms - would have to be demolished.

"We have to address all those issues," Tufano said. "There needs to be a [larger] convention center in the downtown area. Of course, we would like to be the anchor hotel."

John Reyes, president of the CVB, said the bureau's priority is to make the best use of the facilities the city already has. When it comes to the bottom line, any plans for a convention center must include at least 200,000 square feet of contiguous exhibit space (the Prime Osborn has 78,540) and a hotel within walking distance.

"Toney has a vision that works closely with the Hyatt's," Reyes said. "[If they can make it work], it would make perfect business sense."

There are no engineering reports or studies, no architectural renderings as of yet for Sleiman's convention center idea - Sleiman doesn't even own the property that he's proposing to use, although he is in line to buy it.

Sleiman, whose company owns the Landing, said he considered the possibility of a convention center for the city-owned property when he bought the open-air mall in 2003. But outstanding parking issues between the mall and the city delayed any plans from moving forward, Sleiman said.

As soon as those issues with the city were resolved in March, Sleiman said, he began re-examining probable uses for the site, which now is used for parking. Aside from a convention center, the roughly 2-acre lot could house extra parking, with offices or condominiums atop, Sleiman said.

Architect Jack Diamond, a CVB board member who long has lobbied for a larger convention center, said the property between the Hyatt and the Landing is too small to support a center the size the city needs, and it wouldn't allow for future expansion.

A conference facility, possibly, but not a convention center, said Diamond, who helped commission a privately funded study in 2004 that ranked an Alltel Stadium parking lot as the top potential convention center site in the city.

"The task force will pull it all together and develop a strategy," Diamond said.

Creation of the task force is pending a meeting between the CVB and Jacksonville Economic Development Commission; that meeting is anticipated to occur before the end of the year, CVB spokeswoman Jennifer MacPhee said.

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/081706/met_4470314.shtml

[Jdog]

Can anybody describe how large Union Station is FUNCTIONALLY?  Assume, for example, that commuter rail never comes to fruition...would Union Station simply be too large and too expensive for just Amtrak running through there?   

[mtraininjax]

I doubt a 100% privately funded convention center is feasible but perhaps a public/private partnership with multiple entities could reduce the risks and costs for all?

Lake, let's let the administration put it out to bid and see the responses we get? Shall we?

[thelakelander]

Go for it. I have no problem with looking at things in greater detail. That's the logical thing to do before going one way or the other.