$100 Million to FSU but . . . what about UNF ? ? ?

[CityLife]

You know, for a board with such a huge dedication to the urban core it's genuinely amazing how singular the comments are on this subject not just for a foundation that has contributed money for our central performing arts facility (that was downtown development, was it not?) but also has Duval County as a primary focus. Something Leon County is not.

The Moran Foundation is looking at this from a much broader perspective than you are. Their aim is to foster entrepreneurship in the state of Florida. Not improve a singular downtown.  FSU has many students from Duval, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties (where the Moran Foundation is focused on). Those three counties make up 21% of the state population and send a disproportionate amount of students to large state schools. FSU's student body is probably made up of about 25-40% students from those three counties, which would be around 10,000-16,000. Likely a higher number than UNF has from the same three counties.

UF is the only other public university in the state with the institutional capacity and programs to turn a donation like this into a major economic driver for the entire state. Fortunately for FSU, there are strong ties with the Moran family and they didn't have to compete with UF for it. UNF wouldn't have even been considered, as the donation is larger than UNF's entire endowment. For some perspective, FSU's endowment is larger than UCF, UNF, FAMU, UWF, FGCU, and New College combined. FSU's endowment will also make a huge jump in the next couple years, with a 1 billion capital campaign occurring (750 million already raised).

Rattler, I agree that Tallahassee and FSU's redevelopment efforts have made it a more desirable market for investment and donations like this. However, UNF's niche within the state university system is as a coastal university, imo. My anecdotal evidence tells me that 50-75% of out of metro area students come from the coastal counties between Palm Beach and Volusia. Its the surf/beach school in the SUS. I would wager a substantial amount of money that if you polled UNF's student body, they would prefer a Jax Beach campus over a DT Jax campus. As DT Jax (and surrounding areas) keep improving, I think you will see a stronger desire from UNF to establish a presence DT, but right now its not there. UNF's administration and leadership know their niche and market better than anyone, and when they know its a sound move to invest in Downtown, I'm sure they will.

If anyone should be taking flak, its COJ for being behind the 8 ball.

[Tacachale]

UNF ignoring this aspect of its civic responsibility

I think this statement drives to the crux of the issue. Investing in downtown Jacksonville needs to happen because the climate is attractive for investment.

Downtowns (and neighborhoods in general) don't work when a few people are shamed into directing money towards a certain location due to 'civic duty'. Having some rich person write a few checks doesn't magically fix things.

College Town, btw, is a private development project (not funded by FSU). The rejuvenation along the Gaines Street corridor was driven largely by the City of Tallahassee creating the necessary infrastructure, the FSU Alumni Association (that's all private money, which completed two capital issues-both of which have been profitable to investors) and other private investment groups investing money into an area where there was a really attractive investment opportunity given the level of support from many levels of govt agencies, millions in public infrastructure investment and proximity to a large university and large employment base (not to mention the historically significant shift in money flowing towards multifamily developments). It took about 15 years to get to where Gaines Street is today, and many.... many people and layers came together to make it happen. Personally, Gaines is a pretty great model to compare with Park Street in Jacksonville's Brooklyn neighborhood. The parallels as to why Gaines has worked while Brooklyn hasn't attained the same level of redevelopment over pretty much the exact same timeline are pretty distinct.

Gaines Street also benefits from the fact that Tennessee Street (where a lot of the bars and restaurants are) is a dangerous game of Frogger for residents of the FSU and FAMU campus, and the city and colleges know it. There's also too little off-campus housing that's walkable to either campus and Tallahassee's transit system sucks (compared to say, Gainesville, where there's a lot of student-oriented housing close to campus and the bus system is quite good for a city that's even smaller than Tallahassee). I imagine that helps FSU's commitment to Gaines Street as it will almost certainly be a boost on all those accounts.

I had hoped Park Street could have become something similar, but it seems like it will all be replaced in the next few years by developments like 220 and Brooklyn Riverside. They're great and all, but they're not as pedestrian oriented as they could and should be, and replacing perfectly usable urban warehouses with another strip mall like Brooklyn Station would be a step backward.

[RattlerGator]

The Moran Foundation is looking at this from a much broader perspective than you are. Their aim is to foster entrepreneurship in the state of Florida. Not improve a singular downtown.

I'm not just thinking from a Downtown Jax perspective either but I understand and accept your point

UF is the only other public university in the state with the institutional capacity and programs to turn a donation like this into a major economic driver for the entire state.

The people at USF would certainly take issue with this. Their College of Business is just about as big as FSU's, has a Grad School entrepreneurship program that it claims (I know, I know -- CLAIMS!) is number one in the entire Southeast, but what isn't questionable is the fact that USF already pulls in at least $100 million more annual research dollars than does FSU ($300+ million as opposed to $200+ million). I only mention this because (to me) USF, among our state universities, is in something of the same position of Jacksonville among our urban areas -- far too easily overlooked and underestimated. Slighted, even (and yes, it would help if that university had an accurate name; Tampa is *not* South Florida, it's West Central Florida, and that school would probably be better off known as the University of Tampa Bay).

Rattler, I agree that Tallahassee and FSU's redevelopment efforts have made it a more desirable market for investment and donations like this.

Point taken. Except for this one caveat: Seminole Boosters, Inc. is driving that train; very little of that development happens, in my estimation, without Seminole Boosters, Inc. making a conscious decision to make it happen. I know UNF has nothing comparable to Seminole Boosters, Inc. but that simply highlights the need -- IMHO -- for the UNF administration (rather than an athletic support entity like Seminole Boosters, Inc.) to make a similar conscious decision. Make the decision, show some leadership, go find the philanthropists and foundations who will help you bring it into fruition.

However, UNF's niche within the state university system is as a coastal university, imo. My anecdotal evidence tells me that 50-75% of out of metro area students come from the coastal counties between Palm Beach and Volusia. Its the surf/beach school in the SUS. I would wager a substantial amount of money that if you polled UNF's student body, they would prefer a Jax Beach campus over a DT Jax campus. As DT Jax (and surrounding areas) keep improving, I think you will see a stronger desire from UNF to establish a presence DT, but right now its not there. UNF's administration and leadership know their niche and market better than anyone, and when they know its a sound move to invest in Downtown, I'm sure they will.

Their niche. Hmmmmm . . . it may simply be semantics but it seems to me UNF's leadership made a conscious decision to reject the big state university model of growth for the sake of growth (Hello, UCF) and decided to focus more on stability and quality. I can't take issue with that. I just don't see why a downtown presence can't go hand-in-hand with that strategy.

I'm still holding out hope that perhaps UF and UNF could jointly partner with a big dormitory building on the southbank in "The District" or somewhere in Center City. The apparent UNF decision to be strictly suburban seems incredibly short-sighted. There is a serious day of reckoning coming for higher education in this nation. A contraction. When that happens, and it's likely to happen suddenly, a downtown presence will become far more important. UNF seems to be caught in an intellectual bubble, thinking the current course of events will continue unabated. It won't, and for their own well being they'd better start exhibiting some (urban) forethought.

[RattlerGator]

So . . . UNF *has* been thinking in this direction!

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2015/12/23/unf-eyeing-brentwood-building-for-entrepreneur.html

The University of North Florida is exploring the possibility of placing a entrepreneurial center just north of the Martin Luther King Expressway and east of Main Street, according to a dean in the business college.

Florida Rock Properties owns the property, 155 E. 21st Street, that is being leased by Vulcan Materials.
Mark Dawkins, a Dean at the Coggin College of Business, said Vulcan representatives approached the college sometime in October about taking over the companies remaining 10 year lease.

Straddling the edge of Brentwood and Springfield, this places UNF where it *has* to be; squarely within the old city limits. What should creatively follow this initiative (presuming it does happen) is a move to build a downtown dorm. Theoretically, it could be a partnership between UNF and UF. In actuality, it wouldn't have to be built by either university.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/2/new-uf-dorm-will-be-innovative/?page=all

Much, much more of that Moran Foundation money needs to be coming to Duval County. This project could be the impetus to make that happen.