Wanted: Ideas for developing Cecil

[thelakelander]

It looks like we're still up in the air on how to properly develop Cecil Field.

By TIMOTHY J. GIBBONS,
The Times-Union

The Jacksonville Aviation Authority is looking for a national company to come up with a long-term plan for the development of Cecil Commerce Center, a job that could cost up to $1 million - and it hopes to fill the spot by Wednesday.

The development plan would come about 7 years after the former military base was turned over to the city, with the bulk of the land being split between the city and the authority. Since the Navy vacated the site, development of the 6,000 acres on the aviation side of the commercial park has exceeded the authority's expectation, with several tenants moving into the hangars and office buildings that were left behind.

But as development in the park moves forward, Aviation Authority Executive Director John Clark said, it's important to have an overarching plan to work from. "If we do it project by project, it will cost more," he said. "We want to engage in planning."

The authority's board decided Monday to hire a developer, voting unanimously to send out a Request for Qualifications and Experience. The board amended management's recommendation and will require the contract to come back to the board for approval.

Responses to the request, which appears to have been posted on the authority's Web site since July 9, are due by 2 p.m. Wednesday.

As well as the roughly 6,000 acres the authority owns, the planning process will also take a look at the city-owned 2,174 acres, including a 756-acre conservation parcel. That land, as well as all of the authority-owned property, lies to the north of Normandy Boulevard, with the rest of the city-owned property to the south of the road.

The authority is discussing taking over control of that land, either by leasing it, buying it or having the city deed it to the authority, Clark said.

No one from the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, which oversees development on the city side of the center, were available to discuss those negotiations Monday.

The city, meanwhile, is in the midst of a marketing campaign for the Commerce Center, having AXIA Public Relations and Marketing work up print ads, logos and other promotional materials.

timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4103

This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/071707/met_184852874.shtml.

[vicupstate]

Volkswagon/Audi is looking to build a North American plant.  The rumor is that Upstate SC (Greenville/Anderson County) has already bagged this one.   Audi looked at building a plant in the Charleston/Summerville area  many years back, but nothing came of it. Maybe they will pull the trigger this time, especially with the ultra-weak dollar. 

http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/07/vw-considers-no.html   

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=14&article_id=5688

Cecil would seem to be a natural choice for something like this (after all Daimler/Chrysler had Cecil as a top three choice for a Van plant), but it never seems to get in the mix.

[thelakelander]

Sounds like something that needs to get in front of the JEDC.

[reednavy]

A huge use would probably be to jsut move JIA to here, but that won't happen because of new development and access issues. Now if they had done this when NAS Cecil Field closed, they'd had a shot. It at least would be closer to the population center of JAX Metro, and not in the swamps north of town near the headwaters of the Trout River

[Skot David Wilson]

A NASCAR style raceway... but unique... make it where it mixes elements of an oval with a road course. have a straight run, which can be segmented for rails and drag NHRA stuff, then make a long banking left for two turns, then a road course tie in, then back to the long straight run. If it is unique, it would get attention, and bring big money here, and if you make it mixed use, the private sector can benefit as well foir light industry. just make the longest straight run in NASCAR, a long super speedway bend for the back side, then some road style turns before it comes back to the straight run.
The racing industry would come because we are so close to daytona, but there's room for them to grow here, and it's two hours closer to the Carolinas....There are many speedways in the middle of nowhere, but it would be so close to downtown and a working city infrastructuer.

[Ocklawaha]

Call 1-800-USA-NAVY

Ocklawaha

[I-10east]

^^^IMO they should've never left, but thats just a page in the book of Jax's history.

[Skot David Wilson]

I agree they should have stayed... but do we really expect any Jax agency or authority to have or use a brian?  A Raceway would be a pipedream there, but the machine in place never shows any wisdon... it shows insider politics and corporate kiss-ass disease.

[Ocklawaha]

How About a location for the first international stadium cow-chip throwing contest?

The official international "Whistling Hall of Fame."

Maybe use it for the nations largest Kart Raceway.

Hiking Trails, call it the national "Tail Hooks to Asses Trail".

Maybe a Skyway Extension? JTA? We could keep those BRT buses off the old base!

Seriously? Okay, one serious idea here...

A true Multi-Modal, Bulk Cargo Terminal... With acres of staging room for containers, vats, pits, loaders, sheds and ever imagined holding vessel for every major bulk shipment. There are national companies already doing this, management could be turn-key, tied to the rebuilt Navy Railroad (as a City Terminal Company), to the new Port, trucking and air cargo, we could blow away the other Ports in Florida.


Ocklawaha

[Jason]

There is a group of guys working to build a major race complex in the Jacksonville area.  They're called "First Coast Racing" and have some pretty impressive plans.  Here is a link to the discussion over at MetJax.

http://www.metjax.com/forums/showthread.php?t=818

[raheem942]

A NASCAR style raceway... but unique... make it where it mixes elements of an oval with a road course. have a straight run, which can be segmented for rails and drag NHRA stuff, then make a long banking left for two turns, then a road course tie in, then back to the long straight run. If it is unique, it would get attention, and bring big money here, and if you make it mixed use, the private sector can benefit as well foir light industry. just make the longest straight run in NASCAR, a long super speedway bend for the back side, then some road style turns before it comes back to the straight run.
The racing industry would come because we are so close to daytona, but there's room for them to grow here, and it's two hours closer to the Carolinas....There are many speedways in the middle of nowhere, but it would be so close to downtown and a working city infrastructuer.

o  I like that idea but i think we need a them park something for 1.2 million area residents so they dont have to drive all the way to orlando of valdosta

[Skot David Wilson]

Thanks guys, will check it out.......

[vicupstate]

Now that FL has a new Governor, maybe it's time to ask the question again, "Will FL pay the piper to get an auto industry presence?"   Probably not, but if it is ever going to, now might be the best remaining  opportunity. Perhaps a plant that builds transmissions or engines would require a lower level of incentives too.

December 11, 2007
European Automakers Likely to Build Plants in United States
By NICK BUNKLEY

DETROIT, Dec. 10 â€" The dollar’s falling value is making European automakers eager to build more vehicles in the United States, even as American car companies continue to shift production to other, lower-cost countries.

Fiat, the Italian carmaker, is the latest company to suggest that it may build a plant in the United States. Its chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, told Automotive News Europe for an article published Monday that its sports car brand, Alfa Romeo, needs a North American plant to be profitable. Alfa Romeo is returning to the United States next year after a 13-year absence.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen of Germany is scouting locations for a plant in the eastern United States. It was the first foreign carmaker to open an American factory, in New Stanton, Pa., but closed the factory in 1988.

Volkswagen’s chief executive, Stefan Jacoby, said during last month’s Los Angeles Auto Show that the company would decide by mid-2008 whether to build the factory.

Fiat and Volkswagen are mass-market European brands, as opposed to BMW and Mercedes-Benz, which operate luxury car factories in the American south. Analysts said the arrival of Volkswagen and Fiat could lead others, like the French companies Renault and PSA Peugeot-Citroën, to move production to this country as well, if the euro remains strong.

“Currency becomes a critical profitability lever when you’re a globalized business,” said John Hoffecker, managing director of AlixPartners, a consulting and reorganization firm based in Southfield, Mich. “The way that you keep currency out of it is by having manufacturing facilities around the world. With the U.S. being such a good market to play in, I think you’ll see more and more companies put facilities here.”

Both BMW and Mercedes, which began building vehicles in the United States in the 1990s, are expanding American production in response to the dollar’s falling value against the euro. BMW also has hinted that it may someday build engines and transmissions in the United States.

The euro traded at $1.4712 Monday in New York, slightly below the record high set last month. A slowing American economy has accelerated the dollar’s fall against the euro this year.

The euro’s strength makes vehicles produced in Europe significantly more expensive in the United States, forcing carmakers to either cope with smaller profit margins or raise prices. But slowing American auto sales make it difficult for auto companies to charge more, Mr. Hoffecker said.

“In the scope of the auto industry, $100 makes a difference,” he said. “The change in currency has had thousands â€" tens of thousands in some vehicles â€" of dollars of difference” for European companies.

A recent study by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., conducted before the dollar’s latest period of decline, found that autoworkers in Western Europe were earning nearly $10 more an hour than their American counterparts.

Mr. Marchionne, of Fiat, told Automotive News Europe that the weak dollar and competitive pressure in the American car market would make Alfa Romeo a money-loser for the first three or four years after its reintroduction in the United States.

“It was already expensive when the dollar was $1.10 to the euro. Now it is more expensive,” he was quoted as saying. “Mid to long term, I have no doubt” that Fiat will have to build vehicles in North America to sell at a profit in the United States.

Volkswagen, which hopes to double its North American sales to at least 800,000 vehicles a year, builds small cars, including the New Beetle, in Puebla, Mexico. One option for Volkswagen would be to expand in Mexico instead of building a plant in the United States.

Volkswagen has not earned a profit in North America since 2002, losing $800 million last year. In 1978, the company began making the Rabbit compact car and a small pickup truck at its plant in western Pennsylvania, but the facility closed a decade later after sales plunged.

The weakened dollar is causing Detroit’s automakers, which now assemble many of their vehicles in Mexico and elsewhere outside the United States, to reconsider their operations in Canada. Canada’s dollar is now worth more than the United States dollar, eliminating some of the savings those carmakers received by importing vehicles from a number of factories in Ontario.

[JeffreyS]

I know Karen Mathis of the TU suggested the city chase toyota for cecil the last time they werelooking to build. I don't know if the city paid any attention.

[gatorback]

How about this:

International Cult Museum, or ICM for short.  ICM could be a living museum.  We could host guest cults too.  They could plant their own food, have their own living, working quarters, it would be great.  Since we host a lot of nut jobs already this truly wouldn’t be a streach for us plus these nj's would be out of the core downtown area.   The cult museum would only take a small part of the field, say, behind the porta-pody on the back nine.  