JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new committee looking at the city agency that’s supposed to bring in development to downtown met for the first time Monday.
The question many have now is why downtown development is taking so long and what about the future of the Downtown Investment Authority and its leader, Lori Boyer.
On Monday, News4JAX asked city council president Ron Salem about concerns over DIA and Boyer.
“I think what I have heard in setting up this committee is that there are a log of concerns in the community about the pace of downtown development. Now is that due to interest rates? Is that due to COVID? Is that due to the structure of our DIA and with Miss Boyer now working maybe a year or two with her new contract? If we are ever going to take a look at the DIA, now is the time,” Salem said.
Lori Boyer said, “I have talked to a number of council members involved in the committee and they are talking about opportunities and ways we can do things better downtown and I look forward to that discussion.”
She would not comment when we asked her if she feels she the city is trying to oust her from running the DIA.
In the meeting, Boyer pointed out how DIA works and why there are delays at times with development.
We asked Kevin Carrico, who is in charge of the committee, and he said that this is not a witch hunt against DIA or Boyer.
There were also a number of developers on hand for the first meeting, watching closely what will happen.
At first it was expected this committee would wrap up in 60 days and come back with recommendations for changing DIA, but now it looks like that could happen towards the end of the summer.