JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Downtown Jacksonville, with a flurry of riverfront construction, is finally starting to grow again after years of stagnation, according to a new report from Downtown Vision, which tracks and analyzes downtown’s performance in key indicators of urban revitalization, such as development and investment, residential demand and tourism health.
But even as growth takes hold, more than 25% of the 7.9 million square feet of office space downtown was vacant as of earlier this year, according to the report. That’s considerably more than other major Florida cities like Tampa (16.2%), Miami (15.5%) and Orlando (12.5%). Offices started to empty downtown in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the report attributes the issue to the rise of hybrid work schedules and concerns over inflation and a potential recession.
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Overall, the 2023 State of Downtown Jacksonville Report, which is an 18-month recap of progress and development over 3.9 square miles in eight neighborhoods downtown from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023, paints a positive picture of where the city’s hub is heading. At the same time, Jacob Gordon, CEO of Downtown Vision Inc., acknowledged the growth has been slow.
READ: 2023 State of Downtown Jacksonville Report
“I think the people of Jacksonville have a rightly cynical view of Downtown, and we have been growing slower historically. But this year, and the past couple of years, have been huge growth years for Downtown Jacksonville,” Gordon told WJCT. “You can see that we have a lot of work to do. The reality is that there is a lot of great office space in Downtown, and you just see there is a little bit of a lull. But we are having a lot of people coming back to work.”
Mayor Donna Deegan said more than half a billion dollars in projects that were under review by the city in last year’s report have now broken ground, including the Artist Walk and Riverfront Plaza parks, The Shipyards and Home2 Suites. The report also mentioned two new headquarters — FIS and JEA — which have added more than 500,000 square feet of office space to downtown.
“I hope you are as pleased as I was after reading the 2023 State of Downtown Report from Downtown Vision. Building up Jacksonville’s Downtown — the heart of our city — is a top priority for our administration. So, I am thrilled that this year’s report tracks a significant increase in public and private projects in the pipeline, totaling roughly $8 billion, which is up from $5 billion last year,” Deegan is quoted as saying in the report.
Once the additional 5,000 residential units in review or in construction come online, Downtown’s current housing inventory will double, expanding the number of residents to as many as 18,000.
More than 1,400 residential units have opened in the last five years downtown, according to the report, and another 1,500 are under construction. More people are coming downtown to eat and drink (up 4.4% since 2022) and 84% of people said they like or love working downtown, an increase of almost 6%. They cited positives like restaurants, the waterfront, walkability and culture.
But issues like panhandling, safety, lack of retail/shopping and cost of parking remain issues for those employees who were asked.
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The report, which is funded in part by commercial property owners downtown, points to major projects like Riverfront Plaza ($27 million), the Four Seasons Hotel near EverBank Stadium ($370 million), MOSH Genesis ($100 million) and others as hope for the future that will bring more locals and out-of-town visitors to downtown.
The report also notes efforts underway to establish a network of dedicated bike and pedestrian trails, like the Emerald Trail, to calm traffic and to provide better parking solutions.
“The [Downtown Investment Authority] is implementing its comprehensive parking strategy to reduce the number of garages and lots by eliminating minimum parking requirements and to incentivize projects aimed at improving bike-ped accessibility. Adjusted rates for city-owned garages and on-street parking balance supply and demand ensuring the availability of on-street parking for short-term needs. The Park Mobile App allows users to pay for and monitor parking sessions on-the-go. And, after a one-year pilot, the City expanded Downtown’s scooter program to cover all of Downtown,” the report states.
Deegan, who was elected earlier this year, has said developing downtown will be a priority of her administration.
“The City of Jacksonville will continue to support these efforts to make Downtown the world-class destination we know it can be. We will fully fund our riverfront parks and complete the Emerald Trail. These projects will add to our quality of life, and along with a focus on arts and culture, they will ignite downtown so more people will invest, live, and play there. Together, we will build a vibrant, thriving Downtown that will benefit all the citizens of Jacksonville,” Deegan said.
Florida-Times Union columnist Nate Monroe in an opinion commentary published on Friday had a pessimistic view of the report. He pointed to years of promises from past administrations that have resulted in few tangible results, as well as how the report includes Brooklyn along Riverside Avenue all the way to the I-95 overpass, which some don’t even consider to be “downtown.”
“Every year, Downtown Vision, the nonprofit that represents downtown property-owners, releases this report and every year it feels increasingly disconnected from the lived reality of actual downtown Jacksonville — a place most of us can plainly see is more desolate and hollowed out than at any other time in recent memory,” Monroe wrote. “There is never an acknowledgment of this, of course. These reports are pure triumphalism: the numbers are always bigger, the claims always bolder, everything always is great, on the rise, at the tipping point, an inflection point, transformational, catalytic, a sure bet.
“Claiming we’ve been at the ‘tipping point’ for the past decade simply saps the report’s credibility.”
