JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With the $1.4 billion stadium deal approved by the city, News4JAX took a closer look at how it will affect the parks downtown near the complex.
Part of the agreement calls for $56 million to be spent upgrading and finishing downtown parks.
One area that will see a lot of that money is the Flex Field, right next to the amphitheater Daily’s Place. The Flex Field is only six years old, but the Jaguars won’t need it anymore and it will become a city asset for the public to use.
Flex Field will be getting close to $9 million for improvements, coming from the $56 million the city is appropriating for downtown parks as part of the Community Benefits Agreement agreed to with the Jags.
News4JAX spoke to councilman Jimmy Peluso about the park plans at the opening of Jacksonville’s newest park Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park in LaVilla.
“So we’re taking the monies to make it more accessible to the public, frankly. There’s no bathrooms in there. There’s no bleachers. We’re going to put in movable sets so you can do like a volleyball tournament, or a basketball or things like that. It’s meant to be kind of an attractor for regional and possibly national games. Whether it be on field hockey, or lacrosse or soccer or football, now we’ll have an indoor place that has air conditioning, where people can go do it,” Peluso said.
RELATED | ‘We wanted to keep our NFL team’: Jaguars, city reflect on partnership of deal
Across from Flex Field is Metro Park, at one point the “crown jewel of the city.”
The 40-year-old park has lost most of its glory since the pavilion was torn down, and storms have wreaked havoc along the docks. But the plan is to cover $12 million for an upgrade, and it appears that the park won’t be the same.
“So I think right now we are kind of looking at that park to have, whether it be soccer fields or kind of a beach volleyball, it’s going to have different elements that will allow for people to go to pick up games and sports and stuff like that, as well as it having, I think a lot of people are still asking, we want a space where we can bring concerts, we want to be able to bring Rockville back, stuff like that,” Peluso said.
MORE | City Council removes $94M of $150M community benefits investment out of stadium deal
Nothing has been decided. In fact, officials are still gathering ideas for the Metro Park.
Other parks downtown are already seeing work, like the Shipyards West or the Museum district where the Orleck is located.
Nearly $25 million is going to be spent there, and there’s also work happening at Riverfront Plaza which will get an additional $10 million from the stadium agreement.