JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Fair has made the corner of A. Phillip Randolph Boulevard and Beaver Street home for decades, but a new home is coming to Jacksonville’s Westside after the city issued a permit this week for its construction.
RELATED | City Council to hear from public on moving Jacksonville Fairgrounds to Westside
“It’s generation upon generation who have loved and enjoyed the fair year after year,” said Theresa Makrush, the spokesperson for Jacksonville Fair.
Makrsuh said the fair has been an institution in Jacksonville for 70 years.
“It is really something that the community looks forward to, it’s part of the community,” Makrush said.
The new location is not far from Cecil Airport and is next to the Jacksonville Aquatic Center.
The Jacksonville Fair is a private non-profit, chartered under the Florida Department of Agriculture, that will be paying $17 million to build the new location.
In years past, the fair was once housed underneath the Old Gator Bowl along with its offices. The livestock was around the bleachers at the Old Gator Bowl as well.
The current fairgrounds were built in the late 1980s.
Jacksonville Fair CEO Bill Olsen said the new move brings excitement and mixed feelings.
“It’s kind of a bittersweet thing, it’s exciting, you know, for the future knowing we’re going to have a larger property with more options with things that we currently can’t do downtown with the sports complex,” said Olsen.
Olsen added, “At the new location it’s going to be a bigger operation, so we are going to have some opportunities to hire some new staff as well.”
In addition to a growing staff, the new location is more than three times the size of the current location.
The Jacksonville Fair is currently on about 25 acres total and the new location is over 80 acres. It will also utilize the equestrian center nearby.
The city is only funding the infrastructure development for the site.
As a private organization, Olsen and his staff have the challenge of generating revenue every year in addition to the annual fair, the site is rented out for various expositions and events. Once the new site opens, there will be more options to generate revenue.
“Also building a bigger expo center and also an amphitheater, so there will be more year-round festivals and things like that, that will require more staff,” said Olsen.
As the team looks ahead, the new Jacksonville fairgrounds could be open as soon as 2025 and at the latest, winter 2026.
This year, the fair will be at the same location downtown from Nov. 7-17.