J Magazine June 2017

takes to do those things,” Wallace said. “Real
estate projects take time. . . This is a marathon,
not a sprint.”
Is the Trio/Barnett project really going to
happen this time? Yes, Wallace said, because
the right financial partners are now in place.
“I’m cautiously optimistic.”
Noting that 2017 is “a critical year for us,”
he said the biggest need is for those patient
investors to begin to step up. “We want to
see more entrepreneurs . . . We need some
more risk-takers ... Nothing
breeds more investment like
success, and that’s measured
by building cranes.”
Much of the positivism
around Downtown revitalization
now is how well
the work of the new DIA
is being received by other
leaders.
Jake Gordon, CEO of
Downtown Vision, the
non-profit supported by
Downtown businesses, said
DIA has made great progress:
“The CRA plan is very,
very smart. It’s the way we need to go forward.
Our board completely supports it.”
Lori Boyer, president of the City Council
and council member representing the Southbank,
is a champion of Downtown, and she
sees the stars in alignment this time. “I was
there at the creation of DIA, and I’m seeing
them come together as a group. They have
jelled and understand their role. They are
working effectively.”
THE COMMITMENT
OF THE MAYOR
As an accountant by training and a
Republican by temperament, Mayor Lenny
Curry is not one to exaggerate or bloviate.
So listen to the way he talked to the Times-
Union editorial board in October, as he took
a rare break from his intense focus on the
pension-funding issue to set up his next big
priority:
“We are also going to transform Downtown.
It’s coming ... This is not going to be
small-time stuff in the next few years. ...
Private-sector dollars where government is
the conduit is the key to do big, bold things
... You will see in the months ahead us rolling
infrastructure work that will speak to an environment
that additional private dollars will
want to invest in Downtown. The District’s
going to happen ...
“You have to set a tone and a culture if you
want to get things done. So what I can share
with you, I ask the private sector folks, every
time I see them: If we get our part done, when
can I see cranes? I want to see them tomorrow.
Because cranes speak to what’s coming.
“By the end of four years you will have
seen real development in and around the
whole area from the Shipyards, Met Park,
down to Berkman. It won’t just be a concept
and a conversation. There will be work done,
and I would like to see some of that work
completed (by the end of his term). Some of
the stuff, because it’s so big and bold, will go
“My approach is that the big projects will
attract the small projects. They all connect,
and they all make for a vibrant area.”
LENNY CURRY
JACKSONVILLE MAYOR
beyond the first four years.
“When you have entrepreneurs, individuals,
with capital liquidity to invest hundreds of
millions of dollars in our city, it’s our job, it’s
my job, to work with them to get the projects
going, to get them moving.
“At the end of the day, what do we want
Downtown? We want people Downtown, we
want arts Downtown, we want entertainment
Downtown. We want them living, we want
them working, we want them playing. If we
get the private sector moving, all that stuff is
going to come.
“Let’s talk about the riverfront. How do
you get the river active in a big way? You
have people living, being entertained, being
around big spaces that they feel good about.
From there with the District on the other side,
it will all fall into place. It’s all about density,
it’s about people. . .
“There are big projects and small projects.
My approach is that the big projects will attract
the small projects. They all connect, and
they all make for a vibrant area. Local dollars
have been willing to invest for years. They just
haven’t had a team in government willing to
sit down and say, let’s map this out, let’s make
a decision and let’s go. For whatever reason
in the past there has been too much debate
about why, where, who is this going to upset.
I am saying we are just going to go, period.
“They now know that they have a government
that is going to facilitate this and go.
And we’re not going to worry about ... you
can’t please everybody. If you try to please everybody
you’re not going to get things done,
and, I think maybe that has been part of the
issue with Downtown in the past.”
Those four M’s are why Downtown Jacksonville
is about to bloom and boom.
I don’t say that lightly because I’ve been
burned before. In my column Sept. 1, 2013,
I wrote confidently that the old Bostwick
Building, also known for its Jaguar stripes,
was about to be turned into a classy anchor
for the Elbow district: “If
all goes as planned, the
building will be sold to a
partnership that plans to
convert it into a ‘fine-dining
steak and seafood restaurant,’
with a rooftop patio for
al fresco dining overlooking
the Main Street bridge. It’s
to open in November 2014.”
The purchase happened,
but all didn’t go as
planned. November 2014
came and went, and so
did November 2015, and
the Bostwick Building just
sat there at Ocean and Bay, deteriorating.
Another Downtown disappointment. Finally,
some work began, but at one point, it looked
like just a couple of walls being propped up to
avoid collapse.
Now I know why. The bricks in the other
walls had been removed and numbered,
one by one, then restored, the architect says,
within two feet of where they were placed
when the building was built about 1902. The
reconstruction topped out in November 2016.
I recently toured the building and
watched it being transformed into what
finally will be the Cowford Chophouse. Those
walls are enclosed now, and workers are
finishing wiring, plumbing, the interiors. You
can see where the kitchens and bars will be.
The owners, perhaps burned themselves
back in November 2014, won’t give an opening
date. Construction is to be completed
“this summer.”
But it will open. Businesspeople don’t
invest $10 million in restoring an old building
and not open it. Yes, $10 million invested on
one corner of Downtown for a restaurant.
On its first night, I am going up to the
rooftop terrace bar overlooking the Main
Street Bridge over the St. Johns River, order a
martini and toast the new Jacksonville.
FRANK DENTON was editor of The Florida-Times
Union in 2008-2016 and now is editor at large. He
lives in Avondale.
72 J MAGAZINE | JUNE 2017