J Magazine Winter 2018

JTA’s Ultimate Urban Circulator includes autonomous vehicles that would run on an expanded Skyway which would allow the cars to go down to street level.
CREATING A
‘SMART CITY’
Jacksonville moving ahead
with ‘innovation corridor,’
but how realistic is it?
BY LARRY HANNAN
The lab of a major pharmaceutical company, a
high-tech startup and a university doing cuttingedge
research all clustered together in Downtown
Jacksonville surrounded by restaurants, bars and
other high-end businesses that make Downtown one
of the coolest places to go in Northeast Florida.
That’s not the reality of Downtown Jacksonville now. But city
officials, business leaders and others in the community think it could
be relatively soon, maybe within the next decade.
One of the keys to making this vision come true is something called
an “innovation corridor.” The city wants to create one on Bay Street that
would run from the new Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center
to TIAA Bank Field.
John Rood, chairman of Vestcor Companies Inc., is one of the most
vocal business titans in town about the innovation-corridor concept.
He argues that it’s the key to revitalizing Downtown and turning it into
an area where people want to live and work.
The corridor would benefit Vestcor Downtown developments
like the Lofts at LaVilla, which is across the street from the Prime
Osborn Convention Center and the transportation center now under
construction. But Rood said his support goes beyond what’s good for
his business because a vibrant Downtown benefits everyone.
“We’ve got to be looking forward in our community,” Rood said.
“If we do this, we can have people from all over the world coming to
Jacksonville.”
HASKELL DESIGN STUDIOS
78
J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2018-19