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THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN<br />

THE PLAY<br />

I S S U E<br />

NORTHBANK<br />

NOW THAT THE<br />

CITY HAS SEIZED<br />

THE LANDING,<br />

WHAT’S NEXT?<br />

P30<br />

POWER MOVE<br />

JEA DIDN’t need<br />

to look far for<br />

ItS next HQ<br />

P38<br />

INTRIGUING PEOPLE<br />

THINK YOU’VE MET<br />

ALL THE fascinating<br />

people DOWNTOWN?<br />

THINK AGAIN.<br />

P44<br />

DISPLAY THROUGH AUGUST <strong>2019</strong><br />

$6.50<br />

OF<br />

THE<br />

STATE<br />

PLAY<br />

» DEREK<br />

REICHARD<br />

bartender at<br />

Downtown<br />

cocktail lounge<br />

Dos Gatos<br />

THERE’S FUN TO BE<br />

FOUND DOWNTOWN,<br />

BUT IS IT ENOUGH?<br />

P14<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


BEAUTIFUL.<br />

MADE AFFORDABLE.<br />

PROUDLY SERVING JACKSONVILLE SINCE 1977<br />

351 BLANDING BOULEVARD<br />

904-276-1400<br />

VISIT US AT WWW.CARPETONE.ME<br />

8956 PHILIPS HIGHWAY<br />

904-260-0109<br />

3670 US HIGHWAY 1 SOUTH<br />

904-794-5008<br />

14333 BEACH BOULEVARD<br />

904-620-0288


Urban Living<br />

in Downtown<br />

Jacksonville<br />

100%<br />

occupied<br />

100%<br />

occupied<br />

coming fall <strong>2019</strong>


THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH<br />

OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN<br />

GREATER<br />

TOGETHER<br />

H<br />

THE MAGAZINE OF<br />

THE REBIRTH OF<br />

JACKSONVILLE’S<br />

DOWNTOWN<br />

H<br />

PUBLISHER<br />

Bill Offill<br />

GENERAL MANAGER/<br />

CREATIVE DIRECTOR<br />

Jeff Davis<br />

EDITOR<br />

Frank Denton<br />

ADVERTISING<br />

Liz Borten<br />

WRITERS<br />

Michael P. Clark<br />

Roger Brown<br />

CONTRIBUTORS<br />

Carole Hawkins, Shelton<br />

Hull, Dan Macdonald, Charlie<br />

Patton, Denise M. Reagan,<br />

Lilla Ross, Caron Streibich,<br />

Marilyn Young<br />

MAILING ADDRESS<br />

J Magazine, 1 Independent Dr., Suite 200, Jacksonville, FL 32202<br />

CONTACT US<br />

EDITORIAL:<br />

(904) 359-4268, frankmdenton@gmail.com<br />

ADVERTISING:<br />

(904) 359-4099, lborten@jacksonville.com<br />

DISTRIBUTION/REPRINTS:<br />

(904) 359-4255, circserv@jacksonville.com<br />

WE WELCOME SUGGESTIONS FOR STORIES.<br />

PLEASE SEND IDEAS OR INQUIRIES TO:<br />

frankmdenton@gmail.com<br />

No part of this publication and/or website may be reproduced, stored in a<br />

retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of<br />

the publisher. Permission is only deemed valid if approval is in writing.<br />

J Magazine and Times-Union Media buy all rights to contributions, text and<br />

images, unless previously agreed to in writing. While every effort has been made<br />

to ensure that information is correct at the time of going to print, Times-Union<br />

Media cannot be held responsible for the outcome of any action or decision<br />

based on the information contained in this publication.<br />

© <strong>2019</strong> Times-Union Media.<br />

All rights reserved.<br />

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contents<br />

Issue 2 // Volume 3 // SUMMER <strong>2019</strong><br />

14<br />

THE STATE<br />

OF PLAY<br />

BY FRANK DENTON<br />

30 38 44 60<br />

WHAT’S NEXT<br />

FOR THE LANDING<br />

BY CAROLE HAWKINS<br />

JEA’S POWER MOVE<br />

BY MARILYN YOUNG<br />

5 INTRIGUING<br />

DOWNTOWNERS<br />

BY ROGER BROWN<br />

POLISHING THE<br />

CROWN JEWELS<br />

BY CHARLIE PATTON<br />

64 72 76 80<br />

THE BROOKLYN<br />

REVIVAL<br />

BY FRANK DENTON<br />

REIMAGINING A<br />

RENEWED LAVILLA<br />

BY MIKE CLARK<br />

TINY HOUSE VILLAGE<br />

FOR VETERANS<br />

BY LILLA ROSS<br />

‘URBAN REST STOP’<br />

AIDS HOMELESS<br />

BY ROGER BROWN<br />

BOB SELF<br />

6<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


BEHIND THE SCENES:<br />

Looking for fun in the core? Look<br />

no further than Dos Gatos, at 123 E.<br />

Forsyth St., and bartenders Caroline<br />

Bryn, Derek Reichard and Devon<br />

Chase. The cocktail lounge celebrates<br />

its 10th anniversary this fall.<br />

J MAGAZINE<br />

PARTNERS<br />

DEPARTMENTS<br />

9 FROM THE EDITOR<br />

10 RATING DOWNTOWN<br />

11 BRIEFING<br />

12 PROGRESS REPORT<br />

26 CHECKING THE PULSE<br />

28 THE BIG PICTURE<br />

60 CORE EYESORE<br />

92 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS<br />

98 THE LAST WORD<br />

THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN<br />

THE PLAY<br />

I S S U E<br />

NORTHBANK<br />

NOW THAT THE<br />

CITY HAS SEIZED<br />

THE LANDING,<br />

WHAT’S NEXT?<br />

P30<br />

POWER MOVE<br />

JEA DIDN’T NEED<br />

TO LOOK FAR FOR<br />

ITS NEXT HQ<br />

P38<br />

DISPLAY THROUGH AUGUST <strong>2019</strong><br />

$6.50<br />

OF<br />

INTRIGUING PEOPLE<br />

THINK YOU’VE MET<br />

ALL THE FASCINATING<br />

PEOPLE DOWNTOWN?<br />

THINK AGAIN.<br />

P44<br />

STATE<br />

THE<br />

» DEREK<br />

REICHARD<br />

bartender at<br />

PLAY<br />

Downtown<br />

cocktail lounge<br />

Dos Gatos<br />

THERE’S FUN TO BE<br />

FOUND DOWNTOWN,<br />

BUT IS IT ENOUGH?<br />

P20<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong><br />

ON THE COVER<br />

As Downtown entertainment ebbs and<br />

flows, some places – like local cocktail<br />

lounge Dos Gatos and bartender Derek<br />

Reichard – continue to have loyal<br />

followings. // SEE PAGE 14<br />

STORY BY FRANK DENTON<br />

PHOTO BY BOB SELF


<strong>2019</strong><br />

CLAIM YOUR TITLE!<br />

BOLDCITYBEST.COM<br />

NOMINATIONS: JUNE 9 - 23 | VOTING: JULY 21 - AUGUST 4<br />

Bold City Best is brought to you by<br />

@BOLDCITYBESTJAX<br />

#BOLDCITYBEST


FROM THE EDITOR<br />

Berkman II sham<br />

ends in 465-mile<br />

wild goose chase<br />

FRANK<br />

DENTON<br />

PHONE<br />

(904) 359-4268<br />

EMAIL<br />

frankmdenton@<br />

gmail.com<br />

t first I thought the joke was on<br />

A me.<br />

I had driven to Biloxi, Miss., to<br />

check out the Margaritaville Resort, whose<br />

developers were planning to replicate the<br />

“family entertainment center” — plus a<br />

Ferris wheel — on the beleaguered Berkman<br />

II site on Jacksonville’s riverfront. I<br />

wanted to give you a preview and reassure<br />

you the project would be an asset to our<br />

Downtown revitalization.<br />

When I got there, I discovered that I would not be<br />

seeing a typical weekend “family” crowd at the resort because<br />

it was college spring break, and the students were<br />

more likely to be on the beach and in the bars rather<br />

than in a family entertainment center. Police were everywhere,<br />

as last year’s event drew 30,000 rowdy revelers<br />

to what was called one of the “the biggest, wildest, most<br />

talked about outdoor parties in America.” As a relatively<br />

old guy taking notes, I figured I might stand out.<br />

Then, over lunch the first day, I saw a Jacksonville.<br />

com story that the developers had abruptly pulled out<br />

of the Berkman II project, and I realized the joke was on<br />

Jacksonville.<br />

I had smelled something fishy as the developers, a<br />

group called Barrington Development based in Biloxi,<br />

had not returned my phone calls or emails — a red flag<br />

to a journalist.<br />

After all, the promoters had a lot to talk about. Their<br />

original news release promised a 340-room hotel, a water<br />

park, a parking garage and this: “Located adjacent to<br />

the hotel will be Florida’s newest indoor/outdoor family<br />

entertainment center with a state-of-the-art arcade with<br />

over 200 of the newest and most popular games, indoor<br />

attractions including ropes courses and a rock wall with<br />

amusement rides outside along the river’s edge … this<br />

property will have something for all ages.”<br />

That sounded like a complement to our Downtown<br />

being revitalized with attractions aimed primarily at<br />

adults, a perfect pairing with the proposed MOSH expansion<br />

across the river.<br />

When the developers pulled the plug, they blamed<br />

the Navy’s cancellation of the USS Adams warship museum<br />

at the site and environmental contamination on the<br />

property — though both situations had been known for<br />

months.<br />

More likely, they were responding to revelations<br />

by the Times-Union’s Christopher Hong that the main<br />

Barrington investor had $11 million in legal judgments,<br />

unpaid debts to contractors and delinquent taxes. One<br />

company said it was still owed $243,000 for furniture for<br />

a Margaritaville in Vicksburg, Miss.<br />

Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with City Council<br />

members being asked to approve up to $36 million in<br />

public incentives for the Berkman project.<br />

Barrington said they “remain committed” to developing<br />

the Berkman skeleton, now with a “right-sized” hotel,<br />

70-80 residences on the upper floors and a ground-floor<br />

restaurant.<br />

We’ll believe it when we see hardhats and hammers.<br />

This time, as the Times-Union editorialized, the DIA<br />

and city auditors should not just take the developer’s<br />

word that they are legitimate and free of legal and financial<br />

baggage, but should investigate them thoroughly<br />

— and put the information before the public before the<br />

deal is announced and the Times-Union watchdogs start<br />

sniffing and digging.<br />

Downtown revitalization has become a surprisingly<br />

emotional subject for people who love Jacksonville and<br />

want it to become a complete city. We have enough John<br />

Q. Cynics out there without feeding them more pie in the<br />

sky, financial shenanigans and failure.<br />

Thank goodness for our local developers whose<br />

projects you can see happening Downtown or credibly<br />

on the horizon. After all, they live here.<br />

The Biloxi weekend was not entirely wasted. Across<br />

the road from the glitzy beach strip of casinos, hotels and<br />

that Margaritaville “Escape family entertainment center”<br />

is the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, which has remarkable<br />

Frank Gehry architecture but remarkably skimpy<br />

exhibits.<br />

Investing some of that Margaritaville money into that<br />

authentic local attraction could create a real asset for<br />

quality of life in Biloxi.<br />

Frank Denton, retired editor of The Florida<br />

Times-Union, is editor of J. He lives in Riverside.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 9


POWER<br />

RATING DOWNTOWN<br />

By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board<br />

Barnett Bank project inspiring<br />

renewed enthusiasm in the core<br />

7<br />

8<br />

6 6<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

PUBLIC SAFETY<br />

LEADERSHIP<br />

HOUSING<br />

INVESTMENT<br />

Serious crime remains low, and<br />

Hemming Park has become<br />

vastly more welcoming, at least<br />

until late night. We hope the new<br />

Urban Rest Stop will help lower<br />

the negative perception caused<br />

by transients and panhandlers.<br />

Outgoing City Councilwoman<br />

Lori Boyer continues to lead on<br />

the river, zoning and, soon, as<br />

CEO of the DIA. JEA stays in the<br />

core. And Mayor Curry fulfilled<br />

his promise to resolve<br />

the Landing.<br />

All those new apartment<br />

buildings will close in on the<br />

critical mass of 10,000 people we<br />

need living Downtown. We hope<br />

more of them are market-rate.<br />

JAX Chamber is becoming active<br />

in drawing Downtowners.<br />

Despite the retreat by the<br />

Berkman II developers, investors<br />

see Downtown gaining momentum.<br />

While public subsidies make<br />

investment decisions easy, we’re<br />

looking forward to the purely<br />

market-supported projects.<br />

PREVIOUS: 7<br />

PREVIOUS: 8<br />

PREVIOUS: 6<br />

PREVIOUS: 6<br />

5 5 5<br />

4<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

MIN<br />

MAX<br />

DEVELOPMENT<br />

EVENTS & CULTURE<br />

TRANSPORTATION<br />

CONVENTION CENTER<br />

Read the story on Brooklyn’s<br />

rebirth and you’ll see how<br />

convergence of housing, retail<br />

and public works can create a<br />

whole new community.<br />

Something similar is happening<br />

in the Cathedral District.<br />

PREVIOUS: 5<br />

We lost the USS Adams to Navy<br />

nervousness and the Berkman II<br />

project to developer nervelessness,<br />

and the Landing, such as it<br />

was, is closing. But our diverse<br />

range of entertainment venues<br />

continue growing nightlife.<br />

PREVIOUS: 5<br />

Riverplace Boulevard is<br />

showing how a road diet makes<br />

our car-centric streets more<br />

walkable and bikeable. Park Street<br />

in Brooklyn is next, connecting<br />

to both LaVilla and Riverside.<br />

PREVIOUS: 5<br />

With the old City Hall and<br />

courthouse site off the table as a<br />

possible convention center site,<br />

the city has chilled the whole<br />

idea, awaiting more Downtown<br />

development to make us more<br />

attractive to conventions.<br />

PREVIOUS: 4<br />

OVERALL RATING<br />

We’re still inspired by the Barnett Bank completion and<br />

the exciting progress and promise in LaVilla and Brooklyn.<br />

All those new apartments are being filled rapidly,<br />

hurrying us toward a critical mass of residents.<br />

As a symbol, we need a re-envisioned Landing!<br />

PREVIOUS: 6<br />

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10<br />

JEFF DAVIS<br />

10<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

207,810 24-27<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

DIGITS<br />

The square<br />

footage of a new<br />

nine-story JEA<br />

headquarters<br />

building planned<br />

for 325 W.<br />

Adams St.,<br />

adjacent to the<br />

Duval County<br />

Courthouse.<br />

The number<br />

of months the<br />

Ryan Companies<br />

expect the JEA<br />

project to take.<br />

(PAGE 38)<br />

BRIEFING<br />

By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board<br />

Thumbs up to longtime<br />

City Councilwoman<br />

Lori Boyer becoming<br />

the new CEO of the<br />

Downtown Investment<br />

Authority. Given Boyer’s<br />

passion, vast knowledge<br />

and proven track record<br />

in addressing Downtown<br />

issues along with her<br />

visionary work in putting<br />

together a bold plan<br />

to reduce the number<br />

of Downtown zoning<br />

designations, her hiring is<br />

a home run.<br />

Thumbs up for Jacksonville<br />

showing up in the<br />

top 10 of Money magazine’s<br />

Best Places to<br />

Live in America list.<br />

The list ranks cities with<br />

at least 300,000 people<br />

that are affordable, offer<br />

promising job growth and<br />

have interesting neighborhoods.<br />

Thumbs down to the<br />

still-sparse number of<br />

Downtown locations<br />

that offer pedestrians<br />

shade during hot<br />

days and cover during<br />

rainy ones. Can’t we all<br />

start grasping the fact<br />

that Jacksonville has a<br />

subtropical climate —<br />

and needs a Downtown<br />

that fully reflects that<br />

fact? And, please, no<br />

more useless palm trees!<br />

HITS & MISSES<br />

Thumbs up to a project<br />

to have 18 tiny<br />

apartments —<br />

made out of shipping<br />

containers — built on<br />

East Ashley Street in the<br />

Cathedral District. Each<br />

unit would be the size<br />

of a hotel room, and<br />

the whole apartment<br />

complex would be a cool<br />

addition to Downtown.<br />

Thumbs down to the<br />

reality that there still isn’t<br />

enough being done to<br />

draw people into Downtown<br />

on the weekends<br />

just because they love the<br />

idea of being Downtown<br />

— and not because they<br />

have come there for<br />

some special event. Case<br />

in point: On one recent<br />

beautiful, 87-degree<br />

Sunday, it was possible to<br />

throw a rock down Laura<br />

Street from the Main<br />

Library to the foot of<br />

the Landing and not even<br />

come anywhere close to<br />

plunking anyone walking<br />

on either sidewalk.<br />

Thumbs up to the recent<br />

upgrades on the<br />

riverwalks, which<br />

include a colorfully<br />

renovated restroom and<br />

benches with shade along<br />

the Southbank and new<br />

wayfinding markers on<br />

both the banks.<br />

FIRST PERSON<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««<br />

»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»<br />

Thumbs up to the<br />

rising home prices<br />

in the near-Downtown<br />

neighborhoods of Riverside<br />

and Avondale, as<br />

well as Ortega. A lively<br />

Downtown must have<br />

healthy nearby neighborhoods<br />

offering a variety<br />

of housing options that<br />

attract high interest on<br />

the market.<br />

Thumbs up the rescheduled<br />

Rolling<br />

Stones concert at<br />

TIAA Bank Field. The<br />

legendary rock group will<br />

now appear July 19. The<br />

original date had been<br />

canceled after iconic lead<br />

singer Mick Jagger had<br />

heart surgery.<br />

Thumbs down to<br />

Downtown<br />

parking that still<br />

isn’t as convenient as it<br />

should be in the center<br />

of a major American<br />

city. St. Augustine is<br />

handing Jacksonville its<br />

lunch when it comes<br />

to making downtown<br />

parking easy and<br />

hassle-free. St. Augustine<br />

is moving toward<br />

an app-based system<br />

for parking in the city<br />

center; in contrast, our<br />

Downtown still has too<br />

many outdated parking<br />

meters.<br />

“We want a very well designed public space that draws people in.<br />

It will become a more open public space that excites people<br />

and provides a way for families to enjoy the waterfront.”<br />

DIA Interim Director Brian Hughes ON THE FUTURE OF THE LANDING (PAGE 30)<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 11


OAK<br />

HOUSTON<br />

FORSYTH<br />

J MAGAZINE’S<br />

PROGRESS REPORT<br />

LAVILLA<br />

BROOKLYN<br />

UNITY<br />

PLAZA<br />

ADAMS<br />

JOHNSON<br />

PRIME OSBORN<br />

CONVENTION<br />

CENTER<br />

MONROE<br />

LEE<br />

DAVIS<br />

BAY<br />

WATER<br />

LaVilla<br />

Townhomes<br />

Vestcor, developers of<br />

several apartment complexes<br />

Downtown, plans to build 70 townhomes in<br />

LaVilla valued around $250,000 each. As part<br />

of a deal with the city, Vestcor would donate<br />

$100,000 to Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park.<br />

STATUS: Vestcor hopes to close with the<br />

city this year, with groundbreaking no later<br />

than nine months later.<br />

PARK<br />

MAY<br />

OAK<br />

FOREST<br />

MAGNOLIA<br />

JACKSON<br />

RIVERSIDE AVE.<br />

MADISON<br />

JEFFERSON<br />

BROAD<br />

CLAY<br />

PEARL<br />

Brewster Hospital<br />

Jacksonville’s first hospital for African-Americans<br />

was built in 1885 and also served as a<br />

nursing school. The city spent $2.3 million restoring<br />

and moving the building to 843 W. Monroe St., then<br />

leased it to North Florida Land Trust.<br />

STATUS: Renovation is complete and the Land Trust moved<br />

in, setting aside a room for a historical display open to the<br />

public. A new historical marker is coming.<br />

Brooklyn<br />

Station<br />

The “jughandle”<br />

that allowed big<br />

trucks access to the old Times-<br />

Union building will be removed,<br />

and a land swap with the city will<br />

allow expansion of the shopping<br />

center.<br />

STATUS: With the<br />

redevelopment agreement<br />

approved, the street-closure<br />

legislation was poised to pass the<br />

Council. Next: permitting.<br />

Residence Inn<br />

A six-story, 135-room hotel is planned<br />

on the block between Oak and Magnolia<br />

and Dora and Forest in Brooklyn, across<br />

from Unity Plaza.<br />

STATUS: The land has been purchased, and DIA and<br />

DDRB have approved. Construction pending, with<br />

completion next summer.<br />

JEA Headquarters<br />

JEA chose the Ryan Companies to<br />

build its new $72 million headquarters<br />

at 325 W. Adams St., next to the courthouse,<br />

with an 850-space parking garage nearby.<br />

STATUS: Ryan will negotiate to buy the property<br />

from the city, requiring DIA approval, and work out<br />

final lease terms with JEA. Construction could start<br />

in April.<br />

ACOSTA<br />

BRIDGE<br />

JULIA<br />

TIMES-<br />

UNION<br />

CENTER<br />

HEMMING<br />

PARK<br />

HOGAN<br />

BAY<br />

Hyatt Place<br />

hotel<br />

Main Street LLC, developer<br />

of the parking<br />

garage at Hogan and Independent<br />

Drive, bought the parcel at Hogan<br />

and Water and plans to build a<br />

nine-story hotel with 128 rooms and<br />

a rooftop restaurant and bar.<br />

STATUS: The Downtown<br />

Development Review Board has<br />

approved the design. The developer<br />

is awaiting an air rights easement,<br />

as the balconies will extend over<br />

sidewalks. Legislation is pending.<br />

BEAVER<br />

ASHLEY<br />

CHURCH<br />

DUVAL<br />

LAURA<br />

JACKSONVILLE<br />

LANDING<br />

MAIN STREET<br />

BRIDGE<br />

MAIN<br />

FRIENDSHIP<br />

FOUNTAIN<br />

SAN MARCO BLVD.<br />

RIVERPLACE<br />

MARY<br />

PRUDENTIAL DR.<br />

OCEAN<br />

N<br />

RIVERSIDE<br />

12<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong><br />

Jacksonville Landing<br />

The city paid Sleiman Enterprises $15 million to give up its longterm<br />

lease, and City Council approved another $3 million to buy<br />

out tenants’ subleases then raze the copper-topped structure.<br />

STATUS: All tenants should be out by October, with demolition starting soon<br />

after, though the future of the Landing is still under debate, fueled by a justreleased<br />

2015 consultant’s study and Mayor Curry’s sense of urgency.<br />

FULLER WARREN BRIDGE


NEWNAN<br />

FLAGLER<br />

SPRINGFIELD<br />

MARKET<br />

NORTHBANK<br />

WASHINGTON<br />

ST. JOHNS<br />

RIVER<br />

SOUTHBANK<br />

KIPP<br />

LIBERTY<br />

KINGS<br />

Shipping-container apartments<br />

JWB Real Estate Capital plans to build an 18-unit studio-apartment<br />

complex using repurposed shipping containers<br />

on a tiny plot at 412 E. Ashley St. in the Cathedral District.<br />

STATUS: JWB is seeking city incentives, according to the Business Journal.<br />

CATHERINE<br />

ONYX<br />

PALMETTO<br />

Lofts at the Cathedral<br />

Cathedral District-Jax is working with Vestcor<br />

on a $20 million project to transform<br />

the old Community Connections (YWCA)<br />

property at 325 E. Duval St. into about 115 workforce and<br />

low-income apartments.<br />

STATUS: The Legislature approved $8 million as the state’s<br />

portion of the cost. The district hopes to close with<br />

Vestcor in October.<br />

Hotel Indigo<br />

A developer bought the old Life of the<br />

South building at 100 W. Bay St. to convert<br />

it into a seven-story, 89-room boutique<br />

hotel with a rooftop restaurant and bar.<br />

STATUS: The developer zapped the project and sold the<br />

building to VyStar, whose new headquarters is next door.<br />

VyStar is seeking permits for interior demolition and<br />

renovation.<br />

VETERANS<br />

MEMORIAL<br />

ARENA<br />

A. PHILIP RANDOLPH<br />

Laura St. Trio and<br />

Barnett Bank Building<br />

A $79 million project is renovating the iconic<br />

buildings into residences, offices, a Courtyard by<br />

Marriott, commercial/retail and a UNF campus.<br />

STATUS: Barnett is opening, with the Residence at Barnett<br />

apartments attracting a reported 800 applications for about 100<br />

units. The UNF space is open. Next: Construction of the nearby<br />

parking deck. The Trio renovation could begin this summer.<br />

Berkman Plaza II<br />

The 23-story structure has been<br />

an eyesore since it collapsed under<br />

construction in 2007. The new owners<br />

planned a $150 million 312-room hotel and a “family<br />

entertainment center.”<br />

STATUS: After questions about the background of an<br />

investor, the developer canned the project and said it<br />

will substitute a smaller hotel and some residences.<br />

BASEBALL<br />

GROUNDS<br />

GEORGIA<br />

Downtown<br />

parking<br />

DIA hired a consultant<br />

to do another study<br />

covering all aspects of the issue, including<br />

availability, regulation, technology<br />

and pricing.<br />

STATUS: The consultant’s report should<br />

be completed by the end of June.<br />

FRANKLIN<br />

SPORTS<br />

COMPLEX<br />

ADAMS<br />

GATOR BOWL BLVD.<br />

TIAA<br />

BANK FIELD<br />

DAILY’S<br />

PLACE<br />

Parking Lot J<br />

and Shipyards<br />

Shad Khan’s proposed development<br />

will begin on Lot J next<br />

to the stadium with an entertainment complex,<br />

two office towers, a 200-room hotel and<br />

a 300-residence tower.<br />

STATUS: Razing Hart Expressway ramps to<br />

make room for the project was delayed until<br />

after football season. The $500 million Lot J<br />

construction will be simultaneous. The deadline<br />

for Khan’s Iguana Investments to work out a<br />

redevelopment agreement with the city for<br />

the Shipyards was extended to June 30, 2020.<br />

City Council has approved rezoning.<br />

The District<br />

Peter Rummell’s healthy-community concept will<br />

have up to 1,170 residences, 200 Marriott hotel<br />

rooms and 285,500 square feet of office space,<br />

with a marina and public spaces along an extended Riverwalk.<br />

STATUS: The Community Development Board is getting the<br />

ducks in a row, including engineering and clearing the way for<br />

issuing bonds. An RFP seeks a health and wellness partner to<br />

create the “Base Camp.” Marina approvals continue. The hotel is<br />

in final design. Negotiations with the “green grocer” continue; it<br />

will be a new brand for Jacksonville.<br />

HENDRICKS<br />

MONTANA<br />

Tuk’N Tours<br />

A new service provides three-hour tours of Downtown’s<br />

architecture, history and other features via three-wheeled,<br />

six-passenger, open-air electric vehicles. Price: $19-$49 each.<br />

STATUS: See gotukn.com/ for more information and to make reservations<br />

for pickup at TIAA Bank Field or Downtown hotels.<br />

SAN MARCO<br />

DOWNTOWN<br />

JACKSONVILLE<br />

TRACKING DEVELOPMENT IN THE URBAN CORE<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 13


PL<br />

THE<br />

PLAY<br />

ISSUE<br />

THE STATE OF<br />

ABY FRANK DENTON<br />

ILLUSTRATION<br />

BY JEFF DAVIS<br />

14<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


WINTER 2018-19 | J MAGAZINE 57


The state of play Downtown<br />

offers a little something for<br />

a few people and not nearly<br />

enough for a whole lot more.<br />

What will it take for the core to<br />

become a hotspot that attracts<br />

people after the workday ends?<br />

The<br />

New Urbanism principles of live-work-play, where<br />

people can build their lifestyles and community without<br />

commuting all over creation, are used as sort of a vision<br />

for a truly revitalized Downtown Jacksonville. If those<br />

three things happen together, we’ll have synergy building<br />

into critical mass and, finally, a Downtown worthy of<br />

our city.<br />

The “work” part we’ve got down: More than 55,000<br />

people work Downtown, the last State of Downtown<br />

Report said, and it’s increasing steadily.<br />

The “live” goal is actively in process. Last year, 4,842<br />

people lived Downtown, and more were standing in<br />

line to fill the ever-growing number of new apartment<br />

complexes being built, with average occupancy of 96<br />

percent. Conventional wisdom says we need 10,000 for<br />

that critical mass, and the official goal is 13,730 by 2025.<br />

But what about that “play” thing?<br />

When we surveyed people in Duval and surrounding<br />

counties in 2017, 75 percent said they “never” or<br />

only “a couple of times a year” came Downtown for<br />

entertainment or leisure activities. While that improved<br />

to 70 percent in 2018, it still showed a profound lack<br />

of connection between Northeast Floridians and their<br />

urban center.<br />

The number one reason people don’t come<br />

Downtown, they said, was some variation on “there’s<br />

nothing to do there.”<br />

So J magazine asked four local writers to take a deep<br />

look at what Downtown offers — and should offer —<br />

from four different perspectives: during the daytime,<br />

especially for families; evening events; late-night revelry<br />

and restaurant options.<br />

Our weakest point may be the first. Downtown is so<br />

weekday-work-focused that, aside from a few cultural<br />

assets like MOCA and MOSH, a family has to search to<br />

find a good time Downtown. We do have our almost<br />

secret treasures: Chamblin’s Uptown, the antique map<br />

collection at the Main Library, the historical photos<br />

display at City Hall, Treaty Oak. You can always score<br />

some sugar at Sweet Pete’s Candy and consume it catty-corner<br />

on the reactivated Hemming Park.<br />

We had a chance to make a substantial leap toward<br />

family-friendliness with the proposal to turn Berkman<br />

II into a “family entertainment center,” but questions<br />

about a financial backer spooked the developer to<br />

back off those plans and fall back on maybe another<br />

apartment building and hotel. And the Navy reneged<br />

on donating the USS Adams to create a naval museum<br />

in the river off Berkman.<br />

The conclusion: Downtown planners need to put<br />

a daytime/family frame on Downtown development,<br />

including following through on the grand MOSH<br />

expansion.<br />

Our strong point is the great variety of evening activities.<br />

Our examination noted that Jacksonville once<br />

was “a one-show town,” but now we have a rich array<br />

of venues for live performance. Pick your show at the<br />

Times-Union Center, Florida Theatre, VyStar Veterans<br />

Memorial Arena or Daily’s Place. Heck, pony up for the<br />

Rolling Stones at TIAA Bank Field.<br />

But you may have to scramble for supper first. Aside<br />

from a few gems like Cowford Chophouse, Bellwether<br />

and Gili’s Kitchen, our restaurant scan found few interesting<br />

or excellent dining options Downtown.<br />

Our critic blamed “Downtown’s chronic syndromes:<br />

lack of activity, density and connectivity.” The<br />

eateries will come when the feet on the street do.<br />

Finally, for those of you able to keep your eyes open<br />

and enthusiasm up after hours, our late-night writer<br />

says Downtown is developing a real and diverse bar<br />

and music scene, mostly around the Elbow, along and<br />

off Bay Street, and the block on Adams between Laura<br />

and Hogan.<br />

He offers a helpful tip to get your toe in: If you want<br />

to sample Downtown late-night, start with the first<br />

Wednesday Art Walk, when the bars and clubs open a<br />

bit earlier to take advantage of the foot traffic.<br />

The bottom line is that survey from a couple of<br />

years ago about “nothing to do” Downtown is way out<br />

of date. There’s a lot to do now — but we need a lot<br />

more.<br />

Frank Denton, retired editor of The Florida Times-Union,<br />

is editor of J. He lives in Riverside.<br />

16<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


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THE<br />

PLAY<br />

ISSUE<br />

Day Break<br />

BY DENISE M. REAGAN // PHOTO BY BOB SELF<br />

18<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


The quest for Downtown family fun<br />

reveals the challenge to find engaging<br />

activities after 5 p.m. and on the weekends<br />

When<br />

Friends of Hemming Park first assumed management<br />

of Jacksonville’s central park, the group had<br />

a crucial objective: Make women and families feel<br />

safe and comfortable when they visit. If they could<br />

accomplish that goal, everything else would fall in<br />

place.<br />

Six years later, Hemming Park has made progress,<br />

even if there’s still room for improvement.<br />

Downtown should be striving for that same goal,<br />

but there are some barriers.<br />

The biggest impediment blocking the core from<br />

becoming a daytime family-friendly destination?<br />

The stranglehold of weekday 9 to 5 schedules.<br />

Nearly all of Downtown is focused on capturing the<br />

business of people who work there during the week.<br />

A few stay-at-home parents might be able to take<br />

advantage of weekday activities, but most families<br />

require weekend hours.<br />

Weekends are barely acknowledged by Downtown<br />

businesses. Unfortunately, they simply don’t<br />

have the foot traffic to make weekend hours a<br />

reality.<br />

After years of regular trips to Downtown Jacksonville,<br />

my daughter and I are pros. On a recent<br />

Saturday outing, we were incredulous that so few<br />

restaurants were open for lunch. Besides a couple of<br />

fast-food joints, only a handful of restaurants in the<br />

core have lunch hours: Intuition Ale Works, D&G<br />

Deli and Grill, Bay Street Bar and Grill, River City<br />

Brewing Company.<br />

We chose to sit on the back patio at Burrito<br />

Gallery and dug into a trio of salsa, guacamole,<br />

and queso with chips along with our burrito and<br />

quesadilla. We counted two other tables occupied<br />

outside. We spotted a family of three eating lunch at<br />

a nearby table. The mother used to live in a high rise<br />

on the Southbank when she worked at Sweet Pete’s<br />

Candy, but now they live in Mandarin. They had<br />

just attended a birthday party at Sweet Pete’s, and<br />

we commiserated about the lack of lunch options<br />

on the weekends. Her daughter fed tortilla chips to<br />

birds that whisked away with chips held tightly in<br />

their beaks.<br />

After lunch, we walked to Wolf & Cub where we<br />

found a jacket, a thrift shop find from the owners’<br />

trip to Paris, and a T-shirt imprinted with a playing<br />

card graphic depicting the store’s mascots.<br />

We strolled by Chamblin’s Uptown — open seven<br />

days a week! — on our way to the Main Library<br />

to visit the Jax Makerspace (jaxpubliclibrary.org/<br />

jax-makerspace). The space includes a wide variety<br />

of activities: a green screen, sewing machines,<br />

building kits, recording equipment, etc. The space<br />

also hosts several art exhibitions each year, such as<br />

“On the Fringe.” We admired mixed-media paintings<br />

by Thony Aiuppy, textile works by Billie McCray, and<br />

fanciful gourds hand-carved as striking water birds<br />

by Mindy Hawkins. Richard McMahan’s miniature<br />

recreations of masterworks were striking for their<br />

detail and charm. The next exhibition, “Reclaimed,”<br />

was scheduled to open during June’s First Wednesday<br />

Art Walk and runs through Sept. 22.<br />

We headed next-door to the Museum of Contemporary<br />

Art Jacksonville (mocajacksonville.<br />

unf.edu), where a family annual membership is just<br />

$100. We walked up a few steps to the Project Atrium<br />

space to view “Since You Were Born,” a mural depicting<br />

four months of search history by artist Evan<br />

Roth, on view through June 23. The images covered<br />

three walls up to the third-story ceiling and continued<br />

on the floor. The museum provided booties that<br />

slip over your shoes so you could walk on top of the<br />

images for a closer look.<br />

We explored a selection of [Continued on page 86]<br />

« Berlin-based artist Evan Roth amid the installation of his exhibit, “Since You Were Born,” at MOCA Jacksonville’s Project Atrium.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 19


THE<br />

PLAY<br />

ISSUE<br />

Good<br />

Evenings<br />

BY DAN MACDONALD // PHOTO BY WILL DICKEY<br />

20<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


The next time you find yourself in a hurry to<br />

race home after work, stick around for a few<br />

hours and unwind while exploring Downtown<br />

What’s<br />

the hurry to sit in traffic after work? It’s understandable<br />

that a parent’s day is hardly done after<br />

closing shop in a Downtown office. But those without<br />

the responsibility of having to gather children<br />

from daycare and prepare the nightly meal, there’s<br />

no need to rush and join the hurry-up-and-wait traffic<br />

that is I-95 or I-10 or San Jose or Roosevelt during<br />

the go-home parade.<br />

Stick around. There are things to do in Downtown<br />

after 6 p.m.<br />

There was a time not so long ago that Downtown<br />

businesses were like many offices. When quitting<br />

time came, nearly everything closed. That’s hardly<br />

the case these days. There are restaurants and activities<br />

that are just getting started when workers have<br />

punched out for the day.<br />

Downtown clearly needs to offer more. While<br />

some progress is being made, City Hall has yet<br />

to come up with a vision for a new Jacksonville<br />

Landing. Still too many restaurants are content to<br />

specialize in just serving breakfast and lunch. Art<br />

Walk continues to draw crowds to Hemming Park<br />

on the first Wednesday of the month, but the Friends<br />

of Hemming Park budget limits the special events<br />

programmed there after 5 p.m.<br />

Already Downtown offers the river, wellness<br />

centers, an ever-growing number of bars open for<br />

happy hour, and major venues VyStar Veterans<br />

Memorial Arena and the Florida Theatre — setting<br />

attendance records year after year. With the addition<br />

of Daily’s Place, the city has yet another major<br />

player in the music and entertainment scene, which<br />

is helping draw a greater number of acts that would<br />

have bypassed Jacksonville in the past. On any given<br />

night, it’s possible to partake in a number of different<br />

entertainment options.<br />

The diversity of entertainment also brings an<br />

eclectic collection of people into the city center. Back<br />

in April, tuxedo and tattoo crowds shared the same<br />

space at the Times-Union Center for the Performing<br />

Arts when the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra<br />

performed in Jacoby Symphony Hall while the<br />

heavy metal band Dream Theater was in the Moran<br />

Theater across the lobby.<br />

What Downtown needs as much as anything is<br />

more feet on the street, whether in sneakers, sandals,<br />

heels or oxfords.<br />

Or even barefoot. A good way to unwind is to<br />

take advantage of the St. Johns River by spending<br />

some time riding on the St. Johns River Taxi. It is<br />

not just a form of river transportation. For a $10 day<br />

pass, passengers can relax and just ride the boat as<br />

it transports other passengers. No food or beverages<br />

are served on the boat, but Heather Surface, the river<br />

taxi owner, encourages people to bring a bottle of<br />

wine and a picnic-style snack to enjoy during the<br />

cruise. Its website details its several specialty cruises<br />

and private party packages.<br />

Healthy diversions<br />

Remove the stress of sitting for eight hours with a<br />

workout at either the YMCA or Anytime Fitness. The<br />

Y has two downtown locations. The Winston Family<br />

YMCA on Riverside Avenue is a complete family<br />

workout and social facility. Besides the large gym<br />

area, there is a basketball court and saunas as well as<br />

a Healthy Living Center and a Teaching Kitchen.<br />

Tim Burrows, executive director at the Winston<br />

YMCA, said the facility, with its many amenities, is a<br />

destination location for Y members from throughout<br />

the region. “It is one key cog in the wheel of revitalizing<br />

Downtown Jacksonville, from Riverside all the<br />

way down to the Sports Complex.”<br />

The YMCA in the basement [Continued on page 87]<br />

« Jumbo Shrimp baseball fans enjoy a game against the Montgomery Biscuits on Thirsty Thursday at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 21


THE<br />

PLAY<br />

ISSUE<br />

Night Moves<br />

BY SHELTON HULL // PHOTO BY BOB SELF<br />

22<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


As more people choose to live Downtown,<br />

the bars, restaurants and clubs that provide<br />

nightlife in the core begin to light up<br />

Well,<br />

if Manhattan is the city that never sleeps, then<br />

Jacksonville would be one that naps, a lot.<br />

That was once far more true than it is now. For<br />

years, the lack of late-nightlife Downtown was as much<br />

a part of the city’s brand as many of the things that actually<br />

did exist, but a decade’s worth of combined effort<br />

by the public and private sector have led to a healthy<br />

uptick in foot traffic and business activity. This year is<br />

expected to have some of our most heightened activity<br />

in years, as far as bars, clubs and restaurants go.<br />

With the Jacksonville Landing easing its way into<br />

history, this summer will be the first in more than 30<br />

years without that venerable shopping plaza to anchor<br />

the social life of Downtown, and no one knows for sure<br />

exactly how that will impact the rest of the neighborhood.<br />

We do know, however, that their peers have<br />

been operating independently of Independent Drive<br />

for years already, so none of the recent developments<br />

will have come as a shock to anyone who’s been paying<br />

attention.<br />

Civic leaders have been pushing for enhanced<br />

Downtown development for decades now, but things<br />

really began to pick up speed 15 years ago, as the city<br />

was gearing up to host Super Bowl XXXIX in February<br />

2005. Downtown nightlife was spotty, at best, in the<br />

years just before, with a handful of dive bars and relatively<br />

high-profile clubs like Mark’s, Dive Bar and TSI.<br />

By and large, though, unless you were in your 20s<br />

and going out to dance and drink, there was really<br />

no reason to hang out Downtown after hours, except<br />

maybe the Landing, which had begun its long-slow,<br />

precipitous decline years before.<br />

All that changed as the new millennium began, and<br />

an increase in nightlife options brought with it a commensurate<br />

increase in foot traffic, thanks largely to the<br />

rise of Art Walk, and business owners began to finally<br />

see some much-needed momentum, which brings us<br />

to the present and a Downtown scene<br />

that is much busier and more diverse than perhaps<br />

ever before.<br />

A long night out is best when it begins with a nice<br />

meal. Your options abound Downtown, but that is better<br />

done earlier than later. Many eateries in the urban<br />

core close after lunch or at the end of business hours.<br />

Certain others stay open until 9 or 10 p.m., sometimes<br />

a little later on the weekend, while all retail establishments<br />

shut their doors long before that. Gallery spaces<br />

are the same, but they will sometimes keep odd hours<br />

for key openings or other such special occasions. It’s<br />

worth getting out early to check out some of these<br />

places. And for what it’s worth, summertime sunsets on<br />

the St. Johns River are just gorgeous.<br />

After your meal, it’s time to walk off those calories<br />

with a little bar-hopping. Your nightlife options are<br />

largely concentrated in a several-block radius that<br />

is easily walkable, no matter how lazy one might be<br />

feeling. In terms of after-hours activity Downtown,<br />

everything revolves around Bay Street, which quickly<br />

emerged as the area’s primary bar district, with a variety<br />

of nightspots spanning several blocks that will appeal to<br />

most interests.<br />

The strip begins at the corner where East Bay Street<br />

intersects with North Ocean Street. That corner is two<br />

blocks down from Burrito Gallery, on Adams Street,<br />

which stays open with food, drink and sometimes live<br />

music (usually rock, soul or fusion) until 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday.<br />

On your way up toward the Elbow, be sure to stop at<br />

Dos Gatos. Located on Forsyth Street right across from<br />

Casa Dora, Space Gallery and the Florida Theatre,<br />

Dos Gatos essentially ushered what quickly became a<br />

million-dollar market for craft-cocktails (and the highend<br />

spirits that animate them).<br />

Just a few feet down, [Continued on page 88]<br />

« Fans of the band Tauk take in the show at 1904 Music Hall, a live music venue on North Ocean Street in Downtown Jacksonville.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 23


THE<br />

PLAY<br />

ISSUE<br />

Hunger<br />

Games<br />

BY CARON STREIBICH // PHOTO BY BOB SELF<br />

24<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


From Bellwether to Cowford Chophouse to<br />

The Happy Grilled Cheese, eclectic restaurant<br />

options are vital to Downtown’s livelihood<br />

Great<br />

downtowns are a smorgasbord for the senses.<br />

They glisten and grind and waft vibrations of coolness<br />

day and night. They exude vibrant diversity and<br />

kitschy, artsy, organic realism without even trying.<br />

And without a doubt, they smell like things are cooking,<br />

whether from a late-night pizza stand, a taco<br />

bus, or a Michelin-starred eatery.<br />

On that last point, I have a grievance with you,<br />

Downtown Jacksonville. I’ve given you nearly five<br />

years of my work life, and I’ve even had a few novel<br />

bites along the way to and from the office. But<br />

through it all, I can’t help but feel the burners are<br />

off in our urban core. How can we make it a true<br />

culinary destination?<br />

Just as winning sports teams and performance<br />

venues are magnets for human activity, restaurants<br />

have much the same effect. Having an abundant<br />

mix of reputable eateries — fast-casual, sit-down,<br />

upscale, ethnic, healthy — is vital to keeping people<br />

interested in working Downtown, living Downtown,<br />

moving hordes of their employees Downtown, and<br />

telling others how much they love Downtown.<br />

Great urban cores boast slurp-worthy ramen,<br />

Indian buffets, doughnuts and sashimi, Barcelona-grade<br />

tapas, artery-aggravating soul food,<br />

pre-concert fuel and late-night not-ready-to-gohome<br />

greasy fries, food halls, old-school ice cream<br />

shops, and sandwich masterpieces from smarmy<br />

service stations.<br />

On one hand, I feel it’s all within reach here in<br />

Cowford. But the ones that have it press up against<br />

our urban core, harass it, lean in suggestively and<br />

whisper, “Don’t you want a taste?”<br />

In Brooklyn, I visit fast-casual trifecta Vale Food<br />

Co., BurgerFi and Zoe’s Kitchen, and occasionally,<br />

“daytime café” First Watch or Burrito Gallery’s<br />

rooftop. But just try to walk there from the core and<br />

you’ll easily blow up your lunch hour and a good<br />

pair of shoes.<br />

Same goes with Southbank treats bb’s, The<br />

Bearded Pig, Clara’s Tidbits, Sake House, The<br />

Southern Grill, The Wine Cellar, Ruth’s Chris, The<br />

Charthouse or River City Brewing Company. Extra<br />

points to the latter three for touting riverfront views<br />

— though dated interiors — and The Bearded Pig for<br />

its enclosed kids’ area. I’ve enjoyed bb’s for years, but<br />

it’s not pedestrian-friendly from the Northbank.<br />

Activity, density,<br />

connectivity<br />

So why are these gems just out of Downtown’s<br />

reach? The simple fact is that restaurants are but a single<br />

piece of what makes urban districts thrive. To fully<br />

understand the dearth of culinary options north of the<br />

St. Johns, I chalk it up to three of Downtown’s chronic<br />

syndromes: lack of activity, density and connectivity.<br />

First, the activity. In most of Downtown after 5 p.m.<br />

and on weekends, street-level activity sputters to a<br />

dim hum. Nightlife is limited. Events are sporadic, but<br />

not consistent. Sports events to the core’s east hardly<br />

register due to the chasm that is our jail and police department,<br />

not to mention the hulking skeleton of a condominium<br />

that creates a virtual east-west checkpoint.<br />

A popular restaurant (or restaurants) theoretically<br />

should drive traffic to an area. Ongoing programming<br />

— daily and nightly, not just weekly or monthly —<br />

should drive traffic, too. Marry the two in regular ceremonies,<br />

and the guests will soon follow. Then throw<br />

in a bodega or standard grocery to appeal to would-be<br />

residents.<br />

Anthony Hashem, owner of fast-casual eatery The<br />

Happy Grilled Cheese on Hogan Street, echoes this<br />

sentiment. “The gorgeous apartments going in one<br />

block from us on Adams Street [Continued on page 90]<br />

« Giovanni Roman, front of house director at Cowford Chophouse, inspects glassware on the table settings before customers arrive.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 25


Q:<br />

CHECKING<br />

More than 4,000 readers of<br />

The Florida Times-Union<br />

have volunteered to be part of<br />

the Email Interactive Group.<br />

They respond to occasional<br />

questions about public issues<br />

in our community.<br />

Eileen Erikson,<br />

Isle of Palms<br />

We need safe places to eat<br />

near the Times-Union Center.<br />

Charles Winton,<br />

Jacksonville<br />

We need a hop-on-hop off<br />

tram that could be as much of<br />

a draw as the cable cars in San<br />

Francisco or New Orleans.<br />

Amelia Gaillard,<br />

East Arlington<br />

I generally feel safe<br />

Downtown except after<br />

dark, walking through<br />

dimly lit areas populated<br />

with apparently homeless<br />

people staring me down. I<br />

was obviously unwelcome in<br />

“their” territory.<br />

Jack Knee, Nocatee<br />

We need something like Gray<br />

Line Tours Downtown.<br />

THE PULSE<br />

Judy Johnson,<br />

Jacksonville<br />

Downtown needs more nice<br />

restaurants. We are missing<br />

shopping and more reasons<br />

to come downtown. When<br />

reading the J magazine,<br />

everything sounds great with<br />

all kinds of promises, but year<br />

after year nothing happens.<br />

Laura D’Alisera,<br />

Mandarin<br />

Art Walk is fun, and we<br />

should have more of that<br />

kind of energy in Downtown<br />

programming. If the Landing<br />

is demolished, the green<br />

space should be like the park<br />

in downtown Charleston,<br />

with fountains, walking paths<br />

and gazebos for people to<br />

enjoy the riverfront. With<br />

Metropolitan Park and the<br />

Landing scheduled to go<br />

away, there needs to be an<br />

outdoor performance space<br />

for smaller events.<br />

Jane White,<br />

Ponte Vedra Beach<br />

I think it would be wonderful<br />

if we had an aquarium in<br />

Downtown Jacksonville.<br />

By Mike Clark<br />

What kind of additional<br />

entertainment options<br />

are needed in Downtown<br />

Jacksonville?<br />

Camilla Crawshaw,<br />

Jacksonville<br />

I love downtown areas of small<br />

towns and big cities. But in<br />

my past homes (eight cities in<br />

five states), some had water<br />

features and periodic events.<br />

All of them had hotels, stores<br />

and restaurants and lots of jobs<br />

in floors above street level.<br />

Michael Cross,<br />

St. Augustine<br />

Build a footbridge across the<br />

river (our own little arch),<br />

something architecturally<br />

interesting, something<br />

defining. Open an Imax theater.<br />

Make roadways just for golf<br />

carts. Have free concerts every<br />

Friday and Saturday night.<br />

Offer subsidies for any of these.<br />

Build it and they will come.<br />

Michael McGahan,<br />

Jacksonville Beach<br />

I would like to see more<br />

family-friendly events and free<br />

musical concerts Downtown.<br />

It would be nice to have more<br />

college baseball games at the<br />

ballpark.<br />

Eileen Erikson,<br />

Jacksonville<br />

The theater area needs more<br />

ambassadors to help people<br />

navigate safely around town!<br />

Eduardo Balbona,<br />

Jacksonville<br />

A new downtown<br />

neighborhood should be<br />

our goal. A Downtown<br />

neighborhood means people<br />

living in an interesting area<br />

with public spaces, shops,<br />

restaurants and, yes, plenty<br />

of bars.<br />

Tom Bary,<br />

Neptune Beach<br />

For a Downtown renaissance<br />

to truly take place there<br />

needs to be an influx of<br />

interesting restaurants that<br />

serve excellent food and have<br />

interesting atmospheres in<br />

the city center. I also think<br />

there needs to be quality<br />

residential.<br />

The Landing is key. Put in an informal meeting<br />

place, band shell and glass floor for looking down<br />

at the water. Let food trucks in and make it a T-shirt<br />

kind of place. A historic ship would be nice. Maybe<br />

a zip line. Bring back the ship museum. Get 10<br />

plans, take the best of the ideas.<br />

Jeff Cooper, Southside<br />

26<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


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SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 27


THE BIG<br />

PICTURE<br />

SHIPPING<br />

Container<br />

APARTMENTS<br />

IN THE WORKS<br />

RENDERING BY<br />

Fisher Koppenhafer<br />

Architects<br />

If all goes to plan, a three-level<br />

apartment complex built with 18<br />

shipping containers will soon pop<br />

up on an empty lot in Downtown’s<br />

Cathedral District.<br />

According to JWB Real Estate<br />

Capital President Alex Sifakis,<br />

each container would house a<br />

320-square-foot apartment, roughly<br />

the size of a hotel room, with a<br />

living room, full-sized bathroom,<br />

small bedroom and kitchen. Rent<br />

could start at $550 a month.<br />

“We’ve been getting people<br />

coming out of the woodwork<br />

interested in it,” Sifakis said. “it<br />

seems like 50 percent think it’s the<br />

dumbest thing … and about 50<br />

percent think it’s the greatest thing<br />

ever and they want one now.<br />

“You’ll be able to tell they’re<br />

shipping containers from the<br />

outside,” he said, “but some really,<br />

really good-looking shipping<br />

containers.”<br />

28<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 29


THE JACKSONVILLE LANDING<br />

By CAROLE HAWKINS<br />

PHOTOGRAPH BY NATE WATSON<br />

30 J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> NOW WHAT?


SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 31


“WE HAVE IT NOW.”<br />

That’s what Brian Hughes said in a May phone interview<br />

about the future of The Jacksonville Landing. At the<br />

same time, the city was sitting at the closing table,<br />

buying back the festival marketplace that had for<br />

decades languished on Downtown’s struggling<br />

retail scene.<br />

“I am not at all adverse to a public conversation<br />

[about what happens next]. The mayor<br />

is excited for it,” said Hughes, interim director for<br />

Jacksonville’s Downtown Investment Authority.<br />

“We’re about to unfurl the future for the epicenter<br />

of our urban core and totally rework it.”<br />

As this article goes to press, political will stands<br />

behind tearing down the Landing, and if that happens,<br />

the city will rebuild from a blank canvas. So<br />

what would come next?<br />

A tranquil riverside park, maybe with a museum? A<br />

destination play space, with an events plaza? Trendy<br />

open-air restaurants and shops, high-rise offices and<br />

apartments? An active urban experience shared across<br />

generations, or a vacant green space overrun by shabby-clothed<br />

panhandlers?<br />

Thus has ranged the conversation over the likely future of<br />

one of Downtown’s most controversial properties.<br />

White elephanT<br />

The Landing is a cornerstone to<br />

Downtown revitalization. It’s located at a<br />

crossroads, connecting Hemming Park;<br />

the Laura, Hogan and Water street corridors,<br />

and the Riverwalk. These are places<br />

where other revitalization is underway<br />

— a collection of riverside improvements<br />

including a new pocket park, the old courthouse<br />

demolition, and the redevelopment<br />

of the Barnett Bank building and the Laura<br />

Street Trio. From the Landing, pedestrians<br />

can travel to other Downtown places,<br />

using the Skyway, water taxi, bus or the<br />

Main Street Bridge.<br />

The Landing could be the crown jewel<br />

in a connected string of Downtown destinations.<br />

But right now, it isn’t. The horseshoe-shaped<br />

retail complex faces away<br />

from the city, blocks the view of the river<br />

from the Laura Street corridor and crowds<br />

the walking space along the Riverwalk<br />

down to single-file.<br />

The Landing was built in 1987 as a<br />

festival marketplace. The concept — a<br />

combination enclosed mall and events<br />

plaza — was designed to lure suburbanites<br />

back Downtown. It came to Jacksonville<br />

at a time when the retail tide was already<br />

beginning to turn against indoor malls.<br />

Councilman John Crescimbeni said even<br />

in its early years, the Landing was a flop.<br />

Crescimbeni owned a Hickory Farms<br />

franchise, with other stores in Avondale,<br />

Jacksonville Beach, Mandarin, Lake City<br />

and Waycross, Ga. He was at The Landing<br />

in 1989, just two years after it opened.<br />

32<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


CITY OF JACKSONVILLE<br />

“It was the worst location I ever operated<br />

in 37 years,” he said. “I think everybody<br />

was so desperate to do something with<br />

that piece of property they didn’t look<br />

closely at the details.”<br />

Years of struggle<br />

In 2003 the Landing’s original owner<br />

sold the underperforming venue to local<br />

developer Toney Sleiman. Sleiman owned<br />

the buildings, but leased the land from the<br />

city. The ensuing developer-city relationship<br />

was marred by controversies over<br />

parking, safety and upkeep.<br />

In 2015 the DIA hired outside consultants<br />

with experience in urban waterfront<br />

design to help both parties work out<br />

redevelopment of the Landing. The team<br />

accumulated extensive public input. But<br />

disagreements between Sleiman and the<br />

city continued, and the project fizzled.<br />

In 2017 the battle hit the courts. It<br />

ended earlier this year, with a $15 million<br />

settlement that sold ownership of the<br />

Landing to the city.<br />

Now that the city has it back, it can turn<br />

the page on the venue’s troubled history.<br />

The mayor last summer floated the<br />

Mayor Lenny Curry’s earlier idea to demolish the<br />

Jacksonville Landing and turn most of the property<br />

into a riverfront plaza with trails and fountains. The<br />

site would have two buildings for commercial activity.<br />

idea of an iconic park — a large grassy<br />

space next to the river, punctuated by two<br />

commercial buildings. That differs from<br />

the 2015 DIA vision, which had imagined<br />

a more active riverside park, with dining<br />

spots, a playground, a grassy events space,<br />

a public plaza and a mixed-use commercial<br />

building.<br />

Hughes said it could be as late as Octo-<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 33


The 2015 design plan for the Jacksonville Landing showed a two-level public plaza. The lower level would have steps taking people down closer to the St. Johns River.<br />

ber before outstanding lease agreements<br />

are resolved with the sub-tenants that<br />

remain at the Landing. So, there’s time for<br />

the public to append some new ideas to<br />

previous thoughts on what comes next.<br />

Calls have been made to replace the<br />

Landing with an equally iconic structure. It<br />

sounds exciting. A park? Kinda boring.<br />

It doesn’t have to be.<br />

“I think a park in connection with<br />

other things to do Downtown is the way<br />

to go,” said Elena Madison, vice president<br />

at Project for Public Spaces. “Especially if<br />

you think of your public destinations as a<br />

network, instead of individual islands.”<br />

So, how do planners separate the good<br />

from the great when it comes to urban<br />

parks?<br />

engagE people<br />

Ask yourself, Madison said, are people<br />

there or not? You don’t simply want a<br />

grassy contemplative place where you can<br />

be on the water. That kind of park has a<br />

different function, one more appropriate<br />

for a residential neighborhood than the<br />

heart of Downtown.<br />

Urban parks are multiuse destinations,<br />

with event lawns, public plazas, dining<br />

spots and retail kiosks. They engage people<br />

with playgrounds, climbable art and<br />

touchable water features.<br />

Downtown Detroit activated an underused<br />

lawn by transforming it into a seasonal<br />

beach, with a large sand-filled area,<br />

lounge chairs, a deck, and a beach bar and<br />

grille. In the winter, the space turns into an<br />

ice skating rink.<br />

Harvard University activated its campus<br />

public spaces with outdoor seating,<br />

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES (2)<br />

34<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


food trucks, a pet therapy zoo, and fire<br />

rings for roasting marshmallows.<br />

Urban parks create more energy when<br />

special events are paired with everyday<br />

uses. Parks that rely only on events will be<br />

active during performances, but empty<br />

the rest of the day.<br />

Also, anything that discourages people<br />

from stopping and staying is not the way<br />

to go. Think of the planters laid across<br />

seating areas at Hemming Park.<br />

“If that’s the approach, then why are<br />

you building a park?” Madison said.<br />

“Just running and biking through it is not<br />

enough.”<br />

A lot of placemaking is thinking about<br />

the history and uses that make that space<br />

interesting, said Dan Amsden of MIG, a<br />

Berkeley-based planning and design firm.<br />

Sacramento’s historic riverfront area<br />

had for decades been home to T-shirt<br />

shops and tourist attractions, with few<br />

offerings for local residents.<br />

But Sacramento has its roots as a<br />

railroad city. So, developers began adding<br />

historic railroad elements back into old<br />

Sacramento’s re-purposed restaurants<br />

and buildings.<br />

“It drives interest and excitement,”<br />

Amsden said. “It gets people into the<br />

experience of a place.”<br />

Urban parks<br />

Privately owned restaurants, stores and<br />

other commercial venues often support<br />

the urban park’s public assets by earning<br />

the income that pays for maintenance and<br />

public events. It’s important to make sure<br />

the privatization enhances, rather than<br />

overtakes, public use, though.<br />

“Waterfronts are too valuable to simply<br />

allow developers to dictate whatever<br />

happens there,” Madison said. “You<br />

should put public goals first, not private<br />

short-term financial objectives.”<br />

Instead, look for commercial uses<br />

that complement public ones. Restaurants<br />

and bars mix well with events.<br />

Residential buildings can bring more<br />

around-the-clock activity, but don’t<br />

overdo it.<br />

“In the last 20 years we’ve seen a<br />

strong desire with waterfront development<br />

to do what’s easiest, which is highrise<br />

residential,” said Madison.<br />

It may turn a park into the private<br />

backyard of wealthy riverside condo<br />

owners who control everything that<br />

happens there.<br />

If residences are part of the plan,<br />

locate them at the perimeter of a park,<br />

not next to a core entertainment area,<br />

HOT TAKES ON THE FUTURE OF THE LANDING<br />

“[I’ve heard suggestions from young people, like having]<br />

climbing walls and boulders. In Europe you have small,<br />

400-square-foot restaurants that add to the experience<br />

of the park. You have shaded places where people can<br />

sit down. It would be cool to have a mini field, for<br />

somebody who wants to kick around a soccer ball.<br />

A kayak launch was mentioned. A place where you<br />

could rent jet skis was mentioned. How cool would it<br />

be to have a botanical garden?”<br />

Matt Carlucci<br />

City Councilman-Elect<br />

“More open and flexible spaces. If you look at Hemming<br />

Park right now — all of that built environment makes<br />

it challenging for events. You have the fountain, you<br />

have a little riser, and you have railings everywhere. It<br />

probably makes more sense to be flexible with a lot of<br />

grass. When the Jaguars win the Super Bowl, where<br />

are we going to have our parade? Where is our giant<br />

meeting space?”<br />

Jake Gordon<br />

Downtown Vision CEO<br />

“[For the income-earning components] we’ll need to decide<br />

how much we’ll divvy it up as far as potential residential<br />

versus office and potential retail. I think there will be an<br />

RFP process, where proposals can say if it’s all public<br />

space and we lease them under a long-term [agreement],<br />

or if we isolate parcels and sell them, so they become<br />

privately owned and developed under guidelines. Then,<br />

what’s constructed will generate property taxes which<br />

will help us maintain [the park].”<br />

Brian Hughes<br />

DIA Interim Director<br />

“To me it’s a vibrant gathering place at the<br />

intersection of the Riverwalk and the end of Laura<br />

Street … It could be a very active space that has a<br />

plaza and stage, with events going on at all times.<br />

That seems more appropriately urban for this<br />

area. But I also believe you need green relief in<br />

an urban setting. So I don’t think [something<br />

similar to Riverside’s] Memorial Park is<br />

completely off base either.”<br />

Lori Boyer<br />

City Councilwoman<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 35


This rendering from 2015 shows how the redevelopment of the Jacksonville Landing would look when viewed from the St. Johns River looking toward downtown.<br />

Amsden said. He recalled a Sacramento<br />

developer who built a trendy pop-up<br />

outdoor bar out of shipping containers.<br />

It was exciting, but it was right next door<br />

to some of the most expensive condos in<br />

Sacramento. Complaints shut the venue<br />

down.<br />

“Outdoor bar-goers at 2 a.m. next to<br />

expensive condos was not a good thing.”<br />

Amsden said.<br />

Retail HAS CHANGED<br />

Even though the Landing’s retail<br />

faltered, downtowns are one place where<br />

retail can still succeed. It just looks different<br />

these days.<br />

The trend is moving away from a single<br />

product line sold in a single store and<br />

towards experience-based retail, Amsden<br />

said.<br />

Sacramento regularly closes off two<br />

city blocks for street fairs. When it does,<br />

the nearby retail becomes a mash-up of<br />

bars with artists painting pictures, while<br />

patrons visit and buy T-shirts.<br />

“At the end of the day, it makes it fun<br />

and interesting,” Amsden said.<br />

Next steps<br />

When news of Jacksonville’s agreement<br />

to buy the Landing hit the media,<br />

public opinion flurried. Nostalgic photos<br />

of a crowded Landing from years gone by<br />

appeared on Facebook. People wondered:<br />

Should parts of the iconic copper-roofed<br />

building be repurposed? Would a new<br />

city park become a magnet for homeless<br />

people?<br />

Councilman-elect Matt Carlucci said he<br />

received 128 comments on the Landing.<br />

He called for a public charrette.<br />

But Hughes said it’s a been-there-donethat<br />

kind of a situation. DIA’s 2015 charrette<br />

already collected opinions from hundreds<br />

of participants.<br />

“We’re not going to hit the pause button<br />

and go backwards several years. We know<br />

what should go there. The public has<br />

already told us,” Hughes said.<br />

The size and scope of The Landing does<br />

warrant extra public input, Hughes said.<br />

But it will probably take the form of public<br />

lunch-and-learns, such as those held for<br />

other major developments like The District<br />

and the Berkman II.<br />

For such a large project, opinions are<br />

already surprisingly aligned.<br />

Almost everyone agrees they want<br />

development to be set farther back from<br />

the river. And they want to open the river<br />

view along the Laura Street corridor. It<br />

also appears the Landing is to become a<br />

mixed-use park, more than a retail marketplace.<br />

It won’t be just another city park that’s<br />

hard to sustain and to manage either,<br />

Hughes said.<br />

“We want a very well designed public<br />

space that draws people in. And we’ll keep<br />

it financed by building into the long-term<br />

plan some privately developed space,” he<br />

said. “It will become a more open public<br />

space that excites people and provides a<br />

way for families to enjoy the waterfront.”<br />

We’re looking forward to it. After decades<br />

of being stuck in a holding pattern,<br />

The Landing’s future finally looks bright.<br />

Carole Hawkins was a reporter<br />

for the Times-Union’s Georgia bureau<br />

in 2007-10. She is a freelance writer<br />

who lives in Murray Hill.<br />

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES<br />

36<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


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By MARILYN YOUNG<br />

RENDERING BY THE RYAN COMPANIES<br />

38<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


The new JEA headquarters will be<br />

located on a block at 325 W. Adams<br />

Street and feature a nine-story tower<br />

and attached parking garage.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 39


TJEA’s board of directors selected the Ryan Companies as the developers to build a new headquarters at 325 W. Adams Street, east of the Duval County Courthouse.<br />

he old and the chosen new JEA headquarters sites are just a few blocks<br />

from each other, less than a half-mile walk: the current JEA building<br />

on West Church Street, showing every bit of its 56 years, and the empty<br />

city-owned block on West Adams Street, a prime spot to help breathe<br />

life into that part of the urban core.<br />

Their close proximity tempers some of the immediate tangible economic<br />

benefits the new JEA headquarters may bring.<br />

A company the size of JEA moving to<br />

the urban core from elsewhere would bring<br />

hundreds of new customers for restaurants,<br />

bars and shops. But many of the 760 utility<br />

employees making the short move are likely<br />

already eating or shopping at businesses<br />

near the West Adams Street location.<br />

While the project doesn’t contribute to<br />

the residential density that Jacksonville’s<br />

urban core needs, it adds to the intangible<br />

feeling of progress.<br />

When Ryan Companies begins work on<br />

the $72 million headquarters, the activity<br />

will be a sign that Jacksonville’s urban core is<br />

continuing its renaissance.<br />

Impact around<br />

the new site<br />

JEA’s West Adams Street site is in the<br />

Downtown area visually dominated by<br />

the monolithic Duval County Courthouse,<br />

which opened in 2012.<br />

Many speculated the courthouse moving<br />

three-quarters of a mile from its East Bay<br />

Street site would drive retail and restaurant<br />

development in the area with its employees<br />

and the attorneys who needed to file<br />

motions and attend hearings. It didn’t,<br />

especially after electronic filing eliminated<br />

the need for many attorneys to make the trip<br />

to the courthouse.<br />

Nor did the move of the State Attorney’s<br />

Office from Bay Street to across North Pearl<br />

RYAN COMPANIES<br />

40<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


“We have a successful track record of taking complicated<br />

Downtown projects and creating places for the building’s<br />

users and the community to thrive.”<br />

Doug Dieck<br />

Southeast Region president for Ryan Companies<br />

Street from the courthouse.<br />

So, it’s understandable that JEA’s move<br />

a shorter distance will not solely drive the<br />

need for many new restaurants and shops,<br />

particularly since the bulk of the impact will<br />

likely be felt during regular weekday business<br />

hours. The utility’s new site will have<br />

its own restaurant (as does the current one),<br />

and most of the employees work shifts when<br />

they head home in time for dinner.<br />

“This is a more minor shift compared<br />

to the courthouse,” said Oliver Barakat, a<br />

Downtown Investment Authority board<br />

member who also is senior vice president<br />

with CBRE Inc. “I don’t think it will create<br />

that catalytic activity that people tend to<br />

believe it will.”<br />

There will likely be some storefront<br />

demand. “You might see two or three more<br />

storefronts in that area,” he said.<br />

Christian Oldenburg, managing director<br />

of Colliers International Northeast Florida,<br />

said the courthouse’s move generated a little<br />

more interest in land “out that direction.”<br />

“The reality is things take time to take<br />

root,” he said.<br />

Barakat said the area also will benefit if<br />

other projects planned nearby, such as at<br />

the Ambassador Hotel and the Jones Brothers<br />

Furniture building, are completed.<br />

“If all those projects together happen,<br />

I think you’re going to see probably more<br />

development happen and more confidence<br />

in that area of Downtown,” said Barakat, one<br />

of two original DIA board members serving<br />

since its inception in 2012.<br />

Staying Downtown<br />

It was critical that JEA decided to remain<br />

in the urban core versus heading to the suburbs.<br />

That loss would have been devastating<br />

at a time when Downtown is enjoying some<br />

long-awaited momentum.<br />

And it wouldn’t have just been felt by<br />

the lights being shut off in the well-known<br />

building with the iconic glass top floor that<br />

once was a high-end revolving restaurant.<br />

The biggest losers would have been many<br />

restaurants that depend on several hundred<br />

of the utility’s worker to provide a steady<br />

lunchtime business. It could have been the<br />

JEA’s 760-point scorECARD USED to rank the proposals<br />

LOT J<br />

Cordish Companies & Iguana Investments<br />

KINGS AVENUE<br />

Chase Properties Inc. & Parkway Property Investments<br />

325 W. ADAMS ST.<br />

Ryan Companies<br />

Building program accommodation<br />

Workforce engagement,culture<br />

Presentation and interview<br />

Customer engagement<br />

Timing and site control<br />

Economic development<br />

BOARD SCORE AVERAGE<br />

Development schedule<br />

TOTAL STAFF SCORE<br />

Quantitative summary*<br />

TOTAL SCORE<br />

JEFF DAVIS<br />

LOT J<br />

KINGS AVENUE<br />

325 W. ADAMS ST.<br />

SOURCE: JEA<br />

Potential points:<br />

20 120 80 80 40 60 60 200 660 100 760<br />

20 92 40 30 32 40 45 200 499 69.25 568.25<br />

15 88 50 30 23 45 30 190 471 63.25 534.25<br />

10 75 65 55 17 45 50 190 507 78.75 585.75<br />

*Total or annualized cost and life cycle costs<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 41


“We don’t need a Sydney Opera House. But I do believe there<br />

is a role for architecture to play in government buildings.<br />

... I don’t want to add just another glass box Downtown.”<br />

Alan Howard<br />

JEA board chair during the headquarters-selection process<br />

LEFT: JEA’s current headquarters is located at<br />

21 W. Church St.<br />

RIGHT: A former JEA headquarters building at<br />

233 W. Duval St. has sat vacant for nearly 20 years.<br />

death knell for some already on the edge.<br />

Staying Downtown was important to<br />

the utility from the beginning, said Alan<br />

Howard, who was board chair during the<br />

headquarters-selection process.<br />

“The staff and board analyses both<br />

agreed that the invitation to negotiate<br />

should include, as a criteria, a Downtown<br />

location,” he said.<br />

Two of the three bidders to make the<br />

shortlist met that benchmark: the West<br />

Adams Street location and a Shad Khan-led<br />

effort in a planned $500 million development<br />

in Lot J near TIAA Bank Field.<br />

Howard said the strength of the bid<br />

from a third team, which included respected<br />

Jacksonville developer Mike Balanky,<br />

deserved to be a finalist despite the site at<br />

the Kings Avenue Station being just outside<br />

DIA’s boundaries.<br />

Not choosing Khan’s project quickly<br />

silenced the conspiracy theorists who<br />

believed that a fix was in and the JEA board<br />

would kowtow to pressure from City Hall<br />

to select the proposal from the Jacksonville<br />

Jaguars owner.<br />

The two sites that were not chosen definitely<br />

would have benefited by landing JEA’s<br />

headquarters, but their projects can still<br />

thrive without it.<br />

Oldenburg said he it would have been<br />

nice to see JEA select Lot J and “hopefully<br />

get some momentum in that direction. But<br />

I understand that JEA’s job isn’t really to<br />

advance Downtown development. … They<br />

have to make the decision best for their<br />

business.”<br />

He believes Lot J developers saw JEA’s<br />

headquarters as an opportunity to “jumpstart”<br />

their project. “In the long run, provided<br />

they stick to it, there could be potentially<br />

another opportunity,” he said. “Maybe a<br />

better opportunity.”<br />

JEFF DAVIS (2)<br />

42<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


“There’s a general belief if you have a strong<br />

periphery but a weak core, that the weak core almost<br />

overshadows the strength in the periphery.”<br />

Oliver Barakat<br />

Downtown Investment Authority board member<br />

JEFF DAVIS<br />

Oldenburg said he understood why<br />

JEA decided to build a new headquarters<br />

but ideally would have liked the utility to<br />

absorb some of the current vacancy to<br />

reduce the vacancy rate and help stabilize<br />

the market.<br />

Barakat said projects like the new JEA<br />

headquarters add to the momentum happening<br />

in Downtown, which is good for the<br />

entire city.<br />

“There’s a general belief if you have<br />

a strong periphery but a weak core, that<br />

the weak core almost overshadows the<br />

strength in the periphery,” he said.<br />

Joining ‘great bones’<br />

of Downtown<br />

Downtown was also important to Ryan<br />

Companies, a firm with success in corporate<br />

headquarters, build-to-suit and office<br />

projects in urban core areas, including in<br />

Arizona, Iowa and Minnesota.<br />

“We have a successful track record of<br />

taking complicated Downtown projects<br />

and creating places for the building’s users<br />

and the community to thrive,” said Doug<br />

Dieck, Southeast Region president for Ryan<br />

Companies.<br />

He said Downtown Jacksonville has<br />

“great bones” in buildings like The Florida<br />

Theatre and the former Barnett Bank Building,<br />

being redeveloped by Steve Atkins.<br />

He also called Hemming Park “a fantastic<br />

amenity (that) should be treasured.”<br />

Dieck said Ryan Companies selected<br />

three potential solutions for JEA’s headquarters:<br />

redeveloping the current site, the<br />

West Adams Street location (Block 48) and a<br />

block north of the courthouse.<br />

“Ultimately, they chose Block 48, and<br />

we couldn’t be more thrilled,” he said. “We<br />

really feel this is their best choice.”<br />

In mid-April, the DIA put the 1.5-acre<br />

property up for sale and will choose the<br />

best bid for the property, which is expected<br />

to be Ryan Companies. The site is appraised<br />

at $2.3 million; Ryan bid $2.6 million. When<br />

the building is complete, Ryan would hand<br />

it over to JEA on a long-term lease.<br />

Dieck said Ryan hopes to close on the<br />

property in November and start deep foundations<br />

by the end of the year.<br />

JEA HEADQUARTERS TO REMAIN IN THE CORE<br />

Former JEA<br />

headquarters<br />

233 W. Duval St.<br />

Duval County<br />

Courthouse<br />

325 W. Adams St.<br />

The site chosen<br />

for the location<br />

of JEA’s new<br />

headquarters<br />

95<br />

FULLER<br />

WARREN<br />

BRIDGE<br />

ACOSTA<br />

BRIDGE<br />

Hemming<br />

Park<br />

FORSYTH ST.<br />

The Landing<br />

MAIN ST.<br />

BRIDGE<br />

Friendship<br />

Park<br />

MAIN ST.<br />

OCEAN ST.<br />

ADAMS ST.<br />

KINGS AVE.<br />

Howard said he had an extended<br />

discussion with the design team at Ryan<br />

Companies about potential changes in the<br />

building’s exterior, particularly to add “a<br />

more iconic design that references Jacksonville<br />

and Northeast Florida.”<br />

“We don’t need a Sydney Opera House,”<br />

he said, referring to the arts center in Australia.<br />

“But I do believe there is a role for architecture<br />

to play in government buildings.<br />

... I don’t want to add just another glass box<br />

Downtown.”<br />

Howard said the design team was “very<br />

open” to his suggestions.<br />

Dieck agreed, saying the company is<br />

“very open to understanding and embracing<br />

the customer’s needs and their ideas on<br />

look and functionality.”<br />

What’s next for<br />

the old site<br />

The next decision JEA may be making<br />

is what to do with its current headquarters,<br />

which it bought in 1989 and is much<br />

larger than the utility needs today. Two<br />

other structures make up its Downtown<br />

campus — a parking garage and a motor<br />

Current JEA headquarters<br />

21 W. Church St.<br />

ARLINGTON EXPY.<br />

St. Johns River<br />

95<br />

Lot J<br />

One of<br />

the JEA<br />

site finalists<br />

Kings Avenue<br />

One of the<br />

JEA site finalists<br />

MLK JR. PKWY.<br />

TIAA<br />

Bank<br />

Field<br />

Metropolitan Park<br />

pool building.<br />

Gina Kyle, media relations manager<br />

for JEA, said the utility plans to market the<br />

A DOZEN RIVER<br />

The VIEWS deteriorating IN condition THE of the<br />

URBAN CORE<br />

buildings at some point.<br />

building costs JEA millions a year to maintain<br />

it and will play a role in whether the<br />

structure will be renovated or demolished.<br />

1<br />

Barakat said he has been contacted by<br />

two out-of-town developers about the JEA<br />

tower.<br />

“They’ve never been inside and don’t<br />

know the condition,” he said. “But there are<br />

some developers that have an interest in<br />

developing in Downtown Jacksonville but<br />

have not been able to find an appropriate<br />

building of scale to justify coming down<br />

here.”<br />

He said there’s a fair amount of energy<br />

in the community toward preservation of<br />

properties.<br />

“I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion<br />

that demolition is its future,” he said.<br />

MARILYN YOUNG was an editor at The Florida<br />

Times-Union in 1998-2013. She lives in northern<br />

St. Johns County.<br />

N<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 43


intriguing downtowners<br />

By ROGER BROWN<br />

Photos by BOB SELF<br />

44<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Enjoying a cup of coffee and<br />

some delightful conversation —<br />

at the Urban Grind.<br />

Having a sense of<br />

concern about the number of transients<br />

and homeless people.<br />

Savoring the ease of being able<br />

to easily walk or drive to and from<br />

countless adventures and attractions.<br />

Longing for more activity, more people,<br />

more late-night dining spots — and for all of it<br />

to happen much quicker.<br />

Savoring the diversity of faces on the streets<br />

during a typical weekday afternoon.<br />

Fearing that in the move to improve<br />

and change for the better, uniqueness<br />

and distinctiveness will be left by the<br />

wayside.<br />

These are some of the joys and<br />

pet peeves about being Downtown<br />

that five interesting and intriguing<br />

Downtowners — people who spend a<br />

significant amount of their daily lives working,<br />

living or both in the city center — shared during<br />

these individual chats with J magazine. »<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 45


intriguing downtowners<br />

46<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Pilar Langthon<br />

Downtown connection: Owner of the Mocha Misk’i Brownie Shop,<br />

a fixture on North Laura Street for nearly four years.<br />

In May, Langthon and her sister and business partner, Helga, moved<br />

Mocha Misk’i out of Downtown to the Mandarin area so they can<br />

largely focus on meeting the growing demands of the boutique/<br />

specialty brownie shop’s booming online business.<br />

v v v v v<br />

What are the best things about Downtown — and about being in<br />

Downtown on a daily basis?<br />

Just the mix of people that you have in Downtown — so many<br />

backgrounds, professions, interests. That makes it exciting to be<br />

here.<br />

What is the biggest misconception that people have about<br />

Downtown?<br />

People think Downtown isn’t safe — that’s just not true. It’s<br />

a really safe place. I leave the shop lots of times late at night, and<br />

there is no problem at all. It’s a safe place.<br />

If you could change one thing about Downtown, what would it<br />

be?<br />

The city must do more about the homeless issue, the transients<br />

Downtown; more has to be done to really change the situation in a<br />

major way. There are plenty of places that help the homeless during<br />

the nighttime, but there need to be more places during the daytime<br />

— and during Saturdays and Sundays too. The bad part is there<br />

are homeless people who have been Downtown for a long time; I<br />

know them, and they are good people. But over the last year, there<br />

seems to be more and more new homeless people coming into<br />

Downtown, people I have never seen before. And they are not very<br />

good people. I don’t know if they are transients who have come<br />

from different places, but they aren’t nice — and some of them<br />

cause problems on the street in front of the businesses Downtown.<br />

The city must do more about this.<br />

And if I can say one more thing, I think we need to do more to<br />

get more activity down here as quickly as possible. It’s coming, but<br />

it needs to be faster; the city needs to speed it up.<br />

Helga and I have loved being Downtown all these years; being<br />

here has really helped to give us exposure and expand our concept.<br />

It has helped us become successful enough to move on to this<br />

exciting new chapter for us. It is a great time for us, and it means<br />

leaving Downtown. But I will always be a big supporter of Downtown.<br />

Downtown will always be a special place to me. It will always<br />

be special in my heart, too.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 47


Paul Compagnon<br />

The Downtown Connection: Bartender at The Volstead<br />

and he lives in a loft above the popular bar.<br />

v v v v v<br />

What are the best things about Downtown — and about being in<br />

Downtown on a daily basis?<br />

The nightlife, and the fact that everything is within a pretty walkable<br />

distance. I mean, let’s say you just saw a show at the Florida Theatre and<br />

then you want to go to some cool place Downtown to eat or grab a drink.<br />

You can do easily; it’s just a quick walk.<br />

What is the biggest misconception that people have about Downtown?<br />

That it’s crime-ridden and overrun with homeless people. There is a<br />

slight problem as far as transients, but it’s nowhere near as major a problem<br />

as people make it out to be.<br />

If you could change one thing about Downtown, what would it be?<br />

We need a grocery store, big time. And it would be great to have even<br />

more dining options late at night. We’re still lacking that, and that’s what is<br />

keeping us from not only being like big downtowns across the country, but<br />

even ones in other Florida cities like Tampa and Orlando.<br />

48<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


intriguing downtowners<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 49


Emiko Board<br />

The Downtown Connection: Property manager<br />

of The Carling and 11East apartment complexes<br />

v v v v v<br />

What are the best things about Downtown — and<br />

about being in Downtown on a daily basis?<br />

Just being in the middle of so much culture and<br />

diversity. That’s what I love about being Downtown.<br />

There is a real energy all throughout Downtown, and<br />

the good thing is it’s only going to keep building and<br />

building because of all the new development and<br />

activity that’s going on. That’s really exciting. I love<br />

that.<br />

What is the biggest misconception that people<br />

have about Downtown?<br />

People think the traffic is bad Downtown and<br />

that there’s a lot of congestion. But seriously, there’s<br />

rarely ever a big issue with traffic Downtown. It’s not<br />

overwhelming at all, but there are still a lot of people<br />

who are afraid to come Downtown because they fear<br />

there’s going to be a traffic issue. That’s definitely a<br />

misconception.<br />

If you could change one thing about Downtown,<br />

what would it be?<br />

I would really focus on the issue with transients<br />

Downtown, because I do think that’s a problem that<br />

could discourage some people from really being<br />

involved in Downtown. Whether it’s a fair thing or<br />

not, I think some people see the number of transients<br />

we have Downtown and they immediately have a<br />

negative perception — it scares them off from really<br />

exploring Downtown.<br />

50<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


intriguing downtowners<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 51


intriguing downtowners<br />

52<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Dimitri Demopoulos<br />

The Downtown Connection: A resident of the Churchwell Lofts on Bay Street.<br />

v v v v v<br />

What are the best things about Downtown — and about being in Downtown<br />

on a daily basis?<br />

The best thing about living Downtown on a daily basis is the convenience<br />

that comes with being at the center of almost everything. In my immediate<br />

neighborhood, I can easily walk to the Times-Union Center for a night with the<br />

Jacksonville Symphony or pop over to the Florida Theatre for a David Chapelle<br />

concert.<br />

I can take a stroll along the Riverwalk or wander over to Hemming Park for Art<br />

Walk or just a pleasant al fresco lunch with some tunes.<br />

Best of all, I can hop on my bike and wave to folks in their cars as I coast to<br />

TIAA Bank Field in less than 10 minutes for a Jags game — no traffic and no parking<br />

lot fees for this Downtown resident.<br />

The same principle applies when I want to venture beyond the Urban Core:<br />

The bars and restaurants of Springfield, Riverside, Avondale and San Marco are all<br />

but a short ride away like points on a star.<br />

And when I want to head to the beach, the airport, Amelia Island or St. Augustine,<br />

I can access Interstate 95, the Arlington Expressway and the Hart Bridge all in<br />

less than 5 minutes.<br />

Truth be told, I’m a bit lazy, and living Downtown allows me to spend more<br />

time having fun and enjoying all that Jacksonville has to offer rather than waiting<br />

to have fun.<br />

What is the biggest misconception that people have about Downtown?<br />

The biggest misconception about Downtown is that it’s unsafe. Wrong! I’ve<br />

lived Downtown for 10 years and I regularly attend my local Sheriff’s Watch<br />

meetings. Both my personal experience and the JSO’s data confirm that the<br />

Urban Core is one of the safest neighborhoods in Northeast Florida — thanks to<br />

the hard work and commitment of the JSO’s officers and Downtown Vision Inc.’s<br />

Downtown Ambassadors.<br />

I often feel that people perceive Downtown as unsafe because it can appear so<br />

quiet and empty during certain week nights, but that perception should quickly<br />

change as more Downtown pioneers take the plunge and contribute to the daily<br />

activity occurring in the Urban Core.<br />

If you could change one thing about Downtown, what would it be?<br />

Demopoulos: I’m afraid it would be what many people would say: the plight<br />

of the homeless population concentrated in Downtown and the limited resources<br />

available to assist this population. Hopefully some of the more recent efforts<br />

being made by city officials, the JSO and various charities and nonprofits — like<br />

the creation of the Urban Rest Stop at the Sulzbacher Center — will begin to bear<br />

fruit and encourage many of the homeless to enter the system and access the help<br />

they may need to leave the streets.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 53


Allishia Bauman<br />

Downtown connection: Chief of staff for City Year<br />

Jacksonville, a Downtown nonprofit.<br />

v v v v v<br />

What are the best things about Downtown — and about being in Downtown<br />

on a daily basis?<br />

I love the strong nonprofit community Downtown. Being the chief of staff for<br />

one of those nonprofits, I consider it an honor to be a part of that community.<br />

There is nothing better than walking to and from your Downtown parking garage<br />

and running into someone from the Jessie Ball duPont Center where many of our<br />

favorite nonprofit partners call home.<br />

I’m also a huge fan of the growing places where you can break bread with<br />

the community. One of the top places would absolutely be Urban Grind. The<br />

friendly faces, the delicious food and drink and the beautiful Urban Garden<br />

make it a perfect spot to get away from a tense day. One of my recent favorite<br />

things is running into “The Uniform Guy” grabbing a coffee and asking you,<br />

“Has anyone done anything nice for you today?” If the answer is “no” — or<br />

you’re caught off guard by the question — he delights you with the purchase<br />

of a delicious Urban Grind muffin or cookie. Other notable gems on my list<br />

include Olio, Chamblin’s Uptown, 20 West Cafe, Toss Green, Coastal Cookies<br />

and my favorite happy hour spot: The Volstead!<br />

What is the biggest misconception that people have about Downtown?<br />

The biggest misconception would absolutely be that Downtown is<br />

unsafe. I walk three to four blocks to and from my parking garage, and I<br />

am never concerned about my safety. I have been here after hours and am<br />

never concerned about what might be around the corner. With the growing<br />

restaurants and shops, I can see the bustle of a city growing here in such<br />

fun ways that makes you feel like you’re not alone. If you don’t frequent<br />

Downtown, you won’t truly know about the charm I get to see, feel and<br />

experience every day.<br />

If you could change one thing about Downtown, what would it be?<br />

I would change how our community thinks about the area. The<br />

misconception about safety and assumption that there is nothing to<br />

do prevents people from coming Downtown; both of them are unfair<br />

assumptions. Also the way we regard historical landmarks is sad. Don’t get<br />

me wrong; it’s incredibly exciting to see the work being done to preserve<br />

the Barnett and Laura Street Trio buildings, but there are other times when<br />

I wonder how much more we truly value the importance of preservation.<br />

Admittedly there is a lot that I don’t know about building codes, safety and<br />

other stuff. But it’s sad to see the current conversations about iconic buildings<br />

like The Jacksonville Landing.<br />

What if we did what we are doing with the Trio and refurbished more spaces<br />

in creative ways that could draw our community together?<br />

What if we committed to solidifying our identity by understanding our history,<br />

learning from it and honoring what has made us great — much of which<br />

is in and around Downtown. I feel proud that City Year gets to be in the oldest<br />

building in Downtown Jacksonville, the Dyal-Upchurch Building, and I often<br />

paint a picture of the stories these walls hold. Imagine how powerful it would<br />

be if we would truly understand and uplift the stories that live in all of our<br />

historic Downtown walls.<br />

54<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


intriguing downtowners<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 55


CORE<br />

EYESORE<br />

‘MODERN DAY<br />

CENTRAL PARK’<br />

STILL A DREAM<br />

220 RIVERSIDE AVE.<br />

BY MIKE CLARK<br />

“What were they thinking?”<br />

That statement comes up often about<br />

Downtown. It applies to Unity Plaza in Brooklyn,<br />

which was designed to be iconic, boldly<br />

inspired by Bryant Park in Manhattan and<br />

Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore.<br />

And now it’s one of Jacksonville’s iconic<br />

failures. We don’t need any more eyesores<br />

Downtown.<br />

Unity Plaza contains just about all of Downtown’s<br />

shortcomings in one small space at the<br />

corner of Riverside Avenue and Forest Street.<br />

There is inadequate parking.<br />

There is hardly any shade with non-native<br />

palm trees.<br />

And all the concrete is more fitting for a<br />

parking garage than a welcoming gathering<br />

place.<br />

Its retail businesses have gradually disappeared<br />

so that its sales price was dropped<br />

from $4.5 million to $3.5 million, reported the<br />

Jacksonville Business Journal.<br />

The plaza is separate from the residential<br />

space at 220 Riverside, which has been a spectacular<br />

success.<br />

Compare Unity Plaza to its two inspirations.<br />

Bryant Park has lush gardens, free activities<br />

and world-class restaurants. It’s visited by more<br />

PHOTO: BOB SELF<br />

Spot a Downtown eyesore and want to know<br />

why it’s there or when it will be improved?<br />

Submit suggestions to: frankmdenton@gmail.com.<br />

56<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 57


Renderings from 2014 show a bustling, well-lit area around the pond and retail<br />

businesses filling 220 Riverside’s ground floor.<br />

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FREE, SELF-GUIDED TOUR | 5-9 P.M.<br />

Explore Downtown’s musuems and theatres, galleries<br />

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Jacksonville has a long history as one of the<br />

leading commercial centers in Florida.<br />

Holland & Knight is proud of the contributions our<br />

lawyers have made in promoting the business and<br />

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than 12 million people annually. Photos show plenty of trees, shade<br />

and grassy spaces despite all the traffic.<br />

In the heart of downtown Portland, Pioneer Courthouse Square<br />

hosts more than 300 events each year. It’s called “Portland’s living<br />

room.”<br />

When it opened in 2015, Unity Plaza was oversold as “a modern-day<br />

Central Park” with a non-profit managing lots of activities.<br />

Its Facebook page called it “A Life Enhancing Urban & Performance<br />

Park.”<br />

There were supposed to be daily activities — concerts, art shows, festivals,<br />

free yoga and meditation sessions. Maybe even winter ice skating.<br />

It was supposed to attract people from outside Brooklyn because the<br />

activities would be exciting.<br />

Developer Alex Coley told Times-Union reporter Matt Soergel that<br />

he saw Unity Plaza as a gathering spot for “cultural creatives.”<br />

Now? Nothing. While Brooklyn booms with activity, Unity Plaza is a<br />

lonely mess.<br />

If the new owners want to revive the space, they need to ditch the<br />

palm trees, bring in native trees that provide shade, provide some<br />

architecturally interesting shade forms, set up interesting activities and<br />

develop better parking.<br />

There could be something like Saturday’s Riverside Arts Market<br />

for the other six days of the week. There could be services that still<br />

are lacking Downtown such as a dry cleaner, a drug store and even a<br />

mini-hardware store.<br />

With the impending closing of the Jacksonville Landing, there will be<br />

a need for some of the community activities that Unity Plaza originally<br />

promised.<br />

Hemming Park has the template for a reviving a successful Downtown<br />

open space: Provide security, lots of shade, food trucks and plenty<br />

of activities.<br />

Unity Plaza could be successful, too.<br />

All of the globetrotting involved in the Unity Plaza research was<br />

unnecessary.<br />

Jacksonville has a classic urban park less than one mile from Unity<br />

Plaza.<br />

Memorial Park in Riverside was designed by the Olmstead Brothers<br />

of Central Park fame.<br />

It has everything that Unity Plaza lacks: trees and shade along a<br />

walking path, a grassy center for all kinds of community activities and a<br />

classic piece of sculpture. The wonderful design has inspired the neighborhood<br />

to advocate for the park.<br />

In contrast, Unity Plaza looks like an overgrown retention pond.<br />

Mike Clark has been a reporter and editor for The Florida Times-<br />

Union and its predecessors since 1973 and editorial page editor since<br />

2005. He lives in Nocatee.<br />

Hallmark Partners<br />

58<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


POLISHING A<br />

CROWN JEWEL<br />

The new CEO of the Cummer Museum & Gardens<br />

brings ‘youth and vibrance’ to the museum’s future<br />

BY CHARLIE PATTON v PHOTO BY BOB SELF<br />

60<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


T<br />

he man who is<br />

now the Cummer<br />

Museum of Art &<br />

Gardens’ director<br />

and CEO had never<br />

heard of the Cummer<br />

and had no interest in leaving the<br />

highly regarded Toledo Museum of<br />

Art when the Cummer’s recruiter first<br />

contacted him in November 2017.<br />

“At first I was not convinced it was<br />

an opportunity that would interest<br />

me,” Adam Levine, who in January<br />

became the Cummer’s George W. and<br />

Kathleen I. Gibbs Director and Chief<br />

Executive Officer, said in a recent interview.<br />

“I was fully engaged in Toledo<br />

and wasn’t thinking about leaving. I<br />

took the call because it was a recruiter<br />

I didn’t know. It’s good to know<br />

recruiters.”<br />

The recruiter convinced Levine to<br />

talk to Ryan Schwartz, the Cummer’s<br />

immediate past board chairman who<br />

was helping lead the search for a<br />

director after Hope McMath’s resignation<br />

in August 2017.<br />

“Ryan and I had a conversation,<br />

and I was impressed with the way they<br />

were conducting the search,” Levine<br />

said.<br />

Still Levine resisted visiting Jacksonville.<br />

“I told him I wasn’t a candidate, and<br />

I’d feel terrible using their resources<br />

to come down for a trip when I’m not<br />

serious about the position,” he said.<br />

Schwartz’s response was that, even<br />

if Levine didn’t consider himself a<br />

candidate, he should still visit.<br />

So Levine came to Jacksonville in<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 61


January 2018. And he was impressed.<br />

“Frankly it infected me,” he said. “The idea of<br />

the Cummer and the opportunity to drive change<br />

here was exciting.”<br />

But Levine, who had become engaged to a<br />

Toledo resident who was studying to be a dentist,<br />

ultimately decided “the timing wasn’t right” and<br />

withdrew as a candidate.<br />

“However interesting, I had to pass,” he said.<br />

Levine’s decision left the Cummer in a difficult<br />

position. Finding candidates who had the qualities<br />

they were looking for — a solid knowledge of<br />

art history combined with business knowledge<br />

and leadership skills — was proving frustrating,<br />

Schwartz said.<br />

“The Cummer was having a hard time with our<br />

search,” Schwartz said.<br />

Then in August 2018 the Cummer’s board invited<br />

Levine to reconsider. He and his fiancée, Brooke<br />

Brown, visited in September 2018, and he decided<br />

he wanted the job. His hiring was announced by<br />

the Cummer in mid-October.<br />

Levine grew up in New York City, in the Riverdale<br />

section of the Bronx. His love of museums<br />

began young.<br />

“I grew up going to art museums on rainy days,”<br />

he said.<br />

He attended the Horace Mann School, a college<br />

preparatory school located in Riverdale, for high<br />

school and spent three years studying art history.<br />

As a senior he read Dan Brown’s novel “The<br />

Da Vinci Code.” While he wasn’t impressed by the<br />

book, he was intrigued by its discussion regarding<br />

which gospels were included in the New Testament.<br />

He spent his summer vacation reading<br />

books about the Gnostic gospels by Princeton<br />

scholar Elaine Pagels.<br />

That fall, enrolled at Dartmouth College, he<br />

began studying early Christian art and developed<br />

an interest in artistic depictions of Christ<br />

during the Roman Empire. He majored in<br />

anthropology, art history and mathematics and<br />

social sciences.<br />

He then attended the University of Oxford’s<br />

Corpus Christi College as a Rhodes Scholar, earning<br />

a master degree and a doctorate in art history.<br />

While a student at Oxford, he co-founded a<br />

company, Art Research Technologies, and served<br />

as its CEO until 2012. The company was designed<br />

to price art effectively. Levine said he did a poor<br />

job managing his company, but it was a valuable<br />

experience.<br />

“I made virtually every mistake someone in his<br />

20s could make,” he said. “I think I’m better for it<br />

having metabolized those failures … We managed<br />

a positive exit out of it. It was a really important<br />

lesson for me.”<br />

Levine then went to work for the Metropolitan<br />

Museum of Art in New York City as a<br />

collections management assistant in the Greek<br />

and Roman Art Department. In 2013 he was<br />

hired by the Toledo Museum of Art, initially as<br />

ADAM M.<br />

LEVINE<br />

George W. and Kathleen I.<br />

Gibbs Director and Chief<br />

Executive Officer of the<br />

Cummer Museum of Art<br />

& Gardens<br />

Age: 32<br />

Hometown:<br />

Bronx, New York<br />

Education:<br />

Bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth<br />

College in anthropology,<br />

art history and mathematics<br />

and social sciences; Master of<br />

Studies and Doctor of Philosophy<br />

degrees in the history of<br />

art from Oxford University.<br />

PREVIOUS Work<br />

experience:<br />

Deputy director and curator<br />

of ancient art at the Toledo<br />

Museum of Art, 2013-2018;<br />

collections management assistant<br />

in the Greek and Roman<br />

Art Department at the Metropolitan<br />

Museum of Art in New<br />

York City 2011-2013; founder<br />

and CEO of Art Research<br />

Technologies, 2009-2012.<br />

FAMILY:<br />

Parents live in Bend, Ore.;<br />

brother, a chef, lives in Brooklyn;<br />

fiancée Brooke Brown<br />

lives in Toledo, Ohio.<br />

QUOTE:<br />

“When I visited the Cummer<br />

Museum, I was overwhelmed<br />

by its potential. The seasoned<br />

staff, the magnificent gardens,<br />

the strong collection and the<br />

supportive board all suggested<br />

the museum could become a<br />

truly special institution.”<br />

an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow.<br />

He subsequently was promoted to assistant<br />

director, then associate director and finally deputy<br />

director while also serving as curator of the museum’s<br />

collection of ancient art. The Toledo Museum<br />

of Art has a permanent collection of more than<br />

20,000 works of art (the Cummer’s collection is<br />

about 5,000 works of art).<br />

v v v<br />

Levine, like his predecessor McMath, is interested<br />

in expanding and diversifying the Cummer’s<br />

focus and its audience. In February he invited<br />

Johnnetta Cole, a Jacksonville native who was president<br />

of Spelman College and of Bennett College<br />

and, from 2009-2017, was director of the Smithsonian<br />

Institution’s National Museum of African Art,<br />

to join him at the Cummer for a discussion of how<br />

to make museum membership more diverse.<br />

During the evening, Cole repeatedly referred to<br />

Levine as her mentee.<br />

“I mentor many young people, most of whom<br />

are women and people of color,” said Cole, now<br />

a resident of American Beach in Nassau County.<br />

“However, I offered to be Adam’s mentor because<br />

we share the same perspective about art museums<br />

…<br />

“Adam exhibits characteristics of an outstanding<br />

leader. He has a collaborative style, he<br />

is courageous in doing what he thinks is right, he<br />

commands the subject matter of his field, he is<br />

open to new and innovative ways of doing things,<br />

and he inspires his colleagues.”<br />

Cole’s enthusiasm about Levine is widely<br />

shared.<br />

“He’s a rising star in the museum world,” said<br />

Ricardo “Rick” Morales III, the chair of the Cummer’s<br />

board of trustees.<br />

“He seemed to check all the boxes,” said Jim<br />

Draper, an artist who teaches at the University<br />

of North Florida and was part of the search<br />

committee. “He was the perfect choice for the<br />

Cummer. He understands the dynamics of the<br />

way things work.”<br />

“I think he’ll bring fresh energy,” said Crystal<br />

Floyd, studio director of CoRK, a collection of artist<br />

studios in North Riverside.<br />

“He has youth and vibrance,” said James<br />

Richardson, a Cummer trustee who was part of the<br />

search committee. “I was impressed by his entrepreneurial<br />

thinking.”<br />

“His credentials are just top notch,” said Debra<br />

Murphy, chair of UNF’s Department of Art and<br />

Design. “He opens up a new era for the Cummer.”<br />

“We were lucky he even bothered to come<br />

here,” said Martha Baker, co-chair of the Cummer<br />

search committee. “He has such a fresh view of<br />

things.”<br />

“I would say that he has a fresh approach on<br />

what the art scene should be in Jacksonville,” said<br />

artist Lana Shuttlesworth, who said Levine has<br />

been visiting Jacksonville artists in their studios<br />

62<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


and offering critiques of their works. “He’s very<br />

intelligent, very articulate and very generous with<br />

his time.”<br />

“He’s a terrific new face to represent the Cummer,”<br />

said Jacksonville historian Wayne Wood.<br />

“I think they made a very good choice,” said<br />

Preston Haskell, a long time leader in the Jacksonville<br />

arts community. “He jumped into the job with<br />

a good deal of energy and enthusiasm.”<br />

Levine’s vision for the Cummer’s future focuses<br />

on growing the museum’s audience, increasing its<br />

endowment and its budget, showcasing its permanent<br />

collection including the gardens and improving<br />

programming.<br />

“The Cummer is not all that well-known in the<br />

community,” Levine said. “But the people who experience<br />

it say it’s a gem. And it is. But it’s a gem that<br />

needs some polish. … I think the institution can be<br />

elevated a substantial amount, but I don’t know that<br />

huge changes need to be made.”<br />

Levine said that there were about 140,000 visits<br />

to the Cummer last year, a number he wants to see<br />

increased. One of the things he is doing to accomplish<br />

that goal is seeking meetings with individuals<br />

and organizations that can help drive attendance.<br />

The Cummer’s operating budget for the current<br />

fiscal year is $4.2 million. Levine said he would like<br />

to see that budget increase in future years. One of<br />

the ways to do that is to increase the Cummer’s endowment,<br />

which funds 40 percent of the Cummer’s<br />

annual operating budget. As of the end of the last<br />

fiscal year the Cummer had an endowment of about<br />

$33 million.<br />

Levine said he found the Cummer’s permanent<br />

collection to be “much better than I would have<br />

anticipated,”<br />

He cited “Home From the Harvest,” a painting by<br />

William-Adolph Bouguereau, a 19th century French<br />

artist; the Constance I and Ralph H. Warl Collection<br />

of Early Meissen Porcelain and the Cummer<br />

gardens as among the masterpieces in the Cummer<br />

permanent collection.<br />

“There are some lovely, lovely things,” he said.<br />

“There are some really quite good things in storage<br />

that haven’t been seen in a long time …<br />

“The gardens are an extraordinary resource. We<br />

need to start thinking of the gardens not as this thing<br />

behind the museum but as an integral part of the<br />

collection.”<br />

As for exhibits, Levine said that while he isn’t<br />

ready to announce the subjects, “we are almost<br />

completely planned out through 2022. At least two<br />

exhibits now being planned will be curated by the<br />

Cummer, “and another two that we will be curating<br />

are in the works.”<br />

He said he wants to do more exhibits like recent<br />

“Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman,” an exhibit<br />

originally planned by McMath.<br />

Levine said he introduced himself to McMath<br />

the first week he was on the job.<br />

“The first words out of my mouth after I met<br />

Hope were ‘thank you,’” he said. “I told her ‘I am<br />

“We want<br />

to create an<br />

institution<br />

that drives<br />

civic pride<br />

and civic<br />

engagement<br />

with the<br />

highest<br />

quality art.<br />

There are lots<br />

of institutions<br />

that can<br />

drive civic<br />

pride. The<br />

Jaguars are<br />

an example.<br />

But the way<br />

we do it is<br />

not through<br />

football. The<br />

way we do it<br />

is with art,<br />

specifically<br />

the very<br />

best art.”<br />

ADAM M. LEVINE<br />

CUMMER MUSEUM<br />

& GARDENS CEO<br />

inheriting a strong institution because of you.’…<br />

Historically this has been a very well-managed<br />

organization.”<br />

He also has high praise for Holly Keris, the Cummer’s<br />

chief curator, who served as chief operating<br />

officer in the period between McMath’s exit from<br />

the Cummer and Levine’s arrival.<br />

“I am going to work with and mentor Holly to be<br />

the absolute best chief curator she can be because I<br />

know she can be a total star not just in Jacksonville<br />

but in the museum community,” Levine said. “She’s<br />

brilliant.”<br />

Keris played a key role in the Cummer’s recent<br />

purchase of “Magnetic Fields,” a large abstract<br />

painting by Mildred Thompson, a 20th century<br />

African-American artist born in Jacksonville. It is<br />

the first addition to the permanent collection since<br />

Levine arrived in Jacksonville.<br />

v v v<br />

Although the Cummer owns the land next to<br />

the museum building, land that once was occupied<br />

by the Women’s Club of Jacksonville, Levine said<br />

there is no immediate plan to expand the Cummer’s<br />

facilities.<br />

“That doesn’t mean that down the road there<br />

won’t be expansion opportunities,” he said. “It does<br />

mean there is a manageable footprint within this<br />

institution already. We need to begin by refreshing<br />

the galleries, breathing life into the permanent<br />

collection. We want to upgrade the quality of the<br />

programming.<br />

“We want to create an institution that drives civic<br />

pride and civic engagement with the highest quality<br />

art. There are lots of institutions that can drive civic<br />

pride. The Jaguars are an example. But the way we<br />

do it is not through football. The way we do it is with<br />

art, specifically the very best art.”<br />

Levine is living in a rented apartment in Atlantic<br />

Beach. While he doesn’t particularly enjoy the daily<br />

commute via Atlantic Boulevard from the beach to<br />

Riverside, he said the smell of the ocean makes the<br />

long drive acceptable. And as a native New Yorker,<br />

Levine said he is used to commuting.<br />

In his free time Levine enjoys running, reading<br />

and watching sports. He’s a fan of the New York<br />

Knicks, Giants and Mets. But it doesn’t sound as if<br />

Levine has a lot of free time.<br />

He is working to meet as many people as he<br />

can and change the community perception of the<br />

Cummer.<br />

“People don’t know what’s here,” he said. “This<br />

can be not just a gem but a crown jewel among<br />

American museums. That’s certainly ambitious.<br />

But I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was true.<br />

“… Everyone in Jacksonville wants Jacksonville<br />

to be a great city. Name one great city that doesn’t<br />

have a great art museum.”<br />

Charlie Patton retired in September after more than<br />

41 years with The Florida Times-Union, spending his last<br />

nine years covering the arts. He lives in Riverside.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 63


THE<br />

BROOKLYN<br />

REVIVAL<br />

HOW ONE DOWNTOWN<br />

NEIGHBORHOOD keeps<br />

BUILDING MOMENTUM<br />

BY FRANK DENTON<br />

ILLUSTRATION BY Trevato Group<br />

64<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Preliminary plans for a Brooklyn<br />

food hall include a two-building<br />

adaptive reuse development that<br />

could contain five market anchors<br />

and one retail anchor as well<br />

as 16 market stalls.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 65


ooklyn<br />

Plans for a Brooklyn food hall in the 300 block of Park Street include indoor food stalls with communal seating, an outdoor beer garden and a dining courtyard.<br />

SUDDENLY,<br />

IN THE BLINK<br />

OF AN EYE,<br />

Brooklyn finally is becoming a community<br />

again — a hip 21st century successor to the<br />

historic 19th century neighborhood.<br />

If the old Brooklyn were not essentially<br />

long-gone, the new Brooklyn would represent<br />

urban gentrification. Rather, it is more<br />

like rediscovery of a neighborhood that is so<br />

intimate with the urban core and is officially<br />

the southwest sector of Downtown.<br />

Drive along Riverside Avenue, and you<br />

can see Brooklyn coming to life. Turn west,<br />

between the new construction and the Fresh<br />

Market, and you quickly come face to face<br />

with the new staring down the old.<br />

Pause at 328 Chelsea St., all boarded up<br />

and ramshackle with the house number<br />

crudely spray-painted on the front, and<br />

you’ll see the final, sad artifact of the community<br />

that was settled after the Civil War by<br />

black Union veterans and freed slaves.<br />

One block east is planned what could be the<br />

21st century anchor of the new community:<br />

a food hall. Unsure what that is? Read on<br />

about a new lifestyle for the new Downtown.<br />

Brooklyn’S history<br />

If you’re not a Jacksonville native, you<br />

are forgiven for not knowing that Brooklyn<br />

is historic, because it’s been rundown, razed<br />

and ignored since desegregation beginning<br />

in the 1960s.<br />

The area was first settled in the late 1700s,<br />

Trevato Group<br />

66<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


JEFF DAVIS<br />

as Jacksonville was taking shape, according<br />

to Wayne Wood’s book, “Jacksonville’s<br />

Architectural Heritage.” It served as a corn<br />

and cotton plantation until it was put up for<br />

sale in 1858.<br />

This newspaper ad promoted the appeal<br />

of Brooklyn that endures today: “This tract of<br />

land is valuable not only for planting purposes<br />

but, owing to its immediate vicinity to the<br />

flourishing and growing Town of Jacksonville,<br />

is well adapted for private residences<br />

— its position being on the River — the Bluff<br />

high and commanding an extensive view<br />

of the River St. Johns. That portion adjacent<br />

to the Town of Jacksonville and lying on<br />

McCoy’s Creek will at once find ready purchasers<br />

at good prices, if lots are laid out and<br />

offered for sale.”<br />

During the Civil War, the area served<br />

as the encampment for black and white<br />

Union troops for the fourth occupation of<br />

Jacksonville, and a garrison stayed after the<br />

war to help restore order. Beginning in 1868,<br />

it was named “Brooklyn,” subdivided and<br />

developed. Black Union veterans stayed or<br />

returned and were joined by former slaves,<br />

creating a black community. Wood’s book<br />

says an 1885 map shows numerous two- and<br />

three-room wooden cottages. Apparently,<br />

328 Chelsea is the only one remaining and,<br />

obvious by its condition, is listed by the<br />

Jacksonville Historical Society as one of our<br />

“most endangered buildings.”<br />

For a century, Brooklyn remained a<br />

“vibrant” black community, said Ennis Davis,<br />

an urban planner, student of local history<br />

and co-founder of Moderncities.com and<br />

TheJaxson.org, websites about urbanism and<br />

culture. “If you were black, no matter how<br />

much money you had, you had to live in a<br />

black neighborhood.”<br />

Desegregation beginning in the 1960s<br />

allowed black people to live anywhere they<br />

could afford, and Brooklyn — deteriorating<br />

because of lack of infrastructure investment,<br />

Davis said — withered rapidly, down to perhaps<br />

40 residents in the 2010 census.<br />

What has happened in the past eight<br />

years could be an example of urban gentrification,<br />

but Brooklyn was so down and<br />

out, it’s more like a rebirth, akin to a trend<br />

identified by The New York Times of “predominantly<br />

minority neighborhoods near<br />

downtowns growing whiter, while suburban<br />

neighborhoods that were once largely white<br />

are experiencing an increased share of black,<br />

Hispanic and Asian-American residents …<br />

(A)s revived downtowns attract wealthier<br />

residents closer to the center city, recent<br />

white home buyers are arriving in these<br />

neighborhoods with incomes that are on<br />

average twice as high as that of their existing<br />

TRACKING BROOKLYN’S TRANSFORMATION<br />

ELM ST.<br />

PRICE ST.<br />

1<br />

2<br />

3<br />

4<br />

5<br />

6<br />

7<br />

N<br />

JACKSON ST.<br />

FOREST ST.<br />

PARK ST.<br />

CHELSEA ST.<br />

11 3<br />

13<br />

12<br />

8<br />

9<br />

220 Riverside<br />

A six-story, 294-unit apartment complex<br />

opened in 2015<br />

Brooklyn Station<br />

A shopping center anchored by The Fresh<br />

Market opened in 2014<br />

Brooklyn Riverside<br />

A five-story, 310-unit apartment complex<br />

Vista Brooklyn<br />

A 10-story, 308-unit apartment complex,<br />

with retail, under construction<br />

Lofts at Brooklyn<br />

A 133-unit apartment complex to be<br />

under construction this summer<br />

Brooklyn Place<br />

A proposed 12,500-square-foot dining<br />

and shopping center<br />

Winston Family YMCA<br />

New facility opened in 2016 to replace<br />

the Yates Family YMCA<br />

neighbors, and two-thirds higher than that of<br />

existing homeowners.”<br />

“In the places where white households<br />

are moving, reinvestment is possible mainly<br />

because of the disinvestment that came<br />

before it. Many of these neighborhoods were<br />

once segregated by law and redlined by<br />

banks. The federal government built highways<br />

that isolated them and housing projects<br />

that were concentrated in them.”<br />

The Brooklyn version of that trend is<br />

that the newcomers are “wealthier” only in<br />

relation to traditional residents, and they are<br />

apartment renters rather than homeowners.<br />

But Brooklyn is quickly transforming into<br />

5<br />

1<br />

4<br />

2<br />

7<br />

McCoys Creek<br />

MAGNOLIA ST.<br />

6<br />

RIVERSIDE AVE.<br />

Northbank Riverwalk<br />

8<br />

9<br />

10<br />

11<br />

12<br />

13<br />

10<br />

St. Johns River<br />

WATER ST.<br />

ACOSTA BRIDGE<br />

Residence Inn<br />

A six-story, 135-room hotel planned to<br />

open next summer<br />

Brooklyn Park<br />

Small but with a basketball court and<br />

baseball field<br />

Old Times-Union Building<br />

Now empty, as owners plan<br />

redevelopment<br />

328 Chelsea<br />

Last home from the community<br />

settled after the Civil War by black Union<br />

veterans and freed slaves. “One of our<br />

most endangered buildings.”<br />

331 and 339 Park<br />

Empty commercial buildings envisioned<br />

for adaptive reuse as a food hall<br />

260 Park<br />

Commercial building owned by the<br />

developers of the possible food hall<br />

a neighborhood that is younger and more<br />

affluent — and into a real community.<br />

a new Brooklyn<br />

The renaissance began only five years<br />

ago when The Fresh Market bravely opened<br />

its doors as the anchor for Brooklyn Station<br />

shopping center at 150 Riverside. Downtown<br />

cynics and naysayers speculated on how long<br />

it would last.<br />

Then the next year, NAI Hallmark Partners<br />

opened 220 Riverside, the six-story,<br />

294-unit apartment complex a block south.<br />

The units quickly filled, but the restaurants<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 67


LEFT: When the<br />

Brooklyn Station<br />

shopping center<br />

at 150 Riverside<br />

Ave. was opened<br />

in 2014, developers<br />

commissioned murals<br />

honoring the history<br />

of the area.<br />

RIGHT: The owners<br />

of the former Florida<br />

Times-Union buildings<br />

at 1 Riverside Ave.<br />

reportedly are<br />

considering proposals<br />

for redevelopment of<br />

the site and possibly<br />

opening access to<br />

McCoys Creek.<br />

LEFT: Under<br />

construction between<br />

220 Riverside and<br />

Brooklyn Station is<br />

Vista Brooklyn, a<br />

10-story, 308-unit<br />

apartment building<br />

with a rooftop pool,<br />

beer garden, dog park<br />

and ground-floor<br />

retail.<br />

RIGHT: Just two<br />

blocks from the<br />

bulk of the ongoing<br />

development in<br />

Brooklyn, boarded<br />

up and abandoned<br />

homes fill the<br />

blighted Downtown<br />

neighborhood.<br />

on the first floor flopped, and the ballyhooed<br />

Unity Plaza, built with some public money<br />

and intending to be the “central park” of<br />

Jacksonville, fizzled.<br />

Despite that misstep, 220 Riverside was<br />

the catalyst for more. The Daily Record quoted<br />

developer and property manager Alex<br />

Sifakis as saying other developers should<br />

thank Hallmark for its courage: “220 Riverside<br />

is the reason anything in Downtown<br />

Jacksonville is getting developed right now.<br />

It gave the comps (comparable values) for all<br />

the projects getting done today.”<br />

It certainly sparked Brooklyn. An Atlanta<br />

developer came in and built The Brooklyn<br />

Riverside, a sprawling five-story, 310-unit<br />

apartment complex directly behind Brooklyn<br />

Station.<br />

Now under construction, immediately<br />

between 220 Riverside and Brooklyn Station,<br />

is Vista Brooklyn, a 10-story, 308-unit<br />

apartment building with a rooftop pool, beer<br />

garden, dog park, parking deck and groundfloor<br />

retail.<br />

And Vestcor, the developer that built or is<br />

building three “lofts” apartment complexes<br />

in adjacent LaVilla, announced it will build<br />

the 133-unit Lofts at Brooklyn as workforce<br />

and affordable housing on an entire block<br />

between Chelsea and Spruce streets and<br />

Jackson and Stonewall streets. Construction<br />

is to start this summer.<br />

Add them up, and that will be more than<br />

1,000 new apartment units built in Brooklyn<br />

since 2015.<br />

THE PEOPLE ARE THERE<br />

As the planners keep saying about other<br />

sectors of Downtown, more residents will<br />

bring more retail, more food and drink and<br />

other amenities that are the adhesive to a<br />

true community.<br />

That’s there too, or coming.<br />

On the northeast side of Brooklyn Station,<br />

where you now see the “jug handle” street<br />

loop that allowed big trucks to get into the<br />

former Times-Union building, the city is<br />

planning to swap that 1.5 acres to a developer<br />

to build a 12,500-square-foot retail and<br />

dining and shopping center called Brooklyn<br />

Place with about a half-dozen “national,<br />

regional and experienced local operators.”<br />

A Jacksonville Business Journal source says<br />

they may include Chipotle and Panera Bread.<br />

On the opposite, southwest side of Brooklyn<br />

Station, Vista Brooklyn, under construction,<br />

plans to offer 14,000 square feet of retail<br />

space on the ground floor.<br />

Add those two developments to Brooklyn<br />

JEFF DAVIS (4)<br />

68<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Station, and Riverside Avenue will offer three<br />

consecutive blocks of retail and restaurants.<br />

Directly across the street is the new<br />

Winston Family YMCA, which exceeded its<br />

seven-year membership goal in two years<br />

and now is planning an expansion. It’s<br />

probably already the most complete and<br />

up-to-date fitness and wellness facility in<br />

Northeast Florida.<br />

Just west of 220 Riverside is planned a<br />

six-story, 135-room Residence Inn at the<br />

corner of Magnolia and Forest. Construction<br />

is to begin soon, with the opening next<br />

summer. Hotel guests will be itinerant traffic<br />

but also feet on the street and customers for<br />

the growing eateries and stores.<br />

In a city of parks, you’d expect a community<br />

to have one, and this one does. The aptly<br />

named Brooklyn Park is small and obscure<br />

but offers a basketball court and baseball<br />

field — directly across the street from the<br />

planned Lofts at Brooklyn. Residents probably<br />

will have it mostly to themselves.<br />

Need more?<br />

In March, the City Council approved<br />

Groundwork Jacksonville’s plan to restore<br />

and develop the long-envisioned Emerald<br />

Necklace, almost 20 miles of new trails to<br />

connect with the S-Line urban greenway,<br />

McCoys Creek, Hogans Creek and the riverwalks.<br />

The “model project” of 1.3 miles to be<br />

completed next year will connect the S-Line<br />

to the intersection of Park and Stonewall<br />

streets — in Brooklyn, behind The Brooklyn<br />

Riverside.<br />

A big unknown is the future of the former<br />

Times-Union buildings across Riverside from<br />

Brooklyn Station. The newspaper’s former<br />

owners retained ownership of the buildings<br />

and reportedly are considering proposals<br />

for redevelopment, ideally opening up<br />

McCoys Creek, which runs to the St. Johns<br />

underneath the walkway connecting the two<br />

buildings.<br />

There are other potential projects under<br />

the radar. Last June, the Daily Record reported<br />

that 13 networked local companies have<br />

been buying up vacant and rundown properties<br />

in Brooklyn, suggesting that developers<br />

are just waiting for critical mass. Only one<br />

idea has surfaced: turning the abandoned<br />

Mt. Calvary Baptist Church into a brewery<br />

and restaurant.<br />

Now, if you look at the map of Brooklyn,<br />

you have to believe that all this development<br />

in a relatively small area of two dozen city<br />

blocks promises some intense synergy.<br />

Perhaps the final component, the catalyst,<br />

could be a natural indoor gathering place,<br />

maybe a city block or so from the fizzled<br />

LEFT: Surrounded<br />

by razor-wire topped<br />

fences, a variety of<br />

abandoned businesses<br />

and warehouses<br />

line three blocks<br />

of Park Street in<br />

Jacksonville’s Brooklyn<br />

neighborhood.<br />

RIGHT: Formerly<br />

home to The Trophy<br />

Center, this abandoned<br />

building at 339 Park<br />

St. was built in 1945<br />

and is part of a plan<br />

to turn the area into<br />

the 33,000-square-foot<br />

Brooklyn food hall,<br />

with a variety of dining<br />

and retail tenants.<br />

LEFT: The boarded up<br />

house at 328 Chelsea<br />

St. is believed to be the<br />

lone survivor of the<br />

community built during<br />

and after the Civil War<br />

by black Union soldiers<br />

and former slaves.<br />

JEFF DAVIS (4)<br />

RIGHT: Though little<br />

progress has been<br />

made, plans to convert<br />

the abandoned Mt.<br />

Calvary Baptist Church<br />

at 301 Spruce St. into<br />

a brewery and an<br />

adjoining 5,000-squarefoot<br />

restaurant were<br />

announced in 2017.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 69


\\\\\ T R E N D I N G /////<br />

F O O D<br />

H A L L S<br />

A modern food hall is a permanent market building that features a mix of food-inspired retail (everything<br />

from cooking supplies to cookbook stores), artisanal food vendors (upscale chocolatiers, premium cheeses,<br />

bakers, butchers, etc.) and a mix of restaurateurs serving authentically prepared foods (anything from<br />

street foods to chef-driven concepts, typically with an emphasis on “farm-to-fork” fresh ingredients).<br />

Millennial Eating<br />

Patterns Favor<br />

Food Halls<br />

40+60+v<br />

55+45+v<br />

44+56+v<br />

40% of millennials will<br />

order something different<br />

every time they visit the<br />

same restaurant.<br />

55% of millennials prefer<br />

communal tables when<br />

dining out.<br />

44% of the food dollars<br />

spent by millennials are<br />

spent on eating out.<br />

FOOD HALL GROWTH IN THE UNITED STATES<br />

Food Halls<br />

300<br />

250<br />

200<br />

150<br />

100<br />

50<br />

0<br />

Food halls are popping up around the<br />

U.S. at a breakneck pace. By 2020, an<br />

estimated 300 will have opened, nearly<br />

tripling the marketplace size since 2017.<br />

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 <strong>2019</strong> 2020<br />

n Existing n Projected<br />

THE BEST NEW FOOD HALLS IN THE U.S.<br />

As food halls continue to be one of the biggest culinary trends in the country, an estimated 180 are now open across<br />

the U.S. Earlier this year, USA Today conducted a poll to find the best new food halls which have opened in the past year.<br />

1. KEG AND CASE<br />

WEST 7TH MARKET<br />

St. Paul<br />

Located at the Schmidt Brewery,<br />

Keg and Case combines chef-driven<br />

restaurants with craft beer and a<br />

curated market of regional goods,<br />

including more than two dozen<br />

vendors serving everything from<br />

coffee and sweets to smoked meats<br />

and Jamaican chicken.<br />

2. MORGAN STREET<br />

FOOD HALL & MARKET<br />

Raleigh, N.C.<br />

Diners at Morgan Street Food Hall<br />

will find no shortage of options.<br />

More than a dozen vendors<br />

prepare classics like pizza, burgers,<br />

tacos and ice cream, as well as<br />

unique offerings like sushi burritos<br />

and dishes from India, Lebanon,<br />

Vietnam and Argentina.<br />

3. LEGACY FOOD HALL<br />

Plano, Texas<br />

Located just outside of Dallas,<br />

Legacy Hall is part food village,<br />

part beer garden and part live<br />

entertainment venue. It features<br />

two dozen concepts by local chefs,<br />

including naan wraps, popsicles,<br />

barbecue and Peruvian chicken.<br />

Plus, a pair of cocktail bars, a natural<br />

wine bar and a craft brewery.<br />

4. FINN HALL<br />

Houston<br />

Located in the historic JPMorgan<br />

Chase & Co. building in the heart<br />

of downtown Houston, the new<br />

Finn Hall features 20,000 square<br />

feet of space for 10 chef-driven<br />

food concepts, as well as a craft<br />

beer and wine bar and an Art<br />

Deco cocktail lounge.<br />

Sources: U.S. Department of Agriculture food expenditure data; Restaurant Marketing Labs; Cushman & Wakefield, Food Halls of North America 2018 report<br />

JEFF DAVIS<br />

70<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Unity Plaza, the outdoor gathering place that<br />

has not been given up for dead.<br />

authenticity & food<br />

Trevato Development Group’s concept<br />

of a Brooklyn food hall apparently has been<br />

in development since the Jacksonville firm<br />

bought 301 and 339 Park St., two large old<br />

commercial buildings, in 2016 and progressed<br />

to the design stage a year later. It was<br />

all sub rosa until the plan emerged recently<br />

at a meeting of the International Council of<br />

Shopping Centers.<br />

A spokesperson said that, when renovated<br />

into adaptive reuse, the two buildings,<br />

with a total of 33,000 square feet, will<br />

become “a multi-tenant space focusing on<br />

artisanal foods and products: dining and<br />

retail (and) anchor restaurants, small purveyors<br />

of artisanal foods and products.” That<br />

is, a food hall.<br />

The spokesperson cited as an example<br />

Krog Street Market in Atlanta (krogstreetmarket.com).<br />

TheJaxson.org said the shopping-center<br />

meeting was told the plan is to convert the<br />

buildings “into a sprawling complex with full<br />

service anchor restaurants, indoor food stalls<br />

with communal seating, an outdoor beer<br />

garden/dining courtyard and a flex space for<br />

temporary vendors.”<br />

WHAT IS A FOOD HALL?<br />

Don’t confuse food hall with food court.<br />

The latter is familiar at suburban malls as<br />

the collection of chain fast-food stores,<br />

usually in the middle of the mall, catering to<br />

busy shoppers. In and out fast with cheap<br />

food that is consistent about anywhere in<br />

the country. Combo with fries?<br />

A food hall differs in that it is local,<br />

unique and authentic.<br />

Uptown Urban Market in Dallas defines<br />

itself: “Essentially, a food hall is a clustering<br />

of ‘the best of class’ from local chefs and<br />

restaurateurs in smaller food stalls in more<br />

open spaces … Limited menu offerings,<br />

cutting edge trends, diversity in flavors and<br />

items that are easy to grab on the run, eat<br />

quickly in a community seating environment,<br />

or take back to your apartment,<br />

home or condo. Typically, these food halls<br />

are found in high density urban areas with<br />

strong residential demographics offering<br />

meals, beverages, or bites for all times of the<br />

day, accentuating high quality food at much<br />

lower prices than traditional restaurants<br />

are able to provide in a setting designed for<br />

today’s lifestyle.”<br />

Food halls achieve localness and<br />

uniqueness because of their economics.<br />

The barriers to entry have prevented many<br />

would-be restaurateurs from opening their<br />

brick-and-mortar start-ups — rent, maintenance,<br />

utilities, trash and grease removal,<br />

pest control, etc.<br />

A few years ago, they found they could<br />

overcome much of that with food trucks,<br />

which are self-contained and can move to<br />

the customers.<br />

In a food hall, restaurateurs and other<br />

food retailers can concentrate on their<br />

products and just pay the landlord to handle<br />

the logistics. The collective nature makes it<br />

all much more affordable.<br />

Ennis Davis said it’s the food outgrowth<br />

of the “sharing” economy, best known for<br />

Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and bikeshares.<br />

Food halls have sprung in major cities up<br />

all over the country, and as with food trucks,<br />

Jacksonville is a laggard into the trend.<br />

Barry Sorkin, co-owner of Smoque BBQ<br />

in a Chicago food hall, told Forbes magazine<br />

that food halls need to be very strategic<br />

about where they locate: “Not every location<br />

is right for a food hall, and developers<br />

should be careful. Most people won’t travel<br />

30 or 40 minutes to go to a food hall. The<br />

traffic is what the traffic is. So you have to<br />

be located somewhere with enough traffic<br />

to support however many restaurants are in<br />

the hall.”<br />

THE MILLENNIAL LINK<br />

All those apartments in Brooklyn, as<br />

well as in adjacent Riverside and LaVilla,<br />

are filled with millennials, ages 20 to 40,<br />

most identified with the sharing economy<br />

as well as the future of Downtown.<br />

Last fall’s millennial issue of J suggested<br />

six attributes of millennials, four of which<br />

are consistent with food halls. One is their<br />

inside/outside lifestyle, meaning they<br />

engage in activities outside their homes<br />

that older generations would have done<br />

at home, such as eating and socializing in<br />

common areas, like food halls.<br />

A second attribute is healthiness,<br />

particularly eating right and well. Notice<br />

how many millennials post pictures of<br />

their food on social media before they eat<br />

it? They don’t bother with chain fast food.<br />

Note the food hall emphasis on artisanal<br />

foods.<br />

A third characteristic of millennials is<br />

an aversion to constant reliance on the<br />

automobile. Urban millennials want more<br />

transportation options, like public transit,<br />

bikeshares or walking. Imagine living in<br />

220 or The Brooklyn Riverside and being<br />

able to walk a block or two to a variety of<br />

dining choices in a social, collective setting.<br />

Finally, millennials value authenticity,<br />

a sense of place, as opposed to the<br />

sameness of malls and chain restaurants.<br />

The buildings Trevato proposes to adapt<br />

and reuse are a former Studebaker-Packard<br />

auto dealership built in 1924 and the<br />

former Trophy Center built in 1945. A 2017<br />

site plan showed they could be connected<br />

across or around a lot separating them to<br />

accommodate six anchors plus 16 market<br />

stalls. Trevato also bought 260 Park St.,<br />

cattycorner to the other two buildings, for<br />

possible retail and office space.<br />

WHEN WILL IT OPEN?<br />

No time soon. Trevato has yet even to<br />

make a formal announcement and has submitted<br />

no plans to the city for approval.<br />

“Trevato will begin moving forward with<br />

all necessary reviews and approvals once<br />

the road diet project is underway as that<br />

project (at least from Price to Jackson on<br />

Park) will run right alongside the planned<br />

food hall buildings,” said a spokeswoman.<br />

An important part of Downtown’s master<br />

plan is “road diets” in several places, to<br />

redesign streets configured for maximum<br />

automobile traffic flow into more attractive<br />

streets that narrow traffic and accommodate<br />

walking and bicycling. For a road<br />

diet under construction, see Riverplace<br />

Boulevard on the Southbank, being redesigned<br />

from five lanes to three, with more<br />

landscaping.<br />

In Brooklyn, Park Street is four lanes<br />

without the traffic to justify that, and a<br />

Downtown Investment Authority study recommended<br />

a road diet to make Brooklyn<br />

more friendly for walking and biking.<br />

The city budget includes $2.2 million to<br />

humanize Park Street by reducing to two<br />

lanes of auto traffic and making room for a<br />

two-way bicycle track, street parking, bigger<br />

sidewalks and trees. The project is now<br />

being designed, and construction should<br />

begin in early 2020.<br />

The redesigned Park Street will extend<br />

from Forest Street to the Lee Street viaduct<br />

— providing a multimodal connection<br />

between LaVilla and the new Regional<br />

Transportation Center (and the Skyway) on<br />

the north to Five Points and Riverside on<br />

the south.<br />

And suddenly downtrodden old<br />

Brooklyn becomes a hot link to the new<br />

Downtown.<br />

Frank Denton, retired editor of<br />

The Florida Times-Union, is editor of J.<br />

He lives in Riverside.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 71


REIMAGINING A<br />

VIBRANT LAVILLA<br />

BY MIKE CLARK<br />

T<br />

he secret to reviving Downtown is to focus on its<br />

strengths, not lingering on all of its weaknesses.<br />

This goes double for LaVilla, razed by an unfortunate<br />

urban renewal program in the 1990s but left with major<br />

strengths that can be used for redevelopment.<br />

A draft redevelopment report by Rummell-Munz consultants<br />

imagines what a revived LaVilla can look like.<br />

But it doesn’t take much imagination to identify<br />

LaVilla’s strengths.<br />

As one of the speakers noted at a public<br />

hearing on the report, “LaVilla’s destruction<br />

left a vacuum between the past and present<br />

and contributed to creating a disconnected<br />

core city, making the overall Downtown<br />

experience less dynamic and arguably less<br />

authentic.”<br />

LAVILLA DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY<br />

72<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


So it’s time to repair that disconnect. Flip<br />

it around, rebuild LaVilla, make a connection<br />

with its past as a cornerstone. A rediscovered<br />

authenticity would be a key to its success.<br />

LaVilla has so many strengths.<br />

The first asset is the fact that much of the<br />

property in LaVilla is owned by the government<br />

so that the first step of redevelopment,<br />

land acquisition, is much simpler. Rather<br />

than cobble together purchases from multiple<br />

landowners, the city can simply deal with<br />

city agencies like the Jacksonville Transportation<br />

Authority.<br />

Speaking of the JTA, the construction of its<br />

Regional Transportation Center means that<br />

LaVilla already has an anchor for redevelopment,<br />

an agency that is gaining attention<br />

nationally and worldwide as technology leads<br />

to driverless vehicles.<br />

The second asset involves the Emerald<br />

Trail proposal of Groundwork Jacksonville<br />

that will encircle greater Downtown and<br />

nearby neighborhoods with trails that invite<br />

walking and bicycling. The first mile of the<br />

trail, 1.3 miles to be exact, will be a model that<br />

will run through LaVilla.<br />

It will pass near a number of historic sites:<br />

n The A. Philip Randolph waiting room at<br />

the former Union Station, now Prime Osborn<br />

Convention Center.<br />

n Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park, the<br />

former site of the home of James Weldon and<br />

John Rosamond Johnson, authors of the iconic<br />

hymn. It is now just a vacant city block with<br />

markers, but it deserves to be fully developed.<br />

n The relocated Brewster Hospital, which<br />

once cared for African-Americans, now<br />

houses the North Florida Land Trust, which<br />

includes a room devoted to nurses that can<br />

offer insights into medical care in the past.<br />

A proposal to redevelop LaVilla includes everything<br />

from piano playing to pop-up spoken word<br />

performances at the Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park.<br />

n The Clara White Mission contains<br />

mementoes and a history of Jacksonville’s<br />

influential African-American leader, Eartha<br />

M.M. White.<br />

n Old Stanton High School is one of the<br />

few classic structures left standing in LaVilla,<br />

saved from the urban renewal wrecking ball<br />

thanks to its historic importance. Now, finally,<br />

a new use needs to be found that includes a<br />

celebration of its importance to Jacksonville.<br />

n The Ritz Theatre & Museum, which<br />

contains a treasure of African-American<br />

artifacts and regular exhibits as well as an<br />

audio-animatronic display of James Weldon<br />

Johnson. The Ritz has gained both national<br />

and international attraction though exchang-<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 73


es with the National African-American Museum<br />

and South Africa. This cultural appreciation<br />

would extend throughout LaVilla.<br />

n Darnell-Cookman Middle/High School<br />

of the Medical Arts, which in its early incarnation<br />

as the Cookman Institute<br />

included A. Philip Randolph<br />

as the 1907 valedictorian. The<br />

Emerald Trail’s model mile extends<br />

to the current S Line trail<br />

behind UF Health Jacksonville.<br />

The third great asset involves<br />

LaVilla’s proud history. Its sense<br />

of place is ready to be utilized<br />

as an authentic feature of any<br />

redevelopment plan. As Mick<br />

Cornett, the former mayor of<br />

Oklahoma City, wrote, every<br />

city has a story to tell. LaVilla<br />

once was a city, incorporated<br />

in 1866 with 1,100 residents, 70<br />

percent of them African-Americans.<br />

As James Weldon Johnson<br />

wrote in his autobiography<br />

“Along the Way,” long after<br />

Reconstruction, Jacksonville<br />

was known as a good town for<br />

African-Americans, with blacks<br />

occupying important civic positions.<br />

That changed, sadly, with<br />

the rise of Jim Crow policies.<br />

Johnson, by the way, held<br />

various jobs at The Florida<br />

Times-Union, including as assistant<br />

to Editor Charles Jones.<br />

Nevertheless, many cities<br />

have celebrated neighborhoods<br />

far less than LaVilla’s, yet Jacksonville<br />

until now has failed to<br />

promote its history as part of its<br />

civic story. That has contributed<br />

to an identity crisis.<br />

But the story of LaVilla is<br />

so much more. There were the<br />

black former Union soldiers<br />

who were stationed in Jacksonville<br />

and settled here. There<br />

are Chinese settlers who set up<br />

businesses there. And a Cuban<br />

community. And there were<br />

racy elements including a red<br />

light district and the story of<br />

author Stephen Crane and his<br />

paramour Cora Crane. Tours of<br />

James<br />

P. Small<br />

Park<br />

PARK ST.<br />

KINGS ROAD<br />

Florida C.<br />

Dwight<br />

Memorial<br />

Playground<br />

N<br />

95<br />

Brooklyn<br />

Park<br />

RIVERSIDE AVE.<br />

LEE ST.<br />

DAVIS ST.<br />

ACOSTA<br />

BRIDGE<br />

8TH ST.<br />

Darnell-Cookman Middle/<br />

High School of the Medical Arts<br />

Relocated Brewster Hospital<br />

Regional<br />

Transportation<br />

Center<br />

LaVilla with professional storytellers, multimedia<br />

productions for smart phones and<br />

other devices can capitalize on the wonderful<br />

history.<br />

The Rummell-Munz report gets practical<br />

as well. The big driver for any development<br />

involves people living there, not passing<br />

through as commuters. The draft report<br />

notes that living units have sprung up for<br />

low-income residents, supported by governmental<br />

incentives like tax credits, while<br />

on the high end there are residences for<br />

high-income people.<br />

HISTORY VITAL TO LAVILLA’S FUTURE<br />

95<br />

JEFFERSON ST.<br />

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park<br />

McCoys Creek<br />

A. Philip Randolph<br />

waiting room<br />

BROAD ST.<br />

WATER ST.<br />

Hogans Creek<br />

The Ritz Theatre & Museum<br />

Genovar’s Hall<br />

Clara White Mission<br />

Klutho Park<br />

STATE ST.<br />

UNION ST.<br />

BEAVER ST.<br />

Old Stanton<br />

High School<br />

ADAMS ST.<br />

FORSYTH ST.<br />

BAY ST.<br />

St. Johns<br />

River<br />

A way needs to be found to add housing<br />

for what the draft report calls “the missing<br />

middle.” This could mean townhomes. But<br />

some sort of incentives will be needed to<br />

start, perhaps marking down land prices<br />

with a “land trust.” Other residential opportunities<br />

could involve ground-floor retail<br />

with residences on upper floors.<br />

With more residents with money to<br />

spend, more retail will come to serve them.<br />

The Rummell-Munz report doesn’t envision<br />

a major revival of retail, though developments<br />

in nearby Brooklyn are encouraging.<br />

What Downtown’s six<br />

Florida<br />

State<br />

College<br />

Hemming<br />

Park<br />

MAIN ST.<br />

BRIDGE<br />

identifiable neighborhoods<br />

need — Brooklyn, LaVilla, the<br />

Cathedral District, the Central<br />

Business District, the Stadium<br />

District and the Southbank —<br />

are ways to easily connect them<br />

that doesn’t involve parking,<br />

something like a Downtown<br />

trolley.<br />

The Ultimate Urban Circulator<br />

being proposed for Bay<br />

Street would use the Skyway<br />

and driverless vehicles at grade<br />

to make a connection. Someday<br />

they might be traveling throughout<br />

Downtown.<br />

New research finds that<br />

young adults are moving away<br />

from driving. These Downtown<br />

neighborhoods can be among<br />

the first in the nation to use<br />

an innovative mass transit<br />

network.<br />

Turning LaVilla into a<br />

walkable neighborhood also<br />

means narrowing the roads,<br />

called “a road diet.” Currently,<br />

most of the streets in LaVilla<br />

are designed for pass-through<br />

traffic. If a four-lane street has<br />

under 20,000 cars per day, then<br />

it’s a candidate for a diet.<br />

Beaver Street, for instance,<br />

has about 10,000 cars per day.<br />

On Water Street in front of the<br />

Federal Reserve, there is capacity<br />

for 35,000 cars per day, but<br />

just 3,500 cars per day use it.<br />

Another sign of neighborhood<br />

traffic involves fewer<br />

two-way streets. Adams Street<br />

offers an opportunity for a kind<br />

of Main Street area and not<br />

as an extended ramp to the<br />

interstates.<br />

The Rummell-Munz report<br />

sees some office opportunities<br />

there, though the huge Duval<br />

County Courthouse did not spur much<br />

nearby office development.<br />

Mike Field, a two-time citizen member<br />

of the Times-Union’s Editorial Board,<br />

suggests the creation of streetscapes that<br />

are unique to LaVilla. He also suggests<br />

development that gives non-white entrepreneurs<br />

a chance to open new businesses,<br />

JEFF DAVIS<br />

74<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


GROUNDWORK JACKSONVILLE<br />

A proposal to construct a “road diet” on Park Street<br />

as part of the Emerald Trail would create a pedestrian<br />

walkway on the viaduct over McCoys Creek.<br />

thus avoiding the pitfalls of gentrification.<br />

He sees more retail opportunities than the<br />

report.<br />

Brooklyn Station is leased up, and there<br />

are other businesses planned there. In short,<br />

Field says Brooklyn is healthy, so there is no<br />

reason that LaVilla can’t do the same.<br />

Speaking of links, waterways are never<br />

far from anything Downtown. LaVilla would<br />

need links to both a revitalized McCoys<br />

Creek — funding is already committed for<br />

it — and the St. Johns River.<br />

Once devastated by urban renewal,<br />

LaVilla is poised to make a comeback in<br />

grand style.<br />

Mike Clark has been a reporter and editor<br />

for The Florida Times-Union and its predecessors<br />

since 1973 and editorial page editor since 2005.<br />

He lives in Nocatee.<br />

Excellence in motion.<br />

yesterday<br />

Dames Point Bridge<br />

today<br />

Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center at LaVilla<br />

tomorrow<br />

Ultimate Urban Circulator<br />

autonomous vehicle<br />

jtafla.com


TINY HOUSE VILLAGE<br />

WILL BENEFIT VETS<br />

After Eco Relics built the nation’s first LEED-certified tiny house in 2017,<br />

it inspired an idea to create a neighborhood of similar homes for veterans<br />

I<br />

t all began with a door, a wooden one, but<br />

it could become a door to new lives for<br />

some Jacksonville veterans and the historic<br />

LaVilla neighborhood. The idea is still in its<br />

infancy, but to see how the seed has been<br />

planted and is taking root is a lesson in how<br />

BY LILLA ROSS<br />

Downtown development happens.<br />

Michelle Paul, who lives in Marsh Landing, was looking<br />

for a pantry door for her kitchen remodeling project.<br />

She wanted something unusual, so she went to Eco<br />

Relics in Riverside, which sells salvaged and architectural<br />

building supplies.<br />

ASSOCIATED PRESS<br />

76<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Not only did Paul find something unusual,<br />

she found something unique — the<br />

doors to the old Brewster Hospital, a hospital<br />

for African-Americans founded in<br />

1901. Paul was involved in its restoration<br />

and new life as the home of the North<br />

Florida Land Trust. One of the hospital’s<br />

founders was Eartha White, who also<br />

founded the Clara White Mission, named<br />

for her mother. Paul is a member of the<br />

board.<br />

Paul was interested in buying the<br />

doors and sought out Eco Relics owner<br />

Anna Murphy to negotiate a price. The<br />

women talked; they bonded over veterans.<br />

“I was telling her about Clara White,<br />

and Anna asked me if we did anything for<br />

vets,” said Paul, who quickly filled her in.<br />

Veterans have always been part of<br />

Clara White Mission, founded in 1904 as<br />

Navy veteran Henry Owens lives in a tiny house<br />

village as part of the Veterans Community Project<br />

in Kansas City. The village gives homeless<br />

veterans a place to live.<br />

a soup kitchen. Vets have been both client<br />

and volunteer, and in World War II, they<br />

were residents, living on the upper floors<br />

of the three-story building. They’ve also<br />

been students at the mission’s vocational<br />

training programs and regulars at the<br />

Drop-in Center.<br />

In 2017, the mission dedicated the<br />

Henri Landwirth Beaver Street Veterans<br />

Villas. The $3.8 million project, funded<br />

with government grants, turned the<br />

three-story, century-old building into<br />

transitional housing for veterans.<br />

Sixteen furnished apartments are on<br />

the top two floors, above a VA service center<br />

on the first floor. Supportive services<br />

include mental health and substance<br />

abuse counseling, case management,<br />

medical services, job training, financial<br />

counseling and educational services.<br />

Murphy was impressed. She invited<br />

Paul to step out back and see her vision<br />

for veterans — a tiny house.<br />

M<br />

urphy and her husband,<br />

Michael, have a<br />

passion for sustainable<br />

living. The motto of Eco<br />

Relics is “reuse, recycle,<br />

repurpose,” and within its walls you can<br />

find everything from nuts and bolts to<br />

one-of-a-kind antiques like the doors to<br />

Brewster Hospital.<br />

But, for Murphy, “reuse, recycle, repurpose”<br />

isn’t just about the building materials.<br />

It’s about people, too.<br />

Murphy wants to build affordable,<br />

sustainable housing for veterans who<br />

need to “reuse, recycle, repurpose” their<br />

lives. She thinks it can be done with tiny<br />

houses, defined as a structure less than 400<br />

square feet that can either be on wheels or<br />

a foundation.<br />

Tiny houses are not only affordable,<br />

they can be ideal living space for veterans<br />

with PTSD, who are often more comfortable<br />

in a confined area.<br />

The Murphys built a tiny house, 198<br />

square feet, on wheels in 2017 using<br />

reclaimed building materials and following<br />

the city building code. The house, built in<br />

consultation with the U.S. Green Building<br />

Council, attained the platinum rating for<br />

Leadership in Energy and Environmental<br />

Design (LEED).<br />

“It is the first and greenest registered<br />

tiny house in the world,” Murphy said.<br />

Her dream is to build a village of<br />

solar-powered tiny houses. They would be<br />

built for veterans by veterans. They would<br />

be about 240 square feet, enough for a bedroom,<br />

a tiny kitchen and bathroom with a<br />

small heating and cooling unit.<br />

They might not be the only tiny houses<br />

on Ashley Street. Over in the Cathedral<br />

District, JWB Real Estate Capital wants to<br />

build 18 studio apartments using shipping<br />

containers, each about 320 square feet.<br />

Murphy knew she had a great idea but<br />

didn’t know how to make it happen. “I was<br />

desperate to find someone with connections,”<br />

Murphy said.<br />

And then, she met a woman who wanted<br />

to buy a door.<br />

A<br />

fter seeing Murphy’s<br />

tiny house, Paul shared<br />

the idea with the Clara<br />

White Mission board and<br />

Ju’Coby Pittman, mission<br />

CEO and president and Jacksonville City<br />

Council member.<br />

During Pittman’s 25 years at Clara<br />

White, the mission has grown from a soup<br />

kitchen into a community development<br />

center with vocational training, job placement<br />

and housing.<br />

Its culinary arts school, which has 25<br />

students, trains people for the restaurant<br />

industry. Each Friday, students prepare<br />

and serve lunch at Clara’s at the Cathedral,<br />

a longtime partnership with St. John’s<br />

Cathedral. The mission also has a special<br />

events hall in Riverside, with catering by<br />

the students available.<br />

Some of its food is grown at its White<br />

Harvest Farms on Moncrief Road that recently<br />

received a $1.5 million city grant to<br />

develop a farmers market for the area that<br />

is a food desert.<br />

Twenty students are enrolled in classes<br />

in the janitorial/construction cleanup,<br />

electrical and environmental safety and<br />

agriculture safety programs taught through<br />

the National Center for Construction<br />

Education and Research. With funding<br />

from CITI Foundation, the mission also<br />

is developing a pilot janitorial training<br />

program for at-risk young people and their<br />

parents.<br />

And Clara White continues to feed<br />

people — 500 a day.<br />

With the success of the Veterans Villas,<br />

Pittman said the tiny house community<br />

seems like a good next step to give veterans<br />

in transitional housing an opportunity<br />

to own a home, albeit a tiny one.<br />

Pittman said the mission’s board had<br />

talked about building tiny houses a few<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 77


“We researched [tiny houses]. It has to make financial sense ...<br />

We know there is a gap in affordable housing for veterans.”<br />

Ju’Coby Pittman<br />

Clara White Misson CEO<br />

Consultant Jenni Edwards worked on the entrance to a tiny house built in 2017<br />

by Eco Relics. The 198-square-foot house was the first LEED-certified tiny<br />

house in the nation.<br />

Ju’Coby Pittman, CEO and president of the Clara White Mission, stands in a<br />

doorway of the historically designated Genovar’s Hall, which would be renovated<br />

into a community center with a café, gym, classrooms and meeting space.<br />

years ago but didn’t pursue it.<br />

“We researched it. It has to make financial<br />

sense for the mission. We know there<br />

is a gap in affordable housing for veterans.<br />

And we want to be on the same page with<br />

Downtown,” Pittman said.<br />

This time, the board decided to team up<br />

with Eco Relics and pursue the project.<br />

“When their board approved it,<br />

with the mission’s longstanding history<br />

in Jacksonville, I knew we had a good<br />

chance of getting it built,” Murphy said. “I<br />

can build tiny houses, but the mission has<br />

veterans housing on Beaver Street, they<br />

have VA connections and HUD connections.<br />

And they have land, and that was<br />

the magic word.”<br />

C<br />

lara White has land, a city<br />

block bordered by Ashley,<br />

Jefferson, Church and<br />

Broad streets in LaVilla. But<br />

they don’t have zoning. Tiny<br />

houses are not in the zoning code, or the<br />

building code either.<br />

Paul said they would seek zoning for a<br />

Planned Unit Development (PUD) for the<br />

1.46 acres occupied by a parking lot, owned<br />

by the mission, and Genovar’s Hall and<br />

three wooden houses, owned by the city.<br />

Variances to the building code would be<br />

required.<br />

The plan is to build 15 to 18 houses on<br />

foundations. Each house would be 240<br />

square feet, and equipped with a mini-split<br />

heating and cooling unit and solar panels.<br />

Murphy wants the community to be LEED<br />

certified with a micro solar grid. Murphy<br />

estimates a house would cost between<br />

$65,000 and $75,000, using recycled building<br />

materials.<br />

Murphy said she has contacted Operation<br />

Tiny Homes, a nonprofit in Austin,<br />

Texas, that has built the premiere community<br />

in the country.<br />

[L-R] WILL DICKEY; BOB SELF<br />

78<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


“It’s going to beautiful and eclectic. Each one will have its<br />

own personality. The City Council will not be able to say no.”<br />

ANNA MURPHY<br />

Eco Relics owner<br />

JEFF DAVIS<br />

“Operation Tiny<br />

Home will help us build<br />

the first one, and teach<br />

us as we go,” Murphy<br />

said. “And the U.S. Green<br />

Building Council has a<br />

‘green veteran’ arm so<br />

they would teach them<br />

how to build green.”<br />

The tiny houses would<br />

be built on the parking<br />

LaVilla<br />

School of<br />

lot, and the proposal<br />

the Arts<br />

also calls for renovating<br />

Genovar’s Hall into a<br />

community center that<br />

could have a café, gym,<br />

classrooms and meeting<br />

space.<br />

Originally a grocery<br />

store, it was built in 1895<br />

by Sebastian Genovar. In<br />

the 1920s it became the<br />

Wynn Hotel and Lenape<br />

Tavern, a popular jazz<br />

club that attracted entertainers<br />

like Louis Armstrong,<br />

Dizzie Gillespie<br />

and Billie Holiday and<br />

where Ray Charles got his<br />

start. The hotel closed in the 1980s.<br />

The two-story Genovar’s Hall is now a<br />

brick shell, a candidate for demolition if it<br />

were not for its historic designation. Several<br />

proposals have been made to restore the<br />

8,000-square-foot building but nothing has<br />

ever happened. It will be a daunting and<br />

expensive project.<br />

Although a budget is still being developed,<br />

Pittman estimates that the tiny house<br />

project could cost between $2 million to $3<br />

million. They plan to apply for state grants<br />

available to restore historical structures,<br />

find sponsors and do community fundraising.<br />

Next to Genovar’s facing Jefferson Street<br />

are three wooden shotgun houses, built between<br />

1903 and 1912 on Lee Street. Badly<br />

deteriorated, they are considered historically<br />

significant because they survived the<br />

Great Fire of 1901 and are the last examples<br />

of shotgun-style architecture, once a staple<br />

of LaVilla.<br />

“They are in really bad shape,” Murphy<br />

said. “Genovar’s is one thing. At least it’s<br />

A TINY HOUSE VILLAGE FOR LAVILLA<br />

Three wooden<br />

shotgun houses<br />

Genovar’s Hall<br />

JEFFERSON ST.<br />

Operation Tiny HomeS<br />

A village of tiny houses for homeless vets<br />

• 15 to 18 houses on foundations<br />

• 240 square feet each<br />

• Equipped with a mini-split heating<br />

and cooling unit and solar panels<br />

• Built with recycled materials<br />

• Each house would cost between<br />

$65,000 and $75,000<br />

Clara White Mission<br />

BROAD ST.<br />

Old Stanton<br />

High School<br />

Duval County<br />

Courthouse<br />

brick and has some structure. The row<br />

houses, it’s going to take a lot to get them<br />

usable. I wouldn’t walk on the floors.”<br />

For the past eight months,<br />

while Clara White and Eco<br />

Relics have been talking about<br />

tiny houses, the Downtown<br />

Investment Authority and<br />

Jacksonville Transportation<br />

Authority were working on a development<br />

plan for LaVilla, which was released in<br />

April.<br />

The goal of the LaVilla Neighborhood<br />

Development Strategy is to restore LaVilla<br />

as a residential neighborhood with a strong<br />

cultural component honoring its rich African-American<br />

history. The plan includes a<br />

Heritage Trail and a park named Lift Ev’ry<br />

Voice and Sing, the hymn written by brothers<br />

John Rosamond and James Weldon<br />

Johnson. The district already is known for<br />

the Ritz Theatre and Museum and LaVilla<br />

School of the Arts.<br />

Clara White Mission would have a place<br />

BEAVER ST.<br />

ASHLEY ST.<br />

CHURCH ST.<br />

DUVAL ST.<br />

N<br />

on the Heritage Trail. It’s<br />

not only a community<br />

development center, on<br />

the second floor Eartha<br />

White’s bedroom and<br />

other artifacts from the<br />

early days are preserved<br />

in a museum.<br />

Pittman, who grew up<br />

in Jacksonville, remembers<br />

when “Ashley Street<br />

was the place to be,” and<br />

she thinks it can be again.<br />

“A tiny house community<br />

would be a great<br />

asset,” Pittman said.<br />

They are working on<br />

a budget and renderings<br />

for a presentation to the<br />

city. When they present<br />

to the council, Murphy<br />

said they will bring along<br />

their tiny house to show<br />

the members first-hand<br />

how much living can be<br />

done in a tiny house.<br />

Murphy hopes the city<br />

will support the project.<br />

“It’s going to beautiful<br />

and eclectic,” Murphy said. “Each one will<br />

have its own personality. The City Council<br />

will not be able to say no. It’s definitely a<br />

better use of the property. Right now it’s a<br />

parking lot with four abandoned buildings.”<br />

The city needs to take a serious look at<br />

the proposal. It fits nicely with the city’s<br />

new strategic plan for the district. It’s a<br />

creative way to help veterans become<br />

homeowners in a supportive community.<br />

The renovation of Genovar’s Hall<br />

and the houses will preserve part of the<br />

historic legacy of LaVilla. And Clara White<br />

Mission has proved itself as a steadfast<br />

provider of services to the community for<br />

115 years.<br />

Furthermore, a community of<br />

LEED-certified solar-powered tiny<br />

houses built from recycled materials<br />

will put Jacksonville on the map as an<br />

environmental leader.<br />

Lilla Ross is a freelance writer.<br />

She lives in San Marco.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 79


The Downtown Urban Rest Stop on the campus of the Sulzbacher Center provides the homeless with a safe place to relax, get a shower, wash clothes and get a meal.<br />

‘REST STOP’<br />

SERVING THE<br />

DOWNTOWN<br />

HOMELESS<br />

I<br />

BY<br />

80<br />

n an interview with the Times-Union Editorial Board<br />

several weeks before the Urban Rest Stop complex opened<br />

in February inside the campus of the Sulzbacher Center —<br />

Northeast Florida’s largest service provider for the homeless<br />

— Sulzbacher CEO Cindy Funkhouser laid out the two<br />

main early goals for the new daytime resource center for<br />

Jacksonville’s transient population.<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong><br />

ROGER BROWN<br />

The goals were simultaneously simple<br />

yet bold:<br />

• To provide a “nice, welcoming<br />

place’’ for the area’s homeless<br />

citizens during the daytime hours<br />

— a departure from aimlessly<br />

spending the afternoon hours in<br />

marginalized droves on gray concrete-slab<br />

benches in the grungy,<br />

congested Main Street Park across<br />

from the Downtown Library.<br />

• To represent a “win for the<br />

people who are on Jacksonville’s<br />

streets.”<br />

Those were the two primary goals in<br />

Funkhouser’s eyes.<br />

But in reality, here was another goal —<br />

if one that was largely whispered, if spoken<br />

aloud at all: Most people in Jacksonville<br />

hoped the Urban Rest Stop would begin<br />

reducing the visual and social effects<br />

of having large numbers of transients,<br />

including a notable segment of aggressive<br />

panhandlers, on the city’s Downtown<br />

BOB SELF


Main Street Park became a gathering place for the<br />

homeless after efforts were put in place to get them<br />

to leave Hemming Park a block away.<br />

BOB SELF<br />

streets during the daytime hours.<br />

And have those goals have been<br />

achieved in the four-plus months since the<br />

Urban Rest Stop opened its doors?<br />

By all objective standards, the answer<br />

appears to be “yes.”<br />

“It has been working very smoothly and<br />

efficiently from our perspective,” Funkhouser<br />

says now regarding the Urban Rest<br />

Stop.<br />

“We’re still early in the process, but<br />

the results have been very exciting and<br />

promising.”<br />

During the month of April, these were<br />

some of the Urban Rest Stop’s activity<br />

statistics as compiled by the Mental Health<br />

Resource Center, which has 16 staffers providing<br />

counseling and other daily services<br />

in the daytime facility:<br />

• An average of 75 people visited the<br />

facility each day (it’s open from 7:30 a.m. to<br />

6 p.m. Monday to Friday).<br />

• More than 1,000 services were provided<br />

to clients.<br />

• A total of 454 people used the Urban<br />

Rest Stop’s shower facilities.<br />

• An average of six people per day used<br />

the rest stop’s laundry facilities to wash and<br />

dry their clothes.<br />

• Nearly 40 people went through the<br />

Urban Rest Stop’s mental health screening<br />

process, which is offered to visitors on a<br />

strictly voluntary basis.<br />

And that was just one month’s worth<br />

of positive impact by a daytime resource<br />

created out of vacated space in Sulzbacher<br />

when the nonprofit moved its female and<br />

family residents to the new Sulzbacher<br />

Village.<br />

Among other services, the Urban Rest<br />

Stop offers:<br />

• Access to laundry and shower facilities.<br />

• Access to warm meals during the<br />

daytime hours.<br />

• Access to mental health counseling.<br />

• Access to the Sulzbacher’s extensive<br />

and highly regarded medical services.<br />

• Access to job-training and job-placement<br />

possibilities (enhanced by the Urban<br />

Rest Stop’s partnership with Goodwill Industries,<br />

which has a “Job Junction” office<br />

on site).<br />

• Access to applying for housing or signing<br />

up for other needs like food stamps, bus<br />

passes and mail service.<br />

• Access to computers, books and an<br />

open social room with features like a giant<br />

chessboard and a big-screen television.<br />

• A sense of empowerment and dignity<br />

for those who come through its doors.<br />

And it is that last attribute — that final<br />

quality — that particularly strikes a chord<br />

with Daniel Dopson, who says he has practically<br />

been a daily visitor to the Urban Rest<br />

Stop since its opening.<br />

“It’s been great to have this — it’s a really<br />

good place to come to,” Dopson says as he<br />

sits in the Urban Rest Stop’s social room.<br />

“I’ve been able to get showers here, do my<br />

laundry here, get glasses here,” Dopson<br />

adds. “It’s helping me get back on my feet,<br />

and that means a lot.”<br />

And that, says Mental Health Resource<br />

Center Vice President Debbie O’Neal, is<br />

exactly the reason for the Urban Rest Stop’s<br />

very existence.<br />

“It’s proving to be a great resource for<br />

not only providing people with services<br />

they can take advantage of today, but also<br />

educating them on how they can start to<br />

access the services that can help them have<br />

better, more stable futures,” O’Neal said.<br />

The Mental Health Resource Center is<br />

staffing the daytime resource center as part<br />

of a collaboration with the Sulzbacher Center,<br />

the City of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville<br />

Sheriff’s Office and many other partners<br />

committed to making sure the Urban Rest<br />

Stop plays a successful and sustainable<br />

role in helping local homeless residents on<br />

the path to eventually transition from the<br />

streets to stability.<br />

And hopefully the Urban Rest Stop will<br />

represent the most successful and sustainable<br />

attempt by our city to provide Jacksonville’s<br />

homeless population with a daytime<br />

resource that truly makes a difference for<br />

the homeless.<br />

No, the Urban Rest<br />

Stop is not the first<br />

effort to take the city’s<br />

transient population off<br />

the streets during the<br />

daytime hours by having<br />

a fixed alternative Downtown location that<br />

could offer the homeless both productive<br />

resources and a more receptive atmosphere<br />

— neither of which is in ample supply when<br />

they’re outside on benches, sidewalks and<br />

stoops, largely invisible to or ignored by the<br />

multitude of other Downtowners who walk<br />

by them day after day.<br />

In the early 2000s, the Emergency Services<br />

and Homeless Coalition pushed for the<br />

city to establish a daytime resource center<br />

for the Jacksonville’s homeless population.<br />

In its 2004 report “A Blueprint for the Future:<br />

Ending Homelessness in Jacksonville,”<br />

the coalition included this recommendation<br />

among several strategies to address the city’s<br />

homeless issue: “Establish one or more<br />

drop-in centers with day time hours, including<br />

weekends, providing showers, restrooms,<br />

phones, seating, assessment and referral.”<br />

But in reality, the recommendation got<br />

little traction in Jacksonville’s city government.<br />

Years later ICARE, an influential nonprofit,<br />

powerfully took up the baton to advocate<br />

for a daytime resource center for the<br />

area homeless, making it one of its perennial<br />

topics in its annual list of issues that it said<br />

demanded immediate and real action from<br />

Jacksonville’s powerful decision makers.<br />

ICARE’s vocal, passionate efforts played<br />

a huge role in pushing former Mayor<br />

Alvin Brown to open the Jacksonville Day<br />

Resource Center at the City Rescue Mission<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 81


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“[It] is going to come down to having more affordable<br />

housing that offers the homeless the stable housing<br />

they need to help build paths out of homelessness.”<br />

Cindy Funkhouser<br />

Sulzbacher Center CEO<br />

on State Street in July 2013. The center,<br />

however, was largely propped up by funding<br />

provided through a pilot program; it lacked<br />

the steady stream of significant dollars that<br />

could truly support a daytime center over<br />

the long haul and ultimately couldn’t live up<br />

to its early hype.<br />

It was no surprise, then, that after Mayor<br />

Lenny Curry took office in 2015, the Day Resource<br />

Center was closed a few months later.<br />

Curry went on to form a major task force<br />

on homelessness in 2017, as well as appoint<br />

Dawn Lockhart, the highly respected longtime<br />

former CEO of the Family Foundations,<br />

to work directly with the nonprofit community<br />

as his administration’s director of<br />

strategic partnerships.<br />

Those two moves — along with the<br />

active involvement of current City Council<br />

President Aaron Bowman — were key in<br />

setting the groundwork for the city to agree<br />

to provide the Sulzbacher Center with<br />

$120,000 to refurbish vacated space into<br />

the Urban Rest Stop and partner with the<br />

Mental Health Resource Center to deliver<br />

counseling and other support services.<br />

In addition, partners ranging from the<br />

JSO (which assigns an off-duty officer as a<br />

security presence) to CSX (which donated<br />

office cubicles for the Mental Health Resource<br />

Center staff) were brought in to further<br />

bolster the Urban Rest Stop’s resources.<br />

Bowman, who says he became passionate<br />

about the issue of homelessness<br />

as someone who has spent years working<br />

Downtown every day as a JAX Chamber<br />

executive, credits the Curry administration<br />

for showing the commitment to devote the<br />

adequate funding and support needed to<br />

give a homeless daytime resource center<br />

a realistic chance to succeed and sustain<br />

itself.<br />

“Over the years, we just hadn’t done<br />

enough to really address the issue of homelessness,”<br />

Bowman says.<br />

“But the Urban Rest Stop has been<br />

working extremely well. It has the potential<br />

to help a lot of those who are homeless,<br />

and to me, it really shows that we’re doing<br />

everything we can to support them.”<br />

Of course, the<br />

Urban Rest Stop’s<br />

much-needed arrival<br />

doesn’t mean challenges<br />

don’t remain.<br />

Now that the city<br />

has temporarily closed the Main Street<br />

Park — a shabby, unsightly area that had<br />

nonetheless become a daily gathering<br />

place for many transients after nearby<br />

Hemming Park changed its policies to<br />

discourage vagrancy — the demands on<br />

the Urban Rest Stop will likely grow to<br />

meet the growing number of people who<br />

will turn to it.<br />

And Funkhouser is the first to say that a<br />

daytime resource center for the homeless<br />

— even one as well conceived and effective<br />

as the Urban Rest Stop clearly seems to<br />

be — will never be a panacea for ending<br />

homelessness in Jacksonville.<br />

“The answer for that is going to come<br />

down to having more affordable housing<br />

that offers the homeless the stable housing<br />

they need to help build paths out of homelessness,”<br />

Funkhouser says.<br />

“You can’t stuff 10 pounds of sugar into<br />

a five-pound bag and expect the bag to<br />

withstand that forever,” she says. “It’s the<br />

same philosophy with homelessness: We<br />

can’t keep feeding more and more people<br />

into shelters and other services as the only<br />

answer — we need to have a steady flow of<br />

people coming out on the other end and<br />

into stable housing.”<br />

And that task will remain a complex<br />

one, because providing housing for homeless<br />

citizens who mainly have economic<br />

barriers is a different challenge from securing<br />

it for those who face substance abuse or<br />

mental health issues — also a substantial<br />

part of the transient problem.<br />

But it is beyond debate that the Urban<br />

Rest Stop clearly represents a promising<br />

step forward — while also providing people<br />

like Daniel Dopson encouragement that<br />

they can move forward.<br />

“I’m grateful,” Dopson says, “that it’s<br />

here.”<br />

Roger Brown is a Times-Union editorial<br />

writer and member of the editorial board.<br />

He lives Downtown.<br />

BOB SELF<br />

Signs point the way to the recently opened Urban<br />

Rest Stop on the Sulzbacher Center campus at 611<br />

E. Adams St,<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 83


Reporting the truth for more than 150 years.<br />

#truthmatters


Day Break<br />

Continued from page 19<br />

works from the MOCA Permanent Collection,<br />

“Invisible Cities: Paintings by Nathan Lewis”<br />

in the UNF Gallery, and “Micro-Macro,” an<br />

exhibition of works by Andrew Sendor and Ali<br />

Banisadr. The fifth floor displayed works by<br />

children who attend MOCA Art Camp during<br />

the summer, winter and spring breaks in<br />

classrooms surrounding that gallery. The fifth<br />

floor also houses<br />

GIVING BACK<br />

My daughter and I started our<br />

recent Downtown excursion<br />

with a Hogans Creek cleanup<br />

organized by Groundwork<br />

Jacksonville. We met the group<br />

behind Maxwell House, next<br />

to the old Casket Factory,<br />

now owned by the Jacksonville<br />

Historical Society. We scoured<br />

the banks of the creek for<br />

plastic containers, beer bottles,<br />

soda cans, and much more for<br />

about two hours. Groundwork<br />

Jacksonville meets every third<br />

Saturday to clean a different<br />

section of the St. Johns River<br />

tributary. Learn more about<br />

volunteering by visiting<br />

Groundwork Jacksonville’s<br />

Facebook page (facebook.<br />

com/groundworkjax).<br />

— DENISE M. REAGAN<br />

the ArtExplorium<br />

Loft, a hands-on,<br />

interactive area for<br />

families in serious<br />

need of an update.<br />

Outside, Hemming<br />

Park was a<br />

ghost town, except<br />

for a family whose<br />

boys played in the<br />

Kids Zone. We<br />

glimpsed a young<br />

couple dressed for<br />

prom posing for<br />

photographs in the<br />

park and in front<br />

of MOCA Jacksonville.<br />

However, the<br />

following Saturday<br />

we attended Jax<br />

Poetry Fest, which<br />

was packed full of fans of spoken word with<br />

performances by Ebony Payne-English, Love<br />

Reigns, Matthew Cuban Hernandez, Kia Flow,<br />

and Al Letson. Throughout the year, the Skyway<br />

is available whenever Hemming Park is holding<br />

a Saturday event.<br />

Hemming Park (hemmingpark.org) has also<br />

launched several regular events, such as walking<br />

tours of various Downtown locations at 11:30<br />

a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, a Tuesday Market<br />

with Berry Good Farms (berrygoodfarms.org)<br />

and 3 p.m. Sunday yoga in the park.<br />

We continued our Downtown visit at Sweet<br />

Pete’s Candy which has transformed a bit. It<br />

has shared the historic building across from City<br />

Hall and Hemming Park with MLG, an upscale<br />

restaurant owned by Marcus Lemonis which<br />

recently closed. Lemonis also owns the building<br />

itself, historically the Seminole Club, and has<br />

put it on the market. But Sweet Pete’s continues<br />

with apparel and souvenirs on the first floor; a<br />

second floor stuffed with candy, chocolate, and<br />

ice cream; and a third-floor circus-themed toy<br />

store. More people were in Sweet Pete’s than in<br />

the rest of Downtown.<br />

We ended our trek with a short walking tour<br />

8 DAYTIME<br />

IDEAS TO<br />

IMPROVE<br />

Downtown<br />

» Florida species<br />

attraction: An aquarium<br />

or bird sanctuary that specializes<br />

in native Florida species would<br />

differentiate it from other<br />

attractions and provide the<br />

needed audience, both residents<br />

and visitors, to support it.<br />

» 1901 Fire: Imagine a virtual<br />

reality experience based on the<br />

1901 fire that destroyed most of<br />

Jacksonville that educates while<br />

it entertains.<br />

» Historic LaVilla: Build<br />

recreations of the home of<br />

James Weldon Johnson and John<br />

Rosamond Johnson and other<br />

important buildings from that<br />

era in the style of Michigan’s<br />

Greenfield Village (bit.ly/<br />

GreenfieldVillage), a collection of<br />

historic buildings that recreate<br />

the sights, sounds, and sensations<br />

of America’s formation.<br />

» Performance bus<br />

tours: The streets of<br />

Jacksonville become the stage<br />

for comedic improvisation<br />

performers who create historical<br />

reenactments of Jacksonville<br />

history with an attitude, all<br />

aboard a moving theater, inspired<br />

by New York City’s The Ride (bit.<br />

ly/NYCTheRide).<br />

» Movie theater: Design<br />

a movie theater that combines<br />

historic features with new<br />

technology and plush amenities<br />

to create a one-of-a-kind<br />

attraction.<br />

» Bowling alley:<br />

Combine a retro bowling alley<br />

atmosphere with high-tech<br />

scoring and a kitchen that serves<br />

new twists on classic fair.<br />

» Escape room: Take<br />

advantage of this intriguing new<br />

pastime by incorporating historic<br />

architecture into the game.<br />

» Refreshing retreats:<br />

Downtown needs coffee, ice<br />

cream, popsicles, and other<br />

shops that will draw families.<br />

Combine the treats with arcades,<br />

art, or other activities.<br />

— DENISE M. REAGAN<br />

of public art. The Cultural Council of Greater<br />

Jacksonville and the Downtown Investment<br />

Authority collaborated on the Urban Arts<br />

Project along the Hogan Street area, where<br />

you can find 17 painted Skyway columns and<br />

several sculptural pieces. Dozens of murals<br />

dot Downtown. Some are individual projects,<br />

such as Shaun Thurston’s work on Chamblin’s<br />

Uptown, the side of the 5 & Dime building, and<br />

behind Burrito Gallery. Some are the result<br />

of Art Republic, which invited artists to create<br />

murals on buildings throughout Downtown in<br />

2016-18. You can download and print a map to<br />

take with you (bit.ly/ArtRepublicMap).<br />

Although we couldn’t fit it all in one day,<br />

you’ll find several other family-friendly activities<br />

in the Downtown core.<br />

The Museum of Science and History (themosh.org)<br />

features three levels of interactive<br />

exhibits, a nature center of Northeast Florida<br />

native animals, and a planetarium. In March,<br />

MOSH announced an ambitious plan to increase<br />

the museum’s total space from 77,000 to 120,000<br />

square feet, expand exhibitions and programming,<br />

reorient its public entry toward the St. Johns<br />

River, and add new and emerging technology.<br />

Outside of MOSH is Friendship Park with<br />

a refreshing fountain overlooking the river.<br />

As you stroll down the Southbank Riverwalk<br />

underneath the Main Street Bridge, you’ll find<br />

“Mirrored River,” a gleaming mosaic mural that<br />

reflects the water and sunlight.<br />

A short walk over the Main Street Bridge<br />

takes you to the Northbank Riverwalk, which<br />

stretches to the Riverside Arts Market. Along<br />

the way, you’ll find a new outdoor gym called<br />

the Corkscrew, with a climbing sculpture and<br />

several fitness stations. Or you can catch the St.<br />

Johns River Taxi (jaxrivertaxi.com) at one of<br />

five stops along the river.<br />

Catch a Sunday matinee at The 5 & Dime, A<br />

Theatre Company (the5anddime.org) or at the<br />

Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts<br />

(timesunioncenter.com). Check to see if the<br />

show is appropriate for children. The Florida<br />

Theatre occasionally books performances for<br />

kids, such as “Peppa Pig Live” (Oct. 1) and “The<br />

Very Hungry Caterpillar Show” (Dec. 8).<br />

That’s about the extent of Downtown Jacksonville’s<br />

family entertainment offerings. Is it<br />

enough for an emerging metropolis trying to<br />

attract current residents, newly arrived families,<br />

and tourists?<br />

Jacksonville has much more to offer, but it<br />

will only work if the greater metropolitan area<br />

supports it. And that is the nut Downtown<br />

needs to crack.<br />

Denise M. Reagan is senior manager of culture<br />

and engagement at Brunet-García Advertising, a former<br />

editor at The Florida Times-Union, and longtime<br />

Downtown enthusiast. She lives in Arlington.<br />

86<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


Good Evening<br />

Continued from page 21<br />

of the Bank of America building on Bay<br />

and Laura Streets is a bit cramped but has<br />

all anyone needs to get in a good workout.<br />

It’s being remodeled and refitted with new<br />

equipment this summer.<br />

Anytime Fitness is just that — a 24-hour<br />

gym. It’s spacious with free weights, weight<br />

machines and several cardio options from<br />

treadmills to rowing machines. It’s located<br />

above Bellwether restaurant on the corner of<br />

Forsyth and Laura Streets.<br />

An advantage of joining a gym is that<br />

after a sticky summer’s day, a refreshing<br />

shower awaits members who want to<br />

change clothes and get into a relaxed state<br />

of mind. During lunch, refresh with a quick<br />

shower that puts the afternoon in a new<br />

perspective.<br />

The Landing<br />

and Hemming<br />

There was a time when finding a meal<br />

Downtown would have been next to<br />

impossible short of a sub sandwich. These<br />

days, there are many more options and<br />

price points. Some even have pre-show<br />

menus targeted to allow for a bite before an<br />

event without being rushed.<br />

City leadership seems intent on demolishing<br />

the Jacksonville Landing without<br />

knowing — or having public support for<br />

— what should replace it, hopefully not<br />

merely a passive park. While the Landing<br />

is overdue for a total makeover, the facility<br />

did provide riverfront dining. A food hall<br />

concept, complete with a mix of chain and<br />

locally owned quality restaurants, entertainment<br />

options and some space dedicated<br />

to children and teens, would seem like a<br />

better idea.<br />

Unless that Downtown space is programmed<br />

like Hemming Park, passive<br />

parks attract transients. The Main Street<br />

Park between Duval and Monroe Streets,<br />

across from the back of the Main Library,<br />

has served as a crystal ball foretelling the<br />

future of the Landing space if it is not commercially<br />

developed.<br />

Hemming Park is the home of the successful<br />

Art Walk, held the first Wednesday<br />

of each month. It features art, music and<br />

crafts throughout the park that spills out<br />

onto neighboring streets. Most days, there<br />

are other events in the park. The calendar<br />

on the Friends of Hemming Park website<br />

is worth bookmarking and checking when<br />

looking for some after-work activities.<br />

Serious business<br />

There are more creative ways to spend<br />

a few after-work hours. The Jacksonville<br />

City Council meets on the second and<br />

fourth Tuesdays of the month beginning at<br />

5 p.m. There’s no need to be there for the<br />

beginning, as the first 45 minutes or so are<br />

spent recognizing deserving citizens who<br />

are making important contributions to Duval<br />

County. But once council members get<br />

started on the agenda, it is both informative<br />

and somewhat entertaining to watch<br />

how laws are made and tax money is spent.<br />

The middle of the meeting is devoted<br />

to public comment. Here, citizens have<br />

three minutes to voice their concerns, no<br />

matter the topic. It’s a good way to engage<br />

with what is happening in other parts of<br />

the county. (City Council takes the first two<br />

weeks of July off as its summer holiday.<br />

Council meetings resume on July 23.)<br />

After staring at a computer screen most<br />

of the day, enjoying art and literature may<br />

be in order. The Cummer Museum of Art<br />

and Gardens is free and open until 9 p.m.<br />

every Tuesday. During Artwalk, MOCA,<br />

the Museum of Contemporary Art across<br />

from Hemming Park, is open until 9 p.m.<br />

Next door, the Main Library is open until<br />

7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays . Across<br />

the river, the Museum of Science and History<br />

is open until 8 p.m. Fridays.<br />

Gustatory endeavors<br />

These days we are all conscious of the<br />

responsibility that comes with the consumption<br />

of alcohol. However, responsible<br />

drinking need not lead to a DUI. Happy<br />

hour remains an after-work choice for those<br />

who can keep their wits about them. There’s<br />

no need to gulp shooters or bucket-sized<br />

cocktails. A leisurely beer, glass of wine or<br />

an after-work cocktail will allow you to unwind<br />

and let the traffic disperse until you’re<br />

ready to leave Downtown.<br />

Conscientious and careful sorts may<br />

want to plan ahead for your happy hour.<br />

Take public transportation to work (there’s<br />

a new adventure for many), and call a taxi<br />

or ride-sharing service for the ride home.<br />

The Elbow, the entertainment district<br />

on Bay, Ocean and Forsyth streets, offers<br />

several after-work options. Along Bay<br />

Street, there’s The Element restaurant and<br />

bar, Justice Pub, Bold City Brewery and<br />

Bay Street Bar & Grill. Along Ocean Street,<br />

there’s 1904 Music Bar and Spiff’s and the<br />

Island Girl Cigar Bar.<br />

Island Girl is a beautiful example of<br />

incorporating existing structures and embracing<br />

old Jacksonville. It features a huge<br />

exposed brick wall behind the bar, with several<br />

leather chairs (and televisions). Its high<br />

ceiling and ventilation system leave not a<br />

trace of smoke in the air. Island Girl serves<br />

beer, wine and wine cocktails. Later this<br />

summer it will open a private club upstairs:<br />

Membership in The Swisher Suite will offer<br />

discounts on beverages as well as bulk cigar<br />

purchases.<br />

Around the corner on Forsyth, Dos<br />

Gatos will mark its 10th anniversary in<br />

October. It was one of the first upscale<br />

lounges Downtown. Specializing in craft<br />

cocktails, it too has exposed brick behind<br />

the bar. Located directly across from the<br />

Florida Theatre, Dos Gatos is a before- and<br />

after-show gathering spot.<br />

“I’d like to think we brought a more cosmopolitan<br />

vibe,” said J. Albertelli, owner of<br />

Dos Gatos. “Over the last 10 years the food<br />

and beverage business in Downtown is very<br />

different. It feels like this is a good time to<br />

be investing more into Downtown.”<br />

On Adams Street, what looks like an old<br />

time post office is actually the false front of<br />

the speakeasy The Volstead. It’s named after<br />

Congressman Andrew Volstead, whose<br />

Volstead Act started Prohibition. It’s a dark<br />

space with silent motion pictures projected<br />

on the wall. It also specializes in craft cocktails<br />

with an impressive wall of spirits on the<br />

back of the square bar. Don’t be surprised<br />

to see Jacksonville movers and shakers as<br />

well as City Hall staffers unwinding here.<br />

Toward the Sports Complex, Intuition<br />

Ale Works not only serves its own craft<br />

brews but also has a fun bar and food<br />

menu. Its covered rooftop area provides a<br />

space to be outside that is shaded from the<br />

summer heat.<br />

And for the family<br />

Downtown is restaurant- and bar-centric.<br />

There’s not much in the way of family<br />

activity. It’s unfortunate that the proposed<br />

“family entertainment center” at the<br />

Berkman II fell through. It may not serve as<br />

a tourist destination, but a Downtown play<br />

area in that space has some potential.<br />

One family-oriented venue is also an affordable<br />

night out. The Jumbo Shrimp AA<br />

baseball team is in full swing. A homestand<br />

is not to be missed. With tickets starting<br />

at $5 and traditional concessions like hot<br />

dogs costing $2, a family of four can enjoy<br />

a baseball game for around $50, said Ken<br />

Babby, team owner.<br />

There is plenty going on at the games<br />

besides baseball. If the youngsters don’t<br />

want to sit, they can play in the Wolfson<br />

Children’s Hospital Fun Zone. On Sundays,<br />

the kids can run the bases after the<br />

game. Post-game fireworks will be featured<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 87


Night Moves<br />

at a third of the games. Special promotions Chad Johnson, senior vice president of<br />

theme every home game.<br />

sales and service and chief content officer<br />

“In our business, we like to say you<br />

for Daily’s Place and the stadium, said<br />

88 J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong><br />

had so much fun you’ll leave and not even<br />

know the score,” Babby said.<br />

Downtown’s primary venues work in a<br />

cooperative spirit. While a few events may be<br />

Continued from page 23<br />

The major venues<br />

going on the same night, the same sort of act on Ocean Street, you’ll find two of the<br />

isn’t performing at the Florida Theatre and indispensable components of the city’s<br />

Time was that Jacksonville was a oneshow<br />

town. If a musical act was at the<br />

Florida Theatre, the VyStar Veterans Memorial<br />

Arena would be quiet, or vice versa.<br />

Today, it’s common that a show could be<br />

at the Florida Theatre, a Broadway play or<br />

symphony at the Times-Union Center and<br />

major headliners could be performing at<br />

the arena or at<br />

Daily’s Place, when avoidable.<br />

Also, because Duval is a consolidated<br />

city-county, the city isn’t competing with<br />

other municipalities in the area, other than<br />

the Beaches and the St. Augustine Amphitheatre.<br />

“Jacksonville comes together unlike<br />

many other markets. In Jacksonville, we can<br />

make your big<br />

after-hours scene, 1904 Music Hall and<br />

Spliff’s Gastropub. The Music Hall is the<br />

hub for independent music Downtown,<br />

a place to see rising stars and veteran<br />

icons of the business in a fairly intimate<br />

setting. The bands you may see at 1904 this<br />

weekend may be at the Florida Theatre a<br />

couple years from now. The club shares<br />

a back patio space with Spliff’s, which<br />

Daily’s Place.<br />

events take over serves some of the very best food in town,<br />

Besides being<br />

Planning<br />

the entire city,” well into the night. Next door to that is the<br />

home to the<br />

AN EVENING Johnson said. Island Girl Cigar Bar, a more upscale,<br />

Jaguars, TIAA<br />

The success two story nightspot that puts the emphasis<br />

Downtown<br />

Bank Field will<br />

of the Lynyrd on fancy cigars. (Appropriately, it’s right<br />

» The best way to check out<br />

host the Rolling<br />

Skynyrd farewell next to space that was, for many years, a<br />

the options is Downtown<br />

Stones later this<br />

Vision’s calendar: bit.ly/2JloiUa concert, which tobacco shop.)<br />

year.<br />

included Kid<br />

Most of the after-hours spots Downtown<br />

The growth<br />

in stage performances is noteworthy, said<br />

Kevin Stone, vice president of programming<br />

at the Florida Theatre. Five years ago, there<br />

were 40 shows at the theater, and this year<br />

there may be as many as 115.<br />

“We are not just booking shows to fill a<br />

date,” he said. “We are trying to find 110 to<br />

115 pieces of product that mean something<br />

to the community. We try spreading it<br />

around to suit everyone.”<br />

That means that with a capacity of<br />

around 1,900, depending on the type of<br />

show, the Florida Theatre is the right size<br />

for up-and-coming acts as well as former<br />

hitmakers playing to longtime fans. Niche<br />

acts also have a place at the Florida Theatre.<br />

“We win some and lose some,” Stone<br />

said of the diversity of acts. “But if we don’t<br />

lose some, that means we aren’t trying.”<br />

Those open to experimental and<br />

thought-provoking stage performances<br />

should check out The 5 & Dime Theater<br />

Company at 112 East Adams St. The theater<br />

holds 85 people, and tickets go for $20-$30.<br />

Beginning June 14, the musical Falsettos<br />

debuts, and in August, Silence! The Musical,<br />

a parody of Silence of the Lambs, will be<br />

performed.<br />

The newest venue is Daily’s Place. The<br />

amphitheater, part of the stadium, seats<br />

between 5,500 and 6,000. The facility is<br />

Rock and Jason<br />

Aldean, paved the way for the Rolling<br />

Stones concert, Johnson said, adding that<br />

the Rolling Stones producers reached out<br />

to Jacksonville to play host to the stadium<br />

concert. That was unheard of in the past.<br />

SMG has been responsible for booking<br />

most shows in the city, as it operates<br />

the Times-Union Center for the Performing<br />

Arts, VyStar Memorial Arena, the<br />

Baseball Grounds and the Ritz Theatre.<br />

Keeping these facilities active with a variety<br />

of events is a driver for the city, said<br />

Bill McConnell, general manager of SMG.<br />

“The more activity we have in our venues<br />

spurs activity in Downtown in general,”<br />

he said.<br />

One area of downtown that is of concern<br />

is in the LaVilla area. New residential<br />

space there and in Brooklyn may answer<br />

the question of the chicken and the egg.<br />

It has been reported that a food hall,<br />

with several restaurants as well as a beer<br />

garden, is being planned for the 300 block<br />

of Park Street in Brooklyn.<br />

Hopefully the city can work with new<br />

developers to revamp the failed Unity<br />

Plaza in Brooklyn. The programming set<br />

for that open space never materialized.<br />

McConnell also would like the intimate<br />

Ritz Theatre to become more active in the<br />

coming years.<br />

boast expansive liquor bars. Bold<br />

City does not, but that was never the point<br />

for a company that made craft beer an<br />

actual thing in Jacksonville. The flagship<br />

brewery (on Rosselle Street in Riverside)<br />

was supplemented with a second location<br />

on Bay Street that stays open kinda late on<br />

weekends.<br />

The Elbow ends with Bay Street Bar<br />

and Grill, which serves food past midnight<br />

and has a full bar as well.<br />

Technically, the strip ends at the corner<br />

with Liberty Street, right before the police<br />

station. This block has the highest concentration<br />

of nightlife activity Downtown on<br />

most weekends, and certainly during the<br />

week.<br />

If you like dance music, there’s Myth<br />

Nightclub and Element Bistro. Justice<br />

Pub carries a massive array of craft beer, and<br />

their live music roster (with its emphasis<br />

on hip hop) is probably the strongest in the<br />

area, other than 1904, of course.<br />

If you’re feeling sporty, you can walk a<br />

few blocks further, past the police station<br />

and the Maxwell House building, toward the<br />

Stadium District, which is poised to become<br />

the next big thing in Downtown development.<br />

Manifest Distillery and Intuition Ale<br />

Works basically share a block. The former<br />

has a variety of locally distilled spirits (start<br />

built so that the farthest seat is only 135<br />

with the gin). The latter has excellent food<br />

feet from the front of the stage. The facility Dan Macdonald was a music and<br />

(produced in-house by the Black Sheep<br />

was constructed to allow for the use of entertainment writer for the Florida Times-Union crew, which also runs Bellwether, a fine<br />

stadium concessions as well as restroom<br />

facilities. It also has its own concourse for a<br />

variety of concessions and drinks.<br />

and Jacksonville Journal in 1984-1996 and the<br />

Times-Union food editor in 1997-2007.<br />

He lives in Jacksonville Beach.<br />

new restaurant over on Forsyth Street), a<br />

veritable plethora of craft beers brewed<br />

on-site and a warehouse that doubles as a


BOB SELF (2)<br />

performance space.<br />

Just a block away, right next to the<br />

VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on<br />

A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, sits That<br />

Bar — yes, that’s the name. It draws the<br />

bulk of foot traffic from people leaving the<br />

Arena, Daily’s Place or TIAA Bank Field,<br />

and it hosts open-mic jam sessions every<br />

Tuesday.<br />

While Bay Street is the undisputed<br />

commercial core for Downtown nightlife,<br />

the one block of Adams Street between<br />

Laura and Hogan (right around the corner<br />

from Chamblin’s Uptown) carries a<br />

disproportionate share of load, in terms of<br />

foot traffic.<br />

That block is home to perhaps the city’s<br />

premier jazz club, Breezy, just a couple<br />

doors down from the iconic speakeasy-themed<br />

bar The Volstead, which has<br />

helped drive the resurgence of nightlife in<br />

the section of Adams Street that for many<br />

years was the epicenter of live music in the<br />

urban core. Both of these clubs have live<br />

music every weekend and often during the<br />

week, especially for Art Walk.<br />

Right across the street sits De Real<br />

Ting, a Jamaican restaurant and reggae/<br />

dancehall club that is one of the city’s truly<br />

unique cultural experiences.<br />

If you’ve never been Downtown<br />

after-hours, the best way to start would be<br />

at Art Walk. Most of the eateries and retail<br />

spaces stay open past business hours for<br />

the heavy foot traffic, while all the bars and<br />

clubs open a bit earlier with happy hour<br />

specials of different kinds.<br />

Hemming Park is at full capacity,<br />

augmented by food trucks that come in<br />

from other parts of the city. Artists, media,<br />

politicians and other residents network.<br />

Civic institutions like the Museum of Contemporary<br />

Art and the main branch of the<br />

Jacksonville Public Library are side-byside<br />

across from the park.<br />

If you’re looking for a slight change of<br />

pace, with refined settings without the<br />

noise of a typical bar or club, consider<br />

checking out one of the assorted hotel<br />

bars. Downtown, the Omni and the Hyatt<br />

both have hotel bars that stay open fairly<br />

late, as do several of the hotels right across<br />

the river on the Southbank, easily accessible<br />

via the Main Street Bridge. Both banks,<br />

in fact, have riverwalks that certainly merit<br />

the occasional romantic moonlight stroll.<br />

We all know that parking Downtown<br />

can be a challenge when there’s something<br />

going on, whether it’s Art Walk,<br />

Florida-Georgia, the 4th of July, the Jazz<br />

Festival or Welcome to Rockville. There<br />

are few such issues in most after-hours settings.<br />

If there are big shows at the Florida<br />

Theatre, the Times-Union Center, Daily’s<br />

Place and/or the arena, most of the street<br />

parking is clear no later than 11 or 11:30,<br />

and any of the bars and clubs you might<br />

visit are likely to have open spaces within<br />

a block of their front door, or two blocks at<br />

worst.<br />

Residents of nearby neighborhoods<br />

may even choose not to drive. Public<br />

transportation is a non-starter after early<br />

evening, but walking is easy if you’re close<br />

enough. From Riverside, you can walk<br />

there via the Northbank Riverwalk. San<br />

Marco residents can cross the Main Street<br />

Bridge, and Main Street is a straight shot<br />

down from Springfield. That’s a 20- to<br />

30-minute walk in either direction, and it’s<br />

TOP: Sylvia Luddnyo takes a selfie as she has drinks<br />

with friends at the Volstead on West Adams Street.<br />

BOTTOM: Members of the Lets Ride Brass Band<br />

perform on Laura Street during Art Walk.<br />

generally safe, though walking in groups<br />

at night is always a good idea anywhere in<br />

Florida these days.<br />

And there are always taxis or rideshares<br />

for about the cost of a single craft<br />

cocktail. Worth every penny, especially if<br />

you’ve been drinking — and honestly, if<br />

you’re running around Downtown after<br />

dark, you may have had a few.<br />

Shelton Hull has written for Folio Weekly<br />

for 22 years. He also appears regularly on WJCT.<br />

He lives in Riverside.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 89


Hunger Games<br />

Continued from page 25<br />

are about to open with no grocery store, nowhere to eat after 5 p.m.,<br />

and you can’t walk two steps without getting asked for change.”<br />

He cites safety as a concern. “At night there are zero eyes on the<br />

street and zero feet on the ground patrol-wise for safety. There is no<br />

revitalization until there are people in the urban core 24 hours a day<br />

— living, working, shopping, eating, drinking and partying.<br />

“Operating a small business Downtown has often proven more<br />

challenging than it should be,” Hashem added. “The policies and the<br />

actions being taken to overregulate Downtown business are dissuading<br />

growth. I plan on having restaurants all over the city, and I hope<br />

that Downtown can be a thriving part of The Happy Grilled Cheese’s<br />

future. As a Jacksonville native, I plan on doing business and living in<br />

Jacksonville for the rest of my life.”<br />

Then there’s density, or lack of it. If Downtown had closely<br />

clustered pockets of noteworthy restaurants, bars, office and retail<br />

— bonafide entertainment districts with their own monikers — we<br />

would thrive. Our limited options are spread well beyond a casual<br />

walk and not well connected, especially for those unfamiliar with<br />

Downtown.<br />

Every good Downtown has a walkable street that’s lined — on<br />

both sides — with bars and restaurants. For those wanting to attend a<br />

concert and grab dinner or drinks at, say, Cowford Chophouse, it’s a<br />

secluded walk afterward to the venue. Florida Theatre and Times-<br />

Union Center, maybe. Daily’s Place, no. No one is going to hoof it in<br />

STRIVING FOR SOMETHING<br />

The NEW Teen Center and Swimming Pool<br />

at the Johnson Family YMCA<br />

LEARN MORE AT<br />

FCYMCA.org<br />

business attire from drinks at Morton’s The Steakhouse at the Hyatt<br />

to dinner at BurgerFi. Same goes for drinks at Dos Gatos and dinner<br />

at Ruth’s Chris.<br />

Jacksonville would benefit greatly from a cluster of restaurants and<br />

bars located together within a two- or three-block radius. Restaurants<br />

meshed with retail shops also help to keep visitors moving along<br />

a corridor. A 30-foot area without retail can cause a visitor to turn<br />

around.<br />

And those hot pockets need pathways to hopscotch between<br />

them — a dose of connectivity. Recently I experienced this as I was<br />

escorting an out-of-town guest for a weeknight happy hour after dark.<br />

As we migrated from Cowford Chophouse to Bellwether, my guest<br />

mentioned how abandoned and ‘scary’ it seemed. “Shouldn’t we just<br />

drive?” she implored.<br />

As we crossed Main Street at Bay, I explained that it would be<br />

okay to walk but quickly saw her point as we dissolved into dimly lit<br />

streets hugged by echo-y parking deck after parking deck devoid of<br />

street-level activity. All of this while encountering an unsavory character<br />

asking for handouts along the way.<br />

All of this to say: We can do better, and need more to fill the many<br />

gaps.<br />

Where we are<br />

doing okay:<br />

These three syndromes aren’t all consuming of the body<br />

Downtown. The area has notched several victories that should be<br />

acknowledged.<br />

Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a dilapidated, vacant building<br />

at Ocean and Bay transform brick-by-brick into a three-story<br />

fine-dining experience in Cowford Chophouse. Offering one floor<br />

with white tablecloth service, another with a more casual bar, plus<br />

a rooftop bar with the full menu, Cowford has been a welcome<br />

addition to the Downtown dining landscape.<br />

Nearby Bellwether, the fourth installment from popular local<br />

restaurateur Jonathan Insetta, opened in the 100 North Laura<br />

building in spring 2017. Sister restaurants, Restaurant Orsay in<br />

Avondale and Black Sheep in Five Points, are consistently two of<br />

Jacksonville’s best. (Former Insetta darling, Chew, was nearby for<br />

five years on Adams Street and houses Kazu Sushi Burrito these<br />

days.) Bellwether offers lunch on weekdays — with an order, pay<br />

and sit, or full-service option — and dinner and full bar Wednesday<br />

through Saturday with a limited Tuesday menu. A walk-up<br />

counter serving local Bold Bean coffee is a little-advertised option<br />

for caffeine seekers.<br />

Nola MOCA inside the Museum of Contemporary Art is a<br />

gorgeous weekday respite from the office for lunch with its massive<br />

windows and natural light. The menu is diverse and portions generous.<br />

Dinner service is sadly limited to Thursday.<br />

Morton’s The Steakhouse relocated from the Southbank to the<br />

ground floor of the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel,<br />

but that’s off the beaten path for those wanting to grab dinner and<br />

then head out to most other venues.<br />

Gili’s Kitchen, occupying the former Adams Street Deli, is a<br />

gem. It has quickly become my go-to lunch option. Its chef-driven<br />

items are made fresh and the menu accommodates kosher, gluten-free,<br />

vegetarian and vegan diners easily. It is the only restaurant<br />

on the block open until 8 p.m. for dinner.<br />

Nearby Zodiac Grill offers an affordable, expansive Mediterranean<br />

lunch buffet. Other casual lunch options include Olio, Spliff’s<br />

Gastropub, Akel’s Deli, The Happy Grilled Cheese, Magnificat<br />

Café, Super Food and Brew, Chamblin’s Uptown café, TossGreen,<br />

Desert Rider Café and Urban Grind. There’s also Burrito Gallery,<br />

90<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


which in my opinion has gone downhill<br />

over the years, and old standby Indochine<br />

upstairs for good sit-down Thai cuisine.<br />

Where we can<br />

DO BETTER:<br />

With the Florida Theatre, Times-<br />

Union Center for the Performing Arts<br />

and Daily’s Place bringing more acts<br />

Downtown, eateries have followed, but we<br />

still seem to be pressed for variety:<br />

The urban core continues to miss out<br />

on barbecue, a staple in most every other<br />

far-flung corner of Duuuval. Longtime<br />

fixture Jenkins Quality Barbecue is on the<br />

edge of Downtown, but not walkable or<br />

near anything else.<br />

Soul food is absent, as is sushi. We have<br />

fast-casual Kazu Sushi Burrito, which is<br />

sometimes crowded at lunch, but barren<br />

after 5. Outside of that, there is not a<br />

Japanese or sushi restaurant in the core<br />

otherwise.<br />

There’s no French restaurant that serves<br />

dinner, and we aren’t even blessed with a<br />

bakery of any sort.<br />

Homemade pasta and sit-down Italian<br />

are non-existent dinner options. Casual<br />

spot, Chicago Pizza, at the Jacksonville<br />

Landing recently closed after nearly 10<br />

years in business. Casa Dora is open<br />

most evenings but isn’t a Downtown<br />

destination — it’s more of a simple, quick<br />

solution to dinner before a Florida Theatre<br />

show. Longtime full-service Downtown<br />

Italian restaurant La Cena pulled out<br />

awhile back from Laura Street, relocating<br />

to a non-descript Murray Hill location.<br />

And oddly enough, often on the busiest<br />

of nights Downtown like One Spark and<br />

First Wednesday Art Walk, its owner would<br />

close the restaurant for the evening.<br />

Forget Indian food, unless you count<br />

award-winning mobile food truck Fusion,<br />

which only parks Downtown once or twice<br />

weekly for lunch.<br />

You can think of variety in terms of<br />

cuisine and its availability in the form of<br />

more evening and weekend hours. Restaurateurs<br />

will go there once round-the-clock<br />

activity attracts their hungry target market<br />

and makes it economically viable.<br />

There’s virtually no outdoor dining now<br />

that The Jacksonville Landing awaits its<br />

demise. The only true outdoor dining in<br />

the urban core is the rooftop at Cowford<br />

Chophouse and a series of umbrella-shaded<br />

picnic tables at the Court Urban Food<br />

Truck Park on Hogan Street. Honorable<br />

mentions go out to the hidden area at<br />

Urban Grind Coffee Shop, a few seats<br />

outside of Super Food and Brew, and a<br />

handful of outside tables at Bellwether,<br />

and Burrito Gallery’s small outdoor patio.<br />

For guests staying Downtown on weekends,<br />

walkable brunch options are beyond<br />

scarce. The Omni Jacksonville and Hyatt<br />

hotels own the Northbank market, short<br />

of hailing an Uber or rental car to nosh at<br />

hotspots in San Marco or Riverside. Even<br />

First Watch and bb’s are too far by foot,<br />

especially as the temperatures rise.<br />

Putting it all<br />

together<br />

While we have not yet made Downtown<br />

a dining destination, the ingredients may<br />

be lining up. Consider new residential<br />

units and national-flag hotels open and in<br />

the works, educational institutions UNF, JU<br />

and FSCJ growing their urban campuses,<br />

blooming adaptive reuse (The Barnett,<br />

Laura Street Trio) and ground-up (JEA)<br />

projects, a flourish in LaVilla and infusions<br />

of new workers (VyStar).<br />

All of these residents, workers, students,<br />

tourists and sports fans will need to eat<br />

somewhere.<br />

Once Downtown finds its swagger, its<br />

culinary pot of cool may start simmering.<br />

But a lot of people will need to take turns<br />

stirring.<br />

“I think residential population density<br />

is our bigger problem,” said Insetta. “Also<br />

getting guests to come Downtown when<br />

it’s a non-event night. We have seen steadier<br />

numbers at night on non-event nights,<br />

but we have some great restaurants Downtown<br />

and I would love to see Downtown<br />

busy at night. I think a student population<br />

or just more residents in general would be<br />

huge for Downtown.<br />

“We need vitality outside of business<br />

hours — we have an amazing Downtown<br />

and it just needs to be brought to life,” he<br />

added.<br />

Matthew Clark, a commercial real estate<br />

broker with Prime Realty, has helped<br />

usher businesses Downtown. “When I<br />

started in commercial real estate, I had a<br />

passion for Downtown Jacksonville retail.<br />

I quickly realized it was going to take more<br />

people Downtown to bring a retail vibe to<br />

fruition. Although we had some success<br />

over the past few years bringing retail to<br />

the core — Bellwether, Jimmy Johns,<br />

Wolf & Cub, TossGreen and Anytime<br />

Fitness to name a few — it will take a<br />

dense residential component to continue<br />

to move the initiative forward. Many retailers<br />

not only want to see a strong daytime<br />

population, but nighttime as well.”<br />

This is true for William Morgan, owner<br />

of Vagabond Coffee on Hogan Street,<br />

which initially got its start as a mobile unit<br />

in nearby Hemming Park. It has expansion<br />

plans Downtown for its locally roasted<br />

beans: Laura Street inside the Barnett<br />

Bank Building.<br />

“There is no other specialty coffee in<br />

the center city,” said Morgan. “We provide<br />

an option for people who enjoy a higher<br />

level of coffee and grab and go. We are<br />

beyond excited to be opening soon in<br />

the Barnett Bank Building, furthering our<br />

commitment to be in the heart of Jacksonville.”<br />

From mobile unit to a location in Murray<br />

Hill to Hogan Street and this new venture,<br />

Morgan notes, “It has been hard —<br />

really hard at times — and we are excited<br />

to continue to grow in Downtown, but we<br />

need the support of everyone Downtown.”<br />

When asked what’s missing from<br />

Downtown’s landscape, Morgan smiles<br />

and says, “I mean this in all love, but everything.<br />

There are very much the embers of a<br />

great awakening in Downtown Jax, but we<br />

need many, many more to join us in our<br />

pursuit of greatness for our city center.”<br />

Nearby local boutique Wolf & Club<br />

has been Downtown almost three years.<br />

Its success also hasn’t come without its<br />

struggles and hard work.<br />

Its owner, Emily Moody-Rosete, would<br />

love to see more retail and restaurants<br />

“take a risk” and move Downtown, but<br />

says, “Unfortunately there isn’t a lot to<br />

attract and encourage small businesses to<br />

open here, and that’s a big missed opportunity<br />

for the city.”<br />

She and husband Varick Rosete chose<br />

Downtown for the brick-and-mortar<br />

location of Wolf & Cub because they are<br />

passionate about helping contribute to<br />

building Downtown into “a vibrant district<br />

full of interesting shops, eateries and<br />

activities.”<br />

“Although underutilized and underappreciated,<br />

we really do have a beautiful<br />

Downtown,” she adds. “Even though there<br />

is still not as much to offer as other more<br />

established Jacksonville neighborhoods,<br />

Downtown should be proud of the quality<br />

of businesses, cultural institutions and<br />

public programming it does have.”<br />

Insetta agrees. “We see the potential in<br />

this city and also the importance of having<br />

a vibrant productive urban core,” he said.<br />

“It has such good bones and potential,<br />

and we would like to be a positive force for<br />

change for growth Downtown.”<br />

Caron Streibich works for Regency Centers and<br />

is a Florida Times-Union bi-weekly food writer. She lives<br />

on the Southbank.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 91


QUESTIONS & ANSWERS<br />

By Mike Clark & Roger Brown<br />

A voice for<br />

Hemming<br />

‘Jacksonville residents deserve<br />

beautiful things, beautiful places’<br />

hristina Parrish Stone is managing director<br />

of Friends of Hemming Park, the<br />

C<br />

nonprofit contracted to manage Jacksonville’s<br />

most historic public space.<br />

She sees tremendous potential in Downtown Jacksonville,<br />

but has a clear view<br />

of its challenges. Having<br />

CHRISTINA<br />

PARRISH<br />

STONE<br />

WORK:<br />

Managing Director of<br />

Friends of Hemming Park.<br />

FROM:<br />

Chatham, N.J.<br />

LIVES IN:<br />

Springfield<br />

visited every state and<br />

about 40 foreign nations,<br />

she has images<br />

of successful<br />

town squares<br />

in mind. In<br />

the following<br />

interview,<br />

she speaks<br />

about what she<br />

believes are<br />

strengths, weaknesses<br />

and misconceptions about Downtown.<br />

She was interviewed by Times-Union<br />

Editorial Page Editor Mike Clark and Editorial<br />

Writer Roger Brown. Comments were edited for<br />

space and clarity.<br />

Parrish Stone was born in Atlanta. When<br />

she was young, her family moved to Chatham,<br />

N.J., while her father worked as an engineer for<br />

AT&T in Manhattan, primarily on the Longlines<br />

cable ship. Her mother was an artist, a writer and<br />

a musician. Her parents loved music, and as a<br />

result so did Parrish Stone, who studied piano from<br />

early childhood. She remembers the “wonderful school<br />

system” in New Jersey. She is passionate about public<br />

education and, in particular, arts education today.<br />

Parrish has vivid memories of driving into New York City<br />

with her father when the city was an exciting but sometimes<br />

uncomfortable place to visit. “We’d drive through the Holland<br />

WILL DICKEY<br />

92<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


70 PORTS<br />

23 STATES<br />

1 HOMETOWN<br />

CSX is proud to be part of a diverse and innovative business community.<br />

We’re working hard to make a difference in Jacksonville and beyond.


“This was<br />

about 1986.<br />

The Landing<br />

was the most<br />

exciting thing<br />

happening,<br />

but its<br />

development<br />

was badly<br />

timed.<br />

Downtown<br />

was more<br />

crowded then<br />

than it is<br />

now, at least<br />

in terms of<br />

traffic, but<br />

you could<br />

clearly see it<br />

was starting<br />

to die.<br />

Hemming<br />

was, frankly,<br />

awful.”<br />

Tunnel to have dinner in Chinatown; such an<br />

exotic experience for an elementary school<br />

student! But the city at that time had a lot of the<br />

same worries we have in Jacksonville: crumbling<br />

infrastructure, vacant storefronts, a large<br />

transient population, concerns about crime and<br />

safety. I remember Times Square when it was<br />

full of X-rated movie places; I was pick-pocketed<br />

at Bloomingdales. The transformation from then<br />

until now is incredible! New York has instituted<br />

a number of policies that could benefit Jacksonville<br />

— police officers on foot greeting tourists<br />

who now feel safe in a formerly scary place, for<br />

example.”<br />

Her father was overseas much of the time,<br />

visiting dozens of countries and sending postcards<br />

or bringing home treasures that inspired<br />

Parrish Stone’s lifelong love of travel and interest<br />

in tourism. The constant travel was exhausting;<br />

he changed gears and returned to Atlanta and<br />

Georgia Tech to earn a Ph.D., eventually becoming<br />

a professor at Georgia Southern University.<br />

“He later became dean of the business school<br />

at Savannah State College, an historically black<br />

college. Most of his students and colleagues,<br />

many who became close family friends, were<br />

people of color. This was in the very early 1980s,<br />

and it was an experience that changed me in<br />

a lot of positive ways and opened my eyes to<br />

some of the issues we are exploring more closely<br />

today, like institutional racism and respect for<br />

cultural differences.”<br />

For a variety of reasons, at the age of 16 she<br />

left home to be on her own. She worked three<br />

jobs during her last year of high school, serving<br />

as a cashier at Winn-Dixie, a clerk at a local<br />

insurance company and a bookkeeper for a<br />

downtown hardware store that was adjacent to<br />

a central city park similar in many ways to Hemming.<br />

She earned her undergraduate degree at<br />

Georgia Southern and, at the age of 19, moved to<br />

Savannah and worked there for Savannah Bank<br />

and Trust.<br />

“Savannah was sleepier than it is now, but it<br />

was a wonderful city to live in, beautiful, celebrating<br />

its architecture and history, with just the<br />

right amount of tourism. It wasn’t too crowded<br />

but thanks to all of the visitors, there were great<br />

restaurants and other attractions. Savannah took<br />

care of its downtown spaces. As a brand new<br />

banker, I couldn’t afford a space in a parking<br />

garage, so I parked more than a mile from my<br />

office, and every morning and afternoon I had<br />

the privilege of walking through Savannah’s<br />

beautiful city squares. Hemming Park reminds<br />

me a lot of those spaces.”<br />

“It’s part of what drives me today, my memories<br />

of those daily walks through those gorgeous<br />

little parks.”<br />

When First Union took over Savannah Bank<br />

and Trust, Parrish had an opportunity to move<br />

to Jacksonville with what felt like a big promotion<br />

and the possibility of an exciting new<br />

adventure in a big city in her early 20s.<br />

Moving HERE when<br />

the Landing was hot<br />

“I thought I was moving on up from a small<br />

town to a big city, and in terms of sheer size and<br />

overall population, that was true, but it was the<br />

opposite in terms of the experiences you could<br />

have in Jacksonville at the time. The places to go<br />

out to eat and enjoy activities appealing to a single<br />

20-something professional were very limited.<br />

I soon felt I had made a terrible mistake.<br />

“This was about 1986. The Landing was the<br />

most exciting thing happening but its development<br />

was badly timed. Downtown was more<br />

crowded then than it is now, at least in terms of<br />

traffic, but you could clearly see it was starting to<br />

die. Hemming was, frankly, awful. The beautiful<br />

St. James Building was a mess, still occupied by<br />

May Cohens but with no merchandise someone<br />

my age would want to buy. There were still a few<br />

great hole-in-the wall restaurants, and some<br />

interesting long-time businesses were still hanging<br />

on. But almost immediately after I arrived<br />

in Jacksonville, the decline of Downtown began<br />

to accelerate. Banks and insurance companies<br />

were consolidating and moving employees to<br />

Southpoint, or to other cities. At the same time,<br />

scores of beautiful historic buildings were being<br />

demolished and replaced by soon-to-be-unnecessary<br />

parking lots and garages, thanks to the<br />

concurrent loss of jobs Downtown.”<br />

“When the city began demolishing LaVilla, I<br />

don’t remember a significant amount of concern<br />

expressed about the destruction of this incredible<br />

historic neighborhood, a neighborhood that<br />

should have been celebrated, protected and leveraged<br />

to bring visitors to the city. The envisioned<br />

redevelopment — office towers lining the streets<br />

from I-95 to the center city — of course never<br />

happened, thanks to the real estate Downturn<br />

and flight to the suburbs. That period is a truly<br />

tragic part of our history.”<br />

From banking to law<br />

“During the real estate crisis of the late 1980s,<br />

I worked with a lot of attorneys, an experience<br />

that led me to law school at the University of Florida.<br />

I loved all of the classes and seminars related<br />

to property — land use, historic preservation.<br />

After graduation I spent a year at the State Attorney’s<br />

Office because I thought trial experience<br />

would be good for me; I was a terrible trial lawyer<br />

thanks to a tremendous fear of public speaking,<br />

but the things I learned and the relationships I<br />

developed there have been invaluable. I went to<br />

work as a real estate and bond lawyer at Foley &<br />

Lardner, and later worked for a residential developer<br />

and for Rayonier.”<br />

With four children, divorced and a single<br />

mom, she left Rayonier and started her own<br />

94<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


law firm in Springfield. She fell in love with that<br />

neighborhood and its potential, first working as<br />

a volunteer on community projects ranging from<br />

the Hogans Creek Greenway to the Springfield<br />

Disc Golf Course and finally as a founder of<br />

Jacksonville PorchFest. She chaired the steering<br />

committee that brought Groundwork to Jacksonville<br />

and eventually became a part-time executive<br />

director for Springfield Preservation. She served<br />

on the Historical Society board, where she got to<br />

know historian Wayne Wood.<br />

That led to her involvement with Hemming<br />

Park.<br />

Friends of Hemming’s<br />

rocky early years<br />

“Selecting a nonprofit to manage Hemming<br />

Park was absolutely the right solution for the<br />

challenges the city was facing there six years ago,<br />

and the group of people who founded and staffed<br />

Friends of Hemming Park had brilliant ideas and<br />

did amazing things to change the atmosphere<br />

and create a buzz about Downtown. In retrospect,<br />

I think we all would agree that the contract<br />

with the city in some ways forced that group to<br />

focus too much on big events and not enough on<br />

some of the critical challenges facing the park.<br />

Security was not a priority, and goals were related<br />

to the number of visitors and number of events<br />

and not so much on making the park a place that<br />

is attractive and comfortable and safe for the<br />

general public seven days a week. The Friends<br />

of Hemming Park hosted fabulous events, which<br />

I regularly attended, and the park would look<br />

great because it was full of people and activity,<br />

but during the week the long-time problems<br />

with illegal and nuisance activity, inadequate<br />

maintenance, outdated furnishings and facilities<br />

continued.”<br />

“That led to the well-publicized problems with<br />

the city. City Council members and the mayoral<br />

administration saw a park that still had significant<br />

issues related to crime and maintenance. There<br />

was a feeling that business people, visitors and<br />

families were only comfortable in the park during<br />

the big events. Council members began questioning<br />

how funds were being spent. The future did<br />

not look bright for the park or the nonprofit that<br />

managed it.”<br />

Righting the ship<br />

“Bill Prescott and the rest of the board of directors<br />

saved Friends of Hemming Park. Bill transitioned<br />

from the board to an unpaid position as<br />

CEO, and he preserved funding (at a significantly<br />

reduced but adequate level), negotiated contract<br />

changes and oversaw the addition of security<br />

and improvements to the ambassador program.<br />

Perhaps most importantly, he reestablished trust<br />

with the city administration. Bill continues to<br />

work hard for the organization as board chair.<br />

Damien Robinson, the only staff member who<br />

“By the time<br />

I arrived (as<br />

the managing<br />

director of<br />

Friends of<br />

Hemming<br />

Park),<br />

the hardest<br />

work had<br />

been done.<br />

I was able<br />

to focus on<br />

events and<br />

programming.<br />

I started with<br />

two things<br />

that were<br />

easy for me:<br />

an expanded<br />

lineup of<br />

musicians<br />

and food<br />

trucks.”<br />

has been with the organization almost from the<br />

beginning, was a big part of the progress made in<br />

the past couple of years. The staff and board did<br />

a great job of managing a difficult process, and of<br />

making changes that were sometimes criticized.<br />

The current administration has been supportive<br />

as well, and I think that relationship will continue<br />

to improve. The nonprofit and the city won’t<br />

always agree on actions that need to be taken, but<br />

I think we’ve achieved a good balance.<br />

“I had the good fortune to join the group<br />

after security was established and other changes<br />

— some that I didn’t understand at the time<br />

— had been made. I was one of the people who<br />

questioned the removal of seating and wondered<br />

what was wrong with allowing people to sit on the<br />

edge of the fountains and other ledges. You really<br />

have to be in the park every day to understand<br />

why those steps were necessary. The change to<br />

movable seating has been extremely helpful in<br />

connection with events and to make adjustments<br />

to accommodate the wide variety of visitors to<br />

the park. With the moveable seating, we can<br />

host large concerts or more intimate gatherings<br />

(sometimes both at the same time). We can try<br />

to accommodate smokers in an area that doesn’t<br />

interfere with others’ enjoyment of our dining<br />

areas or the kids zone. The fountains weren’t<br />

designed for people sitting on the edges; we are<br />

still working to repair damage to the tile. We do<br />

hope to add permanent seating in portions of the<br />

park soon.<br />

“By the time I arrived, the hardest work had<br />

been done. I was able to focus on events and<br />

programming. I started with two things that were<br />

easy for me: an expanded lineup of musicians and<br />

food trucks. I love good food, and I used to own a<br />

music store, booked bands and know a lot of musicians<br />

and vendors because of that experience<br />

and four years of organizing Jacksonville Porch-<br />

Fest. Big events were more challenging — there<br />

had been no full-time programming staff for quite<br />

a while when I arrived, so not even one event was<br />

on the calendar for the next year. The great thing<br />

about that was that I could, within the limits of<br />

our contract, experiment with a lot of different<br />

things. I wanted events that were inclusive and<br />

celebrated Jacksonville’s history and the culture of<br />

this diverse city.<br />

“We started with a Hanukkah party after a<br />

friend told me how much she missed the public<br />

menorah lighting and celebration she had attended<br />

every year in Boston. We added events for<br />

Black History Month, Women’s History Month,<br />

a Hispanic Heritage celebration and a Bluegrass,<br />

Beer and Barbecue festival. Our Fall and Spring<br />

Family Days have been a huge hit (complete<br />

with a Parks and Rec-inspired miniature horse),<br />

and we just finished a full month of activities to<br />

celebrate National Poetry Month, thanks to a<br />

partnership with nonprofits Hope at Hand and<br />

the Performers Academy. The closing celebration<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 95


was phenomenal, and it was wonderful to see<br />

how strongly people are impacted by the written<br />

and spoken word.<br />

“We’ve really<br />

gotten to a<br />

good place,<br />

but we still<br />

have much<br />

work to do<br />

to change<br />

perceptions.<br />

There<br />

are many<br />

people who<br />

still think<br />

Downtown<br />

and Hemming<br />

Park are<br />

dangerous,<br />

that there is<br />

nothing to do,<br />

nothing to see<br />

or no parking,<br />

which is<br />

absolutely<br />

not true.”<br />

Plans for the future<br />

“We continue to work to make the park more<br />

beautiful. That’s very important to me; Hemming<br />

Park should be a place that is visually appealing to<br />

all of our visitors. We are the front door to City Hall,<br />

to treasures like MOCA and our magnificent Main<br />

Library. It’s challenging — our design dates back<br />

almost 50 years, and the park is due for more than<br />

a facelift. It’s time to focus on that, with the help<br />

of well qualified experts in landscape architecture<br />

and park design. I hope that before I leave this<br />

position the city government will approve funding<br />

that will allow us to make Hemming Park the<br />

world-class space that it should be. We need input<br />

from people much more skilled than I am. What<br />

elements should this park include? What events<br />

and activities should we focus on? We constantly<br />

hear from people who advocate primarily for more<br />

grass; I was one of those people two years ago, but<br />

now I’m not so sure. We need more green in the<br />

park, but most successful small city squares are<br />

paved, and for a good reason. City squares should<br />

be active places, and grass is hard to maintain.<br />

The Confederate memorial is a continuing topic of<br />

conversation that needs to be addressed but that<br />

will not easily be resolved. The ultimate decisions<br />

about that rest with City Council and the Mayor’s<br />

Office.<br />

“Until we find the funding for a major park<br />

restoration, we work hard with what we have.<br />

When I started in late 2017, all the small beds<br />

were empty, just dirt, and the city had no money<br />

set aside for landscaping. I asked businesses<br />

to become beautification sponsors so we could<br />

plant flowers. That small change has made a huge<br />

difference, and this year the city has been able to<br />

fund some additional landscape improvements.<br />

We have done several public art projects, including<br />

a hands-on mosaic project with Roux Art during<br />

last year’s Public Art Week. Next up is a significant<br />

sculpture project with UNF that will be unveiled<br />

in June and provides several UNF students an<br />

opportunity to navigate the public art process and<br />

create a large-scale sculpture, funded by Hemming<br />

Park, that the students will own but will exhibit in<br />

the park for a year.<br />

“We continue to add weekday and weekend<br />

programming. This year we started our Hemming<br />

Park Walking Club, which provides a free onehour<br />

walking tour at 11:30 on Tuesdays. Every<br />

week we visit a different part of Downtown Jacksonville<br />

that has historical significance or features<br />

public art. We’ve visited the Clara White museum,<br />

St. John’s Cathedral, the Morocco Temple, the Florida<br />

Theatre and about a dozen other Downtown<br />

spaces. We have at least 15 to 20 people who join<br />

us regularly for these walks. We added yoga classes<br />

on Sundays and a growing market, featuring produce<br />

from Berry Good Farms, on the first, third<br />

and fifth Tuesday of each month. These activities<br />

are getting a tremendous positive response.<br />

“Our staff is tiny, so we rely on partnerships<br />

to do bigger events. We’re engaging with the<br />

wonderful institutions located around the park;<br />

we meet with the Library, MOCA and other<br />

downtown stakeholders frequently to align our<br />

programming so that we can leverage our resources.<br />

We have found that, when we co-produce<br />

or coordinate events, we have better attendance.<br />

Families can visit Downtown and find enough<br />

activities to entertain them for an entire day.<br />

“We’ve really gotten to a good place, but we<br />

still have much work to do to change perceptions.<br />

There are many people who still think Downtown<br />

and Hemming Park are dangerous, that there<br />

is nothing to do, nothing to see or no parking,<br />

which is absolutely not true. I can’t remember the<br />

last time we had an incident in the park that was<br />

particularly challenging from a safety perspective.<br />

We have private security in the park from sun up<br />

to sun down, seven days a week. We have programming<br />

seven days a week and are surrounded<br />

by interesting places. If you come to Hemming<br />

Park, you can cross one street and gain access to a<br />

world-class art museum, MOCA. You can admire<br />

the incredible architecture of Henry Klutho’s St.<br />

James Building, and visit one of the coolest candy<br />

stores in the United States at Sweet Pete’s. MOSH<br />

is a short Skyway ride away and the Main Library,<br />

with its maker space and outstanding Florida collection,<br />

is next door. It’s safe, it’s fun, and yes, it’s<br />

pretty! And there is plenty of parking Downtown<br />

— the library garage is one block away.<br />

Emphasizing the positive<br />

“I’m working at Hemming Park because I care<br />

deeply about Downtown Jacksonville and how<br />

Jacksonville is perceived by people from other<br />

places. I see the tremendous potential in Jacksonville.<br />

But I’m often frustrated. Somehow, in<br />

spite of the efforts and good intentions of many,<br />

we’ve done a really poor job of sharing all the good<br />

things we have here with the rest of the world.<br />

People don’t know about our history. They don’t<br />

know about our natural and other assets.<br />

“Our walking tours illustrate that. We have participants<br />

who are visitors from other cities, other<br />

countries, but also from other parts of Jacksonville.<br />

Many had never been to MOCA before our<br />

tour. They had never seen the Main Library’s map<br />

collection; they had never been to a show at the<br />

Florida Theatre. They had concerns about safety<br />

or parking, but now, after walking with us twice a<br />

week for the past four months, they’ve changed<br />

their opinions. We need to create more of these<br />

experiences for visitors.<br />

“We should brand and promote our original,<br />

historic Downtown. If you’re driving north on I-95,<br />

the only sign that points you to Downtown says<br />

‘Jacksonville Landing.’ The Landing will be gone<br />

96<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


soon. Why not promote our ‘Downtown Historic<br />

District’?<br />

“Let’s start talking about the positive things that<br />

are already here and talk less about what we don’t<br />

have Downtown; let’s change the conversation.<br />

“When I first moved to Springfield, I fell in love<br />

with Klutho Park and its potential. Klutho Park<br />

needs a lot of work, but it is still beautiful. I would<br />

invite practically everyone I met to visit the park<br />

with me, and every single person who accepted<br />

could immediately see what a tremendous asset<br />

we have, neglected but amazing. Groundwork<br />

Jacksonville is changing perceptions about Klutho<br />

and Hogans Creek. People were afraid to go to<br />

Springfield when I moved there in 2010. Residents<br />

of Springfield worked hard to organize events and<br />

change the conversation. Now the neighborhood<br />

is booming.<br />

“Downtown is already awesome in so many<br />

ways. We need to celebrate what we’ve got, change<br />

our messaging.<br />

Three secrets to<br />

Downtown success<br />

“We need to change perceptions about parking,<br />

safety and the transient population.<br />

“I want Downtown — not just Hemming<br />

Park — to become a destination for Jacksonville<br />

residents and visitors to the city. Parking is the<br />

No. 1 one concern of many of our visitors. Let’s<br />

make parking easier for them and expand the use<br />

of public transportation. I’m excited about a new<br />

partnership we’ve developed with JTA: Through<br />

the end of this year, the skyway will run on one<br />

Saturday every month, a Saturday when several<br />

events are happening at Hemming and with our<br />

partners. We hope to activate the Skyway stations<br />

and platforms, and create a really wonderful experience<br />

for riders. It will be possible to park at a JTA<br />

lot and spend the entire day visiting Downtown<br />

attractions in a fun, family friendly way with minimal<br />

stress. We hope this will be so successful that<br />

JTA will continue and expand the program next<br />

year. Let’s start building ridership now. Let’s make<br />

Downtown Jacksonville a seven-day-a-week place.<br />

“Downtown is one of the safest parts of Jacksonville,<br />

but visitors don’t feel that way. JSO needs<br />

to do what New York did with police officers, on<br />

foot, interacting in a positive way with visitors 24/7<br />

in locations around Downtown. It would be well<br />

worth the investment.<br />

“Like most urban areas, we have a Downtown<br />

homeless population. The city has started providing<br />

additional resources to assist that homeless<br />

population, which is fantastic. The Urban Rest<br />

Stop is a huge step in the right direction. Meanwhile,<br />

one change that could help perceptions<br />

about the size of the homeless population is a<br />

change in hours for the Main Library. The library<br />

provides significant resources for residents,<br />

including much needed access to computers.<br />

Because the opening hours vary from day to day,<br />

“Downtown<br />

is one of the<br />

safest parts of<br />

Jacksonville,<br />

but visitors<br />

don’t feel<br />

that way.<br />

JSO needs<br />

to do what<br />

New York did<br />

with police<br />

officers,<br />

on foot,<br />

interacting<br />

in a positive<br />

way with<br />

visitors 24/7<br />

in locations<br />

around<br />

Downtown.<br />

It would<br />

be well<br />

worth the<br />

investment.”<br />

we end up with a large group of people waiting<br />

to access the library in the mornings, sometimes<br />

sitting outside for several hours. A consistent 9<br />

a.m. opening time would help everyone. I am not<br />

suggesting that the library should take the place<br />

of an appropriately sized resource center, but<br />

until that exists this is a relatively simple change<br />

that, if funded, could improve perceptions about<br />

Downtown.<br />

If she were in charge<br />

of all of Downtown<br />

“Since I am never going to run for political<br />

office, I can say this: We need a dedicated funding<br />

source for parks and historic preservation, and<br />

that means new taxes. It is unacceptable that<br />

architectural treasures like Snyder Memorial<br />

Church and the Armory are crumbling. These<br />

places played a significant role in our city’s<br />

history. Both of those buildings are going to be<br />

challenging to renovate, and I think we need to<br />

stop waiting for a private company to bail us out<br />

on those. Let’s do the work that needs to be done<br />

to save them now, before it’s too late. We have<br />

an incredible parks system, one of the largest by<br />

acreage in the country. And it’s a tragedy that our<br />

per-capita spending on our parks is one of the<br />

lowest in the country. Our parks department does<br />

a lot with what they have, but they need funding<br />

to activate and maintain those parks. They need<br />

additional staff. Jacksonville residents deserve<br />

beautiful things, beautiful places.<br />

”Why do — or should — people want to visit<br />

Jacksonville? We focus too much on sports and<br />

not on our other assets. I’m a huge sports fan,<br />

and I travel to see sporting events. But when I<br />

compare cities to decide which one I want to visit<br />

to see my team play, or attend a golf tournament,<br />

I look for other interesting activities. I want to<br />

learn about a place’s history and see historic<br />

sights, experience art and culture. I want to<br />

participate in outdoor activities myself, not just<br />

watch others compete.<br />

“Let’s preserve our history and share it with<br />

the rest of the world. Let’s leverage our resources<br />

and improve and program our parks. Improve<br />

quality of life for the people who already live here<br />

and provide an irresistible vacation opportunity<br />

for those who don’t. We don’t need to wait until<br />

Downtown has 10,000 residents — if we showcase<br />

our existing assets and overcome negative<br />

perceptions, the residents and visitors will come.<br />

It may not always be easier here, but some of the<br />

solutions are not that hard.<br />

Mike Clark has been a reporter and editor<br />

for The Florida Times-Union and its predecessors<br />

since 1973 and editorial page editor since 2005.<br />

He lives in Nocatee.<br />

Roger Brown is a Times-Union editorial<br />

writer and member of the editorial board.<br />

He lives Downtown.<br />

SUMMER <strong>2019</strong> | J MAGAZINE 97


THE FINAL WORD<br />

A case for saving<br />

our Downtown’s<br />

historic buildings<br />

WAYNE<br />

WOOD<br />

EMAIL<br />

wayne@<br />

jaxhistory.com<br />

n May 3, 1901, most of Downtown<br />

O Jacksonville was destroyed by one of<br />

the greatest urban fires in American<br />

history. The rebuilding of the city was remarkable,<br />

not only for the speed of its recovery,<br />

but also because of the quality of buildings<br />

that were constructed in the new Jacksonville.<br />

Architects and investors came from across the<br />

country to claim a piece of the renaissance.<br />

The latest architectural styles and the newest<br />

construction techniques made this one of the<br />

most modern mid-size cities in the nation.<br />

Probably as much as 75 percent of those new<br />

buildings constructed following the Great Fire have<br />

now been demolished. In a few cases, they have been<br />

replaced with outstanding modern buildings, but sadly,<br />

in most cases they have been replaced with parking lots<br />

and garages, as well as bland commercial buildings that<br />

contribute nothing of beauty. This makes the preservation<br />

of those surviving Downtown historic landmarks<br />

all the more important.<br />

In trying to create a vibrant and viable Downtown<br />

for the future, there is much we can learn from these<br />

remaining old buildings in our urban core:<br />

Most of them are beautiful. There are architectural<br />

details on the first floors that are inviting and respect<br />

the human scale. They interact with passersby at the<br />

pedestrian level. Their entrances are clearly delineated,<br />

often by breaking the plane of the façade, and are<br />

embellished with ornamentation. These early commercial<br />

buildings reflected the quality and pride of their<br />

owners.<br />

They were distinctive but interconnected. In the<br />

heyday of Downtown, each block was filled with a<br />

continuous row of businesses. The activity in one<br />

enhanced the vibrance of the next. People don’t like to<br />

walk past empty lots and vacant structures. Streets lined<br />

with buildings that have uninterrupted walls (like the<br />

Monroe Street side of our Downtown Main Library) are<br />

foreboding and unfriendly. A thriving Downtown must<br />

be pedestrian-friendly, safe and welcoming.<br />

Our vintage buildings give us sense of place and<br />

historic identity. They connect us with our uniqueness<br />

as a city and make us stand apart from other dull metropolises.<br />

Early 20th century architects like Henry John<br />

Klutho gave Jacksonville the finest architecture of their<br />

time. We should value and preserve these treasures.<br />

Saving our historic buildings is not just an exercise<br />

in sentimentality — it makes economic sense. To allow<br />

many of these structures to remain empty or to demolish<br />

them is a waste of investments that have already<br />

been made, both financial and cultural.<br />

Look at the successful areas of Downtown where<br />

business is thriving and where people are gathering,<br />

and you will see concentrations of historic buildings.<br />

Look at the major construction activity Downtown<br />

today, and you will see historic buildings being restored<br />

and preserved, with a dozen significant projects recently<br />

completed or currently underway.<br />

The big news here is that there are amazing financial<br />

incentives to restore and preserve our landmark structures.<br />

The majority of the Downtown core has recently<br />

been listed in the National Register of Historic Places as<br />

a certified historic district. Renovation of contributing<br />

structures within this district is eligible for 20 percent<br />

federal income tax credits. That is a significant incentive<br />

to investment! These buildings are also eligible for<br />

local ad valorem tax deductions. And finally, there is<br />

a Downtown Historic Preservation and Revitalization<br />

Trust Fund that is available for qualified projects. (For<br />

more information, contact the Jacksonville Historic<br />

Preservation Commission at 904-255-7800.)<br />

Our historic structures also teach us another important<br />

lesson. Every new building that we build in our<br />

Downtown should be beautiful and should be the finest<br />

architecture of our time. The buildings of our future will<br />

tell as much about this city as those historic buildings<br />

that we preserve. When spaces for new construction<br />

come available (such as that of the recently demolished<br />

city hall and courthouse, as well as the potential<br />

removal of the Landing), we must fill those voids with<br />

great buildings, which will become iconic symbols of<br />

our magnificent river city to the world.<br />

These new buildings don’t necessarily have to be<br />

stunning architectural landmarks like the Sydney Opera<br />

House ... but on the other hand, WHY NOT?<br />

Optometrist Wayne Wood is the author of numerous<br />

books on Jacksonville, including Jacksonville’s Architectural<br />

Heritage: Landmarks for the Future. He is also the founder of<br />

Riverside Avondale Preservation and the Riverside Arts Market.<br />

He lives in Riverside.<br />

99<br />

J MAGAZINE | SUMMER <strong>2019</strong>


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