Jacksonville City Council holds 1st meeting on Shipyards project

3 years ago 273

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville City Council connected Friday held its archetypal gathering connected the Shipyards project.

The plans for the $400 cardinal riverfront improvement see a Four Seasons Hotel and Residences and an bureau gathering that the Jaguars privation to build. The metropolis could beryllium connected the hook for astir $114 cardinal of that.

The metropolis has been dreaming of processing the aged Shipyards tract for years, and the plans by Jaguars proprietor Shad Kahn and his company, Iguana Investments, are the latest. During Friday’s workshop, a fistful of assembly members began the enactment of trying to marque it a reality. Council members had a accidental to inquire questions astir the project, which was approved by the Downtown Investment Authority.

Last year, the City Council voted down the Jaguars’ program to make Lot J into an amusement complex. The assembly members connected manus Friday are much optimistic astir the Shipyards project.

“I perfectly bash I deliberation this is the time. I deliberation we got the close spouse and the dollars volition beryllium determination I think,” said City Councilman Ron Salem. “And the large happening is, if it goes done the council, it volition beryllium completed by December 2025.”

There is overmuch enactment to beryllium done by the City Council earlier that happens. On Friday, it looked astatine plans to swap retired the onshore from the aged Kids Kampus site, which is not being used, and physique a caller parkland that encompasses the riverfront successful the country crossed from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and necktie it into the USS Orleck naval museum. The Jacksonville Fire Museum, which is presently astatine Metropolitan Park, would beryllium moved there, arsenic well. To bash this, the metropolis plans to walk wealth it antecedently acceptable speech to screen up and cleanable the soil, which has been contaminated by the aged Shipyards property.

But that’s conscionable 1 facet of the plan. It was pointed retired Friday that dollar for dollar, the wealth the metropolis volition walk volition wage for itself successful 20 years and adjacent marque a tiny profit. That was not the lawsuit with Lot J.

“I don’t deliberation it’s going to beryllium a pugnacious sell,” City Council President Sam Newby said. “The quality is the transparency than what we had with Lot J. I don’t deliberation it’s going to beryllium an casual sell, but I don’t deliberation it’s going to beryllium a pugnacious sell.”

Jaguars President Mark Lamping is much optimistic that this is going to happen.

“We are encouraged that we got to this point,” Lamping said. “But successful galore respects, we’re starting implicit present with the legislative review.”

It’s expected determination volition beryllium overmuch statement successful the coming weeks.

This could travel up for a last ballot arsenic soon arsenic Oct. 12, with the Shipyards projected completed by December 2025.

One of the questions that came up Friday was astir the Duval County jail, which sits crossed the thoroughfare from the Shipyards site. There was speech astatine the gathering of making the jailhouse tract location to a caller normal center, which would necktie into the Shipyards plans.

“I knew we were looking astatine a normal halfway site. That’s the archetypal clip I heard it astatine the jailhouse tract — which means you would person to determination the jailhouse and the medication of the constabulary — which is simply a important investment,” Salem said. “I don’t cognize if that’s going to hap successful the adjacent 2 oregon 3 years.”

Lori Boyer, CEO of the Downtown Investment Authority, says the thought mightiness beryllium a spot premature.

“Well, that’s jumping the gun, but it’s trying to deliberation up however we holistically look astatine the waterfront,” Boyer said. “It’s thing that’s been discussed before.”

The City Council is talking Shipyards. Council members person a lunch-and-learn league successful which members volition larn astir what’s going to beryllium required of them to get this task done.

Read Entire Article