Mayor Brown's DIA Board Approved, Now What?
On October 15, 2012, Mayor Alvin Brown signed the resolutions leading to the authorization of the nine member Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) to move forward with the task of revitalizing downtown Jacksonville. According to Mayor Brown, 'The DIA marks an important step in making Jacksonville the most vibrant and competitive city it can be.' Depending on the policies the DIA decide to endorse, the DIA has the potential to either make this statement true or put the final nails in downtown's coffin. Here are four issues the DIA will need to address that will be more important to the future of downtown than the implementation and make up of the agency itself.
1. Overlooking the importance of urban design
Everbank's recent move to downtown illustrates the importance of urban design with every downtown deal. While landing the company represents a major coup for the area, the failure to highlight or address the exposure of retail on the tower's ground level restricts the relocation's overall potential on the immediate surrounding area.
Take a visit to the Jacksonville Public Library's Special Collections Department and you'll find several downtown redevelopment documents and vision plans collecting dust. Pick up a recently released Metro Jacksonville produced Cohen Brothers, The Big Store book, and you'll find that many of the same topics involving downtown revitalization today were alive and well forty years ago. In the meantime, billions of dollars have been invested on riverwalks, sports facilities, streetscapes, convention centers, parks, etc. and the parachute slowing downtown's fall from grace still hasn't fully opened.
Upon closer inspection, you'll discover that we tend to focus too much time on big ticket items, like a new courthouse or convention center, and not enough time or energy on making sure every project, large and small, properly interacts with the pedestrian scale environment around it. Needless to say, this is how we end up with Parador garage projects, retail in office towers that can't been seen from the street, and $350 million courthouses without sidewalks. All represent millions of dollars invested, but lost opportunities to stimulate pedestrian scale vibrancy. The ultimate success of the DIA will hinge on its ability to understand, stress, and simply demand all downtown development to integrate and add to the pedestrian scale environment surrounding it.
This Arlington, VA office building represents how integrating street level retail with the pedestrian environment surrounding it can add life to the street. Such a concept can be easily applied to the streets and buildings of downtown Jacksonville by better utilizing the businesses already operating in the area.
2. Developing an implementable and incremental downtown "plan"
The Downtown Master Plan of 1971 (above) is one of a long list of redevelopment strategies that were not based on or adaptable to market rate reality. With no idea of what to ultimately do with the failed Shipyards development site (below), it continues to only offer waterfront access to the homeless.
Let's face it. Thousands of new residents and businesses aren't going to fall out of the sky and into downtown's streets tomorrow. Downtown has steadily declined for decades and it will most likely take decades to fully restore the area to the ultimate atmosphere and environment everyone would like to see. Nevertheless, we still have several businesses operating right now that are struggling on a month-to-month basis.
In the past, a major failure of many publicly endorsed downtown redevelopment schemes has been the over-reliance of long term dreams at the expense of market rate short term reality. This is how we've ended up with the Main Street Pocket Park and the still abandoned and inaccessible patch of riverfront grass, known as the Shipyards.
While most redevelopment specialists will claim increasing downtown's immediate residential population base should be the highest priority, it should be understood and accepted that such an effort will take years to materialize in the attraction of retail and entertainment uses that many envision. That's not to speak poorly of downtown. Instead, this is just simple market, demographic, and development related reality.
However, this doesn't mean all is lost short term. It just means that we should not look at or treat downtown as a self contained bubble and gated community. Luckily, downtown is surrounded by neighborhoods like Riverside/Avondale, Springfield, San Marco, Durkeeville, etc. where 100,000 residents and additional popular walkable destinations, employers, institutions, and attractions already exist.
Strengthening downtown's connectivity with alternative forms of mobility (transit, cycling, walking, etc.) is an example of an incremental approach to stimulating long term life and living in downtown.
Charlotte is an example of a city that has enhanced growth within its central business district and surrounding urban neighborhoods by strengthening mass transit, bicycle, and pedestrian connectivity. Today, it is possible to live in a neighborhood outside of Uptown Charlotte and still have direct multimodal access its destinations. This connectivity instantly creates market rate residential and commercial activity in downtown and connecting districts.
3. Facilitating the market rate development opportunities
Nearly 2,000 students and faculty members of Florida Coastal School of Law spend considerable time at this secluded office building off Interstate 95 instead of downtown Jacksonville.
In 2004, the Florida Coastal School of Law considered relocating its campus to downtown. However, citing not being able to resolve parking issues, they ultimately ended up purchasing an office building in a Baymeadows office park for their new campus and the opportunity was lost. This summer, popular local brewer Intuition Ale Works expressed interest in developing a downtown brewery. Again, inaction at the public level has caused another innovative infill possibility to shift their expansion efforts to areas outside of downtown.
Both cases represent examples of opportunities that cities such as Charlotte and Oklahoma City have had success in capitalizing on. Both cases also join a laundry list of opportunities where Jacksonville has failed to answer the knock on the door. In the past, the even the former Downtown Development Authority has failed to deliver. Seizing unique opportunities for infill development, both large and small scale, will be instrumental in determining the DIA's impact on downtown's future.
While we failed to close the deal with a school that publicly announced a desire to be downtown, Charlotte is an example of a city that took the extra mile to convince Johnson & Wales University to close campuses in Charleston, SC and Norfolk, VA, and relocate to a new campus in Uptown Charlotte. The 250 employee JWU Charlotte Campus opened in 2004 and now has grown to an enrollment of 2,800 students, many of which live in three Uptown Charlotte residential halls.
4. Recognizing the importance of existing building fabric
With this 1940's era aerial of downtown Jacksonville, it's easier to point out what's left than to count what has been destroyed (highlighted in yellow).
One of the special characteristics of urban environments around the world is the element of sense-of-place. The authenticity and evolution of existing pedestrian scale building fabric plays a critical role. In addition, the availability of existing building fabric plays a crucial role in attracting market rate adaptive reuse opportunities for small businesses. By undervaluing the importance of existing building stock, many previous redevelopment strategies have harmed downtown at an extreme cost to the Jacksonville taxpayer. At the same time, several commercial districts where building fabric has remained have come back to life with little to no help from public redevelopment agencies.
Riverside/Avondale's King Street, which includes several restaurants, bars, breweries, and art galleries serves as a shining example of new vibrant uses utilizing the type of structures that have been allowed to fall in downtown's never ending game of falling dominoes. As a result, districts like San Marco Square and Five Points have the type of activity envisioned for a successful downtown while downtown enjoys a plethora of parking lots where buildings once stood. The DIA will have the ability to contribute to the deconstruction of downtown Jacksonville or preserve and better utilize what remains of it.
Sprawling Oklahoma City found a way to get creative with historic building fabric by transforming an obsolete warehouse district into a nationwide urban entertainment destination. They didn't have an amenity like a St. Johns River, Hogans Creek, or McCoys Creek. So they took a street and created one.
Editorial by Ennis Davis
Everbank's recent move to downtown illustrates the importance of urban design with every downtown deal. While landing the company represents a major coup for the area, the failure to highlight or address the exposure of retail on the tower's ground level restricts the relocation's overall potential on the immediate surrounding area.
Take a visit to the Jacksonville Public Library's Special Collections Department and you'll find several downtown redevelopment documents and vision plans collecting dust. Pick up a recently released Metro Jacksonville produced Cohen Brothers, The Big Store book, and you'll find that many of the same topics involving downtown revitalization today were alive and well forty years ago. In the meantime, billions of dollars have been invested on riverwalks, sports facilities, streetscapes, convention centers, parks, etc. and the parachute slowing downtown's fall from grace still hasn't fully opened.
Upon closer inspection, you'll discover that we tend to focus too much time on big ticket items, like a new courthouse or convention center, and not enough time or energy on making sure every project, large and small, properly interacts with the pedestrian scale environment around it. Needless to say, this is how we end up with Parador garage projects, retail in office towers that can't been seen from the street, and $350 million courthouses without sidewalks. All represent millions of dollars invested, but lost opportunities to stimulate pedestrian scale vibrancy. The ultimate success of the DIA will hinge on its ability to understand, stress, and simply demand all downtown development to integrate and add to the pedestrian scale environment surrounding it.
This Arlington, VA office building represents how integrating street level retail with the pedestrian environment surrounding it can add life to the street. Such a concept can be easily applied to the streets and buildings of downtown Jacksonville by better utilizing the businesses already operating in the area.
2. Developing an implementable and incremental downtown "plan"
The Downtown Master Plan of 1971 (above) is one of a long list of redevelopment strategies that were not based on or adaptable to market rate reality. With no idea of what to ultimately do with the failed Shipyards development site (below), it continues to only offer waterfront access to the homeless.
Let's face it. Thousands of new residents and businesses aren't going to fall out of the sky and into downtown's streets tomorrow. Downtown has steadily declined for decades and it will most likely take decades to fully restore the area to the ultimate atmosphere and environment everyone would like to see. Nevertheless, we still have several businesses operating right now that are struggling on a month-to-month basis.
In the past, a major failure of many publicly endorsed downtown redevelopment schemes has been the over-reliance of long term dreams at the expense of market rate short term reality. This is how we've ended up with the Main Street Pocket Park and the still abandoned and inaccessible patch of riverfront grass, known as the Shipyards.
While most redevelopment specialists will claim increasing downtown's immediate residential population base should be the highest priority, it should be understood and accepted that such an effort will take years to materialize in the attraction of retail and entertainment uses that many envision. That's not to speak poorly of downtown. Instead, this is just simple market, demographic, and development related reality.
However, this doesn't mean all is lost short term. It just means that we should not look at or treat downtown as a self contained bubble and gated community. Luckily, downtown is surrounded by neighborhoods like Riverside/Avondale, Springfield, San Marco, Durkeeville, etc. where 100,000 residents and additional popular walkable destinations, employers, institutions, and attractions already exist.
Strengthening downtown's connectivity with alternative forms of mobility (transit, cycling, walking, etc.) is an example of an incremental approach to stimulating long term life and living in downtown.
Charlotte is an example of a city that has enhanced growth within its central business district and surrounding urban neighborhoods by strengthening mass transit, bicycle, and pedestrian connectivity. Today, it is possible to live in a neighborhood outside of Uptown Charlotte and still have direct multimodal access its destinations. This connectivity instantly creates market rate residential and commercial activity in downtown and connecting districts.
3. Facilitating the market rate development opportunities
Nearly 2,000 students and faculty members of Florida Coastal School of Law spend considerable time at this secluded office building off Interstate 95 instead of downtown Jacksonville.
In 2004, the Florida Coastal School of Law considered relocating its campus to downtown. However, citing not being able to resolve parking issues, they ultimately ended up purchasing an office building in a Baymeadows office park for their new campus and the opportunity was lost. This summer, popular local brewer Intuition Ale Works expressed interest in developing a downtown brewery. Again, inaction at the public level has caused another innovative infill possibility to shift their expansion efforts to areas outside of downtown.
Both cases represent examples of opportunities that cities such as Charlotte and Oklahoma City have had success in capitalizing on. Both cases also join a laundry list of opportunities where Jacksonville has failed to answer the knock on the door. In the past, the even the former Downtown Development Authority has failed to deliver. Seizing unique opportunities for infill development, both large and small scale, will be instrumental in determining the DIA's impact on downtown's future.
While we failed to close the deal with a school that publicly announced a desire to be downtown, Charlotte is an example of a city that took the extra mile to convince Johnson & Wales University to close campuses in Charleston, SC and Norfolk, VA, and relocate to a new campus in Uptown Charlotte. The 250 employee JWU Charlotte Campus opened in 2004 and now has grown to an enrollment of 2,800 students, many of which live in three Uptown Charlotte residential halls.
4. Recognizing the importance of existing building fabric
With this 1940's era aerial of downtown Jacksonville, it's easier to point out what's left than to count what has been destroyed (highlighted in yellow).
One of the special characteristics of urban environments around the world is the element of sense-of-place. The authenticity and evolution of existing pedestrian scale building fabric plays a critical role. In addition, the availability of existing building fabric plays a crucial role in attracting market rate adaptive reuse opportunities for small businesses. By undervaluing the importance of existing building stock, many previous redevelopment strategies have harmed downtown at an extreme cost to the Jacksonville taxpayer. At the same time, several commercial districts where building fabric has remained have come back to life with little to no help from public redevelopment agencies.
Riverside/Avondale's King Street, which includes several restaurants, bars, breweries, and art galleries serves as a shining example of new vibrant uses utilizing the type of structures that have been allowed to fall in downtown's never ending game of falling dominoes. As a result, districts like San Marco Square and Five Points have the type of activity envisioned for a successful downtown while downtown enjoys a plethora of parking lots where buildings once stood. The DIA will have the ability to contribute to the deconstruction of downtown Jacksonville or preserve and better utilize what remains of it.
Sprawling Oklahoma City found a way to get creative with historic building fabric by transforming an obsolete warehouse district into a nationwide urban entertainment destination. They didn't have an amenity like a St. Johns River, Hogans Creek, or McCoys Creek. So they took a street and created one.
Editorial by Ennis Davis