Mayor Lenny Curry said he is committed to being the person to lead Jacksonville’s Downtown to vibrancy.
“I’m in,” he said Wednesday in a meeting with Daily Record reporters and editors.
And that is for not just the Shipyards or Berkman or The Landing or the Laura Street Trio or the old Courthouse and City Hall on the Northbank or the District on the Southbank.
That’s for all of Downtown.
“Oh, yeah, absolutely,” he said.
Other than the riverfront Shipyards proposal being negotiated with Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan, Curry did not address a specific overall Downtown redevelopment plan but said it “is happening.”
But a theme emerged when he talked about some ideas he said haven’t been put on paper or discussed in groups.
“I’m trying to figure out who we can encourage, and I’m going to use this term very loosely, I was going to say art, to use art to be a bigger part of Downtown,” he said.
Curry said he was trying to think of how to encourage creative people to “drive” Downtown as a destination.
“I’m always thinking. I’m an entrepreneur by trade. These are, again, ideas that I haven’t fleshed out, I haven’t crystallized. So stay tuned,” he said.
Asked what prompted those thoughts, Curry said he always is looking at issues, and specifically Downtown.
“I look at other cities and I think, ‘OK, what draws their residents?’” he said, relating that question to Jacksonville.
“The living and retail space is going to happen through the Shipyards development, right? That will be a master plan to drive people to live there, visit there for entertainment, and eat and shop,” he said.
But, he asked, what’s another way to drive people to visit?
“Why do you go to a Nashville? Why do you go to a New York City? Why do you go to a Savannah? Why do you go to a Charleston?” he said.
He went on to say that people visit some of those cities for art, some for entertainment, and some for food.
“I’m just kind of thinking of all these. What can we own? I would at some point convene people that are those creative types. Again, all ideas,” he said.
Curry, 47, took office July 1, 2015. The Republican, who was an accountant by trade and former CEO of the ICX Group Inc. professional services firm, defeated incumbent mayor Alvin Brown, a Democrat.
Curry said he regularly meets with business leaders one-on-one, as a group or on the phone. “It’s a great relationship,” he said.
Jacksonville, he said, “is on the move.”
“Things are happening and getting done. The business community is very excited about the direction we’re headed. I hear it directly from folks that are outside of Jacksonville, but other business leaders tell me that they’re hearing that private capital is kind of buzzing about, ‘What’s going on in Jacksonville?’”
Curry credits resolution of the pension liability and “a seriousness” about infrastructure and Downtown.
Southside, especially the St. Johns Town Center area, has been attracting jobs and office development. Curry said luring those deals downtown requires space “that I think can be resolved as the development begins down and around the Shipyards.”
He hinted at more office development Downtown. “You likely will, at some point, see through all the stuff we’re doing more options for space to attract more businesses Downtown.”
In addition, he’s thinking about residential and retail development Downtown – and which comes first.
“What you see in some of these places that have had success is a commitment to all of them on the front end,” he said.
Curry explained that to secure rents and build up residential occupancy, “you have to have retail, restaurants and entertainment.”
“I expect to see some form of that, a real commitment to that on the front end,” he said.
If any piece of that puzzle drops, he said, problems are created in trying to attract more residents.
He used Kansas City, Missouri, as an example. He said it features residences, a gym and a grocery store downtown. “This is in an area that 10 years ago was blighted and dilapidated, nothing.
“And you walk in there at 11 o’clock and this grocery store is packed. Then you can go up to this gym that’s packed,” he said, adding there are residences and restaurants.
“It’s all there.”
The question is financing, and Curry said public-private partnerships are generally what he sees.
“We’ll figure out our financing and we’ll figure out our investment,” he said.
A common denominator in cities with vibrant downtowns is leadership, he said.
“I’m told that what’s consistent is a mayor that believes in it, that’s going to travel it and work it and push it and believe it,” he said,
Curry said the strong mayor form of government is important to investors, as are city councils or commissions that are pro-development and pro-business.
He said people will point out deals that weren’t good for taxpayers in some cities.
“That is irrelevant to us because everything that we’ve done since I’ve been in office has been a scorecard,” he said.
In public-private partnerships in which the city and a private company jointly finance a deal, he said the city measures the anticipated sales, bed and property taxes to be generated.
“That has to exceed, ultimately, what our investment looks like over a period of time because then we can demonstrate to the people of Jacksonville we’ll have their tax dollars back that we can invest in their neighborhoods,” he said.
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