When the Jacksonville Jaguars entered negotiations on the team’s stadium deal with the city, the project included an adjoining dining and entertainment district.
That portion of the development was never seriously considered during the Jaguars’ talks with the city, but team owner Shad Khan told Bloomberg business news he hasn’t shelved plans to help create what he calls a “new core” around EverBank Stadium.
Appearing on Bloomberg’s “Power Players” documentary series focusing on sports business, Khan said he was aiming to develop an environment like the one he’s building in and around the Fulham Football Club stadium in London.
Khan, who owns the British soccer team, is sinking a reported $113 million into expanding a portion of the soccer grounds to include a hotel, restaurants, bars, a health center, a rooftop pool and event space. Apartments and a public walkway along the Thames River are part of the plans.
One difference between EverBank Stadium and Craven Cottage, which has been Fulham FC’s home since 1896, is that the soccer stadium sits in a densely packed neighborhood of pricey residential properties that sell for an average seven figures.
For Khan, that translates to a group of affluent, year-round consumers for the development’s offerings, plus tourists interested in seeing England’s oldest soccer stadium.
“Over there (in Jacksonville) … there is no neighborhood, so over there we’re building a neighborhood from the highest end like the Four Seasons residence hotel all the way to more modestly priced apartments,” Khan says in the “Power Players” series, which has also featured baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri and former WNBA president and Big East Conference Commissioner Val Ackerman.
Asked in an email from the Daily Record whether Khan had designs on developing “modestly priced” apartments, Lyndsay Rossman, the Jaguars’ director of business communications, replied that “Shad was referring to the collective Downtown development efforts currently underway and those to follow from multiple developers and the city of Jacksonville.”
Prompted by a question over the difference in the neighborhoods around the stadiums, Khan told Bloomberg that Jacksonville’s core “has deteriorated, and you need to reinvigorate that.”
“And what we’re doing is developing a new core,” he says.
Khan’s vision for both stadiums is to drive revenue generation from them and the properties around them year-round versus on game and event days, a model that pro sports franchises are increasingly adopting.
A regional example is The Battery Atlanta, a collection of bars, restaurants, retail establishments, hotels and other attractions surrounding the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park.
Khan’s Jacksonville investment
Pending approval by the NFL owners in October, the Jaguars will contribute $625 million toward modernizing and redesigning EverBank Stadium.
Plans for the overhauled stadium include a roof cover, openings at the corners to provide better airflow, a reflective outer coating designed to reduce heat inside the stadium, an elevated and expanded concourse with views of the Downtown skyline and St. Johns River, expanded food and beverage offerings and a parklike entrance.
The city of Jacksonville agreed to provide $625 million toward construction, plus $150 million in deferred maintenance and capital improvements to allow the team to play in the stadium for two years while it’s under construction.
When the Jaguars rolled out plans for the stadium in June 2023, they introduced a proposed dining and entertainment district along with them.
The city listed rough cost estimates for the district at $550 million to $668 million.
Rossman said the team believes the need for the district still exists.
Team President Mark Lamping made a similar comment to Jacksonville City Council members June 20, adding later to a reporter that “hopefully, between us or maybe others, we can fulfill that need.”
If plans for a new district materialize, it won’t be the first time the Jaguars have tried to create attractions around the stadium.
In 2021, a $245.3 million package of public incentives for the team’s Lot J mixed-use development failed to draw a required two-thirds majority Council vote.
Lamping said the city still needs to develop a district around the stadium to provide Jaguars fans and attendees of other events with additional activities.
“The only thing that has changed is the cost of doing that project is a lot more,” he said.
As the Jaguars prepare to start construction on the stadium after the 2024-25 season, work is progressing on Iguana Investments’ $300 million-plus Shipyards development.
The first phase of that project includes a 170-room Four Seasons hotel with 26 residences, a 157,000-square-foot office tower, 200 parking spaces and a 6,000-square-foot marina support building.
In February 2024, CBRE Capital Markets announced it had secured $37.9 million in construction financing for the office building.
Completion of the first phase of the project is targeted for summer 2026.
A second phase would include a 42,000-square-foot orthopedic sports medicine complex run by Baptist Health and its affiliated Jacksonville Orthopaedic Institute, plus residential property and structured parking.
The Eastside and community benefits
In contrast to the neighborhood around Craven Cottage, the homes surrounding EverBank Stadium to the north and east are in an area where household incomes and home prices fall well below the county average.
As part of the stadium deal, the Jaguars committed to putting up $150 million in matching funding with the city in a community benefits deal that included $30 million for workforce development, affordable housing and homelessness services for the Eastside neighborhood.
“How you relate to the community is very important,” Khan said in the Bloomberg documentary.
City Council approved a $56 million portion of public funding of the agreement for development of parks and the stadium adjacent flex field, but uncoupled the remainder of the city funding to consider on a standalone basis.
In doing so, some Council members voiced concerns about how the money would be spent and what effect it would have on the city budget in a year when property tax revenue came in at a level lower than expected.
The move led to creation of the City Council Special Committee on the Community Benefits Agreement, which is examining the agreement on a timeline in which the committee would deliver recommendations to the full Council on the proposed deal by the end of August.
The committee met for the first time July 22, and will now determine whether to meet as a single group for the entire scope of the agreement or create two boards with one focused exclusively on projects for the Eastside and the other to consider benefits throughout the city.
After Council split up the agreement, Lamping said the team would hold firm to providing $100 million in community benefits with or without a contribution from the city – a commitment it made entering the stadium deal negotiations.
He said the Jaguars would also provide $1 for every $3 contributed by the city, up to $50 million from the team.
Khan, in his “Power Players” interview, said his philosophy on community improvements was the same for both stadiums.
“Put money into the squad, but more importantly serve the community,” he said.