Downtown Jacksonville made progress in attracting investors and visitors in 2024 but continued to see a rising rate of office vacancies, the head of Downtown Vision Inc. told a JAX Chamber group Oct. 18.
In a breakfast presentation to the Chamber Downtown Council, Jake Gordon offered glimpses of DVI’s State of Downtown report for 2024.
The annual report examines economic trending, demographics and private and public investment Downtown, and provides an update on developments within Downtown’s eight districts.
Gordon presented a slide showing Downtown’s resident population had grown from 3,700 in 2012 to about 8,000 in 2024 and was expected to increase to 10,000 over the next two to three years with the completion of 1,000 residential units now under construction.
In a follow-up email providing additional details, DVI shows the population in Downtown multifamily housing at 7,657 in 2024, down from 7,695 in 2023. Multifamily units increased to 4,707 in 2024 from 4,619 in 2023.
Visitor numbers rose to 18.05 million, up from 17.72 million in 2023. After sharply declining in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, visitor traffic Downtown has grown steadily but remains below the 2019 figure of 22.87 million. The DVI drew those figures from the location analytics company placer.ai.
Gordon said that although Downtown was on an “upward trend virtually across the board,” an exception was in office vacancy. That figure rose to 28% in the second quarter of 2024 compared to 25.8% in the same quarter of 2023.
Gordon attributed the high vacancy rate to remote or hybrid work policies that have been held over by employers after being adopted during the pandemic. He said Jacksonville was among numerous cities across the country that are experiencing stubbornly high vacancies.
Moody’s reported central business district office vacancy nationwide rose to 18.4% in mid-2024, a five-year high. The overall vacancy rate was 20.1%, the highest in at least 45 years.
Sources for DVI’s office statistics are placer.ai and CBRE Group Inc., a commercial real estate services and investment firm.
Gordon said $465 million of developments had been completed since 2023, with $2.23 billion under construction and $3.46 billion in review.
“Is $2.2 billion enough? No. Billions aren’t what they used to be,” he said, drawing laughs from the audience.
DVI is a nonprofit organization funded mostly by Downtown property owners through a self-assessment. Its work includes supporting the strategies of the Downtown Investment Authority, promoting Downtown locally and beyond, helping maintain the area and organizing events and activities.