Plans by a German autonomous-vehicle maker to build a $100 million manufacturing facility in Jacksonville and the start of construction on the nerve center for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s Ultimate Urban Circulator were among the 2024 highlights for JTA and its CEO, Nat Ford.
Holon, which will build the vehicles for the U2C, announced in September that it would build the state of Florida’s first autonomous vehicle assembly plant in North Jacksonville about 3 miles east of the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.
A month later, JTA held a topping out ceremony for its Autonomous Innovation Center, the $40.5 million, two-story structure at 650 W. Bay St. that will serve as headquarters for the U2C.
The event occurred just five months after groundbreaking on the building.
As JTA moves toward a June 2025 launch date for the first segment of the U2C, the 3-mile, $66.5 million Bay Street Innovation Corridor, JAXUSA Partnership president Aundra Wallace said the autonomous vehicle industry could be a lucrative development sector for Jacksonville.
At the Holon announcement event, Wallace compared Holon to the Mayo Clinic in its potential to draw other manufacturers to the area.
At a price of as much as $400 million for a full build-out, the U2C has drawn criticism that it relies on unproven technology and is too costly, pulling funding away from less expensive and more effective public-transportation modes.
Ford and other supporters of the system say it will provide convenient, inexpensive and environmentally responsible transportation, and will put Jacksonville on the forefront of autonomous vehicle development.
JTA conducted a pilot of the system starting in February with shuttles operating on a roughly 1-mile route at the Florida State College at Jacksonville Downtown campus.
One certain effect of the U2C is that it helped attract Holon and its $100 million investment.
In announcing the facility, Holon CEO Henning von Watzdorf praised Ford and the JTA for making Jacksonville better prepared than other cities for autonomous vehicle manufacturing.
“We see this as a clear advantage,” he said.
Ford said the impact of Holon and the U2C will grow as the system moves online.
“So all the hotels and the airlines need to get ready because folks will be traveling to this facility,” he said.
“They’ll be traveling to Bay Street to see how it’s done. They’ll see the pride that Jacksonville has in this new technology.”
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