A look at the Downtown Jacksonville Proposal
On Thursday, June 3, the Jacksonville Jaguars and owner Shad Khan proposed a plan to transform downtown Jacksonville into a place that will be the “envy of cities here in the U.S and elsewhere”, from the words of Khan.
The plan presented has a total of two phases and will cost roughly $441 million in total. Not all is as it seems for the Jaguars and Khan, seeing that they will still need their proposal to be approved by the city council and several other city committees before the Jaguars could be able to go through with their plans. But, if this approval is able to happen relatively soon, the goal is for construction to start by the end of 2021.
The $441 million that it would cost will be paid for by both the city and by Shad Khan and The Cordish Companies, with costs being split 50-50 between the both. This is part of the concern with trying to get the full approval seeing that taxes would need to be raised in Jacksonville in order to make this deal happen.
Phase one of the proposal for downtown Jacksonville. (via 1st Downtown Jacksonville presentation)
The first phase of the proposal is to build several new buildings and to maintain some of the natural environments in downtown Jacksonville. Construction would start with building a Four Seasons Hotel and Residences that would be owned by Shad Khan located near TIAA Bank Field. It will have a total of 176 rooms, 25 residential units, a 5-star spa, a Riverfront Lounge and pool, two restaurants, two bars, a ballroom and meeting space and hotel pools for guests and residents. The opening date would be as early as 2025.
The next part of phase one would be to build a performance center right outside of the Jaguars’ stadium near Gate 2. The new performance center would include public art, viewing stands, restrooms with showers, restaurants and concessions, retail stores and public meeting areas. In addition, it will also have locker rooms, meeting rooms, training and recovery areas, medical support facilities, a weight room, dining areas, offices, a draft room and full-sized grass practice fields in addition to a full-size indoor field.
An important part of the first phase of this proposal is establishing a place where business can be conducted to ensure the Jaguars are a successful team. To do this there will be a 116,000 square foot office building with six floors built. This will be where the Jaguars’ business operations will take place and will also be available to its affiliated companies as well as third-party renters.
The last part of phase one includes creating a city-owned marina that will have a park and a multifunctional building, in addition to adopting Met Park. The adoption of Met Park will take place through COJ’s private park adoption program. There will be a total of $4 million spent to maintain and clean the park for the next 20 years.
As for the second phase of this proposal, it is dedicated to creating a 42,000 square-foot Baptist Health and Joi orthopedic sports medical complex. It will offer medical care for sports injury, recovery and prevention in addition to performance training. Not only this but there will also be 15,000 square feet of retail space available as well.
It seems a lot more common now for professional teams to create newer and better stadiums, but Khan has something entirely different planned that should not only benefit the Jaguars’ organization but the city of Jacksonville as well.