by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
A preview of high-level corporate recommendations to revitalize Downtown is on the agenda tomorrow at a Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce event.
The Jacksonville Civic Council of area corporate and civic has been forming recommendations to revitalize Downtown.
The chamber scheduled a “Leadership Trip Follow-Up Meeting” from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at WJCT along Festival Park Boulevard to review lessons learned from an October visit to Indianapolis.
Issued in a media advisory e-mailed about 7 p.m. Tuesday, the Thursday agenda includes “a high-level preview of planned Civic Council activities.”
Civic Council member Ed Burr, a former chamber chair and chair of the chamber’s 2011 Downtown Development committee, is scheduled to preview the council’s “white paper” report about Downtown, said chamber spokesperson Lisa Daniel.
Daniel said this morning that the full white paper is expected to be released next week.
The agenda also includes remarks by mayoral candidate Audrey Moran, who was endorsed by the chamber’s political affiliate, JaxBiz, and also chaired the former Downtown Development Authority. Burr, the founder of JaxBiz, said in the endorsement that “Audrey Moran has a vision for what our city can be.”
The agenda leads with “insights from Indianapolis.” The trip focused on several issues, including its downtown.
There also is time on the agenda for “open discussion.”
“Please join us as we discuss what was learned during the Chamber’s Leadership Trip to Indianapolis and how we plan to apply what we learned to help revitalize our own downtown,” said the advisory.
The 50-member Civic Council has been working on Downtown plans.
Council member Carl Cannon told the Daily Record recently that he’s seen the plans and he spoke about the discussion of a convention center.
“Do you use the Prime Osborn? Do you go where City Hall is? Do you go down to between here and the stadium? What do you do with it, how do you build a night life, how do you build a community Downtown?” said Cannon.
Chamber Chair Hugh Greene told the Daily Record last week that Downtown development is important to the City’s economic development and is a key issue for the chamber this year.
“We will work in concert with the Jacksonville Civic Council and elected leaders to help make the business community aware of the importance of the issue as well as the general population, and also support an implementation plan,” said Greene.
In a Daily Record interview in July, Burr said that Downtown has been a “missed opportunity” in economic development during the recession.
“I think every great city ultimately has a great core, a great heart, and Downtown’s the heart of Jacksonville. We have such an opportunity with our river, and so many great things going on Downtown, that we have to start to turn that around,” he said.
Burr said he was working with two groups on the Downtown redevelopment concept, the Civic Council and the chamber’s Downtown revitalization group.
“I don’t know if anyone can point out to me a city that has success and has economic prosperity and has a weak downtown and a weak heart and a weak core,” he said.
“You have to repeat the case, you have to sell it over and over and over again, and I think you have to have an advocacy group that believes it and understands it and talks about it constantly and tries to make the case for someone to reach those people, and get them more involved in Downtown,” he said.
“As Downtown gets better, more people become supportive of it,” he said.
356-2466