A lot happened in Northeast Florida in 2017. Long-awaited stores, like Ikea and Wawa, arrived. The St. Johns Town Center area continued to boom. Countless apartment communities were sold and started. Long-dormant projects, like the Laura Street Trio and Barnett Bank Building, started moving. Amazon added thousands of jobs and CSX Corp. saw two changes in leadership. Now it’s time to look ahead at 18 trends and people that will shape the news for the next year:
Activity on Downtown Jacksonville’s riverfront will increase as major development projects break ground and access to the river improves.
An economic development agreement for The District on the Southbank is expected to move through the Downtown Investment Authority and City Council in January ahead of a possible mid- to late 2018 groundbreaking.
Meanwhile, more information and a term sheet for Shad Khan’s 70-acre Northbank Shipyards development is expected by spring.
Vacant buildings along East Bay Street should be demolished ahead of projects, including the old City Hall and Courthouse Annex buildings. Berkman Plaza II remains an opportunity.
Lawsuits may impede the Jacksonville Landing’s redevelopment, but adjacent property known as the Sister Cities Parcel is being considered for a new boutique hotel.
Finally, City Council Member Lori Boyer expects to make headway on what she calls “riverfront nodes” on either side of the St. Johns River, providing public interactive river access.
Construction will continue at the long-vacant Barnett Bank and Laura Street Trio Buildings Downtown.
Developer Steve Atkins and partners took nearly a decade to get the $90 million historic redevelopment project going, securing $9.8 million in state and local incentives in 2017.
Work continues at The Barnett, with the Trio construction set to commence in mid-2018. The Trio will become a Marriott-flagged hotel, restaurant and urban grocery store.
A mix of retail, office and apartments is planned for The Barnett.
Around the corner at 20 W. Adams St., Florida State College at Jacksonville should finish redeveloping the Lerner Building into dormitories and a ground floor restaurant for its culinary program.
Meanwhile, JEA is seeking a new Downtown headquarters, specifically a site across from the Duval County Courthouse.
A land swap with the city could mean the demolition of its existing 21 W. Church St. headquarters, built in 1962.
The LaVilla section of Downtown, near the Prime Osborn Convention Center and the Duval County Courthouse, will continue to be an urban construction and residential development story in 2018.
On the residential side, the Vestcor Co.’s 130-unit Lofts at LaVilla was completed late last year. It was fully leased when it opened and the nearby 108-unit Lofts at Monroe, also a Vestcor project, broke ground in November and is scheduled to be ready in 12 months.
Also under construction is Houston Street Manor, 72 units of rental housing for seniors.
On the commercial side, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority scheduled a ribbon cutting in March for the new Intercity Bus Terminal, the first phase of the $33 million Regional Transportation Center.
Scheduled for completion in 2020, the final phase will comprise JTA administrative offices and a new local mass transit terminal.
Two months ago, James Foote was named COO of CSX, briefly reuniting with former colleague, the late CEO Hunter Harrison, who himself had been on the job less than a year. Eight days after Harrison’s unexpected death, Foote went from the outsider to new CEO, moving a few doors down the hallway in the executive suite.
Foote is a 40-year veteran of railroading, 10 of them working alongside Harrison at Canadian National Railway. While Harrison and Jacksonville never fully embraced each other, part of Foote’s mission in 2018 will be to rebuild relationships with the business community — most of the company’s involvement included executives who left CSX under Harrison’s tenure — and to continue to implement Harrison’s signature Precision Scheduled Railroading concept.
Industry observers and CSX insiders say Foote also must repair the company’s culture following the elimination of thousands of jobs and replacing all but one high-level executive.
Not a daring prediction, considering what the city’s bid is up against.
Seattle-based Amazon, looking for a second headquarters, received 238 proposals from cities, regions, providences and districts across North America, including Canada and Mexico.
With Amazon promising to invest $5 billion and eventually hire 50,000 workers, it’s a big prize to pursue.
A lot isn’t known about Jacksonville’s bid, but a video released in early December offered some hints — a Downtown campus along the St. Johns River and woven around the Baseball Grounds and EverBank Field.
Incentives are one element Amazon will look at when deciding, and governments are taking notice.
For example, New Jersey offered $7 billion in potential credits against state and city taxes as an incentive.
In the end, Amazon likely could select a location in the Northeast, closer to the Ivy League universities it covets for its employee base.
Even if it doesn’t win, the city’s plans for it shows what could be possible for the area east of Downtown.
John Peyton — who dominated headlines during his 2003-11 mayoral terms — will be back in the news.
In addition to his leadership of the family-founded Gate Petroleum Co. and its many projects, Peyton will serve as 2018 JAX Chamber chair, a central role in economic development deals and civic issues.
Jacksonville-based Gate, an almost 60-year-old private diversified company, is competing in the gas station and convenience store market as Wawa, Daily’s, RaceTrac, Circle K, the 120-pump Buc-ee’s and other players emerge throughout the region.
As Gate adds upgraded stores, it also is launching the Gate Express Car Wash chain in another competitive industry.
Gate’s largest new real estate venture is the 1,600-acre Durbin Park housing, retail, hospitality and entertainment center in northern St. Johns County. The first phase, with Gatlin Development Co., should open starting in early 2019.
Among Durbin’s retail features will be Bass Pro Shops — and a Gate store and car wash.
As convenience stores continue to evolve, they’re competing directly with restaurants, grocery stores, small retailers, pharmacies and coffee shops.
Wawa, Gate, Circle K, Daily’s, RaceTrac and Speedway are continuing to add locations and renovate their existing stores. Buc-ee’s is planning a 52,600-square-foot store near World Golf Village.
They’re also evaluating technological service advances, for example unstaffed checkout and inventory management, to improve speed and efficiency of service.
For example, customers use a touch-screen to order a sandwich at Daily’s or Wawa. You also can order ahead with your smartphone at Wawa.
They’re also moving away from the predominantly male-oriented fuel, beer and cigarette consumer by providing healthy, fresh and locally produced appealing food items while stressing a cleaner safer environment and an overall enhancement of the customer experience.
They’re working to entice people to stop for breakfast, lunch and dinner with specialty foods. Drive-thru and delivery services will add expediency and value.
Consumers can shop an expanding selection of grocery stores as existing chains expand and new players enter the market, such as Sprouts Farmers Market as it adds locations in Florida.
Publix Super Markets Inc. continues to renovate and add stores. Aldi, Earth Fare and Trader Joe’s opened new sites in 2017 and discount grocer Aldi has at least five more planned.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and its Walmart Neighborhood Markets, remains the top-selling area grocer, according to The Shelby Report trade publication. Publix is No. 2.
What’s next for No. 3, Jacksonville-based Southeastern Grocers, isn’t clear. The parent of Winn-Dixie converted some stores to the lower price-point Harveys Supermarkets brand during 2017.
The industry watches as some analysts said in November debt issues could force Southeastern Grocers into Chapter 11 reorganization.
Southeastern Grocers was formed in 2012 when Bi-Lo LLC and Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. merged. Both emerged from bankruptcy restructuring more than a decade ago.
While the St. Johns Town Center area continues to boom, some long-neglected shopping centers around town also are attracting new investment and redevelopment strategies.
The Neptune Beach shopping center on Atlantic Boulevard, formerly anchored by Kmart, is proposed for redevelopment. Instead of bringing in another big-box store, its heart would be an apartment community.
Hakimian Holdings bought and is renovating the Pottsburg Plaza shopping center at northeast University and Atlantic boulevards
Instead of a retail store, it’s new tenant will be MCCI Medical Group which Hakimian said sought out that location and drove the deal.
In Jacksonville, developer Jeff Conn intends to redevelop another property that once was anchored by Kmart at northwest Beach and University boulevards.
Just east of San Marco, the owners of Southgate Plaza at 3428 Beach Blvd. and anchored by Save-A-Lot, say they’re planning to redevelop the property.
Regency Court, along the Arlington Expressway across from the Regency Square Mall, sold in December.
“This property is really primed for an infusion of tenants that have yet to enter this submarket,” said Shopping Center Group director Anthony Blanco.
Northeast Florida’s medical industry displayed a healthy expansion in 2017 that continues into 2018 and beyond.
Nearly every major medical center branched into new areas, added services or launched projects.
For example, Mayo Clinic is adding a lung restoration center at its Southside campus; the new building for Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center should open in 2018 on the Southbank; Ascension St. Vincent’s will open more suburban Health Centers; Memorial Hospital expanded its emergency department and looks for growth; and UF Health opened its North campus and continues expansion.
Those are just some of the examples as the major centers add services and locations.
Other health care services, such as urgent care and senior-focused centers, also are opening.
Dr. Leon Haley became CEO of UF Health Jacksonville on Jan. 1, a year after he joined the organization when named dean of the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville, a position he continues.
Haley runs an organization comprising more than 6,000 employees who include physicians, nurses and other health care providers and support staff.
In that role, Haley can expect to be tapped as an industry and civic leader to represent the area’s expansive health care market.
Haley succeeds Russ Armistead, who retired at year-end, and is one of several new CEOs among Jacksonville’s major medical centers, underscoring changing industry leadership.
Bradley Talbert became president and CEO of Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville on Aug. 1, succeeding Jim O’Loughlin, who retired in March.
Tom VanOsdol was named president and CEO of Ascension St. Vincent’s on July 5 after serving as interim CEO since January 2017. Dr. Mike Schatzlein stepped down Dec. 31, 2016.
If it seems like there are a lot of apartments in the Jacksonville area, that’s because there are.
And, if it seems there has been an inordinate number of existing apartment sales and new apartment announcements recently, that’s because there have been.
Largely for tax reasons, the end of the year can be a whirlwind of sales activity in the multifamily rental market.
More are on the way in 2018, with new apartment communities with the latest amenities coming to the St. Johns Town Center area, Flagler Center, Arlington and Bartram Park, to name a few.
There is even one planned in apartment-shy St. Johns County — where each unit counts as a single-family home with regard to impact fees — in the under-development Beachwalk community.
That trend will persist as the influx of new residents continues, millennials seek to upgrade their lifestyles and empty-nesters eschew home ownership.
Contrary to the development trend of the past half-decade, not all new homebuyers are seeking subdivisions with ever-expanding amenity packages — and the high HOA dues and CDD fees that accompany them.
Incoming Northeast Florida Homebuilders Association President Chris Dostie notes that as commuter volume increases from the suburbs on routes with limited options, time- and cost-conscious buyers of new homes will look toward boutique, infill neighborhoods.
Smaller clusters of townhome and single-family projects are underway with more to come in 2018, among the most recent being KB Home’s 109-home Price Park in Mandarin. Closer to the urban core, the renaissance of historic Springfield will continue while LaVilla’s rebirth will welcome new residences and accompanying businesses. Large, suburban subdivisions will continue to be built, but enterprising homebuilders also will recognize that they aren’t for everyone.
When it comes to attracting homebuyers to a new community, large amenity centers are the new golf course.
In 2018, in the heart of booming residential development in Northeast Florida, two neighborhoods across the road from each other will debut the latest in forward-thinking residential attractions.
On the south side of County Road 210 between Interstate 95 and Philips Highway in St. Johns County, Beacon Lake is expected to open at least part of its amenity, centered on a natural 43-acre lake with a “Crew House,” boardwalk and all the facilities one would expect.
Meanwhile, on the north side of the highway, Beachwalk will finish filling its man-made, 14-acre Crystal Lagoon with a beach, water sports, beach club, swim-up bar and more.
As residential growth continues with the clock winding down on approved developments of regional impact, somebody will up the ante again.
One of the most unlikely Jacksonville political wins of 2017 was Anna Lopez Brosche beating veteran Democrat City Council member John Crescimbeni for council president.
In 2018, the first-term Republican could make good on promises she made in 2017, such as introducing legislation to relocate Confederate monuments from public property.
Brosche often reminisces about growing up in Murray Hill’s parks, reinforcing her desire to improve the city’s 400-plus public parks and facilities — a focus she’ll carry into 2018.
One difference between her and other council Republicans is that she isn’t afraid to publicly disagree with Mayor Lenny Curry and has been noticeably absent from some of Curry’s major announcements, such as changes to the city’s children’s services.
Expect Brosche to continue her independent streak during her final six months as president.
She’ll likely spend the last half of 2018 as chair of another prominent council committee.
In the continuing wake of 2016’s controversial and news-making presidential election, the months leading up to the 2018 ballot might maintain the same high level of interest and involvement among the electorate.
At least we know it will be a long and complex ballot when voters go to the polls in November
Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, state cabinet offices, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, state Legislature and Duval County School Board — plus at least 25 judgeships that will be up for election or retention — will be on the ballot.
There also will be state constitutional amendments put forth by the Constitution Revision Commission, which meets every 20 years, to consider a local amendment that, if approved, would give voters the power to repeal ordinances enacted by Jacksonville’s City Council.
Florida residents may visit registertovoteflorida.gov to register to vote, update personal information and change party affiliation.
This might be the make or break year for Florida Coastal School of Law.
The American Bar Association put the school on notice in October that it is not meeting the ABA’s standards for accreditation in terms of preparing students for careers as attorneys.
The letter arrived at the school soon after the results of the February Florida Bar exam were released, showing that only 25 percent of Florida Coastal graduates passed the test on the first try.
In a 70-page response to the ABA’s position, Florida Coastal Dean Scott DeVito pointed out that while the first-time pass rate has historically been lower than other law schools in the state, more than 80 percent of grads pass the exam on subsequent attempts, above the ABA’s standard of 75 percent.
The ABA has not commented on Florida Coastal’s response and could compel DeVito to appear before the Accreditation Committee in March, when it could consider possible sanctions.
The Jacksonville Bar Association will continue its initiatives focused on diversity and inclusion, beginning Thursday when the organization will gather with other local voluntary Bar associations for the inaugural “Unity Luncheon.”
Another story of 2018 could be the leadership change on The JBA’s board of governors.
President-elect Katie Dearing will become president July 1, but she’s filed as a candidate for the 4th Judicial Circuit seat being vacated by her father-in-law, Circuit Judge Peter Dearing, who is retiring.
If she’s elected, either in the August primary or the November general election, Dearing would become the first JBA president to be elected judge during their term in office.
Dearing, who currently is unopposed, said she gave a lot of thought to how she could wield both gavels. If elected, she plans to remain president until July 2019.
“The lawyers who elected me know me well enough to know I can do both,” Dearing said.
