Jacksonville developer Peter Rummell and public relations and marketing executive Michael Munz said Craig Mandeville’s Innovate Jax efforts are “cool.”
“The fact there are countless things popping up is fantastic to me,” said Rummell, who intends to break ground on The District project on the Southbank. Munz expects “very soon” to have a date for that.
The District is a residential, hotel, office and retail project on the Southbank riverfront designed to encourage and accommodate healthy lifestyles.
Rummell, 73, has been planning it for years and Munz is a partner in the project.
They also are behind One Spark, which began as an annual event Downtown to showcase inventors.
It didn’t make the money needed to sustain it after a few years of dwindling in size. Rummell said he wrote checks to keep it afloat and decided that wasn’t the way it should work.
One Spark started in 2013 as a five-day “crowdfunding” festival with up to 600 creators and inventors occupying tents and tables over 20 blocks Downtown.
By 2016, it was a one-day event.
As reported, One Spark planned to become self-sustaining but from 2013 to 2015, Rummell covered more than half the event’s $6 million tab. He announced in 2016 that he would no longer do so.
No One Spark was scheduled in 2017 and last year’s event was a Friday-Saturday “Idea Fest” at the Daily’s Place amphitheater that charged admission.
Rummell and Munz said they are evaluating what happens next with One Spark, which Rummell called a brand.
They don’t envision a street event, but Munz wants to “keep the momentum going.”
Both made a connection with Innovate Jax and Mandeville. One Spark, Munz said, “started to make Jacksonville realize there are people like him here.”
“We dreamed of this day,” he said.