The city Downtown Investment Authority Board voted Oct. 20 to extend CEO Lori Boyer’s contract for one year through June 2023.
The board approved 6-0 a one-year renewal option in Boyer’s employment contract retroactive to June 2022.
Boyer was hired in June 2019. This is the first of two, one-year renewal options in Boyer’s contract. The board’s resolution Oct. 20 did not include a pay raise.
She did receive a $20,000 raise in June 2021, increasing her annual salary to $200,000, when the board agreed to amend her contract.
Boyer was named the DIA CEO after serving two terms as a City Council member representing District 5, which includes San Marco and the Downtown Southbank.
She replaced then-interim CEO Brian Hughes, who filled the position for several months after former DIA CEO Aundra Wallace left to become president of JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development division of JAX Chamber.
Hughes, a longtime political consultant for Mayor Lenny Curry, is now the city’s chief administrative officer.
Boyer was selected for the job over Gregory Flisram, the former senior vice president of the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City, and Kevin Hanna, a private developer and former New Orleans Redevelopment Authority real estate development director.
Under Boyer, the DIA has increased city incentive money for adapting and revitalizing historic buildings Downtown.
In October 2020, she led a rewrite of the city Downtown historic preservation policy resulting in more than $52 million in city grants and forgivable loans awarded to developers through a new Downtown Preservation and Revitalization Program.
Boyer and DIA staff also negotiated a $114 million incentive deal with Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s development company to build a Four Seasons Hotel and office building.
That project is expected to break ground in November.
Boyer’s tenure at DIA has also seen a shift toward mixing private development on the Downtown riverfront with public park and green space with plans to invest more than $40 million in two “signature” parks — one on the Shipyards property and the other at the former site of The Jacksonville Landing.
The idea for more green space Downtown was incorporated into an update to the DIA’s Business Investment Development Strategy and Community Redevelopment Area plan updated approved by City Council earlier this year.