by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Bob Rhodes chaired his first Downtown Development Authority meeting Wednesday morning. With only one action item that required much thought — the Baptist Medical Center expansion — it was time to start looking forward. And 2003 is shaping up to be a very interesting year for the DDA and downtown Jacksonville overall.
“It think it’s very important,” said Rhodes. “We’ll do our assessment and look at the results of our projects.”
DDA managing director Al Battle echoed Rhodes’ sentiments. Although he has never cast a vote on a downtown project, Battle has certainly championed many residential and commercial developments from LaVilla to The Shipyards. As one of the DDA’s main pitch men, Battle’s anxious to see the fruits of his, and his co-workers’, work.
“It’s a year we will really understand if what we are doing is working,” said Battle. “It’s important and I’m looking forward to 2003 and beyond.”
Within the next year, downtown will start to see some drastic changes. Mike Langton’s Knight Building lofts should be full. Vestcor’s 11 E. Forsyth project will be complete and U-Hauls may be as common a sight as city buses. The Coffman, Coleman law office in LaVilla will be done and open as will Harmony Dental Lab. And the new St. Joe headquarters on the Northbank between the Acosta and Fuller Warren bridges will be done.
By this time next year, the first phase of the $860 million dollar Shipyards project will be well out the ground — they’ll start Jan. 6 — and there’s a good chance the Strand project on the Southbank could also be out of the ground.
Let’s not forget the Better Jacksonville Plan projects. The arena and ball park should both be done and the library will be under construction (a ground breaking is set for Monday at 11 a.m.). Not to mention the new county courthouse should be in the initial construction phases.
All of this might make Rhodes want to adopt a “just get out of the way attitude.” Hardly. In fact, Rhodes, who was appointed to the DDA by Mayor John Delaney in late 1999, already has an agenda in mind.
“Parking is on the front burner,” said Rhodes, who is executive vice president of the St. Joe Company. “Al and I worked on the parking task force and we want to implement some of the task force’s recommendations. We’ll also gear up for the Super Bowl and see what role downtown will play.”
Landscaping, or streetscaping as some call it, is also on Rhodes’ radar. Over the past couple of years, the DDA has made aesthetically improving downtown a priority. That was accomplished not by creating a complicated ordinance that every business must follow, but rather by asking each new development to include elaborate landscaping details. Those plans must first pass the DDA’s Design Review Committee. As the latest projects come on line, Battle said the downtown landscape will begin to change on its own.
Both Rhodes and Battle agree that 2003 may prove to be a pivotal year for the DDA. In addition to seeing many projects realized to completion, Rhodes said he also plans to take a good, hard look at the projects that worked and those that didn’t in an effort to improve the DDA for the future.
“It may be time for a downtown Master Plan review,” said Rhodes, adding incentives and their effectiveness will be closely monitored. “My sense is we have been in the assistance business for years now. It’s appropriate to review the results and the JEDC is a part of that. There could be new priorities.”
An attorney by trade, Rhodes first came to Jacksonville in 1997 when the Peter Rummell-led team took over St. Joe. However, Rhodes — a California native who went to the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard Law School — had been in Florida since 1970.
“I was Speaker of the House Dick Pettigrew’s general counsel,” said Rhodes, who found his way to Tallahassee via Washington, D.C. “My first job out of law school was in Washington with the National Governor’s Conference and the National Legislative Conference. The speaker of the Florida house asked me to come to Florida. I had never been — Californians never go to Florida.”
After his stint in Tallahassee, Rhodes went to work for Disney in Orlando as senior vice president and general counsel of the development arm and Rummell was his boss. When Rummell left for Jacksonville, Rhodes came along and he has not regretted it for a minute.
“I love it,” said Rhodes. “The first thing I think about is the water. Business people think about the competitive advantages, I think about the water, the ocean and the river. It’s so distinctive and there’s a number of diverse living opportunities.
“I’m delighted we [the St. Joe Company] are in the downtown Master Plan.”