by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
“The future is now” is a slogan businesses, especially high-tech companies, have been using for years to convince consumers to buy their products today in order to be better prepared for the inevitable tomorrow.
Eight years ago, City Council member Elaine Brown tried to persuade City Hall to buy into her idea of having a multi-use transportation hub centered around the Osborn Center. Brown envisioned a new Greyhound Bus station, a revamped and busy Amtrak station and a Jacksonville Transportation Authority hub that could be used by City buses and the Skyway.
Today, Brown is more adamant about her plan than ever before. Her contention? In 1993, the year 2001 was the future.
“Eight years ago I started talking about getting the Amtrak station back downtown,” said Brown. “I wanted to get the old train station [which was in the Osborn Center] back into service and make it an open, public building. It has evolved into a much bigger picture.”
According to Brown, part of the bigger picture includes a light rail system that will eventually connect suburban transportation hubs with a central hub located at the western edge of downtown. She says there was a general consensus at the time among the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the JTA and the Chamber of Commerce that creating a central transportation hub at the Osborn Center was a good idea. However, it was a long range plan and seemed almost too futuristic.
“It dragged on because it was for the future,” said Brown. “Well, the future is here.”
Brown’s plan calls for several transportation entities to eventually call a huge chunk of property near LaVilla home. Within the next decade, Brown would like to see Greyhound relocate to a parcel adjacent to I-95; Amtrak move from its Northside location and reestablish service out of a station on the east side of the Osborn Center and have JTA build a multi-level facility just north of the Osborn Center that would be a hub to buses, the Skyway and a city-wide light rail system.
The final piece of the puzzle is the need for a good-sized hotel either adjacent — or connected — to the Osborn Center.
“The hotel, parking garage and expansion of the Osborn Center should all happen at the same time because it would save money,” said Brown.
Although her plan is in its infantile stages, Brown has asked City Council to instruct the Downtown Development Authority to create a feasibility plan for the hub.
“What we need is a master plan that the DDA gets an RFP [request for proposal] for in 90 days,” said Brown.
Before the proposal surfaced, the Jacksonville and the Beaches Convention & Visitors Bureau was set to spend a good chunk of change on a study that would look into whether or not the Osborn Center should be moved. Brown and her plan have essentially nixed that idea.
“The CVB asked for $165,000 for a consultant to go forth and decide if we need to move the convention center, build a hotel or if we even have it in the right place,” said Brown. “Everyone knows the convention center will not succeed without a hotel. So, we don’t need to do another study.”
Brown is hoping that enough interested developers will respond to the RFP which will convince Council to seriously consider spending millions of dollars on a transportation hub the city will eventually need and build.
Brown’s interest in the west end of downtown is partially a result of the impending development explosion at the east end with the Sports Complex, Berkman Plaza and The Shipyards.
“What we need is a balance to downtown. This is a no man’s land,” said Brown, pointing to the area and the surrounding vacant lots in LaVilla.
Brown contends that she has Mayor John Delaney’s support for the project. She also admits there are aspects of it he isn’t fond of, but overall he recognizes the need for such a hub.
“I think Elaine and I are about 99 percent together on it,” said Delaney of the multi-use hub. “You have to keep developing plans, adjust and adapt. Obviously, we need a transportation center, especially to accommodate the light rail lines.”
According to Brown, the DDA — under the direction of Delaney — has been planning for such a hub for a while. Although LaVilla is high on Delaney’s list for development, the land surrounding the proposed transportation hub has been set aside for hub-related development.
“The mayor has instructed the DDA to hold land in LaVilla,” said Brown, adding that the area could become a second entertainment district with restaurants and shops. “It would be a viable part of coming to a city that has an awful lot going.”
While the entire plan would be extremely expensive, the local taxpayers would foot very little of the bill. Brown says the federal and state government would pay a majority of the costs.
“Eight years ago Amtrak was going to get $45 million from the federal government [to move and build a new station],” said Brown. “They will still get federal help because the federal government will help us stop bringing so many cars into the downtown area.”
Brown would like to see her entire plan realized within 10 years, but strongly believes that many of her goals can be reached in half that time.
“I think within five years we can have the parking garage with the JTA terminal, Amtrak and Greyhound all done,” said Brown, adding that her plan makes even more sense when you consider the fact that no one else is making it an issue. “Nobody else has a better plan because nobody else has made one. If the RFP goes out and none come back and it’s a flop, then all we did was put out an RFP.”
With four major downtown residential projects — Berkman Plaza, The Shipyards, the Parks at Cathedral and the Vestcor developments — in some phase of construction, Brown says now is the time for the City to start preparing to handle the influx of people to the downtown area.
“We could, in the next three years, have 2,000 people living in downtown,” said Brown.
Ideally, Brown would like the DDA start its 90-day master plan study early next year and put out an RFP by sometime in April. Although she could be, and certainly Delaney will be, out of office by the time most of the hub is even started, Brown doesn’t mind. Her main objective is to simply get the plan off her enhanced aerial photograph of the site and get it physically underway. Delaney, who will officially step down on June 30, 2003, is a bit more optimistic.
“I’d like to see it further along by June of 2003,” said Delaney. “I’d like to see it a month or two pregnant by then.”