Nearly two-and-a-half years of work had led Jennifer Jones to this moment in October.
As executive director of Unity Plaza, she headed the effort to create the urban park that, in her words, would help Jacksonville begin to see what it was and what it could be — always loving itself along the way.
Jones had been part of avant-garde projects before. She was a member of the group that secured a $1 million grant from the city for The Shoppes of Historic Avondale project.
That project took six years from building support to cutting the ribbon. But Unity Plaza was bigger, a concept literally built from the ground up.
It was the biggest challenge in Jones’ career. A challenge that tested and taught her in ways she’d never experienced.
The night of Oct. 2, Jones was standing in the amphitheater, surrounded by a huge crowd waiting for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra to perform.
“It was warm and wonderful,” Jones said. “A very loving environment.”
As symphony music director Courtney Lewis raised his arms to signal the musicians to begin, Jones burst into tears. Then came uncontrollable sobbing.
That night, she felt Jacksonville loved itself.
Transforming Avondale
Jones had a successful career before Unity Plaza came along. She owned several art galleries from 1998-2011 and created arts-related events in Avondale.
She and other Avondale supporters — all in their early to mid-20s — worked to secure a $1 million Town Center Initiative grant to restore the area that Jones said had been neglected.
Doing that meant peeling back and working through a lot of emotional layers with the business owners, she said. The team excelled because it had a vision for the community that it was unwilling to relinquish, Jones said.
The team kept the merchants’ eyes on the goal, which could be challenging when construction was having adverse effects on their businesses.
The 63 merchants were diverse. Some ran a business to put food on the table; others did it as a hobby.
The project was a success, one that freshened up the historic neighborhood and gave it a new lineup of iconic events, including Dancing in the Streets and Christmas in Avondale.
She had created events that brought in major talent like Alexandre Renoir, the great-grandson of French impressionist artist, Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Jones loved matching people and companies with the perfect art. As an arts consultant, she said she’s “crazy, geeky passionate” about a company giving her its mission statement and asking her to match it through art.
“To curate an experience that subliminally helps the public feel the mission of the space … I love that,” she said. “The psychology of that has always been really interesting and really fun.”
Jones said her real passion is creating art for healing environments, including Baptist Medical Center and St. Vincent’s HealthCare. Her degree in art history and literature makes symbolism a strong part of her background.
“Creating symbols around language comes natural to me,” she said.
That work also taught Jones about managing projects and getting people to come together. It also showed her how to create a “dynamic profit margin to support the process,” Jones said.
The experience was a perfect precursor to Unity Plaza. “It’s amazing how much I was really well prepared,” she said.
Learning from others
Jones was hired by Hallmark Partners as construction on the Brooklyn development was beginning. It would give her time, she said, to properly plan what Unity Plaza should become.
She spent her first six months studying best practices of outdoor urban gathering spots across the country.
Jones visited several, including Bryant Park in Manhattan, Chastain Park in Atlanta and Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Ore.
Those parks had created events and programs that demonstrated the immense talent living in those cities. Showcasing that talent, she said, helps a city articulate its brand through its residents.
Jones also was heavily influenced by the findings of JAX 2025, a JCCI project when 16,000 people shared what they thought Jacksonville needed.
She said she learned Jacksonville “didn’t have one place you could kind of dip your toe in any day of the week and get a sense of something amazing that’s happening” here.
Jones also leaned on voices from her past, the thousands she had run across during her years as a gallery owner and consultant. Those people immediately gave her an email marketing database with several thousand names.
She listened to them, as well as to the Downtown Investment Authority, Downtown Vision Inc., the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and the city.
In the end, the business plan for Unity Plaza is “completely unique,” she said.
Something she wants Jacksonville to feel about itself.
Everyday activity
Jones immediately had a vision for what Unity Plaza could be. She saw past the dirt and the pond that was on the property the first time she visited. That’s where her vision and extreme optimism came in.
She saw dancing, music, arts, people playing chess and Scrabble, and story time for kids.
She saw making sure there was at least one event at the park each day, which is already happening.
There’s a yoga class seven days a week, daily live music during lunch and the daily broadcast of River City Live, a new local lifestyle show on WJXT TV-4.
Beginning over the next couple of months, there will be a themed event each day at Unity Plaza.
For example, Mondays will feature innovation nights for the startup community; Thursdays will have a young professionals happy hour; Friday’s happy hour will target baby boomers; and families will be the focus on Saturdays.
Other events are relocating to the park, such as the American Cancer Society’s annual Riverside Relay for Life and the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s annual walk.
Jones believes a critical component of Unity Plaza is offering a strong health-education component. Health and wellness events have been planned for the spring and the fall.
One of the nonprofit’s five employees is a director of wellness who will beef up the health-related events, including eventually reaching people outside the Brooklyn area.
A balloon in the breeze
Jones works 60-70 hours a week, a lot for a mother with three children, two stepchildren and a baby boy due in February.
She and her husband, Michael Murray, met online, something Jones decided to try after five people in one month told her they found happy relationships through the Internet.
That coincided with Jones thinking during the holidays about how much better her life would be if she could share it with someone.
A week into the online experiment, Jones and Murray had their first date.
“He’s really handsome, so that helped,” Jones said, laughing. “I’m kind of an aesthetic person.”
She describes their relationship as Murray standing with his feet planted firmly on the ground, while holding a balloon that moves with the wind.
“I’m the balloon,” she said.
Jones said she is the kind of person who starts the day with a to-do list, but without the expectation the day is going to end the way she thinks it will.
That list always includes working to make Jacksonville quit finding fault with itself and realize it has a lot going on.
Everyone involved with Unity Plaza loves Jacksonville, she said, as her voice catches and tears fill her eyes.
“We want to make sure this city sees the accurate truth of how great it is,” Jones said.
To feel like that October night when she sobbed tears of happiness as the orchestra performed. The night she felt Jacksonville love itself.
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