by Fred Seely
Editorial Director
The Southbank is the next target for Downtown Vision Inc., says the organization’s director, but that doesn’t mean that she’ll slow down on the Northbank.
Terry Lorince, on the job for a year and a half, said last week that DVI has contributed to downtown “being cleaner, safer and more attractive” than in recent years and pledged to “continue trying to change the perception that our downtown isn’t a good place to come.”
Lorince, speaking to the Chamber’s Downtown Council, said the Hemming Plaza weekday and Friday evening concerts have been successful and that it’s time to jump the river.
“We hope to work with MOSH [the Museum of Science and History] to do something at Friendship Foundation,” she said. “It should be a great family place. There are many other things we can do on this [south] side of the river.”
Lorince, speaking at River City Brewing Company, said that DVI will start studies of downtown parking and the marketing of downtown.
“We have $2 billion of public and private investment under construction and no one is marketing it,” she said. “How can you spend $2 billion and not market it? We’ve hired a marketing director [Lyn Briggs from The Dalton Agency] and I want her to get the marketing people together and see what everyone can do.
“We’ll have 2,000 housing units coming on line in the next five years. That’s exciting. Now, we need to make sure that story is told.”
Lorince also said that DVI would address parking issues.
“It’s the No. 1 reason that people don’t like coming downtown,” she said. “People who don’t come downtown [very often] get confused. How do you get there? How do you get around? Where do you park?
“We have to create a better experience if we are to attract people and I hope we can help. We’re getting with the JTA [Jacksonville Transportation Authority] to talk about what everyone is doing and to make sure we have the common goal of attracting more people.”
She ticked off what she termed were some of the positives since she arrived 18 months ago.
• “We have one of the best Ambassador programs anywhere. We have 12 people trained and you see them downtown with the pith helmets and their orange shirts. We have people on duty from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays and weekends when needed. They help, plus they identify problems. When we see a problem, we call the City. And, we track how long it takes the City to react.”
• “The activity in Hemming Plaza has proved popular with noontime concerts and FridayFests. That can only get better.”
• She also said the Friday Farmers Market along Hogan Street would continue to grow. “We now have six vendors and there are another seven who are working through the insurance issues.”
Continued surveys are in the future.
“We need to collect research on who can be our audience,” she said. “What age groups? What are they doing? What do they want? We can get focus groups to discuss the needs, and we can act from there.
“We want downtown to be a neighborhood, just like your neighborhood. It’s going to have residents. We need to have more shade trees, more things that make a neighborhood what it is.”
The perception, she said, will change.
“People say, ‘We don’t have department stores downtown.’ Well, every city lost their department stores. They all went to the suburbs 20 years ago! We have to realize that department stores don’t define a downtown.”